Production Machine Operators

Key Responsibilities

• Review work orders, blueprints, specifications, or job samples to determine components, settings, and adjustments for cutting and slicing machines.
• Tighten pulleys or add abrasives to maintain cutting speeds.
• Move stock or scrap to and from machines manually, or by using carts, handtrucks, or lift trucks.
• Adjust machine controls to alter position, alignment, speed, or pressure.
• Direct workers on cutting teams.
• Cut stock manually to prepare for machine cutting, using tools such as knives, cleavers, handsaws, or hammers and chisels.
• Feed stock into cutting machines, onto conveyors, or under cutting blades, by threading, guiding, pushing, or turning handwheels.
• Sharpen cutting blades, knives, or saws, using files, bench grinders, or honing stones.
• Remove completed materials or products from cutting or slicing machines, and stack or store them for additional processing.
• Type instructions on computer keyboards, push buttons to activate computer programs, or manually set cutting guides, clamps, and knives.
• Maintain production records, such as quantities, types, and dimensions of materials produced.
• Clean and lubricate cutting machines, conveyors, blades, saws, or knives, using steam hoses, scrapers, brushes, or oil cans.
• Mark cutting lines or identifying information on stock, using marking pencils, rulers, or scribes.
• Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut or slice materials, such as glass, stone, cork, rubber, tobacco, food, paper, or insulating material.
• Position stock along cutting lines, or against stops on beds of scoring or cutting machines.
• Monitor operation of cutting or slicing machines to detect malfunctions or to determine whether supplies need replenishment.
• Stack and sort cut material for packaging, further processing, or shipping, according to types and sizes of material.
• Press buttons, pull levers, or depress pedals to start and operate cutting and slicing machines.
• Start machines to verify setups, and make any necessary adjustments.
• Select and install machine components, such as cutting blades, rollers, and templates, according to specifications, using hand tools.
• Remove defective or substandard materials from machines, and readjust machine components so that products meet standards.
• Examine, measure, and weigh materials or products to verify conformance to specifications, using measuring devices, such as rulers, micrometers, or scales.
• Position width gauge blocks between blades, and level blades and insert wedges into frames to secure blades to frames.
• Change or replace saw blades, cables, cutter heads, and grinding wheels, using hand tools.
• Turn cranks or press buttons to activate winches that move cars under sawing cables or saw frames.