Swap to Design & planning or Property management or go back to all job sectors
Wood machinists cut and shape timber for products like cabinets, staircases, mouldings and frames for doors and windows.
You could work: evenings / weekends; on shifts
As a wood machinist, you could:
In some jobs, you'll also assemble products, using the pieces you've created.
You may need to wear safety clothing and use safety equipment.
You could work in a workshop or at a sawmill.
Your working environment may be dusty, physically demanding and noisy.
You can get into this job through:
You can take a college course that would teach you some of the skills needed to get a trainee wood machinist position.
Courses include:
You could apply to do a Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship, such as:
If you want to work in the furniture industry you could do a Furniture Manufacturing Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship.
These take around 2 years to complete and are a mix of on-the-job training with study time spent off-site.
You'll usually need:
You could start as a labourer in construction, or an assistant with a wood products or furniture manufacturing company.
You could then specialise in machining work after doing on-the-job training.
You could apply directly to work as a wood machinist with companies that make timber products. You'll usually need experience of working with manufacturing machinery, CNC machine tools or bench joinery.
Further information
You can learn more about how to become a wood machinist from Go Construct.
With experience, you could become a workshop supervisor or manager.
You could apply to do a Craft Carpentry and Joinery Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship to specialise in creating architectural pieces for heritage restoration projects.
You might also use your skills to move into:furniture making; shopfitting; kitchen and bathroom installation
Go Construct has information about working in wood machining in the construction industry.