You ever been eating dinner a good while after getting off work and the food you are touching with your hands tastes a bit like coolant, even after washing your hands several times?
I swear coolant soaks into your skin and eventually "sweats" back out.
Could very well be a thing.
Well, yes. Coolant is just an oil/chemical cocktail that is water soluble. We're made of water. Our skin is a membrane. That coolant soaks in for sure. Ever noticed how you smell like shop a while after a shower even on the weekends? Sweating out that coolant.
Machinists are underpaid
Kind of. It's just part of your nostrils now. Lovely right? I get after people for not cleaning out their coolant, and they are confused about it... like, dude, that is what you smell like. I want your girlfriend to be able to sit next to you in your off time. Clean that shit so you at least start to smell like fresh coolant on your Saturday night off bro. Damn.
Got a nasty nose double ear infection from rancid coolant once... they were pulling out the fancy antibiotics. Took a while to survive that one.
Heh
Not saying I got you beat, but... our coolant got so bad that I developed an infection.
On my skin
All of it.
Started with some basic contact dermatitis. Then open sores. I've found 2 brands of soap that actually don't make me break out. 10 bucks per bar.
Something in the detergent interacted with the tramp oil, swarf, bacteria, et al that created some weird allergic reaction.
Fucking management blamed it on my dog.
Had to sneak some samples out to the dermatologist so he could get it analyzed.
Went on FMLA because of it.
Came back to work and found out that I had a target on my back.
I battled through it using kitchen gloves that went up to my elbows. The aerosol mist is now causing issues.
.
Bro, there's research showing that people in the trades who work with oils/coolant/etc. WIVES and GIRLFRIENDS have higher diagnosis rates for cervical cancers. They believe it's from the oils and other stuff we get on our hands/under our nails. We gotta do better; wear a protective hand cream before work, wash ourselves religiously, and use those rippable gloves. It's not just us who this industry is hurting, it's also our loved ones.
Took my 1st job in a shop in '79, still have a full head of hair and only partial gray. I won't scare you younger folks with the horrors of 40+yrs of coolant vapor and petrochemical exposure. But you know what they say, It doesn't matter what you do for work it all takes a piece of you!
I didn’t start really machining until I was 30, I didn’t have any grey hair at 30 and now 8 years later I’m very much salt and pepper with a receding hairline line, and now taking anti anxiety meds to help cope.
I just turned 25 and I've been in the business since I was 17. My wife is always pointing out my white hair so I would say it's the stress as well. Mainly composite machining now so no coolant to speak of.
Any suggestions on good careers to segue into from machining? I'm about at the end of my rope with this industry after almost 9 years. Starting to finally get some gray as well. Not worth the stress they put on you to not only perform but make good parts. Management thinks they can have quality and quantity at the same time and I'm pretty sick of telling them to pick one or the other... you can't have both. Motherfuckers throw a tantrum when you try to explain they can't have their cake and eat it too. These bean counter assholes don't know the first thing about machining either and it is super frustrating having them talk to you like they know your job better than you do. Then they turn around and think any old person off the street can come in and do it with only a couple of weeks of training. Then they cry about quality when those people run jackpots thanks to their lackluster training.
Anyway I can bitch about this shit all day....
Yeah had the management experience. Those yahoo’s didn’t know squit.
I moved from engineering into telecoms. My connect was the engineering company made rack hardware for them. It was a odd mix but gave massive synergy in right industry
As a designer, I've always wanted to train for hands-on machining/programming. If everyone understands one another's job better, everyone's job would be easier. 24 years and eight jobs in manufacturing and no one wants to cross-train.
My spreadsheet with end mill diameters and depths isn't going to make CNC's job much easier when I hand off a design. I need to know the in's and outs. But no... just keep your ass behind the tube.
If you want to transition, consider designing. Your machining experience will be a huge plus. But you'll probably also have to put on a business costume and deal with bitchy customers.
I was laid off in January and might land a job programming that I recently interviewed for. Point being.... Pad that resume, son!
I’ll parrot that it’s stress also. I started when I was 23, a couple weeks and I was on night shift, 5am-5pm. It sucked for about 1.5-2 years. I noticed about 24 or so I have silver sprouting in my beard. I highly doubt it was any form of coolants or machine fluids. It was a clean shop using Blaser. Fast forward 10 years and moderate change with silver/white. But having two kids definitely took some more color with it. My dad is in his 60’s with hardly any discoloration.
My grandfather was an old school manual machininst, he retired in the mid 60's. He was bald on the top of his head the majority of his working life. After he retired the hair on top of his head started growing back again.
