Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Hah - I love it. As a former tooling dood yes, I can say, it falls to us to find many of the design issues the parts and assemblies designers miss. We are the first guys to actually have to make something, to actually make chips, and turn CAD into reality. That's when the rubber first meets the road.

You are absolutely right, and I've mentioned this here before - what looks spiffy in CAD can often be impossible to make. I saw an ever widening gap in understanding this simple axiom with each new generation of engineers. Not enough of them are hands-on types. They are lacking shop experience, either professionally or in their hobbies.

So, Terry - hell yeah, go for it! You will have a ball. I started my career as a tool maker before finishing my education and becoming a tooling engineer. The thing I missed the most after my transition was the hands-on work I did previously. We shared the same employer, so you know how they get about union boundaries and such - once my collar went from blue to white it was strictly hands off.

Until I landed in AOG, that is. Talk about a playground for big kids. I not only got to design our tools and equipment when at home, I often got to use it and train mechanics and machinists on it when on the road. We all pulled the coveralls on and dove in. If my tools needed modification to suit a particular set of circumstances, it was up to me to do it when we were on the road. What fun - fire up the lathe, vertical mill, or what have you. No union rules when we were away from home. Of course the downside was I often wound up on the wrong end of a bucking bar, but what the hell - it was all fun.

Machine shops are always hurting for truly qualified help. Not so much in ability to make chips, but more so in ability to problem solve and work logically to an end goal. To know where you are going and why before you fire up the machine. Bring that to the table and you will be a valuable asset to any machine shop.