Bending Machine Operator

Glass, sand, clay, concrete, and wood are all suitable raw materials, but they all have one fatal flaw: They’re not very strong. Hit them with a strong enough force or rattle the ground that they stand on and they’ll crumble, shatter, or fall apart. Metal, on the other hand, is designed to resist these forces. But metal is hard to work with because it’s difficult to bend and shape.

A Bending Machine Operator works with this strong metal all day long, forcing it to conform to a specific shape by smashing it with a sophisticated tool. After the Bending Machine Operator’s work is done, the metal can be used to hold up more fragile materials.

When you’re a Bending Machine Operator, your tool is a bit like your right hand. Everything you handle at work runs through this piece of equipment, and if that machine fails, you’re unable to do your job. For this reason, you check the tool at the beginning and end of your shift to make sure it doesn’t need repairs by a Mechanic.

Engineers, Architects, Designers, and others create sophisticated drawings for you to use in your work. These sketches outline how the metal should be bent, how big the piece should be, and what it should be made of.

You study these outlines carefully, select the proper metal, oil it up, and load it into the machine. Then, you turn the tool on and program it to bend, twist, heat, and otherwise manipulate the metal. When this work is done, you measure the finished product to make sure it looks just like the drawings.