January 20, 2023 • 15 mins
Gain the skills you need for a career in the high-demand field of precision machining and manufacturing. This program features a learning lab with CNC machines, manual cutting lathes and automated manufacturing systems.
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S1 (00:01):
If you're looking for some hands on work that is
growing exponentially, I think this would be a great field
for you.
S2 (00:07):
I think that, you know, this Chatt Tech program is amazing.
I love how Chatt Tech offers so many different opportunities. It's
just a great place to go to be able to
have the flexibility to do that.
S3 (00:18):
I really like my field of work. I like to create.
It's it's a lot of fun. If somebody liked using
compasses and pro tractors and rulers in school, they would probably
like what we do.
S4 (00:30):
98 7 Chatt Tech - where 98.7% of our students earn a career. Today, we're
going to cut into the precision machining and manufacturing program
located on Chatt Tech's North Metro campus and the new
20,000 square foot center for advanced manufacturing. We'll talk with
the dean, some faculty and students about classes, careers and
qualities needed to help students succeed in the industry. Let's
(00:50):
jump right in with the dean of the program.
S5 (00:52):
My name is Marcy Smith, and I'm the Dean of
Business and Technical Studies at Chattahoochee Tech. Precision machining and
manufacturing is sort of an umbrella term to include machine
tool technology, which is kind of an old school way
of machining. And then also C and C technology, which
is the computerized numerical controllers, the machines that are operated
(01:15):
with computers. So our program includes both of those things.
So students are going to learn the fundamentals, the machine tool,
they're going to learn on the lathe, learn on the mill,
and then they're also going to learn how to operate
the C & C machines. And that's what's unique about that program.
And it positions students very well to go in the
machining industry and kind of have that whole background.
S4 (01:36):
Thank you, Marcy. Let's speak to a student. Wyatt, tell
us a little bit about yourself.
S1 (01:41):
Yeah, my name is Wyatt Owenby I am 27 years old. I
work for a company called Kirk Rudy, Inc., based out
of Woodstock, Georgia. We make industrial printers, and I'm a
C N C machinist.
S4 (01:52):
So what exactly is C N C?
S1 (01:56):
C N C stands for Computer Numerical Control. So basically, it's using
computers to control something, whether it's industrial machinery or not,
but it allows you to program a computer so you
get rapid reproduction capabilities where it can do the same
thing over and over again faster than a human ever could. Okay.
S4 (02:16):
Can you explain to everyone what a machinist is?
S1 (02:19):
Yeah, I there's two people, two people that have asked
me what I do for a living. And I tell
them I'm a machinist and they know exactly what it is.
Everybody else ask me what I do for a living,
and I tell them I'm a I'm a machinist. And
they just be like, Oh, okay. In the head nod.
I ask them if they know what a machinist is
and they own up and they say they don't. And
I have no problem explaining it because if you don't
(02:39):
explain it, then nobody will ever know. Like today at work,
I was working within a tolerance of like 1/30 of
the human hair.
S4 (02:47):
I'm sorry, 1/30 of a human hair. Gillette. The ball's
in your court.
S1 (02:52):
And you never realize that. Or how much engineering and
skill and attention to detail it takes to go into something.
The amount of precision it takes in your day to
day life.
S4 (03:01):
So precision machinery is in a lot of places. What
made you decide to get into this program?
S1 (03:06):
I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I
joined the Marines and spent five years in the military
trying to figure it out. And I had an uncle
that was a machinist, and he told me he's like, Hey,
you should do this. You should look into this. I
think you'll like it. I saw what it was about.
I watched a couple of YouTube videos and jumped both
feet into the Chattahoochee Tech program.
S4 (03:24):
Wyatt, Tell us about the learning experience at Chatt Tech?
How are the instructors?
S1 (03:28):
First off, it was awesome. Wayne Plos the instructor. He's
a great guy, very knowledgeable, laid back, friendly, super approachable,
great teacher. The amount of money that the school has
gotten for this program specifically to be able to purchase
machinery for students to practice on so they have like
real world, real time capabilities is awesome to the program.
(03:51):
Everything was in-person or had an in-person aspect to it.
