Semi OT: Quit the Trade

Well I finally did it. After 8 years in the trade I was finally able to quit. I have taken a job @ a Toyota Plant working on the line. The work is far less satisfying but the pay is far more satisfying.

I am saddened with the way the trade has headed… wages seem to have locked in place during the 90’s and been frozen since.

To give you a brief overview of my skill set:

- Served apprenticeship in tool room on Bridgeport’s/surface grinders/engine lathes/saws before moving into CNC work.
- CNC Program Setup and Operate all of my own work – All experience is in tooling… by that I mean dies, moulds etc. but I can still do ok at custom machining.
- Cad/Cam Experience – VISI Versions 14-17, Mastercam X4 and CimatronE 9 (my preferred)
- I can 3D surface and model though it is not my strong point. I CAN do it; but I’ve never had a job where it’s my main focus.
- Very experienced with Deckel Maho DMU Machines 5 Axis Mills – DMU 100P, DMU 125P, DMU 200P
o Previous job was essentially getting a cart full of blocks and working my way through cutting them. 5 Axis Fixed positional cutting, Continuous is not often needed and well it looks cool is not always practical. I setup and operated my own DMU 100P and programmed using CimatronE 9. I had to work in such a way that my machine would run as much as possible and get 3D finishing running over night.
- I can also drive Forklift and operate over head crane
- I am a fast learner
o For example at my last job I was able to learn CimatroneE 9 and the job itself, well enough to be left alone (with one non CNC guy) on an afternoon shift within 5 weeks of employment.
- My personality is very calm and professional. I never yell across the shop at people, instead I walk up to you if I want to have a conversation. I use my inside voice in the cad room. I am very laid back and get along with almost anyone.
- I am a hard worker. If the work needs doing, you can usually count on me for Saturdays. Granted, my work enthusiasm peaks out at 50 hours in a given week.
- I am an excellent teacher and very much enjoy training new employees. I have been complimented many times on my ways of instructing. I actually love teaching, and find 1 on 1 teaching very enjoyable ( I am not the type who would want to teach in front of a class).

My highest Wage achieved in trade - $25/hour. Not a bad wage no, but even that wage aint giving you a luxurious life by any means. Up here in southern Ontario Gas is just about $5/gallon and depending where you are, LOW end town housing is in the 130 000’s – 180 000’s. I’ve had job offers as low as 18/hour.

Toyota’s wage for working on the line is close to $34/hour. I don’t think I will ever see that in trade but I feel I am worth it. Every other trade is in the 30’s/hour (even 40’s!) for a journey man, and I have to say our trade is one of, if not THE hardest.

I love the trade and I will miss it. My hopes are to get through to Die Maintenance inside Toyota, but I’m just as fine on the line. However, I am a CNC guy through and through. (It shocks me that large companies have all other maintenance but never their own CNC’s!!!!)

Congrats on your new job and good luck!

Bottom line.......as long as "you" are happy, the rest is easy!

Best Regards,
Russ

If you wanted to see $34 an hour as a machinist you'd probably have to stay in the trade for a lot longer than 8 years.

If you're willing to do line work instead of machining, that tells me you're not all that passionate about machining. I'd put a gun to my head if I had to do line work for a living.

Hope your new job works out for you.

John Welden said:

If you wanted to see $34 an hour as a machinist you'd probably have to stay in the trade for a lot longer than 8 years.

If you're willing to do line work instead of machining, that tells me you're not all that passionate about machining. I'd put a gun to my head if I had to do line work for a living.

Hope your new job works out for you.

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become a good engineer you will make 34 in a few years right out of school.

john welden said:

i'd put a gun to my head if i had to do line work for a living.

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... ... ... +1!

wjr said:

... ... ... +1!

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+2 Even a repetitious machining job will start driving me nuts. I don't think I could shoot myself, but probably drink myself to death.

$25 an hour isn't bad for putting in 8 years. The other trades that pay more aren't competing with China for work.

John Welden said:

If you wanted to see $34 an hour as a machinist you'd probably have to stay in the trade for a lot longer than 8 years.

If you're willing to do line work instead of machining, that tells me you're not all that passionate about machining. I'd put a gun to my head if I had to do line work for a living.

Hope your new job works out for you.

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Amen to that. There is practically no way I could tolerate assembly line work. I don't think I could tolerate anything other than machining! The pay would have to be about 200 bucks an hour! Glad the O.P. can tolerate it! Someone has to do it and I am glad there ARE jobs out there for the people who CAN take it! I honestly do wish Slapstick the best. I am glad you are getting good money! Some people on this board are probably FURIOUS that you are getting paid that much for that work!

Jeff

I say congrats, money's first, machining makes for a great hobby. I forget if you already had a few machines of your own, but you can always play around in the evening and weekends if the day job gets too boring, and its something to fall back on if/when the plant closes/slows down.

Repetitive plant work may not be the most mentally challenging, but it sure isn't easy on the body usually, to do the same thing every day for those hours and having to keep pace. That's where I'd have a really hard time, my body wouldn't take it for long.

It's a shame you left honestly, you have a nice list of accomplishments on your resume, we would hire a guy like yourself in the moldmaking business in an instant. Hope it works for you, but like mentioned previously doing work on an assy line where your doing somewhat "mindless" operations all day would get old very fast, however the 34$ looks good. I am actually suprised they pay that much for that sort of work, however I worked on a line right out of high school, for 3 months. There is NO ammount of money worth that job.

It sounds like you had the skillset to start and operate your own shop. Maybe someday??

