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5 Axis CNC Pay ?

ormachine

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Location
Delaware, USA
If you don't mind sharing, roughly what do you pay or get paid as a 5 Axis machinist? Yes, I know experience counts, so include how long you have been programming/ setting up 5 axis equipment please.


Thanks, Ron
 
We've got a 5-axis guy that's a savant: give him something complicated for aerospace or the military and he'll nail it. When I say "genius", I really mean it. He can make things I didn't know existed, using techniques I've never heard of, and he can do it all to within a tenth or two all day, every day.

He's been in the business somewhere between 30-35 years (at the same company) and makes about $26/hr. That may sound stingy, but he can work however much overtime he wants, we've got quarterly profit sharing (it all adds up to about an extra paycheck a year), a Christmas bonus, 50% of all the guys' personal tools are paid for by the company, our insurance is RIDICULOUSLY generous, cheap, and thorough and our 401K match is pretty damn impressive. To boot, the company even pays the $6ish quarterly fee for handling the account. Coffee's free, and the place is as clean as a whistle.

All told, our "fringe" benefits work out to be about $20k/year in a very pleasant and low-stress working environment (this guy's obligated to work 4 10's, there's a little mandated OT but not much). $20k works out to be about a $10/hr hidden wage paid by the company.


AFAIK, here in the Cleveland/Akron area we pay slightly below what a guy at another shop would make with all that experience, but everything that's done for us (a LOT) makes up for it. In comparison, the non-5axis guys that run HBM's and VTL's and stuff make about $21, with all the fringe benefits as well.
 
We've got a 5-axis guy that's a savant: give him something complicated for aerospace or the military and he'll nail it. When I say "genius", I really mean it. He can make things I didn't know existed, using techniques I've never heard of, and he can do it all to within a tenth or two all day, every day.

He's been in the business somewhere between 30-35 years (at the same company) and makes about $26/hr. That may sound stingy, but he can work however much overtime he wants, we've got quarterly profit sharing (it all adds up to about an extra paycheck a year), a Christmas bonus, 50% of all the guys' personal tools are paid for by the company, our insurance is RIDICULOUSLY generous, cheap, and thorough and our 401K match is pretty damn impressive. To boot, the company even pays the $6ish quarterly fee for handling the account. Coffee's free, and the place is as clean as a whistle.

All told, our "fringe" benefits work out to be about $20k/year in a very pleasant and low-stress working environment (this guy's obligated to work 4 10's, there's a little mandated OT but not much). $20k works out to be about a $10/hr hidden wage paid by the company.


AFAIK, here in the Cleveland/Akron area we pay slightly below what a guy at another shop would make with all that experience, but everything that's done for us (a LOT) makes up for it. In comparison, the non-5axis guys that run HBM's and VTL's and stuff make about $21, with all the fringe benefits as well.

You had me at free coffee
 
We've got a 5-axis guy that's a savant: give him something complicated for aerospace or the military and he'll nail it. When I say "genius", I really mean it. He can make things I didn't know existed, using techniques I've never heard of, and he can do it all to within a tenth or two all day, every day.

He's been in the business somewhere between 30-35 years (at the same company) and makes about $26/hr. That may sound stingy, but he can work however much overtime he wants, we've got quarterly profit sharing (it all adds up to about an extra paycheck a year), a Christmas bonus, 50% of all the guys' personal tools are paid for by the company, our insurance is RIDICULOUSLY generous, cheap, and thorough and our 401K match is pretty damn impressive. To boot, the company even pays the $6ish quarterly fee for handling the account. Coffee's free, and the place is as clean as a whistle.

All told, our "fringe" benefits work out to be about $20k/year in a very pleasant and low-stress working environment (this guy's obligated to work 4 10's, there's a little mandated OT but not much). $20k works out to be about a $10/hr hidden wage paid by the company.