There was there was some like lab class these where
you showed up for like the first week and then
you would come in as your schedule allowed to get
projects done. Throughout the time there were some traditional classes
where you sat and it was almost lecture like, but
not death by PowerPoint, if you will.
S4 (04:11):
Death by PowerPoint. It sounds like an office coverband. Let's
bring in a professor. Wayne, can you introduce yourself, please?
S3 (04:16):
My name is Wayne Plos. I am the C N C instructor
for Chattahoochee Technical College. I teach precision machining and manufacturing
program deals with metalworking, including lathes, mills and CNC equipment
or the equivilant.
S4 (04:32):
What sort of students do best in the program?
S3 (04:34):
Students that like, work with their hands like puzzles and
like to create makers. The maker industry started like ten
years ago. I think anybody likes a 3D print. We
we do that out of metal, we do subtractive manufacturing,
but there is additive manufacturing too, so you can 3D
print metal as well. A lot of those individuals. There are multiple
(04:55):
aspects of how we do our job. You can do
manual machines, you can do computer based machines. If you like,
working with solid models and software, there are people that
just do that. There are people who like to work
actually with the machinery themselves so we can tailor the
jobs pretty much whatever you want in terms of who
(05:17):
you are and how you want to be in your career.
S4 (05:19):
Now Wayne, will students spend a lot of time in the classroom?
S3 (05:22):
It's mostly lab based. I'm a firm believer that you
can't really learn to be a machinist reading a book.
We have books, textbooks, and we have some book work,
but a majority of our program is lab based. We
will be hands on. I can try to get in
the shop as soon as possible. I want to do
I want to make I want to I'm a fidget
(05:42):
or I like to hold things and look at stuff
and I want to figure out how it's made and
if I can make it better. I want my students
to be the same way. A lot of people don't
even know what a machinist is. It's kind of one
of those things that we're involved in everybody's life. Like
the chair you're sitting in, the machines that stitched it.
We're made by the parts booth machines and made by machines.
The car you drive, the parts are made by machinists.
(06:05):
We're not assemblers. We create parts for machines to make
other things. We create end user parts as well. Industry
is amazing.
S4 (06:15):
Okay, Got it. So I'm just a few A I classes away
from building my very own Ultron. What kind of careers
and money are we talking about here?
S3 (06:23):
You can be in aerospace industry. You can be in automotive industry.
One of the makers of our CNC machines are it's
called Hoss. It's an American company. He got started because
he loved racing. And there's a Hoss formula team. And
there's a Hoss NASCAR team. There's mold, mold work. So
(06:44):
long time ago, I worked at a plant as a
mold tech.
S4 (06:47):
I'm sorry, mold tech. It doesn't sound like it fit
in precision machining.
S3 (06:51):
I made Tropicana juice bottles. We made the molds, the
negatives for making the bottles out of plastic.
S4 (06:59):
Oh, you see, I was thinking about a different type of mold.
S3 (07:03):
Your ambition and passion for what you're learning or what
the career field you want to be in will dictate
the wage you can command. It's around the average of starting
between 18 and 20 bucks an hour. If you're really,
really good, you can get bumped up really fast. I
know people who started at 25 to 30. One of
the cool things of the area we live in is
(07:23):
there's tons and tons of industry. And my students right
now have pretty much got a job if they want it .
S4 (07:29):
Maria, you're a former student, right? Tell us about yourself
and why you chose to be a machinist.
S2 (07:34):
My name's Maria Freeman. I am a machinist at a
company called Meritus right now. And I operate C & C Mill Turns
and three axis mills and five axis mills. I'm a
retired high school math and science teacher. I worked 20
years teaching kids, and I was getting kind of burned out.
(07:56):
So I had decided that I would explore machining because
as a teacher I taught a lot of at risk
students and we like to take them on field trips
to Chatt Tech. Every time I would go twice a
year to Chatt Tech and just look at all of
these available opportunities that my students had and I fell
in love with the machine shop. I really liked the
(08:17):
machine shop. I really like the instructor and how he
related to my students. And I thought, well, this would
be a perfect place for me to, like, start over.
S4 (08:27):
So what was that like? The experience of going back
to school after starting over?
