CNC Programmer How Do You Become a CNC Programmer

How To Become a CNC Programmer

CNC Programmer Salary, what do they earn?

In 2023 it’s around £30,000 a year but it can be a lot more.

When I am training engineers to become CNC Programmers I always say programming is the easy bit. The programme is the tool that makes the CNC Machine do what you want it to do.

When the cutting tool starts chattering and squealing you will need to draw on experience to know why this is happening.

Tooling Knowledge

So you need a good knowledge of tooling.

In small companies you need to wear many hats

When a company asks us to programme parts for them these are the questions we ask.

• Do you know what tools you want to use?
• Do you have a machining method?
• Do you have workholding?
• Do you have feeds, speeds and depth of cut you want to use?
• Do you have any tips for The Grand National?

More often than not the answers to the questions above are No No No No and “One For Arthur”

Anyway enough of Horse Racing.

Learn Now

Here are two courses that can get you on the right track.

Turning Learn to Programme

Milling Learn to Programme

It is all about experience and unfortunately I have come across quite a few programmers with none.

When you get there it’s not a bad job.

We would love you to come to us to learn to become a CNC Programmer but you will need a whole lot more skills before you will be able to produce good CNC Programs. Being able to program is just another tool and another skill.

What Does The Job Entail?

In  a large company you will find that roles are much more clearly defined. You would normally have a job that is…..

• Planned (all operations and processes defined).

• Fixtures would be designed and modelled.

• All tooling procured.

• Tooling companies would provide tool data (feeds, speeds etc)

In  a small company it’s much more ambiguous.

You might even have to clean the shit-houses (to my posh reader that’s lavatories). It’s a lot more interesting but the devil is in the detail as they say.

So it could well be all of the above.

CNC Programmer Salary

Around £30,000 per year is the average cnc programmer salary in the UK in 2023.

Contact us for more details

Thanks for reading