Metal polisher
Also called buffer, bed buffer, tube buffer
Metal polishers use metal working equipment and machinery to polish and buff almost finished metal workpieces in order to enhance their smoothness and appearance and to remove oxidisation, tarnishing the metal after the other fabrication processes. They may operate equipment using diamond solutions, silicon-made polishing pads, or working wheels with a leather polishing strop, and tend to these materials ensuring their effectiveness.
What you'd do
Metal polishers, wheel grinders and tool sharpeners · ILO- Operating fixed or portable buffing and polishing machines
- Sharpening cutting tools and instruments using grinding wheels or mechanically operated grinding machines
- Repairing, adjusting and sharpening saw blades and metal teeth of cylinders in textile carding machines
- Dressing grinding wheels, according to specifications
- Monitoring machine operations to determine whether adjustments are necessary, and stopping machines when problems occur
- Inspecting, feeling, and measuring work pieces to ensure that surfaces and dimensions meet specifications
- Selecting and mounting grinding wheels on machines according to specifications, using hand tools and applying knowledge of abrasives and grinding procedures
- Indoors
- On your feet most of the day
- Lots of contact with people, mostly with colleagues
- Some freedom to decide
- Usually 40 hours a week
- Deadlines now and then
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Limited prospectsFewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,200 a month (Bulgaria) to €5,100 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among craft and related trades workers in the EU, women earn 26% less per hour than men. Craft and related trades workers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training in mechanics and metal trades is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.17 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 7 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for metal polishers, wheel grinders and tool sharpeners. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).