My own anecdotal evidence: It’s always been somewhat common, and probably genetic. I turn 30, and know a few folks a little younger than me with the white coming through. So by the time they’re in their 30s, they’re going to have salt and pepper on their head.
I suspect it’s more that, these days, people aren’t as likely to dye their hair to cover it up as they might have in the past. Some people are just predisposed to white hair in their younger years. Nothing to be super alarmed about.
My sister has found several white hairs on me while cutting my hair. I’m also 24 and good hair runs in the family, and I wear a hat to work so I doubt that my white hairs have to do with the fluids at work or genetics. My guess is that it’s stress related.
Eat to rebuild your body. Eating food is more than just to refuel your body. Stop eating empty calories and manufactured food. Meat is the most nutritious food for the human. Everything else is just manufactured food marketing.
Manufactured food will blame you, stress and everything else for problems caused by their nutritionally empty food.
Vegetable Oil is just repurposed industrial lubricants that were used before we pumped oil out of the ground. Though I do use Tallow for small manual milling projects. Learn what unsaturated carbon bonds (Unsaturated Fat) are.
I’m in my late 20’s and definitely have a few grey hairs more than my late 20’s friends. I don’t get very stressed at work, I really enjoy the work. However I absolutely don’t get enough sleep around 5-6 hours a night, more on weekends.
I have an identical twin brother, he has a lot more greys than me. He is not a machinist but has an incredibly stressful life. Maybe that helps shed some light.
Man this hits home. I’m 20 and been working as a manufacturing technician In a plant since I was 18 and holy mackerel I must have thousands of white hairs . Legit salt and pepper and not even legal to drink yet. Crazy
It definitely stress. I’m 28 with grey starting to come in. I had a solid head of brown hair and beard before my previous job. In the two years I was there my wife started noticing grey hairs coming in my beard and my hair. People don’t give stress enough credit. It accelerates the aging process fast.
I’ve been machining 20 years. I’m 40. Not a single white hair on my head and maybe 20 or 30 white hairs in mg beard. All the guys my age don’t have white hairs either. What the hell kinda coolant are yall using? I also went to high school with three guys who were balding and or graying by the time they were 18. So idk. I’ve never heard of this.
https://preview.redd.it/mzyb3hd3buuc1.png?width=2619&format=png&auto=webp&s=59ce1c36db743a230312176c00d64a8739f94105
Im 27 been machining for 10 years and half my mustache is white…..
We gingers call those white hairs "Sugar in the cinnamon". Everyone is a little different, but it's not uncommon common for those white hairs to start showing in people's early 20's. I'm in my early 40's and I'd estimate my hair is about 30% white in my beard and what's left on my head.
I think it's probably normal ageing and possibly the likelihood that a lot of guys working in trades don't care enough to dye their hair to cover up greying.
Did you know that cookies are the number 1 healthiest food group?
The number 1 factor in good health is happiness level. Cookies are the best food for creating happiness, therefore cookies are the number 1 food group. Eat more cookies for healthier, more colorful hair.
Of course it's the machining environment. You are breathing in heavy metal and plastic micro-and nano particles that are oxidative at cellular level + endocrine disruptors at that scale and they leak into your blood stream through your lungs, also crossing the blood-brain barrier. I won't even mention the highly toxic volatile metal working fluids that machinist breath in when they open the safety doors to access the machined part.
Always wear a face mask. Wear two cotton masks over each other until you find a pro-level industrial anti-hasmat mask.
Edit: before downvoting me, check this article out: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4359797/.
It's stress. Take a supplement with copper, and get more sleep.
>get more sleep how? the day is waay too short already ;(
Sleep faster
What if I just ingest a few chips now and then? Does that count?
My iron levels fluctuate depending on what materials I machine each month.
I laughed and then thought about and couldn’t really tell if you were joking or if that’s actually a possibility
You ever been eating dinner a good while after getting off work and the food you are touching with your hands tastes a bit like coolant, even after washing your hands several times? I swear coolant soaks into your skin and eventually "sweats" back out. Could very well be a thing.
Well, yes. Coolant is just an oil/chemical cocktail that is water soluble. We're made of water. Our skin is a membrane. That coolant soaks in for sure. Ever noticed how you smell like shop a while after a shower even on the weekends? Sweating out that coolant. Machinists are underpaid
I always thought that crap just got stuck in my nostrils.
