Featurecam programmer $35-$38 per hour starting in Odessa Florida

[g-coder05]

I got an email from a recruiter last night looking for a Featurecam programmer and thought I would pass it along.

I’m pretty sure I know the shop and not many FC jobs in that area. It’s a nice shop full of large Haas VF-9 and 11’s a few smaller machines. The Owner has a sweet gig making copper parts for a big spot welder manufacturer in Jacksonville. The customer supplies all the material and he keeps the chips.


If you’re into hack work just absolutely butchering material with wide open tolerances and shit surface finished it’s a great place. He pass a big base salary and the average week is 60 hours.He refuses to pay OT so I’m turn he pays base salary OT in cash. He splits the chips 50% to him and the rest is split between the hand full of employees he has. I only lasted a few weeks because my OCD was tearing at me and I hate machining copper.

The cash straight wage was kinda nice and we would get $200-300 each for our part of the chips each week. It’s heavy work, he didn’t get the Haas hoist and no forklift. Lots of flat copper bars 1-1/2 x 8” x 60+ inches is a bitch to load in a VF-11 alone at night.

But when I said hack shop I wasn’t kidding.Keyways cut with corncob roughers, deep slots with step down marks from indexable tooling. Apparently this is what his customer likes because nothing is quoted it is all time and tools. Hack & Ship!!!

 

[primeholy]

I could not do that. I cant stand to do shitty looking work. It's bad enough here at the forge. I will make things and they come back beat to piss in just a day or so. When I have to reverse engineer tooling, sometimes its old stuff that was made with a hand drill, grinder, and welder, and possibly a bridgeport that was used by someone who wasnt a machinist.

I remember when I first started working at Litespeed. One of the toolmaker/machinists that I was there to replace when he retired told me "Don't let this place make you sloppy".

 

[g-coder05]

I could not do that. I cant stand to do shitty looking work.

Oh man. Just the short time I was there was just painful. But, not a whole lot of machine shops throwing out those numbers for employees to do sloppy work.

 

[primeholy]

Oh man. Just the short time I was there was just painful. But, not a whole lot of machine shops throwing out those numbers for employees to do sloppy work.

True, but it is in Florida. That kinda money in Chattanooga is good. I dont know what the cost of living is in Odessa, but just looked, and its about an hour from my sis in Palmetto. When my wife gets out of school I could handle living in Fla, I think.......

 

[g-coder05]

True, but it is in Florida. That kinda money in Chattanooga is good. I dont know what the cost of living is in Odessa, but just looked, and its about an hour from my sis in Palmetto. When my wife gets out of school I could handle living in Fla, I think.......

I just looked and housing cost is 16% below the national average. Florida is like TN with no state tax so that’s I nice perk. But,,, a short drive East puts you in Polk County FL and the sheriff there is the ruthless Grady Judd. I would feel quite comfortable living in his town.

 

[CNC_Chip_Thin]

What is this, 2002??? I didn't even know hotmail was still a thing?

 

[g-coder05]

What is this, 2002??? I didn't even know hotmail was still a thing?

Some of those legacy mail accounts still have us stuck in the past. Skype is still the preferred coms for Asia In order to have Skype they make you have a Hotmail account. I prefer my POP and IMAP but Microsoft is going to milk it for all it’s worth

 

[Mike1974]

I am in FL, didn't read all of this, but $25+/hr is pretty good in FL for machining. I am very fortunate I have a salary job a decent amount above average. Real estate is pretty bad though (if you are wanting to buy now) Our house *supposedly* has gone up in value almost 100k in the last 4 years....

 

[Dualkit]

What is this, 2002??? I didn't even know hotmail was still a thing?

I have a Hotmail account, first e-mail account I ever had. I don't use it for business of course.

 

[Cole2534]

Philosophically, is it really hack work if that's what the customer requests?

 

[Herding Cats]

Philosophically, is it really hack work if that's what the customer requests?

Murder for hire is still murder

I've turned down a good number of jobs because the customer wanted corners cut. Then when the part fails who do you think they try to blame? Thanks but no thanks

 

[Mud]

Philosophically, is it really hack work if that's what the customer requests?

Yes, but this sounds like profitable hack work.

 

[Charlie Gary]

Philosophically, is it really hack work if that's what the customer requests?

Perfect is the enemy of good enough.

 

[g-coder05]

good enough

Just uttering the words “close enough” at my place it’s bad bad bad. It’s that mentality that plant the seed of substandard craftsmanship.

 

[Charlie Gary]

Just uttering the words “close enough” at my place it’s bad bad bad. It’s that mentality that plant the seed of substandard craftsmanship.

