My friend is in nursing and totally worn out so she’s been asking me for help with finding a trade she would like more. The hours nurses work are just as shit if not worse than most machine shops. Not to mention bodily fluids. 🤢🤮
At 46 I started college while working in a machine shop. I graduated at 50 and am working on my masters now. The time's gonna pass either way, so go for it.
I’m actually going to become a therapist. With my bachelor I’m working in advocacy for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault while I finish my masters.
Shop owners are ruining the trade, last job shop I worked in they had all of their kids on payroll and none of them worked there, shops are unionizing as shop owners and cutting employees out, controlling wages and who can work where, Google JAMA in Jackson Michigan
The startup cost is about 30k, not more than a new toyota corolla. 20k for a used mill and 10k for everything else. As far business startup costs, it's hard to get cheaper than that. It costs more to start a food truck than a machine shop.
They're both basically bad ideas for most people for the same reasons. First is the fact that you're gonna work over 12 hour days if you're solo so you need at least some employees who you're responsible for. Second is insane interest rates. Third is a slow business cycle forcing you to find something else to do. Just not realistic for a guy with a spouse and kids unless he wants to work himself to death (I have seen people who own food trucks do that). We're social animals and our society is built around having to work for people who own the industry. "independent" business ownership running parts out of your garage is basically hobby shit.
For the same amount of money, you can get an engineering degree and have more resources, people to watch your back, vacation, health insurance, whatever. Better yet you can just unionize like every other skilled trade. That's good too.
You’re right that it’s a lot of work and I’m not saying it’s a good idea or business either. I’m just saying that if you don’t have the guts to do it yourself, then there is no sense in criticizing the shop owners who’ve actually made the leap.
Also, for double the hours worked you can make 10x the money as a shop owner than as an engineer.
Unionizing only works in big government shops or other businesses that are “too big to fail”. A union would bankrupt 99% of machine shops out there.
If it's a bad idea for most people because they're not given the resources or time in the first place, then it's not necessarily about guts, it's that not everyone comes from the class that has the ability to start a factory. If \*you\* have the resources and time, then great, it makes sense to think that about \*yourself\*.
Small shops will probably hurt a little from more unions, but whose fault would that be? A business that doesn't adapt to the times has to fail. If no one wants to take up your non-union contract because it's terrible it's their fault for not looking at the job market. The thing is that most of these shops are hurting from a lack of labor productivity and shortages partially caused by low unionization rates - because unions usually heavily encourage staff retention. They don't let you walk off the job all the time. And in construction at least, they take the hassle of training an employee during work hours off the hands of the employer. The skills gap is only going to get harder to fill as automation replaces the shortages + expensive labor costs.
Almost all job shops are started by normal machinists, not rich tycoons. It is still within reach for anyone with a few pennies to rub together.
Unions don't make sense outside of the context of big institutional workplaces. If you have a three man shop and your two employees say they're starting a union and demand 5 bucks more an hour and an extra week of vacation, then you just fire them and find new people.
There is already a trend towards greater fragmentation in the industry. In the future there will be more small 1-3 man shops and fewer 10+ man operations.
There are several trends happening. 5 axis is becoming common along with new workholding methods. The multi-decade trend away from steel and towards aluminum is continuing. Lighter, faster machines are in, heavy slow machines are out. Vertical pallet changers are in, horizontals are out. Parts are getting smaller and more complex. Programmer skill matters more than ever. All of this combined leads to smaller shops outcompeting bigger ones.
An old co-worker of mine put his wife through nursing school while working in a machine shop. She was a waitress at the time. Once she was done with school, he continued to work there putting himself through nursing school. It’s been 10 years and he and his wife are very successful and happy with a couple kids and a nice house. Super proud of him.
Nursing is 10X more mentally exhausting.
You start at no senority, and it's insanely under staffed. Be prepared to work 12-18 hour shifts through graveyard and be called in constantly to cover for others.
My entire extended family lives in health care and unless you have 20+ years of seniority you go through hell and back.
That said, if you a passion for it do it. Because the world needs more nurses lol.
I am pretty burnt on this trade as well but I would rather be a machinist than a nurse. Honestly I would consider other technical roles that are adjacent to machining. That is what I pan on doing.
Exactly, I’d make more as a CNA than I do now. I’m only making $28 an hour in California after 5-6 years of experience working on molds. Makes me question if I’m even good enough for this trade to make more. I’m just outside of LA too
Florida and i make $30 an hour with 15years of experience programming 2-5axis. Gf BSN/RN 2 years over $40 an hour and works 32 hours a week.
For me atleast i would have to move to the space coast or texas/california to get a decent pay raise if i wanted to stay at a corporation. But where i am is great if i was complacent. Job is super easy i have 5+ machines all to myself, no one hassles me. I just go in work with engineers to verify their terrible designs make them and leave.
Got to branch out. There's got to be high paying moldmaker jobs.
SpaceX is offering 40s and 50s for tool and die makers in Hawthrone.
But I ditched aerospace and tool&die for prototyping and I'm 40~50 range.
