Appropriate pay for a machinist "intern"?

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I still laugh at the the guy that told me I don;t know $#!+ from shinola. I make about 2x what he does now if I had to guess... I'm laughing all the way to the bank.

 

About 6 weeks Vacation. I'll probably take about that much when all is said and done. I work for myself now. If you can figure a way to be your own boss in this business, that's the real ticket IMHO. Overall, I had a few bad experiences, yes but overall, when I started in this business, I made like $18-$20k ish, and now I am doing significantly better than that. If you're going to demand more money though, it's a great idea to have somewhere to go incase they call your bluff. Honestly though, I'm not sure I would stay at a company that would give me the raise if I threatened to leave over pay. No matter what, they are gonna hold that over your heaed for the rest of your career. They are in business to get as much as possible, and pay as little as possible for it. That idea is the lifeblood of Capiutalism. By the same token, I believe owners and supers have a responsibility to pay their employees fairly and treat them with dignity and respect. True, our trade is not treated with near the esteem we shouel be, after all, name an object that your touched today that was not in some way shape or form touched by a metal worker.

 

[billystein]

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Where I work, I started off doing lame work for peanuts salary,

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Welcome to the real world

 

billy

[Tom Szelag]

Thanks for the continued input. But again, engineering is going to (hopefully) be my career. Machining is just something I enjoy and would be nice for a side job during the summers while I'm still at college.

[DGreeves]

Tom,

You are doing the right gaining experiance in the shop. As far as pay I think the guys in this forum are right on. This experience will serve you well, the best engineer's I have met have spent some time in a shop or were machinist's or toolmaker's before taking the next step. Keep pluging away it never hurts to ask for more money, the worst they can say is no.

[Rob Dusenbury CAD/CAM CONSULTING]

The best thing you can do is learn everything you can in the Machine Shop regardless of pay. If you do that you will be one hell of a engineer and the money will come later. Personaly I wish all engineers would do what you are doing, It sure would create smarter manufacturing out there.

 

Good luck to you My friend.

[Thad]

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the worst they can say is no.

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Actually, they could say something worse. They could say "No...You don't know $#!+ from shinola."

 

At my first machinist job after I got out of the Army, my boss came up to me after lunch while I was at the Bridgeport. Little did I know at the time, but this was my "formal" 90 day review. My boss said, "Thad, some guys are slow workers but they get the job done right the first time and rarely screw things up. And then other guys are fast workers and they make some mistakes because of their speed. And it's OK because they're fast enough to make another part. But you're slow AND you f*ck things up!"

 

Just wanted to share that with ya.

 

Thad

[BernieT]

LOL Thad

 

[Andy]

If you really want to make low pay and long hours go into business for yourself!

[Jim at Gentex]

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But I also enjoy machining and want to get a hands-on grasp for design for manufacturability.

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Tom,

I cannot adequately express to you how much wisdom is contained in this statement of yours!

 

I work closely with several Mechanical Engineers who have no shop experience whatsoever. It can be exasperating at times trying to explain to them why they can't do something they think is relatively simple, but it violates every rule in the book and /or the immutable laws of physics! Then when you finish your explanation, they look at you like you have two heads, then they proceed to go straight to your boss to tell him / her how uncooperative YOU are and how difficult it is to get YOU to do anything for them!

 

In my 25+ years in this field, the best engineers I have come across are those who started their careers on a good foundation with practical real-world shop experience. These are the ones who understand the 'how and why' issues that those who lack the practical shop smarts usually just can't grasp.

 

It sounds to me like you are starting your career on the right track and I wish you much happiness and success!

[JazzBass]

As for pay, it varies in different areas. Learning all you can about machining processes will be a great help to your future engineering career. I have some engineers that want pockets machined on a VMC with square inside corners. They $hit when I give them the EDM bid. You can tell which one have machining knowledge and those guys are great to work with.

 

Good luck!