AFAIK, here in the Cleveland/Akron area we pay slightly below what a guy at another shop would make with all that experience, but everything that's done for us (a LOT) makes up for it. In comparison, the non-5axis guys that run HBM's and VTL's and stuff make about $21, with all the fringe benefits as well.

What sort of machine is he running and can we see an example of his non-ITAR restricted work? ;)
 
What sort of machine is he running and can we see an example of his non-ITAR restricted work? ;)

He runs a SIP 4000 75 5-Axis, as well as a 700 SIP that's been converted to CNC controls. The 4000 has a bewildering array of rotary and angle tables, sine plates, you name it. He's very, VERY proud of his machine. It's always clean, he's got the original SIP work-holding cabinets with wooden tool-holding compartments lined in felt, he keeps the original manuals and sales brochures and option booklets in a locked drawer of his toolbox. There has to be more money sunk into SIP-specific cutting tools and accessories than there is the machine itself.

The 700 is just a secondary "throw some stuff up and let it run" kind of machine for his work cell. It runs at maybe 30% capacity.

I'd love to show you some work, but we're very tight-lipped about what we do and who we work for, and I'd hate for it to come back on me somehow. A lot of his parts involve turbine and fan blades with very weird contours and complex geometry. The 700 work is mainly sub-components for dies. Yea he's gotta hold tolerances that are really low, but he's had the programs proven out and running the same jobs on that machine for at least 20 years. It's just not even hard for him.
 
This thread right here sums up why I am finishing my damn engineering degree... When a savant with 30 years experience makes $26/hr vs a 0 experience ME makes about the same, well the math ain't hard.

Kinda sucks really... Machining is a great job, but the only way to make any money is to give up your life and live to work.
 
My Grandpa used to say you'll never get rich working for someone else. That applies to 5 axis guys and to engineers too.
 
how bout a 4-axis guy? I have 4 years of live-tooling / 4-axis experience, (machinist for over 12) and I make more than the 30yr savant. you can keep your bennies, give me the money!

Edster, your grandpa was RIGHT!
 
I program 5-axis (nothing super fancy yet) and only get $17/hr. I get all the overtime I want. Benefits suck. So I decided to follow Edster's G-pa's advice as well. Working on getting my own shop up and running.
 
I program 5-axis (nothing super fancy yet) and only get $17/hr. I get all the overtime I want. Benefits suck. So I decided to follow Edster's G-pa's advice as well. Working on getting my own shop up and running.

Bada BOOM! Go for it! Being in charge of your own destiny is a fringe bennie you can't begin to put a price on.
 
Do you hand out green cards?

Boris


<fed up being the last apprentice trained guy in the factory and being the goto guy when :hitsthefan:

PS A bit from my resume

CNC Machinist
Duties: Programming, setting , and operating 3 and 4 axis VMCs (TNC530i and 370 controls)
Programming, setting , operating various CNC lathes with live tooling.(Fanucs T series controls)
Maintaince of various CNC machines, including calling out service engineers and ordering parts where needed
Grinding: surface, cylinderical, and centerless
Instructing the operators in the fine art of running machines(using a #2 copper/hide mallet ;))
Training the company trainee in all aspects of machining and setting.
Ordering tooling and making fixturing for up-coming jobs.
and finally
Lying in a hospital bed with a heart f***ed by being stressed out for 105% of the working day. :ack2:

PPS ok ok the last one is'nt actually on the resume.... but you get the idea
 
Hey Boris if you get bored you and mr slammy would be a big help over here. I've got some operators that could use some fine tuning.

If you hurry up and sneak over you might not need that green card with all the amnesty talks ;)
 
No disrespect meant to Edsters G-pa.....I have seen what it takes to run a shop....I help manage one....Dont fix me none. My hat is off to all who do it....but I have seen too many guys busting their butts in their own shops to make $50k a year. I know one who lost his shop because he didnt have any of those pesky benefits like health insurance. I hope when owners calculate what they are actually making, they also calculate all the evenings and weekends they put in as well....I am sure they do.
 








 
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