Table saw blade boring service

[Michael Drew]

I've been trying to find skilled machinists for three years now, due to attrition (retirement). I've had HR recruiting advertise all over the US. We basically gave up the hunt and are now training in house (I found USN machinist training manuals on Amazon that my retired machinist used in the 70's). I've probably interviewed 50 candidates who say they are a machinist on their resume. Even had one who "machined" for Boeing. What I have learned, is that modern day "machinists" are really CNC programmers. The schools start them out with hands on engine machine (old school machines lacking a processor), to understand the basics of machining, but it's very limited. Basically enough to teach them how to chuck up a hunk of alloy into a 5 axis machine, then hit the start button. Sadly, machining is a dieing trade. For our situation, we have a job shop where we need to reverse engineer parts for obsolete equipment, then make them. No need for repetitive machining, or mass quantity, so there is no pay-back for the capitol investment to convert to CNC machines. We do have a Omax water jet that my "old school" machinists learned how to program and operate, but the rest are all wheels and levers.