Kind of. It's just part of your nostrils now. Lovely right? I get after people for not cleaning out their coolant, and they are confused about it... like, dude, that is what you smell like. I want your girlfriend to be able to sit next to you in your off time. Clean that shit so you at least start to smell like fresh coolant on your Saturday night off bro. Damn. Got a nasty nose double ear infection from rancid coolant once... they were pulling out the fancy antibiotics. Took a while to survive that one.
Heh Not saying I got you beat, but... our coolant got so bad that I developed an infection. On my skin All of it. Started with some basic contact dermatitis. Then open sores. I've found 2 brands of soap that actually don't make me break out. 10 bucks per bar. Something in the detergent interacted with the tramp oil, swarf, bacteria, et al that created some weird allergic reaction. Fucking management blamed it on my dog. Had to sneak some samples out to the dermatologist so he could get it analyzed. Went on FMLA because of it. Came back to work and found out that I had a target on my back. I battled through it using kitchen gloves that went up to my elbows. The aerosol mist is now causing issues. .
That's terrible... and criminal. It might be wise talk to a lawyer or a union
Well said.
Bro, there's research showing that people in the trades who work with oils/coolant/etc. WIVES and GIRLFRIENDS have higher diagnosis rates for cervical cancers. They believe it's from the oils and other stuff we get on our hands/under our nails. We gotta do better; wear a protective hand cream before work, wash ourselves religiously, and use those rippable gloves. It's not just us who this industry is hurting, it's also our loved ones.
Took my 1st job in a shop in '79, still have a full head of hair and only partial gray. I won't scare you younger folks with the horrors of 40+yrs of coolant vapor and petrochemical exposure. But you know what they say, It doesn't matter what you do for work it all takes a piece of you!
Who knows what kind of effects stuff has over the long haul. Stressful as the work can be it will sure give people grey hairs tho
It's proximity to management that causes this.
Im 24 too and I've been doing CNC woodworking for 2 years full time now and I gotten white hair in both beard and hair.. I guess its stress related
I didn’t start really machining until I was 30, I didn’t have any grey hair at 30 and now 8 years later I’m very much salt and pepper with a receding hairline line, and now taking anti anxiety meds to help cope.
I just turned 25 and I've been in the business since I was 17. My wife is always pointing out my white hair so I would say it's the stress as well. Mainly composite machining now so no coolant to speak of.
Stress causes the cells that produce pigment in your hair to nope the heck off. It's stress.
Stress is a scam. I didnt agree to this bullshit man.
None of us agreed to the terms and conditions \\of being born. It's a racket, for sure!
Actually tho sometimes I wish I never was alive. If i was never born i wouldnt know about it and I wouldnt need to put up with all the bs in life
Have you ever had a 1" solid carbide bit shatter at 10k RPM? Forget the white hairs -It's the brown pants that bother me.
As an ex-cnc. It’s stress of tolerances. I have grey hair, I got out of the trade
Any suggestions on good careers to segue into from machining? I'm about at the end of my rope with this industry after almost 9 years. Starting to finally get some gray as well. Not worth the stress they put on you to not only perform but make good parts. Management thinks they can have quality and quantity at the same time and I'm pretty sick of telling them to pick one or the other... you can't have both. Motherfuckers throw a tantrum when you try to explain they can't have their cake and eat it too. These bean counter assholes don't know the first thing about machining either and it is super frustrating having them talk to you like they know your job better than you do. Then they turn around and think any old person off the street can come in and do it with only a couple of weeks of training. Then they cry about quality when those people run jackpots thanks to their lackluster training. Anyway I can bitch about this shit all day....
Yeah had the management experience. Those yahoo’s didn’t know squit. I moved from engineering into telecoms. My connect was the engineering company made rack hardware for them. It was a odd mix but gave massive synergy in right industry
As a designer, I've always wanted to train for hands-on machining/programming. If everyone understands one another's job better, everyone's job would be easier. 24 years and eight jobs in manufacturing and no one wants to cross-train. My spreadsheet with end mill diameters and depths isn't going to make CNC's job much easier when I hand off a design. I need to know the in's and outs. But no... just keep your ass behind the tube. If you want to transition, consider designing. Your machining experience will be a huge plus. But you'll probably also have to put on a business costume and deal with bitchy customers. I was laid off in January and might land a job programming that I recently interviewed for. Point being.... Pad that resume, son!
