How much does an average machinist make? - Page 4


View Poll Results: How much do you make an hour (CNC only, no manual machinists)

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  • up to $17

    161 16.18%
  • $18

    71 7.14%
  • $19

    50 5.03%
  • $20

    111 11.16%
  • $21

    50 5.03%
  • $22 and over

    552 55.48%
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Thread: How much does an average machinist make?

  1. #61
    Member handlewanker's Avatar
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    There's nothing like being tired all the time to make you want to find a better way.
    Ian.



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    Hi Handle, the Kids are growing up and the wife is working so things are starting to come together, started to think about the pension a few years back and put a little away, its not much but then again i don't want or need alot.

    Hi Jeff, long time no speak. I don,t want to start a engineering business now as i think it's a cut throat and thankless business and i've done all the long hours and worry, so I'm going to just put my head down take the money and with the wife earnig i can cut down on the hours and enjoy the time while i have got some health left.



  3. #63
    Member handlewanker's Avatar
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    Hey grip old man, You sound as if you've got one foot in the grave already.
    At 50 a working man is in his prime.
    By this I mean if you started serious career work at 20 then by 50 you will have 30 years experiance behind you, and know all the angles to make the job work for you.
    Consider this aspect, all the hours you put in for someone else using your accumulated knowledge adds up to a brain picking exercise of humungeous proportions.
    By now you should be cutting down on the hours and putting the old brainbox to work, something in the order of a consultative nature whereby the accumulated knowledge can earn the bucks.
    I am speaking from personal experiance.
    I was 50 in '88, last century, and went from a common or garden fitter and turner, doing toolroom inspection in a metrology department, to a time and motion study position, and finally ending up as a planning technician compiling the tooling for production.
    Most career paths are made not found, and the first step, so to say, is to accumulate the knowledge that you will lean on to further your career, which in your case is the CNC and machine fixing abilities.
    Any gaps in your knowledge data base must be filled by further education, othewise you will be repeating old working habits and be totally ignorant of new processes.
    But by your own admission all you want to do is get your head down, and I can just hear the old rocking chair starting to make music for you as you gently ease your tired old frame into it while the sun gently sinks on an otherwise uneventfull working career.
    No one wants a 60 year old working guy, with umpteen hours at the coal face, BT ST DT, so what's it going to be, go out in a blaze of glory, or nod off on the back porch with a pension that won't be needed for too long?
    Ian.



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    Ian, That was brutally honest and the point I've been trying to make the whole time I've been posting on here. Step up and do what you can try hard to make something of yourself and learn everything you can from every source.
    Joe



  5. #65
    Member handlewanker's Avatar
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    I think you're right Joe, if you don't go for it you'll just wait for that pay rise that never seems to cover the rising cost.
    I've even tried the Amway thing, not my cup of tea though, still some of them seem to be making money even if they go to great pains to say they're not a pyramid organisation.
    Bill Gates made a statement that just about put it in a nutshell, "never underestimate your assets".
    How true, and many of us don't realise the full potential we have when compared to someone just starting out in the workforce, with no experiance whatsoever, and a whole world to conquer.
    Ever hear the phrase,"If I knew then what I know now".
    I often wonder if all the striving for more and more knowledge gets us anywhere, if we don't put it to good use.
    Ian.



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    You are right if you learn how to garden and you don't plant any plants you end up hungry?
    Joe



