Production
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines to crush, grind, or polish materials, such as coal, glass, grain, stone, food, or rubber.
Median pay
$48,540
Growth to 2035
−2%
little or no change
Openings a year
2,300
Time to qualify*
6 months
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
- Prior experience
- None
Calculate your switch to crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Outdoors in all weather
Hazardous conditions
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders: 65% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Observe operation of equipment to ensure continuity of flow, safety, and efficient operation, and to detect malfunctions.
- Clean, adjust, and maintain equipment, using hand tools.
- Tend accessory equipment, such as pumps and conveyors, to move materials or ingredients through production processes.
- Move controls to start, stop, or adjust machinery and equipment that crushes, grinds, polishes, or blends materials.
- Notify supervisors of needed repairs.
- Weigh or measure materials, ingredients, or products at specified intervals to ensure conformance to requirements.
- Record data from operations, testing, and production on specified forms.
- Reject defective products and readjust equipment to eliminate problems.
Also called: Beveler Operator · Cullet Trucker · Grinder · Grinder Operator · Machine Operator · Machine Tender · Miller · Polisher
Outlook and AI
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders held 26,600 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 26,100 by 2035 (−2%, little or no change; all jobs: +3.5%).
Productivity change - share decreases as machines are becoming capable of more functionalities and are more integrated with each other allowing workers to produce more.
Compare with
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