S2 (08:31):
Well, I thought it was fascinating and really exciting. And
the other thing is, is, you know, it's not that
different in the sense that I'm I'm a math and
science teacher. So it was like instead of just teaching, theoretically,
I was actually applying what I already knew. And like
every time I would have a program and run a
program on a machine, I have to make sure that
(08:52):
this part comes out according to the blueprint that I had.
So I'm taking this blueprint and I'm taking this program
and I'm making this part. And if it doesn't come out,
the dimensions don't come out perfectly. Then I have to
take a variable and change it. Just like in science,
you have to change a variable one at a time.
Then to see if you can actually, you know, achieve
(09:16):
your goal at the end of the experiment. So it's
like every day that I, you know, run a machine,
it's like I'm doing an experiment with every part that
I make. It was really nice because it was more
applied mathematics and applied science that I'm doing now rather
than teaching the theoretical.
S4 (09:34):
Okay. Can you explain to everyone what a machinist is?
S2 (09:37):
And there's different levels of machinists. We have like manual versus C N C.
So a manual machinist would use machines like a lathe,
which turns metal or sometimes plastic or other materials. And
then we use cutting tools to cut what we need.
There's also mills, which basically, if you've ever seen like
(09:59):
a drill press or something like that. Except it's much
more flexible. You can move whatever cutting tool you have
into the material, you're cutting at different angles and so
forth to get the shapes that you want out of
that metal. A, C N C machinist uses computer programs to
take a blueprint of a part that they want to make.
(10:22):
And they basically will create a program to tell a
very large machine, We want you to move this tool
this fast and cut this much material off of it
to make it this particular part.
S4 (10:38):
What are some of the qualities that do well for
students in the program?
S2 (10:41):
I think that you really kind of have to be
a little bit of a self-starter. You have to be
willing to take a risk and find something that you're
interested in and kind of go for it. All the
instructors that I met there within my program were incredibly
inspiring and really excited to like, see us succeed and like,
(11:04):
make opportunities happen. Those types of opportunities, they were presented
to me that would never have been presented to me
outside of Chatt Tech. You have to be responsible enough
to set up time and make sure that you're doing
homework on your own. There's no real hand-holding. You know,
you're treated like an adult. There is an element of
(11:24):
being a self-starter and being able to implement adult team practices.
And if you can do that, then you can get
through this program. Not a problem.
S4 (11:34):
Adulting practices. Is there tutoring available for that? Let's see
what's milling about with someone in the industry. John, can
you introduce yourself?
S6 (11:44):
My name's John Hudson, co-owner of Winn Tech Inc. We
are an aerospace machine shop in Kennesaw, Georgia. I've been
with the company about 32 years. I started here while
I was attending Chattahoochee Tech under the Machine Tool Program,
and October of 2020, Allison Giddens and myself, we purchased
the company from the man who started it, Dennis Wenzel.
S4 (12:04):
And what is it that your company does?
S6 (12:06):
We make precision parts out of metals, plastics, ceramics, just
different medias. And we make parts for just about every
air wing platform that Lockheed has, whether it be the F-22,
the F-35, the C-130, the C-5, the P-3. We also
do missile fins for Lockheed missile and fire control and other components
(12:30):
that go to missiles.
S4 (12:32):
What kind of students do well in precision machining?
S6 (12:34):
People who like to work with their hands, people who
like to figure stuff out and, you know, have somewhat
really good spatial recognition, you know, because a lot of
times you'll look at a blueprint and you have to
be able to visualize that piece of paper into a part.
So you know how to go about making that part.
A lot of times when show a blueprint to somebody
(12:54):
who's just not truly inclined to have that aptitude, they
just look at it like a picture with a bunch of
numbers on it doesn't mean anything to me. But if
you hand it to somebody who has a knack for it,
they can go, Oh, man, that's going to be a
cool looking part because they can visualize what it is.
You need to know math.
S4 (13:13):
What is the starting pay for graduates that you hire?
S6 (13:16):
Right now, you're probably look in between there and this
is a wide range, 15 to $22 an hour start. Just,
you know, it's going to depend on where you go.
You know how well you did. What did you pick up?