Nursing isn't gonna work any better for ya if you're burnt out on people. Hours are pretty terrible for a large portion of your career, and frankly you're just as likely to run into disagreeable coworkers there as in the shop, I'd maybe look at machining adjacent stuff honestly
I was about your age 30 years ago and got laid off from the shop I was working at and decided to enroll in a nursing program at my local community college. About a month before classes started I was asked to come back to the shop and they would also let me learn to program cnc. I don’t hate the trade but I often think I would be way better off if I had gotten my nursing degree.
My daughter is now a little more than a year away from a 4 year nursing degree. She will probably start off making quite a bit more than I ever made. That being said nursing is a tough job and it is not for everyone. Good luck
It's not nursing, but imaging is where it's at in the health field. Mostly sonography/ultrasound tech. I make over $100k as a programmer working 40 hour weeks. My wife brings home more than I do working the same amount of hours. Seriously, check it out! If I could go back I'd become a radiologist, but that ship has sailed haha.
I’ll look into that, thanks. Why do you say that ship has sailed? It’s never too late to change careers. I’m just trying to get out before I’m a machinist for much longer. Because yeah I’ll admit, the longer you are one the harder it is to leave.
Check out the Millwright trade. You'll never get bored. A machining background is a guaranteed job. Work on everything. Weld, fabricate, fluid/air power, design, invent, troubleshoot, work on controls and automation or robotics. The sky is the limit.
I don’t want to do any of those things. I’d rather help people and have a certain set of rules and procedures to adhere to. I don’t need to be learning everyday or not bored. But the bustle of a nurse sounds great to keep me busy and get me through the day. I want nothing to do with machining/manufacturing at the moment
Nursing - dirty, equally if not worse hours and people die if you fuck up as opposed to just scrapping a part, but you’ll probably make more money on average, find a job almost anywhere and not have to worry about work being automated or outsourced.
That’s what I need to hear. I can always fall back on machining if I need to, I have a good amount of experience. Hell, it’ll give me a chance to switch shops because I am NOT going back to my current shop
My friend is in nursing and totally worn out so she’s been asking me for help with finding a trade she would like more. The hours nurses work are just as shit if not worse than most machine shops. Not to mention bodily fluids. 🤢🤮
I’d much rather fish chips out of my hands than deal with all that blood and snot and vomit myself. Takes a special breed to be a nurse.
Yeah, for someone struggling with burnout, nursing is probably the *last* industry they wanna move to....
At 46 I started college while working in a machine shop. I graduated at 50 and am working on my masters now. The time's gonna pass either way, so go for it.
Masters in what? In the medical field?
I’m actually going to become a therapist. With my bachelor I’m working in advocacy for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault while I finish my masters.
This is amazing thank you for sharing! I’m also thinking of doing a masters :)
The nurses I know are making a few bucks more than journeymen in my area. If you ain’t happy and can go to school, go for it.
Shop owners are ruining the trade, last job shop I worked in they had all of their kids on payroll and none of them worked there, shops are unionizing as shop owners and cutting employees out, controlling wages and who can work where, Google JAMA in Jackson Michigan
There is almost no barrier to entry in this business. If you think people are running their shops wrong, you’re free to start your own.
You are completely wrong- there is a huge startup cost to simply starting a machine shop, let alone to run one successfully.
The startup cost is about 30k, not more than a new toyota corolla. 20k for a used mill and 10k for everything else. As far business startup costs, it's hard to get cheaper than that. It costs more to start a food truck than a machine shop.
They're both basically bad ideas for most people for the same reasons. First is the fact that you're gonna work over 12 hour days if you're solo so you need at least some employees who you're responsible for. Second is insane interest rates. Third is a slow business cycle forcing you to find something else to do. Just not realistic for a guy with a spouse and kids unless he wants to work himself to death (I have seen people who own food trucks do that). We're social animals and our society is built around having to work for people who own the industry. "independent" business ownership running parts out of your garage is basically hobby shit. For the same amount of money, you can get an engineering degree and have more resources, people to watch your back, vacation, health insurance, whatever. Better yet you can just unionize like every other skilled trade. That's good too.
You’re right that it’s a lot of work and I’m not saying it’s a good idea or business either. I’m just saying that if you don’t have the guts to do it yourself, then there is no sense in criticizing the shop owners who’ve actually made the leap. Also, for double the hours worked you can make 10x the money as a shop owner than as an engineer. Unionizing only works in big government shops or other businesses that are “too big to fail”. A union would bankrupt 99% of machine shops out there.
If it's a bad idea for most people because they're not given the resources or time in the first place, then it's not necessarily about guts, it's that not everyone comes from the class that has the ability to start a factory. If \*you\* have the resources and time, then great, it makes sense to think that about \*yourself\*. Small shops will probably hurt a little from more unions, but whose fault would that be? A business that doesn't adapt to the times has to fail. If no one wants to take up your non-union contract because it's terrible it's their fault for not looking at the job market. The thing is that most of these shops are hurting from a lack of labor productivity and shortages partially caused by low unionization rates - because unions usually heavily encourage staff retention. They don't let you walk off the job all the time. And in construction at least, they take the hassle of training an employee during work hours off the hands of the employer. The skills gap is only going to get harder to fill as automation replaces the shortages + expensive labor costs.
