About This Career

Sets up, operates, or tends woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, and wood nailing machines. May operate computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment.

This career is part of the Manufacturing cluster Production pathway.

A person in this career:

• Examines finished workpieces for smoothness, shape, angle, depth-of-cut, or conformity to specifications and verifies dimensions, visually and using hands, rules, calipers, templates, or gauges.
• Sets up, programs, operates, or tends computerized or manual woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, or wood-nailing machines.
• Starts machines, adjusts controls, and makes trial cuts to ensure that machinery is operating properly.
• Monitors operation of machines and makes adjustments to correct problems and ensure conformance to specifications.
• Examines raw woodstock for defects and to ensure conformity to size and other specification standards.
• Adjusts machine tables or cutting devices and sets controls on machines to produce specified cuts or operations.
• Installs and adjusts blades, cutterheads, boring-bits, or sanding-belts, using hand tools and rules.
• Changes alignment and adjustment of sanding, cutting, or boring machine guides to prevent defects in finished products, using hand tools.
• Determines product specifications and materials, work methods, and machine setup requirements, according to blueprints, oral or written instructions, drawings, or work orders.
• Feeds stock through feed mechanisms or conveyors into planing, shaping, boring, mortising, or sanding machines to produce desired components.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation involves bending or twisting your body more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Picking out a particular sound in the presence of other sounds
• Using muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring
• Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching
• Seeing clearly at a distance
• Seeing clearly up close
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Regular working hours and limited travel