It depends on your definition of "close enough". For me it's +/-.0002 on a +/-.003 tolerance. And there are customers who see a nice finish on something they tolerance at +/- 1/8" and think they've been overcharged because someone spent time machining something that could have been a saw cut.

 

[Mike1974]

It depends on your definition of "close enough". For me it's +/-.0002 on a +/-.003 tolerance. And there are customers who see a nice finish on something they tolerance at +/- 1/8" and think they've been overcharged because someone spent time machining something that could have been a saw cut.

Question. Do you have to work at holding that +/-.0002, or is it just *working* out like that because of machine, setups, etc? I only ask because I worked with a guy that would take a +/-.005 part and spend forever trying to get to the "exact" size on the print. Wasted alot of time IMO for nothing.

 

[Charlie Gary]

Question. Do you have to work at holding that +/-.0002, or is it just *working* out like that because of machine, setups, etc? I only ask because I worked with a guy that would take a +/-.005 part and spend forever trying to get to the "exact" size on the print. Wasted alot of time IMO for nothing.

Not much effort involved. I run a good CNC machine (Okuma GENOS lathe with Y axis and live tools) with good, solid tools and setups. I program a part, run one, measure it, adjust some offsets, run one more part in hopes it comes out dead nuts. Sometimes I have to make another adjustment, sometimes not. Once I have it dialed in I start running parts. The trick I employ is to measure each part's critical features as they come off the machine while the next part is running. That allows me to keep any eye on tool wear and make adjustments before parts drift too far from nominal. The inspectors here joke about not having to check parts with my name on the paperwork.

 

[g-coder05]

It depends on your definition of "close enough". For me it's +/-.0002 on a +/-.003 tolerance. And there are customers who see a nice finish on something they tolerance at +/- 1/8" and think they've been overcharged because someone spent time machining something that could have been a saw cut.

This has always been my issue. If I have .005 I’m still looking for the “dead nuts” size. It’s not that hard to do once you make it a habit. It can be a 20 year old Haas or a new Kern, just learn what your working with and adjust your style to make the absolute best part you can. Size, finish, everything no matter how simple the part.

 

[Imachine909]

Not much effort involved. I run a good CNC machine (Okuma GENOS lathe with Y axis and live tools) with good, solid tools and setups. I program a part, run one, measure it, adjust some offsets, run one more part in hopes it comes out dead nuts. Sometimes I have to make another adjustment, sometimes not. Once I have it dialed in I start running parts. The trick I employ is to measure each part's critical features as they come off the machine while the next part is running. That allows me to keep any eye on tool wear and make adjustments before parts drift too far from nominal. The inspectors here joke about not having to check parts with my name on the paperwork.

When you say you program a part and run one then measure does this first part check within +/-.0010" of the mean dimension on a +/-.0030" tolerance part? I would assume so being you talk about hitting these +/-.0002 tolerances across the board. If that's the case does your boss/owner/you see the changing offset as a risk or added time? If you have a saleable part run it from my prospective. Curious of your thoughts on why to over achieve and run the risk of inputting a bad offset and producing a scrap part or making the job not as profitable by trying to hold a tolerance to tight.

 

[Charlie Gary]

When you say you program a part and run one then measure does this first part check within +/-.0010" of the mean dimension on a +/-.0030" tolerance part? I would assume so being you talk about hitting these +/-.0002 tolerances across the board. If that's the case does your boss/owner/you see the changing offset as a risk or added time?

Not necessarily. I run many different materials, so tool pressure in nylon will generate a different dimension than in stainless or titanium. I might have to tweak it a few thou to get it running where it needs to be. Once things are up and running, my offsets are changed while parts are running. There's no downtime involved. My boss doesn't see what I do as risky because he knows I think it through before inputting numbers.

If you have a saleable part run it from my prospective. Curious of your thoughts on why to over achieve and run the risk of inputting a bad offset and producing a scrap part or making the job not as profitable by trying to hold a tolerance to tight.

The parts I make are strictly for the products my employer assembles and sells. We do work in a job-shop environment because we run the jobs that either outside vendors couldn't complete in time or just refused to quote at all, but nothing we make is for other companies. Every part I make becomes part of an assembly, where tolerance stack up can create problems down the road. I deal with tolerances much tighter than the +/-.003" I wrote earlier, like +0/-.001 in plastics that will change in size with the humidity of the day. That has me planning on how to reliably hold +/-.0002" so the parts will still be in tolerance tomorrow or next week. These hoops I jump through make it easier for me to quickly hold tight tolerances in stable materials. I'm not known for blowing my own horn, but I am one of if not the fastest producers in the shop.