Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
In short: today's best AI models could do about 18% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 82% of the time, stays with people.
Set up, operate, or tend milling or planing machines to mill, plane, shape, groove, or profile metal or plastic work pieces.
12,460 people do this job in the US. $52,800 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on7 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people33 h
Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 7 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 33 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Study blueprints, layouts, sketches, or work orders to assess workpiece specifications and to determine tooling instructions, tools and materials needed, and sequences of operations (about 3 h); Compute dimensions, tolerances, and angles of workpieces or machines according to specifications and knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics (about 2 h); Select cutting speeds, feed rates, and depths of cuts, applying knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics (about 2 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 18%
- 0%
- 82%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 4%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 18%. Today's estimate: 18%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 15 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 86% of this job's working time as physical work. For 86% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 54% in a purpose-built cell, 33% in a structured facility. 1.19 of 3, the 58th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 14%
- In a purpose-built cell 54%
- In a structured facility 33%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 15 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observe milling or planing machine operation, and adjust controls to ensure conformance with specified tolerances.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Caron Engineering TMAC (Tool Monitoring Adaptive Control) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 13% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Position and secure workpieces on machines, using holding devices, measuring instruments, hand tools, and hoists.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, HALTER MillStacker Compact 12 LoadAssistant (FANUC 6-axis arm + SmartControl) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 11% | 21 min8 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Make templates or cutting tools.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, TRUMPF TruLaser with LiftMaster Compact, SortMaster Station and SortMaster Vision (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 11% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Mount attachments and tools, such as pantographs, engravers, or routers, to perform other operations, such as drilling or boring.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Fastems RODIN robot cell (robot serving Mazak turn-mill / 5-axis machines) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 29 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Select and install cutting tools and other accessories according to specifications, using hand tools or power tools.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ZOLLER »roboBox« (E. Zoller GmbH & Co. KG) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 21 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Move cutters or material manually or by turning handwheels, or engage automatic feeding mechanisms to mill workpieces to specifications.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Precision Tool Technologies lights-out CNC cells (CNC machining centers with robotics and automated coolant delivery) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Replace worn tools, using hand tools, and sharpen dull tools, using bench grinders.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, HAIMER Automation Cube One (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Study blueprints, layouts, sketches, or work orders to assess workpiece specifications and to determine tooling instructions, tools and materials needed, and sequences of operations.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Remove workpieces from machines, and check to ensure that they conform to specifications, using measuring instruments such as microscopes, gauges, calipers, and micrometers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Renishaw Equator gauging system + loading robot in Olympus NDT 5-axis milling cell (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 8 min3 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Compute dimensions, tolerances, and angles of workpieces or machines according to specifications and knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Select cutting speeds, feed rates, and depths of cuts, applying knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 29 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Verify alignment of workpieces on machines, using measuring instruments such as rules, gauges, or calipers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Renishaw machine tool touch probes (OMP40-2, RMP600) with Inspection Plus / EasyProbe cycles (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 8 min3 min to 21 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic38% now, 38% by 2028
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic10% now, 10% by 2028
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing9% now, 9% by 2028
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners6% now, 6% by 2028
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic10% now, 10% by 2028
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators24% now, 24% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
- Machine Shops; Turned Product; and Screw, Nut, and Bolt Manufacturing1,830 people
- Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing1,210 people
- Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing (3321, 3322, 3325, 3326, and 3329 only)1,030 people
- Alumina and Aluminum Production and Processing1,020 people
- Machinery Manufacturing (3331, 3332, 3334, and 3339 only)880 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 18% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 18% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Study blueprints, layouts, sketches, or work orders to assess workpiece specifications and to determine tooling instructions, tools and materials needed, and sequences of operations (100% of the task's time now); Compute dimensions, tolerances, and angles of workpieces or machines according to specifications and knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics (100% of the task's time now); and Select cutting speeds, feed rates, and depths of cuts, applying knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Observe milling or planing machine operation, and adjust controls to ensure conformance with specified tolerances; Position and secure workpieces on machines, using holding devices, measuring instruments, hand tools, and hoists; and Make templates or cutting tools. Together such tasks are about 82% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 86% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 86% of the working time, 33% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.19 of 3. One example: Caron Engineering TMAC (Tool Monitoring Adaptive Control) for "observe milling or planing machine operation, and adjust controls to ensure conformance with specified tolerances". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 15 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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