It's like anything, it's you stay and work your way
through it and you stick with it and you keep
pushing yourself to learn and get better. The money's there.
It's that it was that way in all trades. You're valuable.
(13:38):
You've got a lot of knowledge at that point, you know,
And you're going to be making good money.
S4 (13:42):
Thanks, John. Wyatt, What's the job market look like from
your perspective?
S1 (13:45):
It's interesting in the industry right now because the supply
and demand of machinists, there is a low supply of
them and there's a high demand. And every company is
is competing for machinists. And since nobody knows what a
machinist is, nobody's going to school for it. So all
these other blue collar trades have have shot up over
(14:07):
the past couple of years. You look at welders and
plumbers and HVAC and everybody knows what those people are, but
nobody knows what a machinist is. So all these companies
are starting to have to pay more and more every year.
I think you're looking at probably 20 to 25 bucks
an hour, starting off working while you're in school. I
don't think that's too much to ask for or to
(14:29):
expect working part time.
S4 (14:32):
Okay. So no Ultron, but possibly airplanes and missiles. And
it's time to put a burnishing on this. Who's got
some final thoughts for us?
S2 (14:39):
I think that, you know, this Chatt Tech program is amazing,
but at the same time, I love how Chatt Tech offers
so many different opportunities. So if you start something and
it's not really for you because I think it's very
important that people find things like find out what's not
for them as well as what is for them, that
there's other things you can jump into. You can start a
(15:02):
different program doing a whole another job. It's just a
great place to go to be able to have the
flexibility to do that.
S4 (15:09):
Thank you, Maria.
S3 (15:10):
I really like my field of work. I like to create.
It's it's a lot of fun. If somebody liked using
compasses and pro tractors and rulers in school, they would
probably like what we do.
S4 (15:23):
That's awesome, Wayne. Hey, Wyatt.
S1 (15:25):
If you're looking for some hands on work that is
growing exponentially, I think this would be a great field
for you.
S4 (15:32):
For more information about the Precision Machining and Manufacturing program
at Chattahoochee Technical College, visit Chattahoochee Tech Dot edu. Thanks
for listening to 98 seven Chatt Tech where 98.7% of
our students earn a career.
If you're looking for some hands on work that is
growing exponentially, I think this would be a great field
for you.
S2 (00:07):
I think that, you know, this Chatt Tech program is amazing.
I love how Chatt Tech offers so many different opportunities. It's
just a great place to go to be able to
have the flexibility to do that.
S3 (00:18):
I really like my field of work. I like to create.
It's it's a lot of fun. If somebody liked using
compasses and pro tractors and rulers in school, they would probably
like what we do.
S4 (00:30):
98 7 Chatt Tech - where 98.7% of our students earn a career. Today, we're
going to cut into the precision machining and manufacturing program
located on Chatt Tech's North Metro campus and the new
20,000 square foot center for advanced manufacturing. We'll talk with
the dean, some faculty and students about classes, careers and
qualities needed to help students succeed in the industry. Let's
(00:50):
jump right in with the dean of the program.
S5 (00:52):
My name is Marcy Smith, and I'm the Dean of
Business and Technical Studies at Chattahoochee Tech. Precision machining and
manufacturing is sort of an umbrella term to include machine
tool technology, which is kind of an old school way
of machining. And then also C and C technology, which
is the computerized numerical controllers, the machines that are operated
(01:15):
with computers. So our program includes both of those things.
So students are going to learn the fundamentals, the machine tool,
they're going to learn on the lathe, learn on the mill,
and then they're also going to learn how to operate
the C & C machines. And that's what's unique about that program.
And it positions students very well to go in the
machining industry and kind of have that whole background.
S4 (01:36):
Thank you, Marcy. Let's speak to a student. Wyatt, tell
us a little bit about yourself.
S1 (01:41):
Yeah, my name is Wyatt Owenby I am 27 years old. I
work for a company called Kirk Rudy, Inc., based out
of Woodstock, Georgia. We make industrial printers, and I'm a
C N C machinist.
S4 (01:52):
So what exactly is C N C?
