PLAN No. 1196. ARMATURE WINDERS
Armature winders are now employed by many of the electrical contracting companies in their repair departments. Some concerns make a specialty of and do no other work except the winding and rewinding of electrical machines. To become a competent armature winder, a man must have a great deal of experience, which can be acquired only in the shop. However, a trade school course in this vocation will be of great assistance, and should increase materially the rate of a man’s advance and his ultimate earning capacity. It is impossible for one to do armature winding intelligently without some knowledge of electrical theory. Without it he may be able to work along like a machine, but unless he possesses some of this theoretical information he will not know why he is doing certain things certain ways and will never be competent to act independently.
An individual can start as an armature winder’s helper at making and taping coils with little or no previous experience, and can from this position gradually acquire an extended working knowledge of armature winding.
In an electrical repair shop, the armature winder must work on machines of many different types. It is often necessary for him to do lifting, and he must have full use of his fingers. He may be compelled to stand at his work for long periods. A lack of hearing is not a material detriment, and the blind have been taught to do this work successfully. Men with certain minor disablements can qualify for this service. The work is almost wholly indoors, although it may occasionally be necessary to work on a machine in a building which is under construction and open to the weather. An eight-hour day prevails. In cities the vocation is largely unionized. An armature winder helper or apprentice will receive from 20 to 40 cents per hour; a journeyman, from 60 to 75 cents per hour; and a superintendent, from $150 to $250 per month. Expert, rapid armature winders for coal, steel, and similar companies often receive as much as $200 a month. Time and a half is paid for overtime. Usually the jobs in these repair shops are steady, the men being retained in slack times at routine work of some sort or other. A competent electrical machine repair personnel is difficult to assemble, and when a repair shop has acquired one, it takes precautions to provide the men with steady work so that they will not leave.