What's new
What's new

College Student seeking summer internship/apprenticeship

Abeship

Hot Rolled
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Location
Virginia
I am re-posting this, and hopefully looking for a position for summer of 2015

Let me introduce myself here first. I am currently technically a sophomore/junior attending Virginia Tech hoping to earn a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Physics. This past summer I was fortunate enough to work in Richmond VA at the Paper Mill Bear Island, where I worked under their ME doing some smaller stuff, some drawings in solidworks, autocad, etc. I was also taught how to weld for approximately 3 days (I am no expert, but really enjoy doing it and would love to practice more), along with being fortunate enough to use their milling machine and lathe a few times, making smaller brackets and such. I am by no means a machinist, but I do hope to learn as much as I can. I used to own a few machines, specifically a Gorton I-22 mill, hardinge dsm-59 lathe, Victor 1640 lathe, a belt sander and some other misc. smaller machines. I currently own a Tormach PCNC 1100. I work when I can on them, building the occasional part for my family, or even a paintball part for fun. I do not do this for business, it is more a hobby that one day I would like to turn into a business.

I took a semester off to do a Co-op, working for Middle River Aircraft systems (GE Aviation) as an ME Intern. I have learned that a desk job is not something that I would like. I am a hands-on guy, and sitting behind a screen all day is not appealing to me. This job will end in December, running from August-December 2013. I again interned for GE Aviation last Summer 2014, it was definitely better than my previous, I was at a manufacturing plant and on my feet most of the day, but would like to diversify a little bit.

Why do I say I am a sophomore/junior? I have only had one year of classes at Virginia Tech, but between summer courses and transfer credits, I have about 60-65 credits completed, so that technically makes me a junior. I was also fortunate enough to do undergraduate research in the physics dept., but that turned out to be more coding than I liked, and as I said I am a hands on person.

My spare time at school was spent in one of their machine shops. I was not able to use the machines due to safety reasons, but I was able to watch and learn. I have gotten to know the three machinists in this shop very well and plan to visit again in the Spring semester. I got to watch both production and prototype work. They have Prototrak machines, a prototrak lathe, hardinge lathe, and some other misc. tools. They are a wealth of knowledge and I was fortunate enough to be able to watch and learn.

As I have said I am no machinist, but I do aspire to be one. I would like to learn CNC programming, and spend much more time on the manual machines. I have no problem working 80 hours a week if it means I get to learn, as this is something that I truly do love and enjoy. I wouldn't mind sweeping floors and cleaning the machines, if it meant I got to learn. I love to learn and I figure working in a machine shop would be a great start :).

Now what would be my ideal position? I would like to help with the design of parts (that is what I am doing currently at GE), maybe helping trying to minimize cycle times, I would even button push and deburr if that was needed for that job. I do what to contribute, maybe merging the machining and egineering aspects of things :)

My email is abeshipATVT.edu, and I look forward to hearing from you! My resume is at this link on my website here, it is still under development so don't judge me too harshly! I hope to have the site completed by end of thanksgiving week.

Resume | Abraham Shipley: E-portfolio/Shop
 
Sounds like you might want to do something similar to my job, though maybe I have more desk than you'd like. I spent 7 years at a structural engineering firm at a desk all day. Took a year off to get back into manufacturing and worked as a designer/machinist doing prototype and custom jobs. Took an 8th year back at the old desk job to be at-home more for the kid as he started kindergarten and realized quickly that I am not made for a desk job.

I'm an engineer/program-manager at a job shop now. My background means I don't send stupid un-machinable stuff out to the floor, and knowing my way around machines means that when labor is maxed and a deadline is looming, I can sometimes take to a machine and fill in to meet deadlines when necessary. I'm not making chips very often at all, but on occasion I have to do a bit of 'tool making' and man the surface grinders and drill presses to get stuff built on time. Job shops are a much faster-paced and dynamic-demanding environment. It's very common to need to backup another department if needed, as the work loads can wax and wane from department to department, but customers still want the same turnaround times.

If you could find such a blend that may be more hands-on, I think you'd do good. "Manufacturing Engineer" is a good place to be for such things, and if you have actually BEEN a machinist, even if not a good one, you'll be head-and-shoulders above a lot of manufacturing engineers. Your ME will be relevant as you'll know how to design efficient tooling, understand metallurgy, be able to enact accurate, reliable, repeatable processes that can improve output and sometimes expand shop capabilities by improving existing machine capabilities or knowing enough about the work to get the boss to buy new machines.
 
I could have an opportunity in VA for you, but we'd have to work on developing the position/responsibilities together as we don't have any formal internship program or explicit openings. Should be possible to do it from Blacksburg. If you want to discuss further, send me a PM with a good time for a phone call or Skype convo. Based on what you've laid out here it might be a bit of a stretch, but I'm happy to talk it over if you're interested.
 








 
Back
Top