Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend spraying or rolling machines to coat or paint any of a wide variety of products, including glassware, cloth, ceramics, metal, plastic, paper, or wood, with lacquer, silver, copper, rubber, varnish, glaze, enamel, oil, or rust-proofing materials. Includes painters of transportation vehicles such as painters in auto body repair facilities.
- Median pay
- $48,250
- Doing it now
- 164,800
- By 2035
- Up 2.5%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
a year
across the country
15,300 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Observe machine gauges and equipment operation to detect defects or deviations from standards, and make adjustments as necessary.
- Determine paint flow, viscosity, and coating quality by performing visual inspections, or by using viscometers.
- Turn dials, handwheels, valves, or switches to regulate conveyor speeds, machine temperature, air pressure and circulation, and the flow or spray of coatings or paints.
- Start and stop operation of machines, using levers or buttons.
- Fill hoppers, reservoirs, troughs, or pans with material used to coat, paint, or spray, using conveyors or pails.
- Attach hoses or nozzles to machines, using wrenches and pliers, and make adjustments to obtain the proper dispersion of spray.
- Examine, measure, weigh, or test sample products to ensure conformance to specifications.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technologies/TechniciansSee 24 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Hands-on and practical
Organised and precise
Creative and expressive
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $48,250 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.