At what point are you considered a "Machinist"?

[twhite]

I’m probably showing my age one more time. The first CAD system we used was Auto Trol. It was a mainframe system.

Cool. My dad who was a Machinist retired now for 25 years. Learned how to program the old tape machines. He hated it and asked to be moved back to the manual machines. Said it was too boring.


Cutting oil is my blood.

 

[wrmiller]

The shortsightedness and sheer stupidity of many corporations in the name of greed will never cease to amaze me.

 

[Charles scozzari]

Haven't read all the replies but to me just take a look at shots of those who built our armament for the wars. Those gentlemen are/were machinists. Those men knew their stuff. After the wars machine shops opened all over the country and many of those worked in ALL the trades and shared their craft with apprentice's who became Machinist's and it keeps going from there over and over again. The machines in use today are state of the art and capable of incredible things as those who run them. I would call those men machinist's. I am not trained, I am a seat of the pants tinkerer at best with a few machines and a love to make things on my own. There are many machinists on this and other sites that tolerate the hobby guys like myself. Soooooooo I'm a hobby wanna be machinist at best. that's my take. Thanks.

 

[Batmanacw]

We had a machinist in the tool and die shop I worked on who was known by the name "Backside." He had been a machinist for 15 years. He went to school. He was a real deal machinist with papers saying he was, that worked there for years before I was hired with nothing more than my mentors assurance i could do the job.

He wasn't allowed to sink impressions in dies. He would turn the backside of the dies and the sides along with the clamp grooves around the circumference. He got a bit upset when I started sinking impressions after a month.

Most of the hobbiests here deserve the "machinist" title more than he did.

When I see guys move from mill to lathe to surface grinder to drill press and use them all with skill, I see a machinist regardless of what they call themselves.

You fellas better be proud to be useful and constantly learning and seeking knowledge. Damn fine bunch here.

 

[Charles scozzari]

We had a machinist in the tool and die shop I worked on who was known by the name "Backside." He had been a machinist for 15 years. He went to school. He was a real deal machinist with papers saying he was, that worked there for years before I was hired with nothing more than my mentors assurance i could do the job.

He wasn't allowed to sink impressions in dies. He would turn the backside of the dies and the sides along with the clamp grooves around the circumference. He got a bit upset when I started sinking impressions after a month.

Most of the hobbiests here deserve the "machinist" title more than he did.

When I see guys move from mill to lathe to surface grinder to drill press and use them all with skill, I see a machinist regardless of what they call themselves.

You fellas better be proud to be useful and constantly learning and seeking knowledge. Damn fine bunch here.

I really took an interest in this after watching an auto parts/MACHINE shop counter man resurface my flywheel on a lathe when I was 16. Machinist, I think not. Many, many talented Members here without any doubt. I watch, listen and learn from all.

 

[David2011]

Just read the entire thread. The machinists I’ve known probably didn’t have papers. They knew/know how to do anything that could be asked of a job shop machinist. They have decades of experience and problem solving minds. Machinists and model airplane builders are a lot alike. The level of precision is different but the ability to solve problems is the same.

I would trust any decent machinist with or without papers to thread a rifle barrel to fit a receiver. I would only trust a gunsmith that builds accurate rifles to correctly set the barrel up, thread it to fit the receiver snugly while concentric to the bore and chamber it concentrically to the bore. I don’t consider most gunsmiths to be machinists and I don’t consider machinists to be gunsmiths. They are different skill sets that use some of the same machinery.

I’ll never be a real machinist but thanks to the contributors here and the people that keep finding new things for me to make every week my skills are constantly improving. It’s almost like I’m not surprised to hit my dimensions without sneaking up any more. That’s as much better equipment as it is skill, though.

 

[Charles scozzari]

Just read the entire thread. The machinists I’ve known probably didn’t have papers. They knew/know how to do anything that could be asked of a job shop machinist. They have decades of experience and problem solving minds. Machinists and model airplane builders are a lot alike. The level of precision is different but the ability to solve problems is the same.

I would trust any decent machinist with or without papers to thread a rifle barrel to fit a receiver. I would only trust a gunsmith that builds accurate rifles to correctly set the barrel up, thread it to fit the receiver snugly while concentric to the bore and chamber it concentrically to the bore. I don’t consider most gunsmiths to be machinists and I don’t consider machinists to be gunsmiths. They are different skill sets that use some of the same machinery.

I’ll never be a real machinist but thanks to the contributors here and the people that keep finding new things for me to make every week my skills are constantly improving. It’s almost like I’m not surprised to hit my dimensions without sneaking up any more. That’s as much better equipment as it is skill, though.

But the skill set is what makes a machinist a machinist. He can machine a cannon one day, a drive sheave the next and a rifle the next. What I am saying is enjoy your'e level, as I do and enjoy your'e hobby and know your limitations. A machinist will handle whatever is thrown at him a hobbyist will improvise. My feeling is that a hobby machinist is not a machinist. In my case I just have machines to help me solve my own problem. I absolutely know my own limitations. Thanks.

 

[David2011]

That's what I love about my volunteer machine work for the USS Texas restoration. They don't know my limitations and keep giving me more challenging projects. It's made me MUCH better. We are only limited by our imaginations.

 

[Ultradog MN]

When you can make or modify a tool to do the job and don't whip out your credit card to buy some more cheap junk off Amazon that you'll only use once. That's when you are a machinist.

 

[Charles scozzari]

When you can make or modify a tool to do the job and don't whip out your credit card to buy some more cheap junk off Amazon that you'll only use once. That's when you are a machinist.

I still feel, the title machinist is given or used based on opinion and used too loosely at that. It is an apprenticeship system. Am I a machinist because I made the items pictured, no. If you have a garden out back are you a farmer or own a welder and table are you a welder. ? I mean no disrespect to anyone but am voicing my opinion, right or wrong. Thanks