Im looking at going to the School of Automotive Machinists in the next couple months..
Im just wondering what if their is much of a market out their, or will I have a hard time finding a job?

Oh, and does any of you machinists out their have an opinion of this school?
Im looking at going for their cylinder head course, and CNC head course...

Sorry if this is the wrong section, but I wanted to get some insight from the machinists and engine builders that frequent this forum...

I don't know much about the school personally but have heard good things about it & I believe they will help you with placement.
I don't think you will have much trouble finding a job in a machine shop, it is really hard to find people who are qualified & want to work & one of the big one's,,,, are willing to learn ;)

Good luck in your endeavor graemlins/beers.gif

68SS454 (name?), my wife and I will be moving to Houston at the end of February. I'll be attending the S.A.M. school. I've already visited it twice and I feel that it's the real deal. I've sat in on a "Oiling Systems" class with Judson Massengill and that guy is as knowledgable about hot rodding as anyone you'll meet. He's one of the foremost authorities on the LS-family of engines.

The school is EXPENSIVE, but I've been unable to get any machine shop to hire me as an apprentice to get my foot in the door, so I figure this is the next thing to try. There are no high performance shops in my area anyway.

S.A.M. has all the equipment, BUT....they don't have the CNC stuff...YET. I went down as recently as this past July and while they said the CNC equipment had been ordered, the machines were too tall to fit into the rooms. So they were trying to figure out what to do. They do have all the rest from a vat to an engine dyno. Even a Sun distributor machine (tho it looked like it probably hadn't been used in a while).

I plan on taking the Cylinder Block Machining and Cylinder Head Machining courses and going from there.

Houston has many speed shops and it's a performance-saturated car town. I've met several TC'ers down there and feel completely at home. My wife and I have no blood family there, but the friends we've grown to have thru this site are as good as family and will make the transition much, much easier for us.

If you have any questions about the school from someone who isn't trying to completely sell you on the product (as there are a couple of small details to think about)...holler at me.

My email is: fathomblue@yahoo.com

or you can get me at (870) 405-8956

Ask for Justin.

Thanks Justin,
I have been trying to decide where Im going for quite some time now.. My father keeps trying to talk me out of it, saying there is no job market or money in machining and high performance.

I cant help my passion :D
Unfortunatley, it forces me to put my Chevelle up for sale (minus the 489 of course). I figure, once I get done with school I can afford a nicer one. tongue.gif

Ill definatley drop you a line on those couple "things to think about"

Jason

HEY 68SS454

I HATE TO SAY THIS BUT THERE IS NOT MUCH BIZ IN THE HI PERF SIDE THE REAL WORK IS IN THE GENERAL
APPLICATION. THERE IS A NEED FOR CNC TECH ALL THE LARGE COMP ARE LOOKING TO UPGRADE IN PRODUCTIVITY AND THE USE OF CNC EQUIPMENT IS THE WAY TO GO.

YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOU WILL BE WORKING ON BUT THAT KNOLEGE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU.

TO BUILD A ENGINE U GOT TO USE THAT NUGET THAT GOD GAVE U.

AND TELL YOUR DAD TO RUN A MACHINE SHOP OR TO OWNE ONE YOU STILL NED TO KNOW THE BASIC

AND THERE IS BIG BUCK IS THAT MARKET

HEY WE LIVE IN ABBOTSFORD JUST ACROSS THE SUMAS
LINE.

AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED A GOOD HOME FOR YOUR CHEVELLE IM SHURE WE WILL FIND A CUSTOMER UP HERE FOR IT.

LESS ENGINE..

ALAIN

Jason, bring that Chevelle with you! I had tried to find an inexpensive rear-wheel drive GM vehicle with no computer (ie. Chevelle, Nova, Impala, etc. 4-door or wagon) and there are just none to be found in my area.

Anyway, I decided to sink a little bit of money into my '70 and get her back to a daily driver status. It's starting to come along. I saw a couple of older vehicles that the students are using (a cool '68ish Impala 4-door comes to mind...just like something I was looking for :rolleyes: )

Point is...if you need the transportation it's something to think about, as you wouldn't be the only one. If you need the cash, then get what you can.

Hey, maybe you can help me push mine to school from time to time. :D

BTW, if you need to call and long distance charge is a problem, holler at me on that cell # and I can call you back. I've got a pretty good long distance plan. Not a problem.

Im gettin rid of the Chevelle to fund my college endevour :(

I have a Saturn I drive daily, so thats not too big of an issue.

Ill drop you an email, as my working time makes it difficult to get in contact with people.