S1 (01:56):
C N C stands for Computer Numerical Control. So basically, it's using
computers to control something, whether it's industrial machinery or not,
but it allows you to program a computer so you
get rapid reproduction capabilities where it can do the same
thing over and over again faster than a human ever could. Okay.
S4 (02:16):
Can you explain to everyone what a machinist is?
S1 (02:19):
Yeah, I there's two people, two people that have asked
me what I do for a living. And I tell
them I'm a machinist and they know exactly what it is.
Everybody else ask me what I do for a living,
and I tell them I'm a I'm a machinist. And
they just be like, Oh, okay. In the head nod.
I ask them if they know what a machinist is
and they own up and they say they don't. And
I have no problem explaining it because if you don't
(02:39):
explain it, then nobody will ever know. Like today at work,
I was working within a tolerance of like 1/30 of
the human hair.
S4 (02:47):
I'm sorry, 1/30 of a human hair. Gillette. The ball's
in your court.
S1 (02:52):
And you never realize that. Or how much engineering and
skill and attention to detail it takes to go into something.
The amount of precision it takes in your day to
day life.
S4 (03:01):
So precision machinery is in a lot of places. What
made you decide to get into this program?
S1 (03:06):
I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I
joined the Marines and spent five years in the military
trying to figure it out. And I had an uncle
that was a machinist, and he told me he's like, Hey,
you should do this. You should look into this. I
think you'll like it. I saw what it was about.
I watched a couple of YouTube videos and jumped both
feet into the Chattahoochee Tech program.
S4 (03:24):
Wyatt, Tell us about the learning experience at Chatt Tech?
How are the instructors?
S1 (03:28):
First off, it was awesome. Wayne Plos the instructor. He's
a great guy, very knowledgeable, laid back, friendly, super approachable,
great teacher. The amount of money that the school has
gotten for this program specifically to be able to purchase
machinery for students to practice on so they have like
real world, real time capabilities is awesome to the program.
(03:51):
Everything was in-person or had an in-person aspect to it.
There was there was some like lab class these where
you showed up for like the first week and then
you would come in as your schedule allowed to get
projects done. Throughout the time there were some traditional classes
where you sat and it was almost lecture like, but
not death by PowerPoint, if you will.
S4 (04:11):
Death by PowerPoint. It sounds like an office coverband. Let's
bring in a professor. Wayne, can you introduce yourself, please?
S3 (04:16):
My name is Wayne Plos. I am the C N C instructor
for Chattahoochee Technical College. I teach precision machining and manufacturing
program deals with metalworking, including lathes, mills and CNC equipment
or the equivilant.
S4 (04:32):
What sort of students do best in the program?
S3 (04:34):
Students that like, work with their hands like puzzles and
like to create makers. The maker industry started like ten
years ago. I think anybody likes a 3D print. We
we do that out of metal, we do subtractive manufacturing,
but there is additive manufacturing too, so you can 3D
print metal as well. A lot of those individuals. There are multiple
(04:55):
aspects of how we do our job. You can do
manual machines, you can do computer based machines. If you like,
working with solid models and software, there are people that
just do that. There are people who like to work
actually with the machinery themselves so we can tailor the
jobs pretty much whatever you want in terms of who
(05:17):
you are and how you want to be in your career.
S4 (05:19):
Now Wayne, will students spend a lot of time in the classroom?
S3 (05:22):
It's mostly lab based. I'm a firm believer that you
can't really learn to be a machinist reading a book.
We have books, textbooks, and we have some book work,
but a majority of our program is lab based. We
will be hands on. I can try to get in
the shop as soon as possible. I want to do
I want to make I want to I'm a fidget
(05:42):
or I like to hold things and look at stuff
and I want to figure out how it's made and
if I can make it better. I want my students
to be the same way. A lot of people don't
even know what a machinist is. It's kind of one
of those things that we're involved in everybody's life. Like
the chair you're sitting in, the machines that stitched it.
We're made by the parts booth machines and made by machines.
The car you drive, the parts are made by machinists.
(06:05):
We're not assemblers. We create parts for machines to make
other things. We create end user parts as well. Industry
is amazing.
S4 (06:15):
Okay, Got it. So I'm just a few A I classes away
from building my very own Ultron. What kind of careers
and money are we talking about here?
