Will AI replace Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
0/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 2% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 0% of the work
What the job involves
Perform precision smoothing, sharpening, polishing, or grinding of metal objects.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Out of reach(18)
- Monitor machine operations to determine whether adjustments are necessary, stopping machines when problems occur.
- Inspect, feel, and measure workpieces to ensure that surfaces and dimensions meet specifications.
- Set up and operate grinding or polishing machines to grind metal workpieces, such as dies, parts, and tools.
- Perform basic maintenance, such as cleaning and lubricating machine parts.
- Select and mount grinding wheels on machines, according to specifications, using hand tools and applying knowledge of abrasives and grinding procedures.
and 13 more
Also called
Saw Filer · Tool Grinder · Die Polisher · Card Grinder · Cylinder Grinder · Finish Filer · Saw Fitter · Sharpener
Related jobs
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic6/100
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand6/100
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing3/100
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic7/100
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic3/100
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics