Tool and Die Makers
Analyze specifications, lay out metal stock, set up and operate machine tools, and fit and assemble parts to make and repair dies, cutting tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges, and machinists' hand tools.
- Median pay
- $64,050
- Doing it now
- 56,700
- By 2035
- Down 9.2%
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
a year
across the country
4,300 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Study blueprints, sketches, models, or specifications to plan sequences of operations for fabricating tools, dies, or assemblies.
- Verify dimensions, alignments, and clearances of finished parts for conformance to specifications, using measuring instruments such as calipers, gauge blocks, micrometers, or dial indicators.
- Visualize and compute dimensions, sizes, shapes, and tolerances of assemblies, based on specifications.
- 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.
- File, grind, shim, and adjust different parts to properly fit them together.
- Conduct test runs with completed tools or dies to ensure that parts meet specifications, making adjustments as necessary.
- Inspect finished dies for smoothness, contour conformity, and defects.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Precision Metal WorkingSee 4 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
Analytical and curious
Careers like this one
- Machinists$58,750
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters$51,330
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$46,330
- Sheet Metal Workers$61,800
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers$53,750
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$47,720
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 $64,050 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.