Newnan, Georgia Nov 12, 2026 (Issuewire.com) From Owner to Programmer
Edmund Dorsz once ran his own business, Accelerated Precision Tooling Company, in California. He set the schedules, quoted the jobs, and answered for every part that left the shop. Since January 2025, he has worked as a CNC Programmer at Clayton International Inc., where someone else sets the schedule and he is one voice among many on the floor.
Dorsz says that change taught him something he did not expect. “When you own the shop, people assume you already know everything, because your name is on the door,” he says. “When you go back to being a programmer somewhere else, you find out fast how much you still have to learn from the guys running the machines every day.”
He does not describe the shift as a step down. He describes it as a return to the part of the work he liked best: solving the problem in front of him instead of managing the business around it.
The Lesson He Tells Younger Programmers
Dorsz says the advice he gives newer programmers has nothing to do with any one CAD or CAM package. His own background runs deep in Siemens NX, formerly Unigraphics, and he has used AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Mastercam, and CATIA V5 as well. But he says the software is the easy part to teach.
“The hard part to teach is staying humble about what you don’t know yet,” he says. “I’ve had guys half my age show me a faster way to hold a part, and I listen, because they’re right and I’d rather finish the job well than be the one who was right about the wrong thing.”
He says that attitude came from growing up building things that did not always work the first time. He built Heathkit radios and balsa wood model airplanes as a kid in Detroit. Some flew. Some did not. He says the ones that did not teach him more.
Why Humility Beats Ego on the Shop Floor
Dorsz says the shop floor has a way of correcting anyone who thinks they have nothing left to learn. A part comes back out of tolerance, or a toolpath that worked on one machine does not work on another, and the problem does not care how long someone has been in the trade.
“I enjoy training coworkers when they ask,” he says. “And I can take criticism without getting defensive about it. Those two things go together. If you can’t take correction, you probably can’t give good training either, because you’ll act like you have nothing to learn from the conversation.”
He says that mindset carries into his own hobbies as well. Dorsz is a watchmaker in his spare time, a hobby built entirely on small, repeated corrections. He also has a 3D printer and has carried a few of his own ideas from a rough concept through to a working object. He says both hobbies remind him that precision is a habit, not a one-time achievement.
“A watch movement doesn’t forgive a mistake just because you’re experienced,” he says. “Neither does a five-axis program. You check your work, you ask somebody else to check it too, and you stay open to being wrong.”
Dorsz says the lesson applies beyond manufacturing. Running a small business for years taught him how much responsibility sits with the owner. Going back to programming taught him how much knowledge sits with the people on the floor, regardless of title. He says the programmers who last in the trade are usually the ones who never stopped treating themselves as students.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” he says. “That doesn’t mean I know it all. It means I’ve had more chances to find out how much I don’t.”
About Edmund Dorsz
Edmund Dorsz is a CNC Programmer at Clayton International Inc., based in Newnan, Georgia. He previously owned and operated Accelerated Precision Tooling Company in California. His background includes extensive work with Siemens NX, along with AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Mastercam, and CATIA V5. Outside of work, he is a watchmaker and a hobbyist 3D printer who has carried personal concepts through to finished objects.
Source :Edmund Dorsz
This article was originally published by IssueWire. Read the original article here.
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