A machine tender works at any place that utilizes machines, and is responsible for the general operation and maintenance of a given machine (or group of machines). The machine tender will normally load and unload the machine, whenever that’s applicable, and keep it working through whatever means necessary (e.g. perform basic maintenance, keep it loaded with fuel if it uses any, etc). Furthermore, machine tenders are sometimes required to perform more complicated repairs if a dedicated mechanic isn’t available for the purpose.
Becoming a machine tender is mostly easy as it’s a manual labor job that doesn’t require any special skills in most cases. Whenever a specific machine tender position does require any extra skills or knowledge, those are normally provided by the company offering the job or can be learned in the course of employment very quickly. The job can sometimes involve extra long working hours as some machines cannot be turned off until their load has been completely processed.
A machine tender earns between $26,000 – $39,000 a year. The slightly higher figures compared to the job of a machine setter come from the fact that a machine tender is usually constantly occupied by their duties, while machine setters tend to have their job in a more relaxed manner, only actually working when there’s new machinery needed to be installed. On the other hand, machine tenders frequently need to be alert at all times to ensure the proper operation of the machines.