Changing machine shops for 1st time

I'm moving jobs shortly from a comfortable place and only have 4yr manual machining experience. I have other solid work history not in machining but made it easier to learn machining. I could tell my new job I will be doing much more advanced and professional work. And I will have to learn new machines,operations, and metals. It does appear the new job will have some patients only asking (3yr experience). I also warned them of my skill level, which they seemed to like my honesty.
I'm looking for general advise from those who have changed shops before and taken on a greater challenge. Should I expect to be thrown right in to the action/fire? Do most places give all levels a little one on one time (baby sitter) for a day, two or perhaps a week? If I don't feel confident in an operation should I fumble through it or ask a senior machinist or is this frowned upon? Has any one else ever switched to a more advanced level shop and how did you feel? Is it just my in experience or do even you salty dogs worry about change when making a move? Overall I'm pretty confident and was looked at as an up-and-comer in my old shop. I'm still a bit nervous as its a big jump in pay and I want to earn my keep.

Metal Butcher said:

I'm moving jobs shortly from a comfortable place and only have 4yr manual machining experience. I have other solid work history not in machining but made it easier to learn machining. I could tell my new job I will be doing much more advanced and professional work. And I will have to learn new machines,operations, and metals. It does appear the new job will have some patients only asking (3yr experience). I also warned them of my skill level, which they seemed to like my honesty.
I'm looking for general advise from those who have changed shops before and taken on a greater challenge. Should I expect to be thrown right in to the action/fire? Do most places give all levels a little one on one time (baby sitter) for a day, two or perhaps a week? If I don't feel confident in an operation should I fumble through it or ask a senior machinist or is this frowned upon? Has any one else ever switched to a more advanced level shop and how did you feel? Is it just my in experience or do even you salty dogs worry about change when making a move? Overall I'm pretty confident and was looked at as an up-and-comer in my old shop. I'm still a bit nervous as its a big jump in pay and I want to earn my keep.

Click to expand...

.
i recommend a notepad and pencil and take notes as telling new guy the same thing many times per day or week is annoying. i often create a checklist of things like starting a cnc machine, setting work offsets and tool offsets, etc
.
working with another, one on one for a month is not unusual. you have to watch when you finally work alone, nobody looking over your shoulder catching mistakes, you dont make a mistake. thats where a checklist helps i find. like pilot checking the airplane before takeoff. when finally working alone its easy to forget something or make a mistake, checklist helps
.
usually a good ideal to start reading the machine operator manuals. many machines have 1000 to 3000 pages of manuals. it takes awhile to look through them.
.
asking for occasional help is normal. if unsure and you dont want to scrap a part or crash a machine most will appreciate you asking for help rather than not ask for help and have a lot of problems. again it helps to use notepad and pencil and write stuff down for future reference. machine malfunctions can be the hardest to troubleshoot unless you have guidelines or notes to refer too. often requires pressing multiple buttons at same time or certain sequence that without knowing it can be difficult to get machine going again
.
many shops already have procedures or work instructions to follow. you might need to write some notes as often terms are abbreviated or non standard terms are used. like a shop might call a oversize tap a "green" tap. kind of hard to understand slang til somebody explains or translates it for you.

Be honest and don't try to BS your way if you don't understand instructions. Ask for a 2nd explaination if you need to. If you need to ask for help, ask. Your work will show what you know or don't know anyway so. . . Good luck.

As a long time shop owner the number one bitch from me and my friends that own shops is "Cell phones" I let 3 people go in under a year for spending all day on there phones ,,, All were told when I hired them to leave there phone in there car and all were warned "ONCE" that if I found them on there phone agion they would fired .

D.D.Machine said:

As a long time shop owner the number one bitch from me and my friends that own shops is "Cell phones" I let 3 people go in under a year for spending all day on there phones ,,, All were told when I hired them to leave there phone in there car and all were warned "ONCE" that if I found them on there phone agion they would fired .

Click to expand...

.
and if 2nd shift guy is text messaging the 1st shift guy who is home asking a question you going to fire him for asking a question ??
.
even when 2 guys on same shift if one guy is not seen usually can send text message with question and or ask when he will be back in the shop. could be at a engineering meeting or at tool crib etc
.
sure do not want people playing games on the phone but they do more than just play games

DMF_TomB said:

.
and if 2nd shift guy is text messaging the 1st shift guy who is home asking a question you going to fire him for asking a question ??
.
even when 2 guys on same shift if one guy is not seen usually can send text message with question and or ask when he will be back in the shop. could be at a engineering meeting or at tool crib etc
.
sure do not want people playing games on the phone but they do more than just play games

Click to expand...

The easy way to put an end to phone abuse is to have a shop phone. If an operator needs to contact someone else regarding a work question, use the shop phone. Works great for us.

Gobo said:

The easy way to put an end to phone abuse is to have a shop phone. If an operator needs to contact someone else regarding a work question, use the shop phone. Works great for us.

Click to expand...

