PLAN No. 923. MACHINISTS AND MACHINE OPERATORS
Previous training and experience in some of these metal-working employments will greatly help you if you elect to take up some related line of work. With a little training to overcome your handicap, you may be able to resume your old employment or one in which your previous training and experience will count.
Machines Operated
Machinists work with the following machines:
Metal turning.—Speed lathes; screw-cutting lathes; engine lathes; turret lathes; shaft and wheel lathes; automatic lathes.
Planing.—Planers; slotters; shapers; gear planers.
Milling.—Hand-feed millers; plain and universal milling machines; planer type millers; special milling and hobbing machines.
Drilling and boring.—Sensitive drills; vertical drilling machines; radial drills; multiple drills; horizontal and vertical boring machines, and boring mills.
Grinding.—Rough, wet, and dry grinders; tool grinders; cylindrical and special shaping grinders; planer type grinders; disk grinders.
Machines for special operations.—Bolt and nut machines; automatic screw machines; broaching machines; cutting-off saws; profiling machines; chasing and engraving machines; rifling machines.
Shop Conditions
The machinist and machine operator work sometimes in a room crowded with machines, and frequently under artificial light, but usually in a room with plenty of air properly heated. Most of the machines are safeguarded, but there is always danger of accident from moving trucks, flying particles of metal, and sometimes from unprotected belts, gears, and shafting. State laws and inspection may be counted on to reduce this danger materially. Most well-organized shops have announced safety rules to promote the health of the men and to reduce the number of accidents.
Hours of labor average from eight to nine a day. There is a tendency toward a standard eight-hour day, which is already established in Government work. There is usually an increase in the hourly rate for overtime work. Many shops pay according to a piecework rate or premium plan. The trade is fairly well organized, especially in job and railroad shops.
Equipment of The Worker
It is common practice for a machinist to provide himself with a kit of tools useful in his work. This outfit usually includes steel scales, inside and outside calipers, hammer, surface gauge, punches, and an indefinite collection of other tools of less importance. All classes of workmen, in fact, depend more or less on the shop tool room, and men beginning their employment often have nothing but a steel scale.
Opportunity for Promotion
A highly skilled general machinist who can handle men has an excellent opportunity to become a foreman, and workers who understand the technique of their trade may fairly expect to advance rapidly in wages and position. Men who can figure costs and devise economies in production especially are in demand.
Future of The Trade
The war has very greatly increased production in machine shops. The manufacture of guns and munitions and the demands of the shipbuilding industry for tools and machinery for ships have multiplied the demand for men many times. While there must be a readjustment after the war, it is certain that the manufacture of standard products will be very greatly in arrears, and since all industry, including agriculture, transportation, and the arts, depend on the machine shops for their product, there will be a continued demand for trained men.
Wages
Where machinists or machine operators receive wages at an hourly rate this rate approximates the Government scale in railroad shops, which is 68 cents an hour. In shops where the piecework or premium plan prevails, the amount earned by employees varies. It is safe to say that most men employed at any branch of the trade get more than $4 a day in wages.
Muscular Strain
A machinist is commonly expected to do some lifting, varying from very light weights to more than 100 pounds. Operators of large machines doing heavy work are often provided with air hoists or jib cranes or with chain hoists to help serve their machines. Probably the operator of a machine working on medium weight parts on lathes or grinding machines may have the maximum of physical strain, due to the quality production expected of him.
Your Disability
It would be foolish to make many general statements as to the effect of the loss of various members on the future of a man who desires to be a machinist or a machine operator. So much depends on the will power of the man and on the exercise of wisdom and foresight in selecting a line of work. Talk it over with the placement officer.
A study of the rehabilitation in industry of those injured in industrial accidents shows that most men have been taken back to work after such injuries as the loss of fingers, thumbs, one eye, or similar accidents. Others with more serious injuries have often been taken on again and provided with jobs, perhaps as watchmen or gate tenders, without any reeducation. They accepted their job, lived up their industrial insurance, and were down and out industrially. This should not happen to the man injured in industry, and must not happen to you, because there is a better way which will keep you in a good wage-earning occupation and make you independent.
It will be necessary, of course, for you to take account, not only of your physical condition and of the requirements of the trade, but also of your previous experience, your resources, and your aptitudes.