Automation will never replace me

toolroommaho · Feb 16, 2022

A lot of people say (a lot of these people are not machine trades personnel but rather in the tech industry), they say a machine like a FANUC robot will takeover the skilled setup machinists jobs?? How is this even remotely possible unless the company (assuming it’s a manufacturing facility and not a run of the mill machinist job shop); how is it possible??? Last time I checked robots need to be set up too. And last time I checked innovation (new parts for new machinery) outpaces the workflow to set up automation because a large chunk of machine shop work is sporadic. I.e. we need this it’s a rush order or hot job or the customer sent us a new print for a prototype. All I’m trying to say is if automation was to take peoples jobs and all that than the manufacturing facility or job shop would need a crystal ball to see at least a few years into the future to develop a schedule for setting up FANUC robot like cells to replace the setup guys and operators? A lot of shops don’t know what kind of work they will have next week!!!!!!

Antarctica · Feb 17, 2022

You go girl.

Coming out swinging on that first post! Welcome to the forum.

gustafson · Feb 17, 2022

Here is the problem

Where do real machinists come from

They come from baby machinists

Who were button pushers

Who were gofers

Now all the button pushers and half the gofers are robots. When the volumes climb, they outsource to cheaper labor markets because they don't want to pay the people who are left

When you eliminate all the button pushers, you eliminate the baby machinists, and then where do real machinists come from?

that is how automation will replace you, because when the corporations drain all the talent to the third world there will be no work to do.

Or they will say, well, we can keep the work here if you work for 12 cents an hour

But hey, aint my 60 inch flat screen grand.....

DDoug · Feb 17, 2022

toolroommaho said:
A lot of people say (a lot of these people are not machine trades personnel but rather in the tech industry), they say a machine like a FANUC robot will takeover the skilled setup machinists jobs??
How is this even remotely possible unless the company (assuming it’s a manufacturing facility and not a run of the mill machinist job shop); how is it possible??? Last time I checked robots need to be set up too.
And last time I checked innovation (new parts for new machinery) outpaces the workflow to set up automation because a large chunk of machine shop work is sporadic. I.e. we need this it’s a rush order or hot job or the customer sent us a new print for a prototype.

All I’m trying to say is if automation was to take peoples jobs and all that than the manufacturing facility or job shop would need a crystal ball to see at least a few years into the future to develop a schedule for setting up FANUC robot like cells to replace the setup guys and operators?

A lot of shops don’t know what kind of work they will have next week!!!!!!

Try adding the return button once in a while there Zippy.... :crazy:

Your Bio says "Tool and Die Maker Apprentice" be forewarned that Tool & Die is quickly becoming a commodity.

Larry Dickman · Feb 17, 2022

I heard a saying long ago.

What is a tool and die maker?

A machinist with delusions of grandeur

dalmatiangirl61 · Feb 17, 2022

When you die they will stuff you in a pine box and bury you 6' deep, when a robot dies it gets recycled into new robots, we're all f'd!

toolroommaho · Feb 17, 2022

Real Machinists come from job shops and mom and pop outfits. Most machine shops are mom and pops or small job shops. Most of them….. And contracts come and go and these small job shops don’t know what’s on the radar next week because innovation is the father of invention.

mhajicek · Feb 17, 2022

What Gustafson said is dead nuts. It takes twenty years to make a machinist with two decades experience, no shortcuts.

What I see is that there are fewer entry level jobs, and they pay worse. You need people to go through those to get experience and become the highly skilled automated manufacturing expert that's needed to setup and run the bar-fed, robot tended, and pallet-pool systems that put many of the entry level guys out of work. That means if you can make it through, over that hill, and become that expert, you can basically write your own check. I was able to skip some of that by coming out of tech school as a programmer rather than an operator, but it still took me 20 years before I felt I could call myself financially successful.

Perhaps when we can upload and download experiences that path can be shortened.

"Tank, I need an operator program for a Matsuura LS 160."

can you fly that helicopter - YouTube

toolroommaho · Feb 17, 2022

Digger Doug. I need to change my bio. I am no longer a tool and die apprentice. That was 2.5 years ago. I’m a Cnc lathe machinist that just hopped on a Cnc mill for the first time a month ago and have been one offing and small batching ever since. I’ve worked at a lot shops and manufacturing facilities OEMS. Etc. full scale Automation might be possible for 1/3 of these shops. The other 2/3 don’t know what the f$ck is going on either

toolroommaho · Feb 17, 2022

Larry Dickman. A tool and die maker is a very slow machinist. A tool and die maker takes twice as much time to setup and run machines, or program. But they are double precision compared to the machinist.

plastikdreams · Feb 17, 2022

Lol cnc machinist...aka button pusher

Welcome to the party pal

Milland · Feb 17, 2022

A robot ran off with my wife and truck.

Damn, I miss my truck...

plastikdreams · Feb 17, 2022

Milland said:
A robot ran off with my wife and truck.

Damn, I miss my truck...

We have robots at work, some perform their tasks perfect. Others, like the wax assembly robots are marginally and sometimes not faster than humans. Currently we are getting more DS grain scrap from the robots versus the ladies that do it by hand.

Larry Dickman · Feb 17, 2022

toolroommaho said:
Larry Dickman. A tool and die maker is a very slow machinist. A tool and die maker takes twice as much time to setup and run machines, or program. But they are double precision compared to the machinist.

Now WHO can argue with that? - YouTube

gustafson · Feb 17, 2022

toolroommaho said:
Real Machinists come from job shops and mom and pop outfits. Most machine shops are mom and pops or small job shops. Most of them….. And contracts come and go and these small job shops don’t know what’s on the radar next week because innovation is the father of invention.

Yes and no

Who do those shops sell to?

They sell to bigger companies.

A lot of the time those mom and pop shops get people from bigger shops, or came from bigger places themselves.

Look at some of the guys who post here, they are not huge, yet I see guys saying they have robotically loaded machines

When I started, small shops had 2 axis prototraks, now they have VMCs

Automation never stops

I am glad you take pride in your work.

I wish there were more people around like you

plastikdreams · Feb 17, 2022

toolroommaho said:
Larry Dickman. A tool and die maker is a very slow machinist. A tool and die maker takes twice as much time to setup and run machines, or program. But they are double precision compared to the machinist.

I beg to differ with that son

Milland · Feb 17, 2022

My first clue should have been those cans of WD-40 I kept finding in her dresser...

Kalispel · Feb 17, 2022

There are many low / no skill tasks a robot can do well. Repetitive loading and unloading machines is one example. Production welding is a good example where robots are commonplace. Sorting. Palletizing. Etc. are other applications.

Cobots will extend the applications by freeing the robot from its safety cage.

People program them and care for them. The idea is the robots multiply the human effort required to apply and support them.

I do not think they are going away……

CPM2014 · Feb 17, 2022

Larry Dickman said:
I heard a saying long ago.

What is a tool and die maker?

A machinist with delusions of grandeur

I heard a saying too….. those that repeat that joke have never worked as a tool and die maker. &#55357;&#56900;

Orange Vise · Feb 17, 2022

Robots don't replace machinists. Machinists replace other machinists.

Specifically, machinists who can leverage the power of automation reduce the number of jobs required to staff a given operation.

Automation will never replace me

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