Operate grinding equipment
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 31 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Controlling Machines and Processes (4.A.3.a.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 31 occupations that perform it.
- Pulverize remaining bone fragments into smaller pieces, using specialized equipment, such as a cremulator or grinder.
- Set up and operate metalworking machines, such as milling or grinding machines, to shape or fabricate parts.
- Set up and operate fabricating machines, such as brakes, rolls, shears, flame cutters, grinders, and drill presses, to bend, cut, form, punch, drill, or otherwise form and assemble metal components.
- Operate auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products.
- Sharpen cutting tools and drill bits, using bench grinders.
- Activate shears and grinders to trim workpieces.
- Grind out burrs or sharp edges, using portable grinders, speed lathes, or polishing jacks.
- Sharpen cutting tools, using bench grinders.
- Set up, operate, or tend grinding and related tools that remove excess material or burrs from surfaces, sharpen edges or corners, or buff, hone, or polish metal or plastic workpieces.
- Replace worn tools, and sharpen dull cutting tools and dies, using bench grinders or cutter-grinding machines.
- Replace worn tools, using hand tools, and sharpen dull tools, using bench grinders.
- Machine parts to specifications, using machine tools, such as lathes, milling machines, shapers, or grinders.
- Grind, file, and sand parts to finished dimensions.
- Set up and operate machine tools, such as milling machines, lathes, drill presses, and grinders, to machine castings or patterns.
- Trim excess material from parts, using knives, and grind scrap plastic into powder for reuse.
- Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, cutters, shears, borers, millers, grinders, presses, drills, or auxiliary machines, to make metallic and plastic workpieces.
- Set up and operate conventional or computer numerically controlled machine tools such as lathes, milling machines, or grinders to cut, bore, grind, or otherwise shape parts to prescribed dimensions and finishes.
- Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
31 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Crematory Operators
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Furniture Finishers
- Gem and Diamond Workers
- Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Machinists
- Medical Appliance Technicians
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Model Makers, Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Recycling and Reclamation Workers
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Tool and Die Makers
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate cutting or grinding equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Operate cutting equipment | 19 |
| Operate woodworking equipment | 4 |
| Operate textile cutting or production equipment | 3 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.