We Should Tell the Kids

Ever have someone ask you what you do? I believe our spouses and kids often struggle with explaining our job. “He makes parts” or “he runs a big CNC machine with a control and it makes parts.” As you know, it’s more than just that. Ours is a world of fascinating experiences, challenges and even excitement. My four daughters often ask, “Dad, do you still have those robots at work?” The robots sizzle their imagination! This makes me think about “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” which takes place on April 24 this year. Now is a good time to think about how we can pass along the story of how interesting and rewarding it can be to work in manufacturing, particularly the CNC machine tool world. Here are a few ideas for how we can help young folks get interested in this career path.

Things Made With CNC Machine Tools – They’re Everywhere!

The manufacturing world is always exciting whether it’s making parts underground in a machine shop at a world famous amusement park or a mold being made for a cosmetic case or a body part that helps someone live a more comfortable life. Most people don’t realize that the machine tool world touches almost every part of daily experiences. Eating lunch at a local restaurant? The plastic molds for the utensils were made on a machining center. Slowing your car to a stop? Most of these key components were made on CNC machines.

I’ve found that when you start explaining your job to a teenager or even an adult they become fascinated at the industries we support. Aluminum wheels being machined at over 100 miles per hour at 70 seconds’ tack time, or engine pistons being made at 40,000 parts per day; the facts are quite amazing. How about the tolerances that today’s CNC machines are able to position and hold…in microns. A micron is 0.000040” and a human hair is 88 microns in diameter. So now imagine, some Okuma customers hold their machining tolerances to 20 microns, much less than half the thickness of a human hair! Amazing.

Dreams to Reality, Right in Your Hands

The enjoyment and satisfaction of programming or running a high tech CNC machine comes from taking something that was useless and transforming it into something useful. Whether you’re taking a piece of aluminum and transforming it into a throttle body for a car engine, or taking a piece of high temperature alloy material and creating a jet engine piece, the end result is most satisfying. The interesting part is, the machine tool actually becomes an extension of the craftsman running the machine. The dream becomes reality in the hands of the engineer. Some customers refer to parts as “jewelry” due to their intricacy (beauty is in the eye of the beholder!).

Lathes and Machining Centers – In Your Home?

A form of machining happens every day within our own households. As meals are being made and you’re peeling an apple or a potato – a lathe process is taking place. A lathe removes the skin to reveal a surface below far superior to the original. As a pumpkin is being carved into a jack-o‘-lantern a machining center process is taking place where a tool plunges into the material and removes that area, carving a pocket or shape. And how about computers that aren’t too much different than the ones we have at home? Young people find it very interesting that today’s machine tools have computers driving or directing the cutting tool. Most of these CNC controls are PC-based and several are programmed using 3D model based software.

Our next generation of machinists is right before our eyes: our young children and teenagers. What does the future hold for our aspiring young creative thinkers? Fun stuff! Robots, 3D modeling, 3D printers and prototyping, multi-axis machine tools, voice command software (so powerful it can help legally blind machine operators), concept to creation engineering, this exciting list goes on and on. Take a moment to show the young people in your life the growing, ever fascinating world of machine tools and manufacturing. Your investment will be most satisfying.

What do you tell people about your job (especially your kids)? Are you planning to take your kids to work with you on April 24? Please comment below and share your experiences.

Rick Kimmins is Inside Sales Specialist, Okuma America Corporation.