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I'm considering CNC programming as a change of careers as my current gig seems to have died. I'm in Chicago-land and willing to move about, there's plenty of trade schools around here for this sort of thing. Is this a Bad Idea?
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Sep 16, 2019 16:17
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:07 |
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I don't know the situation in Chicago, but in San Antonio, Texas the options abound. I work in industrial fabrication for major aerospace corporations as a contractor, and I can tell you that work as a CNC programmer is fantastic. I would consider heavily doing more than just the core criteria of CAM and CAD, but also pursuing a broad understanding of Material Sciences. Work with composites and novel plastics is only going to increase in the future-- the fundamental level of understanding about them is going to radically alter the potential for future jobs, and your position will improve greatly. I firmly believe that it is fairly simple in the current market to learn CNC, and it doesn't take nearly as much maths background as in previous decades; The advent of fusion360 and other CAM softwares has left gcode programming behind in many ways. I think if you have the right mindset it's a great career, and the end result is feeling productive, and being involved in the physical creation of the modern world. I make $40 an hour doing contract labor out of a self owned shop, which is significantly more than the average wage slave, so keep that in mind.
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Oct 3, 2019 17:56
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The market is great and is probably going to be even better in the next few years for CNC. And a cool part about CNC is it can expand into the realm of 3D printing, which will probably be booming soon. The business seems to be expanding where the everyday person can use your designs and build their own stuff in their own home, whereas before it was only big manufacturers that would be building the parts. Most of the people that buy your designs will be luxury spenders that don't care about wasting excess money on the other costs of their building processes, so you can charge ample amounts if you keep your designs up to high quality standards. One thing to worry about with CNC is safety. The obvious thing is you don't want to get injured by the machine, but other things to think about is toxic metal dust or resin particles getting in your lungs. That poo poo will shorten your life bigtime and not in the hypothetical "oh no the environment" hippy kinda way. I used to go without a respirator until I learned better from my coworker Max. Max is fabulously flabby and with his gentle girth comes the stinky gut. Cheddar cheese, sour cream, garlic, onion, milk and more milk. When Max cuts the cheese, he cuts it hard. Anyone without a respirator tears up even if they're a man. There was one day that I committed the golden sin. The golden sin is when you don’t have your PPE locked on in time during a cheese-cutting crisis. When someone commits the golden sin, they always suffer dearly. The day that I committed the golden sin was a day when the blast came suddenly. It wasn't a stealthy silent one, so you knew what was coming, but you still had only seconds to react to the sonic boom. My adrenaline spiked and with my heightened sense of urgency, my hands fumbled. I dropped my protective mask. I hunched down low to grab it. We all learned in elementary school the laws of convection: hot air rises and cool air falls. Farts are usually warm, so sticking near the floor might help during a stink emergency. With the hot warm flatulence radiating the area, I crouched low and held my breath. I worked quickly and attached my mask. It was too late. Some fumes already swarmed my face and the sealed mask trapped the gassy onion in between. Instinct told me to take off my mask to get some fresh air, but the whole room was also contaminated, so in this instance instinct was wrong. It made no difference if the respirator remained on or off. The putrid stink emission was too much for even an iron lung to handle and I passed out. I woke up and Max gave me a writeup for an OSHA violation since he's the safety guy on staff. From then on, I always wore my respirator when I got out of my car before walking in the building. Now I have a personal respirator at home too for days when I eat mexican food.   
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Feb 15, 2023 19:01
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