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    Hi Handle, sorry taken so long to reply, it's not a question of putting my head down and getting the old rocking chair out(how did you know i had one anyway?). The piont is I have other interesats in my life other than engineering, I also build and repair computers and my photography is grabing a bigger part of my life, I am not a greedy man I just want enough to get by, so I use my engineering job to pay for the real pleasures in my life, all well and good getting your own business but thats not the kind of life I want or need. Good luck to any body who gives it a go and succeeds but I already know what I want and how to get it and setting up my own business is not it! As for using my knowledge I found training 4 apprentices in the last few years very rewarding, there is more to life than work and money and no i am not rich but i have enough for what i want.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Geof View Post
    It is surprising how little sleep you can get by on when you have to.
    For years I have burned the candle at both ends and seemed to just be spinning my wheels. I get so discouraged when I see my country GIVING AWAY what should rightfully me mine as well as so many others. I tried starting my own business and recently I have succumb to throwing in the towel, not for the lack of trying but running out of investment capitol to keep going till the "Big money" comes. I see imigrants new to our shores being HANDED $30 - $75 K to start their own businuess (Not to mention it's nearly interest free) Meanwhile I sold property that my dad had bought for me to get things rolling only to be undercut by our global next door neighbors!!! Please don't get me wrong, The US was made great by imigrants wanting to make a better life for themselves but at least the people that was in control of the country wasn't only interested in padding their pockets before their term was up. I at least have my health, my family and remaning equipment to make a bit of side money. (That our beloved Uncle Sam won't be able to tax.) Sorry if I got a bit off the thread but today has been rough and I needed a place to vent.



  9. #69
    Member handlewanker's Avatar
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    Hi Janos, one of the golden rules of business is NEVER use your own money.
    I expect you'll be saying, "well nobody is going to lend me money for what I want to do". Yes?
    The fact is if nobody is going to risk their money, why do you risk yours?
    You've got to do the sums and if you have a business plan that makes money, by this I mean a product or service that has potential to make more than it cost to run over a definite period of time, then you'll be able to attract someone who has spare cash and wants a bit of your action for a return.
    This is called venture capitol, and if you had a spare million bucks and were looking for someplace to invest in, would you lend to you?
    When you borrow money you virtually are going it alone, but if you have investors money in the bank, that's a risk they are prepared to take.
    For what it's worth, last century,'95, I hit on an idea to improve the down time on an auto paint machine at the firm where I worked.
    The manage of the dept poo pooed it as unfeasible, but a year later with a change of hats, the new guy jumped on the idea and asked for a prototype for testing, loved it so much I had to go into business, part time that is, to get the orders filled.
    I did that for about 8 years, and eventually got retrenched at my regular job and retired and wound up the enterprise.
    It had run it's course anyway, with a change in manufacturing strategy, but while it lasted it paid a small bundle that made a lot of difference to my later lifestyle.
    One thing I did learn and that is you can sell ice cream to eskimos if you create the desire.
    I don't know what line of business your in, but I reckon you'll get a whole lot of advice, good or bad, mostly from someone else's point of view on the forum and this will give you an idea of where your at.
    Here's my bit, find something to make that you can make easily, not too complicated so's you don't have to spend out mega bucks to make 10% before tax, and within your own experiance.
    Make sure it's got a short life span and cost peanuts.
    And last but not least, make it for cents and thousands of them.
    Best of...
    Ian.



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    Angry pay...hahahahahahah

    this will blow your mind.

    i am titled as a process technician but as stated in my other posts, tend to do multiple jobs/responsibities.

    one of those is running the machine shop, which includes vertical knee miller, vertical band saw with fold down option, a small drill press and a bench grinder.

    i get asked to drill out and repair molydebnum (?) and other costly broken screws for semiconductor equipment, make fixtures for production use of small parts for semiconductor equipment, prototypes (3d) out of aluminum.

    in fact i just cut a 3d part out of oxide coated SS 1/4" thick with 2mm end mill.

    this is a part to save them money if it work. cheap b@#$%ards

    it goes to a high-vacuum and very sensitive semiconductor machine and i am waiting for the guy to tell me how good i did cause i am still working on my tolerances. (he need +/- .005mm)


    all this for a mere 20-22/hr. who gettin raped?




