With the shortage of manufacturing workers in the United States we must start to investigate the situation closer to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow. Besides the worker compensation, benefits, work environment, and career development topics that may influence career decisions in manufacturing, we should now look closer into the following topics.

When you ask what machining means to me, I could go on for hours with stories about how I made complex parts on machines that are even more complicated than the parts themselves. Machining is by far more interesting than what most people know. From the challenges of implementing new complex equipment in the shop, to CNC programming, or even making complex parts in one setup. It is a career choice that most do not know how advanced it can be, especially the machining of today. Now, we can make parts in one setup that were once made in many setups on multiple pieces of equipment over a long-time frame. My career is a success story in manufacturing technology as I have embraced the technology of today and here is how I made it happen with six simple steps in career success.

A cobot can add a lot of value to the manufacturing process in a machine shop. It can increase the productivity of the CNC machine, while also contributing to process accuracy and consistency. Cobots can be easy to program and are safe to use.

During my time operating the Machining Blog business, I have visited a few schools. I noticed one thing that was the same about their programs, and that was their 3D printers were just used to produce trinkets and not mechanical parts. I decided to create a project that could create many learning opportunities from it, and that project was to design and build a mechanical clock. The clock that I designed was based on a mechanical watch design, but I scaled the part size up by six times their actual size. I started the project by reading books on watch design and by taking apart watch movements. I learned along the way and then started designing watch movement parts in Solidworks CAD software. I then purchased a small 3D printer and started printing the parts. Once the gears started to mesh properly, I built a few prototypes along the way. With all my time that I invested in the project, it probably amounted to a couple thousand hours. The result was a clock that is pretty accurate for being printed, not machined.

Cardinal Manufacturing is a student-run business in the Eleva-Strum High School. In a student-run business the students are responsible for all aspects of the business. It is a custom job shop that makes machined parts for community members and people throughout the country. Check out this video on the program.

Gage blocks (also known as gauge blocks) are inspection tools that are used in the machining industry. They typically come in an 81-piece set and the sizes in the set are as follows:

I gave a classroom presentation in two engineering classes within the technical education department at a local middle school. The students were engaged in the mechanical clock presentation and asked me great questions.

Production machining means making a lot of the same parts with great accuracy. Factories use machines like CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines, Swiss machines, and multi-axis turning machines to do this.

Machining could be a stressful job, but it is as stressful as you make it out to be. For example, there are many things to consider when machining parts, like quality issues, time deadlines, and machining conditions. These items may be stressful when you look at everything at once, but if you form a plan with many individual goals to meet it will add up to the end goal of making a quality part and on time.

Nestled in Eleva-Strum High School, Cardinal Manufacturing is revolutionizing technical education through its student-run business model. As a beacon of excellence, Cardinal Manufacturing in Strum, Wisconsin empowers students to gain hands-on experience in manufacturing while running a real business. This innovative approach not only equips students with invaluable skills but also positions the program as a leader in the technical education world.

A machine tool is a mechanical device that is used to machine metal components. The machine tool is essential in manufacturing processes and is used to cut, drill, and grind parts. A machine tool could be a lathe, mill, or a grinding machine. Machine tools are essential to making precision parts for production machining operations.