Tool and Die Maker

Tool and Die Maker Mel-Co-Ed, Inc. Pawtucket, RI Job Details Part-time | Full-time | Contract $22 - $33 an hour 1 day ago Benefits Paid time off Qualifications Interpersonal skills GD&T Blueprint reading Manufacturing Mechanical troubleshooting Full Job Description Toolmaker / Die Maker — Progressive Dies, EDM, and the Next Chapter of a 78-Year-Old Shop Mel-Co-Ed, Inc. | Pawtucket, RI | Full-time Read this before you scroll past. Most toolmaker postings read the same: "3+ years experience, read blueprints, team player, competitive pay." If that's what you're looking for, close this tab — there are a hundred of those. This is a different conversation. Who we are Mel-Co-Ed has been stamping metal in Pawtucket since 1948. Three generations. Same building, same river, same trade. We make challenge coins carried by people who've earned them, badges worn by cops and soldiers, findings that end up in jewelry you'd recognize, and industrial components that end up in places we'll never see. 45,000 square feet. Four divisions. A steady backlog and equipment we actually maintain. The current owner — who will be the person interviewing you — started in shipping and receiving twenty years ago and worked every role on the way to running it. He's on the floor most days. You won't be hired by HR and handed off to a manager. You'll be hired by the guy whose name is on the door. What the job actually is You'll build, repair, and modify progressive and compound dies. You'll cut precision components on wire EDM and burn detail features on sinker EDM — punches, inserts, cavities, keyways, tight-tolerance profiles. You'll debug new tools until they run clean, diagnose problems on tools that have been running for decades, and fabricate the parts nobody else can source. When a die comes off the press stamping bad parts, you're the person the setup guys walk to. When engineering is designing a new tool, you're the person whose opinion changes the design. When we win a job nobody else can quote, it's because you can build what nobody else can build. This is not a maintenance role dressed up as toolmaking. This is the real work. Where this shop is going We're 78 years old and we're not done. We're in the middle of rebuilding how this place operates — digital job routing on the floor, a rebuilt quoting system, better process data flowing to the people who need it, CAD/CAM workflows that actually talk to the machines, newer EDM capability coming in. We're evaluating acquisitions. We're investing in the building. We're building a shop that the next generation of toolmakers will want to work in. We want a toolmaker who sees where the trade is heading — CAD/CAM, EDM, data, automation where it makes sense — and wants to help drag us there faster. If you've got opinions about the software, the workholding, the fixturing, or how dies should be designed differently in 2026 than they were in 1996, we want to hear them. The next chapter of this shop gets written by the people on the floor, not by a consultant in a slide deck. If you've spent years watching good shops stagnate because nobody listened to the toolroom — this is the opposite of that. Who we're looking for Someone who has actually built progressive dies from scratch, not just run machines adjacent to them Wire and sinker

EDM:

programming, setup, electrode design, fixturing — real command of the process Fluent with CAD/CAM. Open to new software and process tech as we bring it in Reads prints and GD&T like a first language Can walk up to a die that's stamping a bad part and tell you what's wrong before lunch — and why Takes pride in a clean toolroom, accurate records, and work that outlives them 5+ years in a real toolroom preferred, but what you've actually built matters more than how long you've been clocking in The kind of person other toolmakers respect — because you earned it, not because you demanded it Who we're not looking for People who do the minimum. People who badmouth their last shop in the interview. People who've been "in manufacturing for 20 years" but can't walk a stranger through a die they built end to end. People who think "we've always done it this way" is an answer to anything. People who need a manager to tell them what matters. The deal Monday-Friday, 40 hours. Overtime available. Pay based on what you actually bring. No narrow band. A players get paid like A players. Paid time off, bonus pay, real benefits Direct access to the owner. Real influence over how the shop evolves. In-person, Pawtucket RI. Must commute reliably. How to apply Skip the generic cover letter.

Send us this instead:

The toughest die you've ever built or fixed. What went wrong, how you diagnosed it, what you did, and what you learned. Specifics. Tolerances. The actual story. A tight-tolerance EDM job you're proud of. Same format. Why was it hard. How did you solve it. One thing about modern toolmaking — a piece of software, a process, a technique, a philosophy — that's made your work better in the last five years. And one thing about the trade that frustrates you and that you'd fix if it were your shop.

Job Types:

Full-time, Part-time, Contract Pay:

$22.00 - $33.00 per hour

Benefits:

Paid time off

Work Location:

In person