Now this is going to be a good series. I don't subscribe to Smarter Every Day because a lot of it isn't of interest to me. Sure, Destin and team put a lot of the science and math behind what they...
Now this is going to be a good series. I don't subscribe to Smarter Every Day because a lot of it isn't of interest to me. Sure, Destin and team put a lot of the science and math behind what they film in the video, but I just do not care about seeing a baseball hit a mayonnaise jar at 1,000mph in slow motion. There's a few videos that don't fit that model, but if it says anything about slow motion, I just don't watch. That said, this video is great, I'm about halfway through it, and Destin's positivity, as usual, is infectious.
As someone that does machining (I am not and do not call myself a machinist as it is not my trade, just as I do blacksmithing but am not a blacksmith), machinists have "tiers" of skill and respect for those at tiers above.
If you get a job in machining, your first stop is going to be a "machine operator". You're going to stand at a machine, load material, push a button to make it start, push another button to make it stop when you run out of material, and repeat the process. You'll occasionally need to push another button if it ever makes a bad sound to stop the machine and call the poor bastard that knows how to fix it.
You (an apprentice) will work towards being a machinist, someone that gets to actually make something that others will use.
Once a machinist (journeyman) you now know a trade, you have a skill now and an actual career. You make things that are used to make a product or part of it. Many a machinist stops here, and there's nothing wrong with that, the world needs nurses and primary care physicians, but it also needs brain surgeons.
Tool-and-die makers are those brain surgeons, masters of their craft, they make the tools that make the machines that make things. It took the skills of a machinist to make the first Bridgeport, it took the skills of a tool and die maker to make a million more.
There are, of course, all sorts of levels in between a machinist and a tool-and-die maker, like the gentleman about 26 minutes in that taught himself how to program CNC machine operations. It takes real knowledge and skill to tell a CNC how to do all the operations a machinist would do manually, partially because a CNC will only do exactly what you tell it to do and it's 1,000 times stronger than a person turning a wheel on a Bridgeport, so it doesn't know to stop if something is bad. You tell it to move 6 inches in one direction and it's going to do so, no matter what is in the way. The other major part is knowing the feeds and speeds he mentioned; this is how much material you're removing with each rotation of the cutting tool. A manual machinist can hear what's going on and adjust accordingly, again, a CNC does what it is told and despite there being tons of reference info on feeds and speeds available, it's all suggested/theoretical loads and not necessarily what works best in your application. You tell a CNC the theoretically correct feeds and speeds and it turns out your application didn't like those, you'll break tools and ruin parts.
When I see people, be them young and starting out or older and lost, ask about career advice, I often tell them to look into machining. It's an actual skill where you won't be trapped behind a desk, will be exercising your mind to solve problems, and with more and more of these masters dying or retiring along with a push to bring manufacturing back domestically, the jobs are available, they are rewarding, and if you're willing to put in the time to be a machinist or tool and die maker, they pay quite well and you won't be in six figures worth of college loan debt to be there. This is probably going to be my go-to video when someone asks and I suggest machining as a trade.
It's a long video of essentially a factory tour on how (certain) metal parts are made (via stamping), which probably sounds boring but I ended up enjoying it! I feel like that alway happens when...
It's a long video of essentially a factory tour on how (certain) metal parts are made (via stamping), which probably sounds boring but I ended up enjoying it! I feel like that alway happens when watching SED. I watch maybe out of slight curiosity and then just stay for the ride.
Destin did a great job of not only showing how the company/factory runs, but also the employees involved in running it. I'm not looking for a career switch exactly, but an exposure to who the people are and how they got there is what I thought was really valuable.
I am in a field that has nothing to do with machining but always enjoy learning how things are made.
Now this is going to be a good series. I don't subscribe to Smarter Every Day because a lot of it isn't of interest to me. Sure, Destin and team put a lot of the science and math behind what they film in the video, but I just do not care about seeing a baseball hit a mayonnaise jar at 1,000mph in slow motion. There's a few videos that don't fit that model, but if it says anything about slow motion, I just don't watch. That said, this video is great, I'm about halfway through it, and Destin's positivity, as usual, is infectious.
As someone that does machining (I am not and do not call myself a machinist as it is not my trade, just as I do blacksmithing but am not a blacksmith), machinists have "tiers" of skill and respect for those at tiers above.
If you get a job in machining, your first stop is going to be a "machine operator". You're going to stand at a machine, load material, push a button to make it start, push another button to make it stop when you run out of material, and repeat the process. You'll occasionally need to push another button if it ever makes a bad sound to stop the machine and call the poor bastard that knows how to fix it.
You (an apprentice) will work towards being a machinist, someone that gets to actually make something that others will use.
Once a machinist (journeyman) you now know a trade, you have a skill now and an actual career. You make things that are used to make a product or part of it. Many a machinist stops here, and there's nothing wrong with that, the world needs nurses and primary care physicians, but it also needs brain surgeons.
Tool-and-die makers are those brain surgeons, masters of their craft, they make the tools that make the machines that make things. It took the skills of a machinist to make the first Bridgeport, it took the skills of a tool and die maker to make a million more.
There are, of course, all sorts of levels in between a machinist and a tool-and-die maker, like the gentleman about 26 minutes in that taught himself how to program CNC machine operations. It takes real knowledge and skill to tell a CNC how to do all the operations a machinist would do manually, partially because a CNC will only do exactly what you tell it to do and it's 1,000 times stronger than a person turning a wheel on a Bridgeport, so it doesn't know to stop if something is bad. You tell it to move 6 inches in one direction and it's going to do so, no matter what is in the way. The other major part is knowing the feeds and speeds he mentioned; this is how much material you're removing with each rotation of the cutting tool. A manual machinist can hear what's going on and adjust accordingly, again, a CNC does what it is told and despite there being tons of reference info on feeds and speeds available, it's all suggested/theoretical loads and not necessarily what works best in your application. You tell a CNC the theoretically correct feeds and speeds and it turns out your application didn't like those, you'll break tools and ruin parts.
When I see people, be them young and starting out or older and lost, ask about career advice, I often tell them to look into machining. It's an actual skill where you won't be trapped behind a desk, will be exercising your mind to solve problems, and with more and more of these masters dying or retiring along with a push to bring manufacturing back domestically, the jobs are available, they are rewarding, and if you're willing to put in the time to be a machinist or tool and die maker, they pay quite well and you won't be in six figures worth of college loan debt to be there. This is probably going to be my go-to video when someone asks and I suggest machining as a trade.
It's a long video of essentially a factory tour on how (certain) metal parts are made (via stamping), which probably sounds boring but I ended up enjoying it! I feel like that alway happens when watching SED. I watch maybe out of slight curiosity and then just stay for the ride.
Destin did a great job of not only showing how the company/factory runs, but also the employees involved in running it. I'm not looking for a career switch exactly, but an exposure to who the people are and how they got there is what I thought was really valuable.
I am in a field that has nothing to do with machining but always enjoy learning how things are made.