What is a Millwright?
A millwright is a high precision craftsman or tradesman who installs, dismantles, repairs, reassembles, and moves implements/machinery in various settings including farms, feed lots and rail heads.
As the name suggests, the original function of a millwright was the construction of flour mills, sawmills, paper mills and fulling mills powered by water or wind, mostly of wood with a limited number of metal parts. Since both of these structures originated from antiquity, millwrights could be considered, arguably, as one of the oldest engineering trades and the forerunner of the modern mechanical engineer.
In modern usage, a millwright is engaged with the erection of implements/machinery. This includes such tasks as leveling, aligning and installing implements/machinery on foundations or base plates and setting, leveling and aligning electric motors or other power sources such as turbines with the equipment, which millwrights typically connect with some type of coupling.