Thanks for all your replies and insight guys! graemlins/beers.gif

I have been working as a machinist(not automotive) for most of 10 years. I have a degree from the local community college(Assoc. in Applied Science) and I can say that I finally have a job(for the past 4 years) where I am able to "live". I finally could afford a house/wife/kids so there isn't much left over for the Chevelle( :( ) but at least I have a job. We recently had 2 positions open and 150 applications came in. From what I understand, general automotive machinists don't make what I do. This is Rhode Island so the pay scale vs. cost of living is stupid. But I don't think they're paying big dollars anywhere else. I spend a lot of time on Monster.com just to see where I stand. Your best shot at making GOOD money is to either get a job with a race team(Roush was looking for 2 CNC machinists a while back) or start your own business and that's tough.
The biggest problem is that manual machinist's are going the way of the dinosaur and with CAD/CAM it's too easy for a draftsman/engineer to generate a program and give it to an operator. Notice I said operator and not machinist, there is a difference.
I hate to rain on the parade but there are a lot of guys who want to do it and very few places TOO do it. If you love it as much as you say, then you'll do it. I spent the first week in my first job with the ink still wet on my degree deburring cast aluminum spools for SuperWinch for less than $9 an hour. Be prepared and not too proud to do the $h!t work and eventually, you'll get to do what you want.

Jeff

Jeff, I haven't talked to you in a while. How's it going? graemlins/waving.gif

I do agree that the more you get certified in, the better chance you have of landing a good job. CNC accreditation could probably take you plenty of places. It's something that I would eventually like to do.

At the S.A.M. school, it will take 1 1/2 years to get thru the initial Cylinder Block and Cylinder Head courses, so you're looking at about 2 years from right now, if you start at the beginning of next year. I would have to think that the CNC course would be lined out by then.

I, myself, have no delusions of grandeur. Well, a little. Ya gotta have goals, right? I figure I might be able to weasel my way into a local Houston speed shop and be the low man on the totem pole for awhile. Maybe make $8-9 an hour doing the $#!% work. But if you hang in there, you could work your way up and make a decent living.

Here's my worst case scenario. I do this thing, get out of the factory grind that's absolutely wearing my wife and I down....and I bring home what I'm making now (~25K a year, which includes a ton of O.T.). Only hopefully, I at least enjoy what I'm doing and see a little bit of the fruits of my labor (going to the track seeing some of the engines I've helped out on).

OOOR, I do really good in school putting my nose to the grindstone...and get on a raceteam. It's not impossible, as I've talked to a member of Tony Schumacher's Army Top Fuel team, while I was at the Autozone Nationals in Memphis a few years ago. If the guy was 21, then I'm a monkey's uncle. He said he went to school at Northwestern in Lima, OH. Graduated and started putting in applications with race teams. He tried out and there he was. The low man on the crew, but absolutely lovin' every minute of it.

They say the turnover rate in that part of the industry is pretty high due to the travel, time away from family, etc.....but if you could hack it for a year or 2, you would probably learn GOBS of stuff and it would look darn good on a resume for a higher profile speed shop.

I don't disagree with anything that these other guys have said. Heck, they're out there doing it right now. I think it boils down to what you're goals are and where you're willing to go to get them accomplished.

My office is a few blocks from SAM, and I've hired some of the students to work for me while they are going to school. They also have been doing all my machine and dyno work for several years.

I can tell you that the folks at SAM are great to work with. As mentioned, Judson is about as knowledgeable as you'll find and he's a real character too. Lots of fun to be around.
Pat Topolinski runs the machine shop and teaches. Another great guy and always helpful. Casey Snyder does cylinder heads/porting and teaches and is one of the best in the country. Literally. Some big name folks have paid to have him design a head port that they now sell in CNC versions.

It's not the fanciest looking place in the world, but they are adding a lot of new stuff. It's sort of a family run business and everyone is on site to help out. They campaign several cars at the drag strip as well as doing a good bit of "regular customers" stuff to keep on top of things. They literally pick up the phone and can contact just about all the heavy hitters in the country with just a phone call to get the latest info on something or bounce an idea off someone else if needed. Hard to get that kind of access any other way.

As Judson always says.."there may be lots of other folks out there smarter than me, but they aren't telling"!

He is!


JIM

Hi to all you prospective auto machinist. My son does CNC lathe work and there seems to be a big demand for this type of work available here in the Tulsa area, however it mostly deals with the oil industry or aircraft items. Moving around with a race team will take its toll on a marriage in short order so make this decision with great care and talk it over with your life partner to get her take on it before embarking on this path. For most young people the ideal job seldom meshes with a families needs if it involves lots of travel. If you can find a good machine shop that needs your skills after training and can offer you a set location then it might be a great deal easier to maintain a happy home. No amount of money will help if you lose your family in the process... P.S. Good CNC lathe operators with programing skills make very good money and have good job security. Be aware that your math abilities will be critical for these jobs.