  11. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by massbaster View Post
    this will blow your mind.

    i am titled as a process technician but as stated in my other posts, tend to do multiple jobs/responsibities.

    one of those is running the machine shop, which includes vertical knee miller, vertical band saw with fold down option, a small drill press and a bench grinder.

    i get asked to drill out and repair molydebnum (?) and other costly broken screws for semiconductor equipment, make fixtures for production use of small parts for semiconductor equipment, prototypes (3d) out of aluminum.

    in fact i just cut a 3d part out of oxide coated SS 1/4" thick with 2mm end mill.

    this is a part to save them money if it work. cheap b@#$%ards

    it goes to a high-vacuum and very sensitive semiconductor machine and i am waiting for the guy to tell me how good i did cause i am still working on my tolerances. (he need +/- .005mm)


    all this for a mere 20-22/hr. who gettin raped?
    How many years you been doing this. I am sorry but I do not thing that is bad money for what you do.
    I know alott more guys and gals handling more for less moneys.

    I will ask for what you do what do you think you should be making?

    (Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)
    Cadcam
    Turning Product Specialist for a Software Company, contract Programming and Consultant , Cad-Cam Instructor of Mastercam .


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    if all i was doing was machining that might be acceptable to me considering my experience.

    but from some of the data i find online, that is still a little low.

    for what i think i should be making, well i am just finishing up troubleshooting and repairing a Scanning Electron Microscope and would like to see closer to 25-30/hr.

    like i said, i have taught myself machining/milling and have only been doing it for 3 years of and on (when they break something). i dont think i should be paid top end for the machining, but the salary data does need to be taken into consideration. as well as saving the company on costly service calls.



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    most of the replies to the wages debate seem to come from our US buddies ....but from this side of the pond things are a little different. I work as a CNC contractor, working at different sites all over the UK. The rates for contractors are slightly higher than our full time counterparts!! Rates start at $24 for a button pusher to $44 for a operator/setter and shop floor, from drawing, programmer. CAD/CAM Programming starts at roughly $50 upwards. Most of my fellow contractors would take positions in the US, if it was possible from $35 dollars upwards. Any offers?



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    essexraptor; have you ever tried comparing prices for things between the US and UK or heard of 'Purchasing Power Parity'? I do business in both places and on my travels I have observed that typical prices for things in the UK are higher than the US by about the same factor as wage rates when you express them all in US dollars. In other words if you get 12 UK pounds per hour you are more or less in the same situation as someone in the US, or Canada for that matter, getting $12 per hour. It is difficult to get a meaningful comparison between wage rates in different countries just by doing currency conversion, you really need to look at how many hours you need to work for purchasing similar goods and services.

    An open mind is a virtue...so long as all the common sense has not leaked out.


  15. #75
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    Hi Geof, I don't get your drift on comparisons between UK and US prices/wages.

    At the moment in OZ, A$1.2 buys 1US$, and A$2.4 buys 1 pound Sterling.

    I find it hard to believe that if your pay rate US is say US$12 per hour and UK rate is 12 pounds per hour, and with a UK pound to US$ exchange rate of 1pound = to US$2, anything bought in Uk would have to be at the dollar exchange rate disregarding the rate per hour paid.

    On that basis, if one hour pay in UK buys one hour pay US, then you will get money for old rope if you buy from the US.

    I know this for a fact, because I buy from UK and the US, and the exchange rate is what makes the item either dearer or cheaper, not the earning power of the wages.

    In OZ, postage or shipping aside, the things from UK are overpriced, and the US is the best market price wise at the moment, apart from China, with the US dollar clinging to the bottom of the barrel for dear life.

    It's difficult to make an exact comparison, because something made in UK and exported to US would have to have a shipping cost attached, and so to import the same item from UK or the US you would get a difference in cost, with shipping still to be added.

    In OZ I can buy Chinese goods cheaper from the US than from OZ itself, so where does the logic prevail?
    Try buying digital cameras around the world, and see the difference in prices for the same items, without the shipping costs.
    Ian.



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    Quote Originally Posted by handlewanker View Post
    Hi Geof, I don't get your drift on comparisons between UK and US prices/wages....
    Okay I will try to explain Purchasing Power Parity, also known as the 'Big Mac Index'.

    Say you want to buy a new mode of transportation and you choose something such as a Mercedes 300SL. How many hours do you need to work in Oz to earn the purchase price in Oz, versus how many hours do you need to work in Old Blighty to earn the purchase price versus how many hours do you need to work in the US to earn the purchase price?