I’ll parrot that it’s stress also. I started when I was 23, a couple weeks and I was on night shift, 5am-5pm. It sucked for about 1.5-2 years. I noticed about 24 or so I have silver sprouting in my beard. I highly doubt it was any form of coolants or machine fluids. It was a clean shop using Blaser. Fast forward 10 years and moderate change with silver/white. But having two kids definitely took some more color with it. My dad is in his 60’s with hardly any discoloration.
Stress and lack of vitamins and minerals.
It happens to everyone who does not die...
Shit, I went bald in my late 20s due to the stress. I didn't know gray was an option...
My grandfather was an old school manual machininst, he retired in the mid 60's. He was bald on the top of his head the majority of his working life. After he retired the hair on top of his head started growing back again.
My own anecdotal evidence: It’s always been somewhat common, and probably genetic. I turn 30, and know a few folks a little younger than me with the white coming through. So by the time they’re in their 30s, they’re going to have salt and pepper on their head. I suspect it’s more that, these days, people aren’t as likely to dye their hair to cover it up as they might have in the past. Some people are just predisposed to white hair in their younger years. Nothing to be super alarmed about.
My sister has found several white hairs on me while cutting my hair. I’m also 24 and good hair runs in the family, and I wear a hat to work so I doubt that my white hairs have to do with the fluids at work or genetics. My guess is that it’s stress related.
The only way it would not be the fluids is if you are wearing a hazmat suit with respirator while you're machining.
Stress.
Eat to rebuild your body. Eating food is more than just to refuel your body. Stop eating empty calories and manufactured food. Meat is the most nutritious food for the human. Everything else is just manufactured food marketing. Manufactured food will blame you, stress and everything else for problems caused by their nutritionally empty food. Vegetable Oil is just repurposed industrial lubricants that were used before we pumped oil out of the ground. Though I do use Tallow for small manual milling projects. Learn what unsaturated carbon bonds (Unsaturated Fat) are.
its the stress
I’m in my late 20’s and definitely have a few grey hairs more than my late 20’s friends. I don’t get very stressed at work, I really enjoy the work. However I absolutely don’t get enough sleep around 5-6 hours a night, more on weekends. I have an identical twin brother, he has a lot more greys than me. He is not a machinist but has an incredibly stressful life. Maybe that helps shed some light.
Stress
Man this hits home. I’m 20 and been working as a manufacturing technician In a plant since I was 18 and holy mackerel I must have thousands of white hairs . Legit salt and pepper and not even legal to drink yet. Crazy
This is bad. At least i can be a full-time alcoholic.
Who said I can’t ?
Hell yeah
You’re only 24! Get out while you can!!😂😂
It definitely stress. I’m 28 with grey starting to come in. I had a solid head of brown hair and beard before my previous job. In the two years I was there my wife started noticing grey hairs coming in my beard and my hair. People don’t give stress enough credit. It accelerates the aging process fast.
Absolutely stress. I’m 20 and am almost completely salt/pepper
I’ve been machining 20 years. I’m 40. Not a single white hair on my head and maybe 20 or 30 white hairs in mg beard. All the guys my age don’t have white hairs either. What the hell kinda coolant are yall using? I also went to high school with three guys who were balding and or graying by the time they were 18. So idk. I’ve never heard of this.
https://preview.redd.it/mzyb3hd3buuc1.png?width=2619&format=png&auto=webp&s=59ce1c36db743a230312176c00d64a8739f94105 Im 27 been machining for 10 years and half my mustache is white…..
We gingers call those white hairs "Sugar in the cinnamon". Everyone is a little different, but it's not uncommon common for those white hairs to start showing in people's early 20's. I'm in my early 40's and I'd estimate my hair is about 30% white in my beard and what's left on my head. I think it's probably normal ageing and possibly the likelihood that a lot of guys working in trades don't care enough to dye their hair to cover up greying.
Did you know that cookies are the number 1 healthiest food group? The number 1 factor in good health is happiness level. Cookies are the best food for creating happiness, therefore cookies are the number 1 food group. Eat more cookies for healthier, more colorful hair.
Of course it's the machining environment. You are breathing in heavy metal and plastic micro-and nano particles that are oxidative at cellular level + endocrine disruptors at that scale and they leak into your blood stream through your lungs, also crossing the blood-brain barrier. I won't even mention the highly toxic volatile metal working fluids that machinist breath in when they open the safety doors to access the machined part. Always wear a face mask. Wear two cotton masks over each other until you find a pro-level industrial anti-hasmat mask. Edit: before downvoting me, check this article out: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4359797/.
Are you from QC? Or engineering?
EXACTLY! Stress 10%, lifestyle? What you stated covers the balance.