A professional who tends power shear that cuts metal objects, such as sheets, plates, billets or bars, to specified length. Respnsibilities include:

• Lifts workpiece manually, or by hoist or crane, to machine bed or roller table.
• Positions workpiece against side guides and end stops or aligns layout lines under shear blade.
• Starts machine that clamps workpiece and lowers blade to cut metal.
• May tend shear on production line where shear is fed by conveyor, such as automobile frame line or rolling mill.
• May position stops according to calibrated gauge on machine to shear to length such items as scrap, billets, or reinforcing rods.
• May verify size of sheared items, using tape measurer, caliper, or template.
• May shear metal to specified circular or curved dimensions.
• May be designated by type of shear as alligator-shear operator; gate-shear operator i; or by application of shear as hot-billet-shear operator; scrap-shear operator; square-shear operator ii.