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O*NET detailed work activityOperate cutting equipment
Stays humanHands-on work
20 jobs29 tasks
This is physical, in-person work with real objects, tools, equipment and places that change from day to day. AI can't do it for you.
Part of Operate cutting or grinding equipment, under the O*NET work activity group Controlling Machines and Processes. Individual tasks below can carry a different label when their own wording calls for it (1 AI-ready, 0 AI-assist, 28 stays human).
Tasks built on this activity
- Adjust machine controls to alter position, alignment, speed, or pressure.
- Set up, operate, or tend machines to saw, cut, shear, slit, punch, crimp, notch, bend, or straighten metal or plastic material.
- Press buttons, pull levers, or depress pedals to start and operate cutting and slicing machines.
- Operate shearing mechanisms to cut rods to specified lengths.
- Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut or slice materials, such as glass, stone, cork, rubber, tobacco, food, paper, or insulating material.
- Set up or operate auxiliary equipment, such as cutting, folding, plate-making, drilling, or laminating machines.
- Operate slicing or wrapping machines.
- Lower table-mounted cutters such as knife blades, cutting wheels, or saws to cut items to specified sizes.
- Tighten pulleys or add abrasives to maintain cutting speeds.
Tasks where it is part of the work
- Machine parts to specifications, using machine tools, such as lathes, milling machines, shapers, or grinders.
- Start machines to verify setups, and make any necessary adjustments.
- Activate machine start-up switches to grind, lap, hone, debar, shear, or cut workpieces, according to specifications.
- Start lathe or turning machines and observe operations to ensure that specifications are met.
- Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, drill presses, punch presses, or bandsaws, to fabricate prototypes or models.
- Start machines, monitor their operations, and record operational data.
- Prepare metal surfaces or workpieces, using hand-operated equipment, such as grinders, cutters, or drills.
- Set up, operate, and adjust a variety of woodworking machines such as bandsaws and planers to cut and shape sections, parts, and patterns, according to specifications.
- Guide workpieces against saws, saw over workpieces by hand, or operate automatic feeding devices to guide cuts.
- 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.
- Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, cutters, shears, borers, millers, grinders, presses, drills, or auxiliary machines, to make metallic and plastic workpieces.
- Test and adjust machine speeds or actions, according to product specifications, using gauges and hand tools.
- Activate shears and grinders to trim workpieces.
- Set up, operate, or tend presses and forging machines to perform hot or cold forging by flattening, straightening, bending, cutting, piercing, or other operations to taper, shape, or form metal.
- Set up or operate machines or systems to crimp, cut, bend, form, swage, flare, bead, burr, or straighten tubing, according to specifications.
- Set up or operate metalworking, brazing, heat-treating, welding, or cutting equipment.
- Start pumps to circulate water and abrasives onto blades or cables during cutting.
- Start machines and lower cutting tools to beginning points on patterns.
- Route items to provide cutouts for parts, using portable routers, grinders, and hand tools.
- Measure dimensions of bundles, using rulers, and cut battens to required sizes, using power saws.