Machinist Begins Training at RichmondCC While in High School

Nov. 1, 2019 - Nineteen-year-old Dalton Nuttall of Cordova has gotten pretty used to being the youngest guy on the job at Kennametal, but what he lacks in years, he makes up for in knowledge thanks to the education he received at Richmond Community College.

Nuttall graduated from RichmondCC in May with a diploma in Machining, and he is a CNC operator for the metalworking company in Asheboro.

“As far as industrial jobs where I’m working toward my career, there hasn’t been a place that I’ve worked that I have not been the youngest person in the building,” Nuttall said.

That’s because he started working on his Machining diploma in the 11th grade. As a student at Richmond Senior High School, he took free college classes at RichmondCC through the dual enrollment program after instructor Mitchell Lowery convinced him to give machining a try.

“I actually wanted to go into construction, but once I came to RichmondCC and saw the machine shop, I knew this is what I wanted to do,” Nuttall said.

Desire to Learn

Nuttall has a passion for learning so he gave the college program his all, while also earning many certifications through the Career Technical Education program at Richmond Senior High. Some days he went to school from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., but as he said, if you like what you’re doing it’s not work. This is why Nuttall is also working for a local machine fabrication shop on his days off from Kennametal.

“Most people would like to take those three days off and relax, but because it’s something I like to do so much, I don’t mind doing it every single day,” he said. “For me, it’s not going to work; it’s going to have fun.”

Nuttall said his part-time employer has actually tried to get him to come work full-time, but Nuttall said working for Kennametal was his goal after taking a tour of the plant as a student. He said the pay is great, the benefits even better, and he never has to work more than three days in a row before he gets a break.

Machinist Mindset

There are a lot of things Nuttall likes about being a machinist, one of them being job security.

“Anything you use every day, a machinist had something to do with it, even down to your toothbrush,” Nuttall said, quoting his other machining instructor, Clayton Dial. “Mr. Dial would tell us, “Whatever you’re using, somewhere down the line a machinist had his hand in it.”

While a machining career is not going away, it is definitely evolving as more industries turn to automated control of machine tools through software.

“I like the manual part, but my real passion is programming the machine, getting on the computer and drawing the piece up,” Nuttall said. “We call it the machinist mindset: being able to imagine something that isn’t there. I like the idea that I can imagine something the average person can’t and knowing I can bring something into the world that wasn’t here until the idea came to me.”

College Is Key

Nuttall is the first in his family for the past four generations to go to college. In fact, his parents did not even complete high school. However, seeing what education has done for their son and where it has gotten him, both have gone back to school. His mother now has a high school diploma, and his father is working on earning his high school credentials through the Adult Education program at RichmondCC.

Nuttall relied heavily on his college instructors at RichmondCC to guide him along the way and advise him on what to do.

“Mr. Dial has been a life saver for me. It didn’t matter what day of the week it was or what time it was, all I had to do was call him with my questions, and he’d get it figured out for me. And if he didn’t know the answer, he’d call the person who did,” Nuttall said.

After graduating high school, Nuttall qualified for the RichmondCC Guarantee, so he completed the final two semesters of his college diploma tuition free. He has another year of eligibility with the Guarantee, so Nuttall plans to come back to RichmondCC this fall and take classes that will help him toward earning an engineering degree.

Start Early

Nuttall wants to inspire other young people to take advantage of the opportunity like he did, which is why he goes to the high schools to encourage students to take free college classes at RichmondCC.

“I tell them now is the time to start getting everything planned out, so they can be making the same kind of money I’m making straight out of high school. And as Mr. Dial told me: ‘Why not do it while someone else is paying for it,’” Nuttall said.

His words are not falling on deaf ears. Nuttall has encouraged four of his friends to enroll in the class, plus many high school students he and Dial have talked to have signed up for machining classes this fall semester.

“When I first started in the program, I was the youngest kid in the class. Everyone else had at least 10 years on me. But when I graduated, I was the oldest,” he said. “It’s a great experience knowing that I made that big of a change in the program in getting more young guys in there.”

For More Information

To learn more about beginning your career as a machinist, call RichmondCC instructor Clayton Dial at (910) 410-1871 or email pcdial@richmondcc.edu.