Considering Careers: Tool & Die Maker Apprentice

Considering a career in Tool and Die making?
Looking for a career path with little to no student debt?
Interested in working with your hands and solving unique and complex problems?
Check out this video to learn a bit about the trade, what your job could look like and how to move forward for more information.

[spidersinspace]

Men in this field are the unsung heros of the manufacturing industry.

[BasicFolders]

I wish I saw this video when I was 17 years old, it'd have changed my life. This generation has no idea the access to information and opportunity they have.

[keilahdugan]

I'm 18 and my boyfriend is one, I had no idea what it was, but now I'm in more awe of this man

[paulbfields]

Been a journeyman designer and maker 43 years.. still do it every day. Owned my own shop 37 years. Sponsored several apprentices. My father sponsored and trained me. He once told me, “you’ll never be rich but you’ll never be hungry”..

[Space-Cowboy]

I’m a young toolmaker working at Space X. These rockets wouldn’t fly without the tooling department. Love the trade. Hard work for sure. Props to the generations of men who passed down their knowledge! 💯

[p]

Worked as a tool die maker when I was about 21. Small shop, we built new shoe dies from old shoe dies collecting all the valuable hardware. We had to plan how to use the new hardened die on shoes that were second hand. Quite a learning experience. Tool and die, live or die!

[niceguydmm]

I was a tool maker back in the 90's working for Talon the zipper company. Learned from a lot of tool makers from Meadville, PA. Made dies, repaired molds with a TIG welder and EDM and spent 30 hours a week surface grinding an some milling. Made all my tools from vices to 1 2 3 blocks. NAFT killed the trade. Talon sold and moved to Mexico only to fail. I went back to college at 32 and learned to be a Computer Network Engineer. As a tool maker I made 17.95 and hour in the 90's. I went from mid 30K a year to now 130K a year as Senior Network Engineer. I hate working with computer. I hate office. The computer career gave me terrible social anxiety. I am retiring at 58 from it setting up a small CNC plasma and fab/welding shop in my garage. Those skill I learned as a tool maker have served me well. I can fix anything and never pay others to fix my things. I am returning to what I loved and leaving a terrible office job.

[JohnReesPhotography]

What an excellent video. I left school in 1980 and and was lucky enough to secure a toolmaking apprenticeship with UK motor vehicle manufactured Land Rover. When I accepted the apprenticeship I didn’t really know what a toolmaker did.

[RobertFlynn-ih]

I am retired toolmakere, it was great trade, learnt more out of my apprenticeship than it, we were expected to do our own tooling designs but had to have them excepted by our forman this was my greatest and valued learning curve for a tradesman just leaving his apprenticeship.
I loved this job, received such personal reward

[OtisMoto]

Started on a bridgeport in highschool in the 90s. This field has been wonderful for me. Im now a project manager at a fortune 500 company.

[sparksandchips]

Excellent video! I was a tool maker for 15 years primarily molds for appliance industry and now in Quality/warranty for automotive industry.
The tooling background is invaluable now as I can spot quality issues and helps with solving warranty problems as well….
Keep up the good work!

[mikebrzostowski]

I ran progressive and draw dies for 20 years. The toolmakers amazed me for the beautiful dies they made. There were no short cuts or "that will do". They amazed me and made my job running the dies much easier. Both die making and running them is a very rewarding career. Thanks much.

[fendihamizan]

I graduated from Malaysia Vocational Technical school in fitting and machining. And now I've been a tool maker for 24 years and it's still running.
Although it has been in this field for a long time, it is never boring!

[scottkinkead]

Fed my family and had a fairly comfortable life, 40 + years in the trade retired now would recommend it to any young person

[stephenwalker]

Did this for 40 years. Now retired. I always looked forward to coming to work. Never boring. Like they say, learn from the old guys that also know the new stuff.

[travisnorseman]

I would consider die casters to be Mold Makers. Tool and Die Maker is specific to Stamping Dies and Fixtures. Various forms of Punching, Forming and Fixturing.

[JasonOlsen-jirs]

I was a tool and die makers apprentice when I was in high school and collage. I am thankful of the knowledge I gain and think tool and die makers are unsung hero’s but I wouldn’t recommend going into this field. First you will spend more time at work then with your family, most tool and die makers work 10 plus hour days and Saturdays. Also as soon as business gets slow they layoff pretty quickly. Pay isn’t great anymore bc companies can’t afford to pay much due to Chinese compaction, this may not be an issue for some but most shops are small family owned so there is lot of politics and no room to grow unless you open your own shop. Also I never meet a tool and die maker who made 100, 000 year, maybe if they worked a ton of overtime.

[rafap]

I work in IT and honestly think that mechanical engineering, production engineering, tool making ect looks way more interesting then just designing another corporate app. For me making phisical objects have appeal and generates satisfaction much greater then making software. It is a pity that in USA, Europe ect manufacturing jobs are dissapearing. We have so radiculus situation that in some areas, like metallurgy and metalworking most engeeners and foremen are around their retirement age, and there are no young lads seeking education and job in those areas any more.

[donpeterson]

Was a tool and die maker for 40 years. Now retired. Still think I know more than the engineers. Really liked inventing things and prototype work. Miss that part but not crawling into presses.

[MikeL-vujo]

Well that's been my living since 1978 thanks for the video