S3 (06:23):
You can be in aerospace industry. You can be in automotive industry.
One of the makers of our CNC machines are it's
called Hoss. It's an American company. He got started because
he loved racing. And there's a Hoss formula team. And
there's a Hoss NASCAR team. There's mold, mold work. So
(06:44):
long time ago, I worked at a plant as a
mold tech.
S4 (06:47):
I'm sorry, mold tech. It doesn't sound like it fit
in precision machining.
S3 (06:51):
I made Tropicana juice bottles. We made the molds, the
negatives for making the bottles out of plastic.
S4 (06:59):
Oh, you see, I was thinking about a different type of mold.
S3 (07:03):
Your ambition and passion for what you're learning or what
the career field you want to be in will dictate
the wage you can command. It's around the average of starting
between 18 and 20 bucks an hour. If you're really,
really good, you can get bumped up really fast. I
know people who started at 25 to 30. One of
the cool things of the area we live in is
(07:23):
there's tons and tons of industry. And my students right
now have pretty much got a job if they want it .
S4 (07:29):
Maria, you're a former student, right? Tell us about yourself
and why you chose to be a machinist.
S2 (07:34):
My name's Maria Freeman. I am a machinist at a
company called Meritus right now. And I operate C & C Mill Turns
and three axis mills and five axis mills. I'm a
retired high school math and science teacher. I worked 20
years teaching kids, and I was getting kind of burned out.
(07:56):
So I had decided that I would explore machining because
as a teacher I taught a lot of at risk
students and we like to take them on field trips
to Chatt Tech. Every time I would go twice a
year to Chatt Tech and just look at all of
these available opportunities that my students had and I fell
in love with the machine shop. I really liked the
(08:17):
machine shop. I really like the instructor and how he
related to my students. And I thought, well, this would
be a perfect place for me to, like, start over.
S4 (08:27):
So what was that like? The experience of going back
to school after starting over?
S2 (08:31):
Well, I thought it was fascinating and really exciting. And
the other thing is, is, you know, it's not that
different in the sense that I'm I'm a math and
science teacher. So it was like instead of just teaching, theoretically,
I was actually applying what I already knew. And like
every time I would have a program and run a
program on a machine, I have to make sure that
(08:52):
this part comes out according to the blueprint that I had.
So I'm taking this blueprint and I'm taking this program
and I'm making this part. And if it doesn't come out,
the dimensions don't come out perfectly. Then I have to
take a variable and change it. Just like in science,
you have to change a variable one at a time.
Then to see if you can actually, you know, achieve
(09:16):
your goal at the end of the experiment. So it's
like every day that I, you know, run a machine,
it's like I'm doing an experiment with every part that
I make. It was really nice because it was more
applied mathematics and applied science that I'm doing now rather
than teaching the theoretical.
S4 (09:34):
Okay. Can you explain to everyone what a machinist is?
S2 (09:37):
And there's different levels of machinists. We have like manual versus C N C.
So a manual machinist would use machines like a lathe,
which turns metal or sometimes plastic or other materials. And
then we use cutting tools to cut what we need.
There's also mills, which basically, if you've ever seen like
(09:59):
a drill press or something like that. Except it's much
more flexible. You can move whatever cutting tool you have
into the material, you're cutting at different angles and so
forth to get the shapes that you want out of
that metal. A, C N C machinist uses computer programs to
take a blueprint of a part that they want to make.
(10:22):
And they basically will create a program to tell a
very large machine, We want you to move this tool
this fast and cut this much material off of it
to make it this particular part.
S4 (10:38):
What are some of the qualities that do well for
students in the program?
S2 (10:41):
I think that you really kind of have to be
a little bit of a self-starter. You have to be
willing to take a risk and find something that you're
interested in and kind of go for it. All the
instructors that I met there within my program were incredibly
inspiring and really excited to like, see us succeed and like,
(11:04):
make opportunities happen. Those types of opportunities, they were presented
to me that would never have been presented to me
outside of Chatt Tech. You have to be responsible enough
to set up time and make sure that you're doing
homework on your own. There's no real hand-holding. You know,
you're treated like an adult. There is an element of
(11:24):
being a self-starter and being able to implement adult team practices.