Either way, good luck in your new job. Shouldn't take long to move off the line into supervision, maintenance, quality control, etc., if you work hard and show initiative.

If the ASSY line work doesn't work out for me then i have this to fall back on. I figured after a 2 year hiring process i have to at least give it a shot.

The work isn't THAT bad... and you get rotated every quarter of the day... once you learn 4+ jobs on your line,you can go a day or two without repeating a station.

I have been laid off 3 times in as many years and have racked up my share of debt thanks to that.

My machining job was eating $70/week in gas, so i would equate the commute to $4/hour worth of GROSS for gas/maint minimum. That puts me down to $21/hour.

The Toyota Plant is 5 mins from home.

$34/hour 5 minutes from home
$25/hour 60KM from home

If i get into Maint dept. wages are $40+/hour

Looking at the bigger picture, putting in some time on the line isn't going to kill me.

The recession has left my financial state very bruised and i am way to far in the negative. Perhaps when my finances are in more favorable status i will return to the trade.

TMMC Also offers to pay for courses...

Once you are a "Permanent Team Member" you are in the safest job out there... you will only get laid off if the factory folds, and @ that you'll get a buy out i'm sure.

With all of this non production, permanent team members are allowed to go in and clean the already spotless facilities and lose no days. EVEN us Contract members are allowed 4 day weeks with zero production on afternoon shifts untill june! Theoretically if a contract employee were on full time afternoon shift, he would still get paid 4 days a week just to show up for the next 6 weeks!

How many machine shops will do that for ya?

There are a lot of ways to further my self with this company at this point in my life.


Machining was becoming as routine to me as working on a line. Unless you're going to switch jobs every few months or are in a diverse machine shop it all becomes routine. Felt just as much like line work running my 5Axis all day...

It is hard to find a job where you get to do it all... often program/setup operate is split up.

If i had to sit down and program or surface all day i would probably blow my head off far before working on a line.

Yes i could start my own shop and would absolutely love to one day... in the end... that is the dream. The startup is so huge and the risk as well that i just can't take that leap at this point.

Slapstick said:

Oh, and my job was eating $70/week in gas, so i would equate the commute to $4/hour worth of GROSS for gas/maint minimum. That puts me down to $21/hour.

The Toyota Plant is 5 mins from home.

$34/hour 5 minutes from home
$25/hour 60KM from home
.

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That is certainly something to take into consideration! I HATE a long drive to and from work! Not just the gas cost, the long drive puts me to sleep on the way home!

Jeff

Dualkit said:

+2 Even a repetitious machining job will start driving me nuts. I don't think I could shoot myself, but probably drink myself to death.

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Aww come on it aint that bad, theres even times I enjoy having to run the machines all day doing 2 min cycles, or having one doing 15 min cycles and 1 doing 30 sec cycles.
It s fun and enjoyable and besides
When you are doing 1 min cycles chasing 10 microns on a centerless all day for 3 weeks, those cracks in the wall behind the machine really do open up and tell you stuff you need to know

Boris

PS. I did get so bored I wanted to stick my hand in the grinder just for something interesting to happen

Slapstick

With the extra info in your second post, it sounds like you're making the right choice.

Hope you can make some decent money and get out of the hole. A guy like you who's willing to work hard deserves to get ahead.

"Hope you can make some decent money and get out of the hole. A guy like you who's willing to work hard deserves to get ahead."

+1

There is alot to be said for making a better wage.

Best of luck to you!!

I hope your new job @ Toyota works out, because there's talk of shutdowns now because of the damage to parts supplier plants in northern Japan from the earthquake & ensuing tsunami.

I bailed in 1999.
The only way I was going to make more money at that point was to borrow half a million bucks and start my own shop, and I didn't have the nerver to do that. I turned my hobby at that time (computers) into a career.

Machine trades is one seriously under-appreciated and poorly compensated field. I was a moldmaker for half a dozen years and that was some challenging and physically taxing work, much harder than what I do now (for several times the pay, now that I'm independent).

Now I make enough money to buy some used machine tools and setup a shop. All I think about now when I'm working is getting back in the shop. Funny how life works out sometimes.

YMMV

Joe

Beleive me... getting in a situation to get my own VMC and shop space is all i think about. Machining is in my blood and it shapes the way my mind thinks...

Thank you all for your support.

As far as shut downs, we do have 1 week shut down planned. The plants in Canada are not as hard hit as other plants for supplies... Untill june we are only running 3 day shift production days per week, that's it. So every week we are going to fall behind by 7 shifts worth of cars... + 16 hours worth of over time between the two shifts... so 9 days of production per week!

IT may be a bit shakey for now but when things pick up, i expect 6 days a week for the next year or two just to make up for this... before the Japan crisis, Toyota was working 48 hour weeks just to keep up. Even if the economy dips again, we'll be so far behind that we'll have lots of work...

Working at toyota is actually giving me a lot of experience that a lot of people don't get to see... i'm seeing how this big company of 7000+ (in canada, 36 000 worldwide) functions and how they do things. I've already learned things that i could apply to shop life that Toyota does right.

Slapstick said:

Working at toyota is actually giving me a lot of experience that a lot of people don't get to see... i'm seeing how this big company of 7000+ (in canada, 36 000 worldwide) functions and how they do things. I've already learned things that i could apply to shop life that Toyota does right.

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That is part of the reason that I folded my freelance business...I'm working in manufacturing tooling/automation, and the things I'm learning are well worth working for someone else for a few years.

That, and the job paid more than I could make on my own in this crap economy. And benefits. And an awesome group of co-workers.

Enjoy Toyota. It sounds like you will make the absolute most of it!