CNC Operator Rates

[andyb]

I may be in need of having to pay someone to operator my CNC for some upcoming jobs. I've heard from a couple people that the going rate is between $12-$15 per hour for a CNC operator, depending on experience. For you guys that have an employee operating you CNC what are you paying per hour?

Andy B.

[meatbal80]

I have payed a guy on occasion to load/unload and start files, and for that i was paying 12 per hour. Now i was always at the shop while he was operating the shop bot, he was basically a baby sitter.

If you are looking for someone to actually think and use their grey matter you should probably keep the adage, you get what you pay for in mind.

[magic]

8 to 10 for babysitting. 20 if they can program and cut eps files. 35 if they can do 3D. Any more then that and they should hire me and they can run things.

[Big-Tex]

I have seen this before on wood web.

It depends what type of employee you are looking for.... If you need an idiot than I don't see paying more than 12 but if you are looking for person that will maintain machine properly and knows his stuff not only cut program files as indicated on cut sheets and if you want that person to stick around $18-20. This is a discussion that raised a lot of controversy when some Chinese guy said that he pays his operator max. $2/hr. Conclusion: look at your needs and what type of employee you need as well if you want this person is willing to learn and capable to do so, or has something to offer that you can learn.

Intelligent individual will be an investment/ asset etc.... and will help you grow.
If you under pay he will learn as much as possible then run to you competition seeking higher wages, at this point he is trained at your expense.

On the other hand I do not know job market in your area.

[andyb]

Thanks for the replies. They are along the line of thought that I as having on hourly pay.

Andy B.

[gundog]

I am going through this right now. I have tried to train several guys to run the CNC just starting files and changing bits zero the machine Etc. This works fine for files you have ran many times and know they are all correct. But some new files may have a small error in them and need a tool path tweaked a little to get it to run.

An example of a problem is if the nesting feature lays parts too close it won't cut between them and you must make a new tool path to fix the error. If I am not in the shop that is the end of the work. If that sheet is taken off it is very time consuming to zero it again to fix the problem and recut. If the machine is turned off it will lose zero and the same problem pops up.

The other day I had a guy running the machine for me he zeroed the X&Y then ran the machine to 6, 6 to run the Z zero routine somehow he re-zeroed the X&Y at the 6, 6 spot ( I suspect he hit Z2 instead of C2) when the machine was started it cut a few toolpaths and ran out of limits in the Y direction and stopped he was not sure what was wrong. I could tell by looking what had happened. I salvaged the sheet by re-drawing the whole sheet and moving the parts that had been started to the new 6, 6 location.

This is when the light came on that told me that if you run the CNC you need to be able to draw and toolpath. I am not blaming this on the guy so much as I am myself. If I need to be in the shop in case of such things I may as well run the machine.

The problem is if something goes wrong with a file if you can't draw and toolpath you can't leave them alone because they can't fix it. I do not have the time to train someone to that degree and do not offer enough hours to pay a full time operator at this time.

It is my fault my expectations are too great and I have paid from $15-17 an hour I would pay more to someone who could do it all.

I have come to the conclusion that I must run the CNC and hire someone to do the simple time consuming tasks. This has been a learning experience for me.

Mike

[dhunt]

Interesting discussion!

Particularly since I'm a ShopBot operator, working for the boss.


Does your man know how to FE File Edit his .sbp cut files
when that final plunge depth needs to be just 6 thou deeper to free up the workpiece?
That's the sorta thing that counts.

_______________________________

Thank you John Forney for the crash course you ran three of us thru
when you came down to the island back in early 2001.

John taught us Vector-9 and a slew of Shopbot operating and maintenance tricks that are still useful today.
The boss and I are still at it -Ian is no longer with us.

[dhunt]

Thought you First Worlders might like to see what life can be like
out here in the Third World
when people of sub-standard standards are employed to run yer machine!

I just posted a new photo album at
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/album.php?albumid=40
where you can see what was revealed
when we removed the 'overburden' of two or three sheets of 0.5 in. ply
that El Cubano had nailed down to the table, serving as temporary spoilboards..

[SomeSailor]

I pay my son $25/hour to work for me. We're doing a lot of aluminum and relatively expensive acrylic laminate, so "do-overs" or late process mistakes can get expensive. You get what you pay for and I think that applies to labor as well.

If they're paid well... they have something to lose.

[dhunt]

I pay my son $25/hour to work for me. .

Your son is well paid!

I don't get anywhere near that -I get the equivalent of U.S.$ 55 a day
working from 9 til 4 (some days until about 4:45)
-and I don't break for lunch, I just work straight thru while eating
but that's life in da tropix..