And if you can do that, then you can get
through this program. Not a problem.
S4 (11:34):
Adulting practices. Is there tutoring available for that? Let's see
what's milling about with someone in the industry. John, can
you introduce yourself?
S6 (11:44):
My name's John Hudson, co-owner of Winn Tech Inc. We
are an aerospace machine shop in Kennesaw, Georgia. I've been
with the company about 32 years. I started here while
I was attending Chattahoochee Tech under the Machine Tool Program,
and October of 2020, Allison Giddens and myself, we purchased
the company from the man who started it, Dennis Wenzel.
S4 (12:04):
And what is it that your company does?
S6 (12:06):
We make precision parts out of metals, plastics, ceramics, just
different medias. And we make parts for just about every
air wing platform that Lockheed has, whether it be the F-22,
the F-35, the C-130, the C-5, the P-3. We also
do missile fins for Lockheed missile and fire control and other components
(12:30):
that go to missiles.
S4 (12:32):
What kind of students do well in precision machining?
S6 (12:34):
People who like to work with their hands, people who
like to figure stuff out and, you know, have somewhat
really good spatial recognition, you know, because a lot of
times you'll look at a blueprint and you have to
be able to visualize that piece of paper into a part.
So you know how to go about making that part.
A lot of times when show a blueprint to somebody
(12:54):
who's just not truly inclined to have that aptitude, they
just look at it like a picture with a bunch of
numbers on it doesn't mean anything to me. But if
you hand it to somebody who has a knack for it,
they can go, Oh, man, that's going to be a
cool looking part because they can visualize what it is.
You need to know math.
S4 (13:13):
What is the starting pay for graduates that you hire?
S6 (13:16):
Right now, you're probably look in between there and this
is a wide range, 15 to $22 an hour start. Just,
you know, it's going to depend on where you go.
You know how well you did. What did you pick up?
It's like anything, it's you stay and work your way
through it and you stick with it and you keep
pushing yourself to learn and get better. The money's there.
It's that it was that way in all trades. You're valuable.
(13:38):
You've got a lot of knowledge at that point, you know,
And you're going to be making good money.
S4 (13:42):
Thanks, John. Wyatt, What's the job market look like from
your perspective?
S1 (13:45):
It's interesting in the industry right now because the supply
and demand of machinists, there is a low supply of
them and there's a high demand. And every company is
is competing for machinists. And since nobody knows what a
machinist is, nobody's going to school for it. So all
these other blue collar trades have have shot up over
(14:07):
the past couple of years. You look at welders and
plumbers and HVAC and everybody knows what those people are, but
nobody knows what a machinist is. So all these companies
are starting to have to pay more and more every year.
I think you're looking at probably 20 to 25 bucks
an hour, starting off working while you're in school. I
don't think that's too much to ask for or to
(14:29):
expect working part time.
S4 (14:32):
Okay. So no Ultron, but possibly airplanes and missiles. And
it's time to put a burnishing on this. Who's got
some final thoughts for us?
S2 (14:39):
I think that, you know, this Chatt Tech program is amazing,
but at the same time, I love how Chatt Tech offers
so many different opportunities. So if you start something and
it's not really for you because I think it's very
important that people find things like find out what's not
for them as well as what is for them, that
there's other things you can jump into. You can start a
(15:02):
different program doing a whole another job. It's just a
great place to go to be able to have the
flexibility to do that.
S4 (15:09):
Thank you, Maria.
S3 (15:10):
I really like my field of work. I like to create.
It's it's a lot of fun. If somebody liked using
compasses and pro tractors and rulers in school, they would
probably like what we do.
S4 (15:23):
That's awesome, Wayne. Hey, Wyatt.
S1 (15:25):
If you're looking for some hands on work that is
growing exponentially, I think this would be a great field
for you.
S4 (15:32):
For more information about the Precision Machining and Manufacturing program
at Chattahoochee Technical College, visit Chattahoochee Tech Dot edu. Thanks
for listening to 98 seven Chatt Tech where 98.7% of
our students earn a career.
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