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O*NET detailed work activityOperate grinding equipment
Stays humanHands-on work
30 jobs47 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 (0 AI-ready, 0 AI-assist, 47 stays human).
Tasks built on this activity
- Machine parts to specifications, using machine tools, such as lathes, milling machines, shapers, or grinders.
- Set up and operate grinding or polishing machines to grind metal workpieces, such as dies, parts, and tools.
- Set and adjust machine controls according to product specifications, using knowledge of machine operation.
- Set up, operate, or tend grinding and related tools that remove excess material or burrs from surfaces, sharpen edges or corners, or buff, hone, or polish metal or plastic workpieces.
- Move controls to adjust, start, or stop equipment during grinding and polishing processes.
- Move controls to start, stop, or adjust machinery and equipment that crushes, grinds, polishes, or blends materials.
- 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.
- Move machine controls to index workpieces, and to adjust machines for pre-selected operational settings.
- Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, cutters, shears, borers, millers, grinders, presses, drills, or auxiliary machines, to make metallic and plastic workpieces.
- Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.
- Set up and operate machine tools, such as milling machines, lathes, drill presses, and grinders, to machine castings or patterns.
- Operate auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products.
- Remove high spots and cut bevels, using hand files, portable grinders, and cutting torches.
- Set mill gauges to specified fineness of grind.
- Set up and operate metalworking machines, such as milling or grinding machines, to shape or fabricate parts.
- Pulverize remaining bone fragments into smaller pieces, using specialized equipment, such as a cremulator or grinder.
- Route items to provide cutouts for parts, using portable routers, grinders, and hand tools.
Tasks where it is part of the work
- Monitor machine operations to determine whether adjustments are necessary, stopping machines when problems occur.
- Replace worn tools, and sharpen dull cutting tools and dies, using bench grinders or cutter-grinding machines.
- Activate machine start-up switches to grind, lap, hone, debar, shear, or cut workpieces, according to specifications.
- Set dials and start machines to polish lenses or hold lenses against rotating wheels to polish them manually.
- Replace worn tools, using hand tools, and sharpen dull tools, using bench grinders.
- 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.
- Prepare metal surfaces or workpieces, using hand-operated equipment, such as grinders, cutters, or drills.
- Polish artificial limbs, braces, or supports, using grinding and buffing wheels.
- Operate and maintain finishing machines to grind, drill, sand, bevel, decorate, wash, or polish glass or glass products.
- Smooth, shape, and touch up surfaces to prepare them for finishing, using sandpaper, pumice stones, steel wool, chisels, sanders, or grinders.
- Grind, file, and sand parts to finished dimensions.
- Remove excess materials or impurities from objects, using air hoses or grinding machines.
- File, grind, shim, and adjust different parts to properly fit them together.
- Hammer, chip, and grind workpieces to cut, bend, and straighten metal.
- Smooth and polish flat and contoured surfaces of parts or tools, using scrapers, abrasive stones, files, emery cloths, or power grinders.
- Remove burrs, sharp edges, rust, or scale from workpieces, using files, hand grinders, wire brushes, or power tools.
- Activate shears and grinders to trim workpieces.
- Grind, cut, buff, or bend edges of workpieces to be joined to ensure snug fit, using power grinders and hand tools.
- Clean and finish patterns or templates, using emery cloths, files, scrapers, and power grinders.
- Clean or degrease parts, using wire brushes, portable grinders, or chemical baths.
- Hold stones, gems, dies, or styluses against rotating plates, wheels, saws, or slitters to cut, shape, slit, grind, or polish them.
- Operate processing equipment, such as fiber-sorters and grinders, to sort, crush, or grind recyclable materials.
- Sharpen cutting tools, using bench grinders.
- Trim excess material from parts, using knives, and grind scrap plastic into powder for reuse.
- Sharpen dulled blades, using bench grinders, abrasive wheels, or lathes.
- Clean, treat, buff, or polish finished items, using grinders, brushes, chisels, and cleaning solutions and polishing materials.
- Grind out burrs or sharp edges, using portable grinders, speed lathes, or polishing jacks.
- Regrind drill points, and advance drill cutting points according to specifications for channel depths and shapes.
- Lap girdles on rough diamonds, using diamond girdling lathes.
- Sharpen cutting blades, knives, or saws, using files, bench grinders, or honing stones.