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Job Truth / Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
What does a Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
actually do all day?
top skill Operations Monitoringcore tasks 6median pay $46,330AI exposure 0/100
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic is deadline-driven, on your feet, some people contact work. Precision matters a lot here.
What this job actually does all day
The representative tasks O*NET analysts recorded for this role — not a glossy job ad, the real work.
- Measure completed workpieces to verify conformance to specifications, using micrometers, gauges, calipers, templates, or rulers.
- Examine completed workpieces for defects, such as chipped edges or marred surfaces and sort defective pieces according to types of flaws.
- Read work orders or production schedules to determine specifications, such as materials to be used, locations of cutting lines, or dimensions and tolerances.
- Start machines, monitor their operations, and record operational data.
- Set up, operate, or tend machines to saw, cut, shear, slit, punch, crimp, notch, bend, or straighten metal or plastic material.
- Test and adjust machine speeds or actions, according to product specifications, using gauges and hand tools.
Skills & environment
Bars are O*NET importance/intensity ratings, scaled 0–100 so you can compare at a glance.
The skills it demands most
What the environment feels like
Deadline pressure: constant deadline pressureConflict & friction: moderateNeed to be exact: precision is criticalTime spent sitting: mostly on your feet / movingContact with people: moderate
Go deeper on this role
How this is built. Tasks, skills, and work-environment ratings come from the
U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET occupational analysis — job analysts survey real workers, so this is the
closest thing to "what the job is actually like" in public data. Skill scores are O*NET Importance
ratings (0–5) and environment measures are Context ratings (0–5), both rescaled to 0–100 here for
easy reading. This task-and-skill detail comes straight from the O*NET database — it's
pulled straight from the survey, not invented. Figures describe the typical role, not any one person's job.
