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Press Release
By: Janine Wine
Communications and Marketing Coordinator
Dickson, TN: TCAT Dickson Machine Tool Technology instructor Alan Matlock never dreamed of teaching the next generation of machinists but after his parents urged him to visit the Dickson Campus in the early 2000s, Matlock received his diploma and went on to work in a trade that has proven to be vital in the manufacturing process.
Alan had a different plan for life after high school. He wanted to farm with his father. But unlike most teenagers, Alan listened when his parents, David and Annette, spoke. They told him he needed a plan outside of farming – a way to make a living for himself and his future family.
When Alan’s parents suggested he tour TCAT Dickson, he agreed – partly out of respect for his parents and partly because he knew his own father, David, had graduated from the Machine Tool Technology program in the early eighties.
“When I got out of high school I was going to do one of two things – be an electrician or a machinist,” David recalled. “I started working at the old Schrader plant right out of high school. I got to speak with the guys in the machine shop. An opening became available here (in Machine Tool Technology) before I could get into an electrician program,” David added.
David spent eighteen months in TCAT Dickson’s Machine Tool Technology program, graduated, and went straight to work at Peterson Tool working as a machinist. “I really liked what I was doing there. We worked for a defense company. About March – springtime – I got the fever to farm again,” David shared.
David resigned his position with Peterson Tool but not before they offered him more pay to keep him on as an employee. “I appreciated they wanted to pay me more, but I knew I wanted to farm. I used a lot of what I had learned on the farm. When I got things stuck, I would remember that I knew how to get things unstuck,” David said, laughing.
Meanwhile, Alan grew up and became curious about how things were made, put together, and worked. “Growing up on the farm watching dad fix things made me want to get in there with him and fix things, too,” Alan shared. “I was probably eight or nine years old, and he had a mower in the barn. I asked if he was okay with me taking it apart and putting it back together. I took that mower apart and put it back together several times,” Alan recalled.
“He (Alan) was always taking our furniture apart. You had to be careful where you sat. He was always taking things apart. He even made a dual-wheel lawn mower,” David said and Alan corrected, “I actually made two.”
Alan used scrap steel to bring his vision for the dual-wheeled mower to life. “Machinists have to think outside the box. There is no box for us. We make the box,” Alan said.
Fast forward a few years to when Alan was about to graduate from high school himself. “When he came along, he was a tremendous help to me on the farm. He wanted to stay home and farm with me. I told him the world was different at that time from when I made the choice to farm. He (Alan) needed a job with a 401k and insurance. It was a lot harder to farm and start a family by that time,” David said.
“When I graduated, I didn’t want to go to a traditional four-year college. I never considered coming here to TCAT until he and mom convinced me to at least learn a trade. Dad pushed me to look at machine shop. We came and toured, and I thought – I can do that. I thought it looked pretty cool,” Alan said. Then, the program still took eighteen months to complete and came with a tuition price tag of around $3,000 for the entire program.
“About halfway through the program I realized I wanted to be a machinist full time instead of farming,” Alan recalled. After graduation Alan worked for Burns Gauge and Machine before eventually landing at Hamilton Machine for five years. “My knowledge exploded there. They were able to teach me so many things.”
Alan then took a job with Nashville Wire but left for a better opportunity at Tennessee Tool in Charlotte. In the end, Nashville Wire called him and made him an offer too good to pass up, and he went back.
“He has given me pointers. I gave him some early on. The machines out here now are so much more advanced. The CNC (computer-controlled) machine – that thing just blows my mind. The stuff he can make in a few minutes took me a lot longer,” David said.
Alan programmed one of the CNC machines to show his dad just how fast he could make a part with ½ - 13 thread to make a U bolt. It took Alan a mere 56 seconds to complete the task. “I could have done that in 54 seconds,” David joked.
Alan, a husband and father of two, is now giving his young son some pointers on machining. Alan introduced his son to manual machining when the pair recently worked on his son’s pinewood derby car. “I let him crank the handle to cut the metal. It was a pretty big deal,” Alan recalled.
Being back on TCAT Dickson’s campus and inside the Machine Tool Technology shop that his son now runs made David step back into time. “There are so many more machines now. We didn’t have nearly that much equipment,” David said.
When David was learning to be a machinist, he said his favorite tool was the lathe. “I really liked working on the lathe and watching the cutting tools shave off the metal,” he said.
Like father like son. The apple did not fall far from the tree in terms of David and Alan. Alan, too, likes working on lathes but also enjoys mills. He recalled working on a lathe to complete a job and then being excited to switch over to the mill for a while and then equally as excited to return to the lathe when the next job required it.
David is proud of the history TCAT Dickson holds for the Matlock family and the future his son has at their shared alma mater. “You can’t imagine, for him to be out there (in the shop) teaching way above what I learned – to say I’m proud of him is an understatement. He grew up with a work ethic few kids do,” David shared.
As for Alan, he has not forgotten where he came from or the knowledge and experience, he gained from working alongside his dad on the farm and from working as a machinist in the private sector. Even though they both still farm, teaching is Alan’s passion now. “The biggest thrill I get is when the students can’t get it and they are struggling and then all of a sudden you watch them and see their faces when it clicks and they get it. That is really incredible,” Alan said.
Machine Tool Technology was one of the first programs TCAT Dickson offered. The college has gone through several name changes during its sixty-plus year history, but the Machine Tool Technology program has remained constant.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects more than 34,200 job openings for machinists and tool and die makers will be available each year through 2034 to replace existing workers as they retire or exit the labor force.
A quick search for machinist jobs in Tennessee revealed 198 available positions including some in Dickson, Clarksville, Nashville, McEwen, Franklin, and Ashland City.
TCAT Dickson’s Machine Tool Technology program takes sixteen months or 1,728 clock hours to complete and is offered at TCAT Dickson campuses in Dickson and Clarksville. For more information visit tcatdickson.edu or call 615-441-6220.
TCAT Dickson is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution, is accredited by the Council on Occupational Education, and complies with non-discrimination laws: Title VI, Title IX, Section 504, and ADA. Located on Highway 46 in Dickson, the technical training college also has extension campuses in Clarksville, and Franklin. Additional information about the school is located at www.TCATDickson.edu.
David Matlock (right) watches his son Alan Matlock as he sets up a Haas TL 1 CNC lathe to make cuts with ½ -13 thread which will eventually become a U bolt. It took Alan only 56 seconds to complete the task on the fully automatic machine. David, who learned to be a machinist using all manual tools, joked that he could have done it in only 54 seconds.
Alan Matlock (left) programs a CNC lathe in the shop at TCAT Dickson’s main campus where he teaches Machine Tool Technology to the next generation of machinists as his dad, David, watches. David graduated from TCAT Dickson’s Machine Tool Technology program in the early 1980s before CNC machines were used and everything was done manually. Alan, also a TCAT Dickson alum, graduated from the program he now teaches in 2006.
Alan Matlock (left) observes his dad, David, as he looks over a manual lathe like the ones he learned to use when he attended and graduated from TCAT Dickson in the early 1980s.