.
i occasionally send text message with picture as its often hard to describe what you see on a control panel screen and if i receive a detailed response i am not likely to forget one of ten items i was told as the text message is there for as long or as many times as i need to reread it.
.
and of course if somebody at a meeting they will ignore call or text til after the meeting. this saves playing phone tag with people calling and nobody at a convenient time to be able to answer. they will answer first chance they got even if a 10 minute delay.
.
i am not saying its ok to play games on phone but they are often useful for other things. if you fire everybody using a smart phone more likely you will fire over 90% of the younger people

It seems pretty straightforward to me - if the boss says "Leave it in your car", that's what you better do!!
I'm surprised that the OP seems to think that this should be open to discussion or argument, especially with a new boss at a new job.
Monoblanco

monoblanco said:

It seems pretty straightforward to me - if the boss says "Leave it in your car", that's what you better do!!
I'm surprised that the OP seems to think that this should be open to discussion or argument, especially with a new boss at a new job.
Monoblanco

Click to expand...

It's not the OP that's arguing. It's Tom. Just ignore him.

Metalbutcher

your going to be fine, you have more experience than most and thats manual machine experience that right there is obsolete anymore. best machinist out there learned on a hand mill or hand lathe. They make the best programmers and set-up guys also, because they know how metal cuts.
everyone who runs a cnc machine should have 1-2 years on a manual machine and programmers should have more.

Only thing I can add is listen to what employees/boss tells you and dont get caught up in the politics. nothing wrong with asking questions its how you learn.

I started out in the late mid 80s. left a very good job as a electrician/ ac tech. started green at a machine shop, never even been in one until that day. took a huge cut in pay.

DMF_TomB said:

.
and if 2nd shift guy is text messaging the 1st shift guy who is home asking a question you going to fire him for asking a question ??
.

Click to expand...

Yep, or maybe fire the 1st shift guy for leaving things in a state where there are questions.
In a real 24/7 shop this simply should not happen.
If this is actually needed I'd take this a a warning sign of too much cowboy action and/or a poorly run shop.
I'd have zero tolerance for this.
Bob

Thanks everybody very cool! Delw, you seem like a good person, and I hope to find someone like you in the new shop. I dropped a solid job to get into machining and took big pay cut as well. I was a factory worker type guy, however rotating crazy schedule with no real skill. Company had plant closing here and there across the country, which kind of starting freaking me out... So I wanted a skill. Seems to be a lot of machining in my area so it made sense. So far I really like it, makes for a fast work day, and I feel more secure even with minimal experience. Thanks again everybody I appropriate it.

Metal Butcher said:

Thanks everybody very cool! Delw, you seem like a good person, and I hope to find someone like you in the new shop. I dropped a solid job to get into machining and took big pay cut as well. I was a factory worker type guy, however rotating crazy schedule with no real skill. Company had plant closing here and there across the country, which kind of starting freaking me out... So I wanted a skill. Seems to be a lot of machining in my area so it made sense. So far I really like it, makes for a fast work day, and I feel more secure even with minimal experience. Thanks again everybody I appropriate it.

Click to expand...

Naw dude i'm and asshole
of coarse when your young you get cocky but I always listened and didnt cry about shit. I learned alot from people that I worked with even the fools who shouldnt be near a machine that had power to it.

We all COP a machine shop attitude after a while, I am guilty of it. try not to let it get the best of you.

Again good luck

I've worked with guys in your position that were forever saying " At my last shop we did it this way ". Forget that, in your new shop do it their way. I agree about phones, leave it in your car. For the first 6 months keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut unless it's to ask for advice.

You'll learn as much in the next year as you did in your past few years. When I was starting out I moved on about every 4 or 5 years. I'd learn more in the 1st year at a new shop than what I would have learned in the next 5 years at the old shop.

Good luck, Tyrone.

smart phone is a tool like anything else. sure i have had boss say no phone use in shop and yet same boss can text me about when or where (what machine) i am working that day which saves tracking somebody down or being able to tell them they can come in a hour earlier or later before they leave for work. same as if i am working on different machine i can text day shift operator so he is aware i am working on that machine 2nd shift
.
i am not saying ignore what boss says but i find slowly smart phones are being more accepted. like i already said i often have taken a picture for example of a control panel screen to explain something or to prove i saw what i said i saw. for example maintenance problem that when maintenance shows up they do not see the problem at that time
.
text messaging (where you can answer minutes to hours later) and being able to send and receive pictures to explain i guess it depends on type of work. more complex the job the more use for a smart phone. when talking (texting) about a part often easier to send picture of the part as part number other person might not be thinking of correct part or part number. hard to explain other than if its a $10,000. part its more important to be more sure about questions and answers. even a small $1000. part i would want to not make a mistake and use all the tools i have to succeed. part of why i have a very low scrap and rework rate
.
and thats besides the obvious you can also use a smart phone as a calculator and or there are feed and speed calculators and other apps made for a machinist. just saying there is alot more than playing games that can be done with a smart phone. i suppose it depends on how complex or simple the work is
.
they are also working on cnc machine controls that can send info like position display to smart phone (bluetooth) as a remote display. so you can move it around and see the position coordinates on the smart phone placed at convenient spots. and some measuring instruments can also connect by bluetooth too for recording and or seeing measurements stored or recorded often with time and date too. just saying more uses coming out every day for a smart phone.