Set up, operate, or tend woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, and wood nailing machines. May operate computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment.
Work Activities
-
Examine finished workpieces for smoothness, shape, angle, depth-of-cut, or conformity to specifications and verify dimensions, visually and using hands, rules, calipers, templates, or gauges.
-
Set up, program, operate, or tend computerized or manual woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, or wood-nailing machines.
-
Start machines, adjust controls, and make trial cuts to ensure that machinery is operating properly.
-
Monitor operation of machines and make adjustments to correct problems and ensure conformance to specifications.
-
Examine raw woodstock for defects and to ensure conformity to size and other specification standards.
-
Adjust machine tables or cutting devices and set controls on machines to produce specified cuts or operations.
-
Install and adjust blades, cutterheads, boring-bits, or sanding-belts, using hand tools and rules.
-
Change alignment and adjustment of sanding, cutting, or boring machine guides to prevent defects in finished products, using hand tools.
-
Determine product specifications and materials, work methods, and machine setup requirements, according to blueprints, oral or written instructions, drawings, or work orders.
-
Feed stock through feed mechanisms or conveyors into planing, shaping, boring, mortising, or sanding machines to produce desired components.
-
Select knives, saws, blades, cutter heads, cams, bits, or belts, according to workpiece, machine functions, or product specifications.
-
Push or hold workpieces against, under, or through cutting, boring, or shaping mechanisms.
-
Remove and replace worn parts, bits, belts, sandpaper, or shaping tools.
-
Secure woodstock against a guide or in a holding device, place woodstock on a conveyor, or dump woodstock in a hopper to feed woodstock into machines.
-
Inspect and mark completed workpieces and stack them on pallets, in boxes, or on conveyors so that they can be moved to the next workstation.
-
Inspect pulleys, drive belts, guards, or fences on machines to ensure that machines will operate safely.
-
Clean or maintain products, machines, or work areas.
-
Attach and adjust guides, stops, clamps, chucks, or feed mechanisms, using hand tools.
-
Trim wood parts according to specifications, using planes, chisels, or wood files or sanders.
-
Unclamp workpieces and remove them from machines.
-
Start machines and move levers to engage hydraulic lifts that press woodstocks into desired forms and disengage lifts after appropriate drying times.
-
Operate gluing machines to glue pieces of wood together, or to press and affix wood veneer to wood surfaces.
-
Set up, program, or control computer-aided design (CAD) or computer numerical control (CNC) machines.
-
Grease or oil woodworking machines.
-
Control hoists to remove parts or products from work stations.
-
Sharpen knives, bits, or other cutting or shaping tools.
-
Operation Monitoring
Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
-
Operation and Control
Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
-
Quality Control Analysis
Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
-
Near Vision
The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
-
Reaction Time
The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
-
Control Precision
The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
-
Mechanical
Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
-
Production and Processing
Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
-
Mathematics
Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Education
High school diploma or equivalent
- Work Experience
No work experience
- Training
1 to 12 months on-the-job training
-
Looking for technical training programs?
Check out these programs:
Realistic:
People interested in this work like activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions.
They do well at jobs that need:
-
Attention to Detail
-
Dependability
-
Adaptability/Flexibility
-
Independence
-
Integrity
-
Cooperation
-
Planing machines
-
Planes
-
Cutting machines
-
Calipers
-
Boring machines
-
Word processing software
-
Operating system software
-
Graphics or photo imaging software
-
Computer aided manufacturing CAM software
-
Computer aided design CAD software