    If a typical Machinist/CNC Operator/Programmer/Whatever needs to work less houtr in one location to purchase the same goods than someobody in another location then they are better paid. The actual hourly rate in different currencies is not relevant . What is relevant is what one hour of income will buy.

    The reason Purchasing Power Parity is known as the Big Mac Index is that MacDonalds applies the same quality standards worldwide, therefore a Big Mac purchased in Moscow is the same quality as a Big Mac purchased in Sydney. If it takes 20 minutes of labour to earn the money needed for this purchase in these two locations then the pay rate is the same regardless of the number of currency units involved.

    An open mind is a virtue...so long as all the common sense has not leaked out.


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    In my country, CNC machinist get pay in the range about USD3.00 to USD6.00/hrs. BigMac is not cheap for them. A typical CNC Machinist is lucky if he live in USA.



  18. #78
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    Wow, what a big ***** and boo-hoo thread. If your not happy with your income do something about it!

    I guess I'm lucky. For the last 2 years, I've made no less than $100/hour when I'm making something for somebody else. I work 20 extra hours a week in my own shop for this rate, which dwarfs my regular job where I'm at about 23 bucks for 3d design and software programming. This is with my tiny fleet of 2 cnc x2 mills and 500sqft of supporting equipment. I own all my own equipment, don't owe the bank a cent, and am not out of a decent standard of living for it. I don't agree with the 'never spend your own money' philosophy. Why borrow when you don't have to? I've grown this business from using a router and templates, to a high tech small shop capable of virtually anything. If I need to go an buy a hass vmc tomorrow, I might have some borrowing issues, but till that day, I will grow as the money comes in. Besides, if you use your own money, you don't need to have such a regimented business plan. The day I need to buy that hass, there will be people waiting in line to lend me the money because they know how far I've come on my own funds and how dedicated I am to my business.

    I've never stopped learning, experimenting, and growing with my hobbies, which lead to where I'm at now. I think this is the single greatest thing you can do for yourself. Just learn.

    Paul



  19. #79
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    Hi Fatal, Seems like you have really got it made.
    I take it that you work a regular week of 40 hours? for $23/HR, and then go home and work 20 hours for $100/hr?

    Which one is your part time job?
    40 hours per week @$23/hr is $920 X 52 is 47,840 P/A.
    whereas 20 hours per week @ $100/hr is $2000 X 52 is $104,000 P/A.
    Is there something I'm missing here?

    Are you actually booking 20 hours to the customer?

    By my estimates you are being taxed at top dollar per hour on your best income earner for minimal hours, and negligible tax per hour on your worst income earner for maximum hours, assuming you are declaring your income or just pulling our legs?

    I base my questions on the assumption that after your regular income is taxed any additional income is added to your gross income and is taxed at top dollar for that income bracket.

    If you were in OZ you would be paying $0.45 in the $ for the upper tax bracket that you now fall into, which means that your Take home from the $100/hr is cut by almost half, with in addition the power, consumables, delivery costs, machine wear & tear and all other outgoings added to the bill.
    What's the tax rates in good old US now, must be pretty good?

    If you are not paying tax on the extra earnings, and we won't tell if you don't, then the customer is paying cash in hand, and this is always at a lower rate than you would get if it was through the books, (more than $100 per hour!!!!), which means that the customer isn't declaring the outgoing as a tax deduction to the tune of $104,000 P/A, must be a millionaire?

    Better not let the Malasians hear about it, they will do it for $3 - $6 per hour I'm told, and I think the Chinese would queu up for $1 an hour.LOL.

    Come to think of it, if you were a real sharp business entrepenour, and sent these jobs to China, and just gave them to your customer on return, you wouldn't even have to go out to work or switch your machines on to make a fortune.
    I can hear the cukoos cooing in the clouds far away.
    Ian.



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    If you get pay $2000 for 20 hour work per week, you better send the job to East. You will earn $1500 without doing any work on your machine. $500 is enough for the labour charge plus shipping.

    Joe



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