The first-week checklist for a new operator in forging and metal forming units

A flange forging that left the trimming press twenty minutes ago looks dull grey. To a new helper it looks safe to lift. It is not. Steel stops glowing well before it stops blistering skin, and in a forge that single lesson outranks anything about output or bonus on a joiner's first morning.

Newcomers in forges and press shops meet heat, noise, flying scale and swinging tongs together. Plenty decide within days whether this trade is for them. The sheet below paces that week and puts each lesson in a safe order. Print it single-sided, fix it to a clipboard and hand it over before the joiner's first shift, to the minder rather than the joiner.

HEADER: joiner, section, start date, shift, minder, in-charge.
DAY 1: gate pass, locker, washroom, water points, canteen, first-aid and burns kit, assembly point.
DAY 1: kit fitted and signed for: safety boots, heat-resistant gloves, leather apron, earmuffs or plugs, goggles, visor where needed.
DAY 1: floor walk with the minder: hot-part bins, cooling racks, hammer and press exclusion zones, forklift and crane lanes.
DAY 1: the forge rule, said twice: every billet, forging and die is hot until someone cleared says otherwise.
DAY 2: brief spells near the furnace and hammer, then water and a shaded seat; minder watches for dizziness or cramps.
DAY 2: moving parts: tongs, hooks and trolleys for hot pieces; knees bent for cold bars and blanks.
DAY 3: one machine only, introduced through its stop buttons, guards, interlocks and pedals before it runs.
DAY 3: scale and sparks: where to stand on each blow, why the visor stays down, clearing scale with a rake.
DAY 4: supervised helper work: raking scale, feeding the trimming press, carrying baskets to shot blasting.
DAY 4: spotting rejects: laps, cracks, underfill, mismatch, burrs; whom to tell and which tag to hang.
DAY 5: near-miss card shown; the joiner fills one in for a hazard he noticed himself.
DAY 5: roster pattern, overtime rules, wage date and the person to ask about pay.
DAY 6: second floor walk; the joiner explains the forge rule and the exclusion zones in his own words.
DAY 6 SIGN-OFF: minder, joiner and in-charge sign; skill grid row opened at code 1 on one station.
BARRED IN WEEK ONE: solo running of any hammer, press, header or roll line; die lifting or setting; furnace firing.

Forge helpers who quit early often name the heat. Bodies adapt over days, not hours. Keep Tuesday's spells near the furnace short and stretch them by Thursday. Water, a fan and a shaded bench should sit within a few steps of the hammer. Say openly that week one is the toughest and that it eases. Honesty about the furnace keeps more joiners than any welcome speech.

• Hot forging: tong grip and the manipulator's swing; where scale flies on each blow; the drop hammer's no-go zone during die changes.
• Cold heading: oil mist and slick floors; wire ends that spring once coil bands are cut; hands kept away from feed rolls.
• Deep drawing: two-hand controls and guards on every press; nothing reaches into the die space; oily blanks and trimmed edges handled gloved.
• Roll forming: banded coils under tension; razor edges on sheet; crane signals and the coil path; stacking with cut-resistant gloves.
• Heat treatment: quench tank lips, hot baskets, furnace door swing, and only cleared hands loading or unloading.

1. 1

   Minder

   Marks every line as it is covered, writes a word against anything rushed, and stays beside the joiner whenever a hammer, press or furnace is live.

2. 2

   Joiner

   Signs on day six that each line was explained to him, read out in his own language when print is a barrier.

3. 3

   In-charge

   Asks the joiner to talk through two or three lines unprompted, and countersigns only when the answers hold up.

4. 4

   Office

   Puts the signed page in the personal file and creates the code 1 entry on the skill grid.

Choose minders deliberately. A calm code 3 hand from the joiner's own shift beats whoever is idle that morning. Minding costs him output, so thank him by name at the month-end meeting and, if your pay structure has room, through a small allowance.

A large order can bring five helpers through the gate on one morning, and that is when inductions collapse. Run Monday and Tuesday for the batch, one minder per pair. From Wednesday, spread them over separate stations, each with his own minder. Short-term hands still get both opening days complete; a hot billet burns a fortnight's casual worker as badly as a permanent one.

Day six opens the record rather than closing it. The joiner's grid row needs a next station and a target month, kept in the forging skill matrix template. Brief check-ins after one month and after three reveal whether he is progressing and whether he means to stay. Documents and day-one admin are covered by a standard joining checklist.

Press shops can borrow the staged approach from the deep drawing induction steps. Suppliers inducting casual hands ahead of customer audits can read the two-day induction for forged auto parts. Crew, die and heat issues for the wider trade sit on the forge and press shop hub. For a full induction designed around your floor, note your requirements.