Salary and Outlook
According to the US Department of Labor, there are 342,600 people employed as machinists in
the United States.
The median annual salary is $47,730.
Entry level employees earn approximately $30,220 per year and senior employees earn approximately $68,250
per year.
Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.
Job Duties
- Operate equipment to verify operational efficiency.
- Evaluate machining procedures and recommend changes or modifications for improved efficiency or adaptability.
- Diagnose machine tool malfunctions to determine need for adjustments or repairs.
- Design fixtures, tooling, or experimental parts to meet special engineering needs.
- Dispose of scrap or waste material in accordance with company policies and environmental regulations.
- Confer with engineering, supervisory, or manufacturing personnel to exchange technical information.
- Lay out, measure, and mark metal stock to display placement of cuts.
- Separate scrap waste and related materials for reuse, recycling, or disposal.
- Check work pieces to ensure that they are properly lubricated or cooled.
- Support metalworking projects from planning and fabrication through assembly, inspection, and testing, using knowledge of machine functions, metal properties, and mathematics.
- Install repaired parts into equipment or install new equipment.
- Dismantle machines or equipment, using hand tools or power tools to examine parts for defects and replace defective parts where needed.
- Test experimental models under simulated operating conditions, for purposes such as development, standardization, or feasibility of design.
- Set up or operate metalworking, brazing, heat-treating, welding, or cutting equipment.
- Prepare working sketches for the illustration of product appearance.
- Calculate dimensions or tolerances, using instruments, such as micrometers or vernier calipers.
- Establish work procedures for fabricating new structural products, using a variety of metalworking machines.
- Install experimental parts or assemblies, such as hydraulic systems, electrical wiring, lubricants, or batteries into machines or mechanisms.
- Advise clients about the materials being used for finished products.
- Machine parts to specifications, using machine tools, such as lathes, milling machines, shapers, or grinders.
- Measure, examine, or test completed units to check for defects and ensure conformance to specifications, using precision instruments, such as micrometers.
- Set up, adjust, or operate basic or specialized machine tools used to perform precision machining operations.
- Program computers or electronic instruments, such as numerically controlled machine tools.
- Study sample parts, blueprints, drawings, or engineering information to determine methods or sequences of operations needed to fabricate products.
- Monitor the feed and speed of machines during the machining process.
- Maintain machine tools in proper operational condition.
- Fit and assemble parts to make or repair machine tools.
- Align and secure holding fixtures, cutting tools, attachments, accessories, or materials onto machines.
- Confer with numerical control programmers to check and ensure that new programs or machinery will function properly and that output will meet specifications.