Summer 2025 after AMLA was concluded I was offered an 8 week internship at Skills Inc, in this internship they would move me around the shop/offices and I would learn a little bit of everything that goes into the machining of parts.
They first put me in WaterJet, the WaterJet uses sand/water to cut the flat material into parts that will be formed into their desired shape. At the waterjet I learned machine maintenance, I loaded the sand into the hopper to keep the machine going and I got to take the slats out of the machine so it could be drained to be cleaned. I homed the machine, ran the machine and learned how to use a reamer.
After WaterJet I went to break form, in break form I used the forming machine to form little clamps, every 20 or so I measured them and made sure they were the correct dimensions, I had a couple that weren't but I had some extra good ones to replace those.
Then I moved to Planning/Configuration, in planning/configuration I learned how to make work orders for jobs, I used a computer to get all the needed documents from different companies, and I printed and stapled them together.
After planning/configuration I moved onto programming, in programming I learned to use Mastercam a software like fusion 360, its used for creating/designing the parts and toolpaths that get sent out into the shop to make the parts.
Then I spent 2 weeks in Dimensional Inspection. In dimensional inspection I learned how to properly inspect parts to the customers standards, for this I used calipers, micrometers, a height gauge, radius gauges, PCM's to compare the part to the drawing, eddy current and hardness machines, and I worked with my fellow inspectors to get large part orders out by the end of the day.
Finally I spent 1 month in CNC. In CNC I operated 3axis, 4axis and 5axis machines, I learned how to load programs/tools, how to touch off my tools and set my axis and offsets, I got to get hands on with loading different fixtures and parts into the machine. I went through many different versions of parts and I was able to look at the setup documents and set them up as needed, I ran parts unsupervised and felt comfortable doing so. I communicated errors to my fellow machinists and asked for help when I couldn't lift something or didn't know how to do something properly, I also took notes throughout my time in CNC so I could remember the little things like which tools are rotating offsets and which are non-rotating, and converting fractions to decimals and how to measure my tools.