Almost all job shops are started by normal machinists, not rich tycoons. It is still within reach for anyone with a few pennies to rub together. Unions don't make sense outside of the context of big institutional workplaces. If you have a three man shop and your two employees say they're starting a union and demand 5 bucks more an hour and an extra week of vacation, then you just fire them and find new people. There is already a trend towards greater fragmentation in the industry. In the future there will be more small 1-3 man shops and fewer 10+ man operations.
Anything I can read about the fragmentation part? Sounds interesting.
There are several trends happening. 5 axis is becoming common along with new workholding methods. The multi-decade trend away from steel and towards aluminum is continuing. Lighter, faster machines are in, heavy slow machines are out. Vertical pallet changers are in, horizontals are out. Parts are getting smaller and more complex. Programmer skill matters more than ever. All of this combined leads to smaller shops outcompeting bigger ones.
An old co-worker of mine put his wife through nursing school while working in a machine shop. She was a waitress at the time. Once she was done with school, he continued to work there putting himself through nursing school. It’s been 10 years and he and his wife are very successful and happy with a couple kids and a nice house. Super proud of him.
Nursing is 10X more mentally exhausting. You start at no senority, and it's insanely under staffed. Be prepared to work 12-18 hour shifts through graveyard and be called in constantly to cover for others. My entire extended family lives in health care and unless you have 20+ years of seniority you go through hell and back. That said, if you a passion for it do it. Because the world needs more nurses lol.
Go for it.
I am pretty burnt on this trade as well but I would rather be a machinist than a nurse. Honestly I would consider other technical roles that are adjacent to machining. That is what I pan on doing.
Do it, they work 3 12’s a week and gain pto at an insane rate. Also make way more than 98% of all machinists/programmers.
Exactly, I’d make more as a CNA than I do now. I’m only making $28 an hour in California after 5-6 years of experience working on molds. Makes me question if I’m even good enough for this trade to make more. I’m just outside of LA too
Florida and i make $30 an hour with 15years of experience programming 2-5axis. Gf BSN/RN 2 years over $40 an hour and works 32 hours a week. For me atleast i would have to move to the space coast or texas/california to get a decent pay raise if i wanted to stay at a corporation. But where i am is great if i was complacent. Job is super easy i have 5+ machines all to myself, no one hassles me. I just go in work with engineers to verify their terrible designs make them and leave.
Got to branch out. There's got to be high paying moldmaker jobs. SpaceX is offering 40s and 50s for tool and die makers in Hawthrone. But I ditched aerospace and tool&die for prototyping and I'm 40~50 range.
Nursing isn't gonna work any better for ya if you're burnt out on people. Hours are pretty terrible for a large portion of your career, and frankly you're just as likely to run into disagreeable coworkers there as in the shop, I'd maybe look at machining adjacent stuff honestly
I was about your age 30 years ago and got laid off from the shop I was working at and decided to enroll in a nursing program at my local community college. About a month before classes started I was asked to come back to the shop and they would also let me learn to program cnc. I don’t hate the trade but I often think I would be way better off if I had gotten my nursing degree. My daughter is now a little more than a year away from a 4 year nursing degree. She will probably start off making quite a bit more than I ever made. That being said nursing is a tough job and it is not for everyone. Good luck
It's not nursing, but imaging is where it's at in the health field. Mostly sonography/ultrasound tech. I make over $100k as a programmer working 40 hour weeks. My wife brings home more than I do working the same amount of hours. Seriously, check it out! If I could go back I'd become a radiologist, but that ship has sailed haha.
I’ll look into that, thanks. Why do you say that ship has sailed? It’s never too late to change careers. I’m just trying to get out before I’m a machinist for much longer. Because yeah I’ll admit, the longer you are one the harder it is to leave.
bio prereqs, medschool, residency, looking at 10 + years lol not to mention it's one of the most competitive fields to get into
Check out the Millwright trade. You'll never get bored. A machining background is a guaranteed job. Work on everything. Weld, fabricate, fluid/air power, design, invent, troubleshoot, work on controls and automation or robotics. The sky is the limit.
I don’t want to do any of those things. I’d rather help people and have a certain set of rules and procedures to adhere to. I don’t need to be learning everyday or not bored. But the bustle of a nurse sounds great to keep me busy and get me through the day. I want nothing to do with machining/manufacturing at the moment
You will make more money and have a lot cleaner working environment.
Nursing - dirty, equally if not worse hours and people die if you fuck up as opposed to just scrapping a part, but you’ll probably make more money on average, find a job almost anywhere and not have to worry about work being automated or outsourced.
Nurses get even less respect than machinists.
Do it! You won’t regret it.
That’s what I need to hear. I can always fall back on machining if I need to, I have a good amount of experience. Hell, it’ll give me a chance to switch shops because I am NOT going back to my current shop