Woodworking Machine Setter / Operator / Tender (except Sawing)

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.

O*NET reports this occupation under titles such as: Boring Machine Operator; Cabinet Maker; Knot Saw Operator; Lathe Operator; Machine Operator; Molder Operator; Router Operator; Sander; Sander Operator

Tasks

• Set up, program, operate, or tend computerized or manual woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, or wood-nailing machines.
• 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.
• 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.
• Push or hold workpieces against, under, or through cutting, boring, or shaping mechanisms.
• Select knives, saws, blades, cutter heads, cams, bits, or belts, according to workpiece, machine functions, or product specifications.
• 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.

Knowledge

• Mechanical

Skills

• Monitoring
• Speaking
• Critical Thinking

Abilities

• Reaction Time
• Near Vision
• Manual Dexterity
• Control Precision
• Oral Comprehension
• Problem Sensitivity
• Multilimb Coordination
• Static Strength
• Trunk Strength
• Perceptual Speed
• Visualization
• Selective Attention
• Arm-Hand Steadiness
• Finger Dexterity
• Far Vision
• Auditory Attention
• Oral Expression
• Deductive Reasoning
• Information Ordering
• Category Flexibility
• Flexibility of Closure
• Rate Control
• Dynamic Strength
• Extent Flexibility
• Speech Recognition