What you do for a living (work, job)?

so you're the hardware geek? wouldn't surprise me if we have or will cross paths. automation is a pretty small and incestuous club. i deal with the MES and analytics layers. i do my best to stay out of controls.

totally relatable and i'm in the same situation.

 

Work for Social Security Administration past 5 years. Great stories for my book when I retire from this gig.

Best people are old. I have shaken hands with two Carlson Raiders from WWII. Humbled....... many other great and shitty people. Out,

 

Livestock side. I grew up on 3000 acres of wheat and barley dryland farming in southern WA, with about 100 head of cows. Row-cropping isnt my passion. I'd much rather deal with animals all day, or hay. Hay I can do.

 

I'm a welder also but have an opportunity to jump on a drilling rig!! Seriously considering it, didn't go to college...

 

I'm a hospital Life Safety Officer.

 

You don't like welding? What kind of welding do you do? If you are making the same brackets, saddles, etc. every day, I can see how that would get boring. I welded for 4 summers, at a boat factory, during college. Xpress Boats. Did something different every day, so it was never really boring.. I liked it a lot.. but it was hot AF in there... and dirty. Glad I went to college and all, but I enjoyed welding while it lasted. Was just basic MIG and TIG welding, on aluminum. Nothing tough lol.

 

Service/Depot level repair on military/government EO/IR camera systems.

 

I work for an oil and gas manufacturing company. We build vessels, sand filters, blow downs, skids, trailer units, processing equipment etc. I specialize in components work so I build most of the smaller more technical stuff like baskets, cabinets, boxes, ladders, hitches, brackets, saddles, pedestals, sand pans and so on. I run MIG and flux core on steel with the odd bit of aluminum spool gun welding. Nothing we do is light enough for TIG.

I pigeonholed myself into the components stuff because welding on skids and vessels was pushing me over the edge. I seriously can't spend my day staring through a mask at an arc. I need to use my brain, I need challenges to overcome and skills to develop. In the components stuff, I do welding but I also need to know how to tap holes, run drill presses, run bandsaws, figure out angles etc.

I honestly believe the best parts of my job are the times I'm not actually welding. I can't finish up a bead fast enough. I find my mind wanders and I get bored out of my skull. I refuse to go for a B-Pressure ticket because I'd shoot myself if I got stuck rolling pipe or welding vessel seams.

Let's not talk about the 50 - 60+ hour work weeks or the destruction I'm wreaking on my body despite being the most safety/PPE conscious person in the shop.

The type of people I work with make me beat my head against a wall too. Let's just say they're not the type of people I associate with for a multitude of reasons...

I knew in the 2nd year of my apprenticeship that I didn't want to be a welder. I stuck it out to get the ticket, and now it's time to move on. I'm looking into applying to fire depts and a couple of police depts as well as going to EMT school. I really wish I would have gone to college for a degree first, then moved into the trades if I so desired then. Kinda hard to go from mid-30's per hour as a journeyman to being a starving student. Easier to go the other way. LOL

LOL....wow. Long winded rant off..

 

Where abouts you located?
You basically stated the exact same thing a friend of mine told me years ago when I considered heading in that direction. I dig the welding and fabbing in the garage but I can see how it could drive a guy nuts. Not to mention the meat sticks working on site.

 

I'm in Grande Prairie. Meat sticks is a pretty accurate term for some of the people I work with. LOL. I'm lucky in that they're pretty decent people for the most part, and I have no issues working with them but they're just...thick. If it's not welding, drugs, booze or sex related they're ignorant. It's frustrating.

If I was just fabbing my own stuff, it welding wouldn't be so bad. Welding is a great skill to have. Not so great as a career.

 

A&P mechanic for a very low cost airline, frontier air lines. Don't bash me, positive response will help

 

A&P is difficult to get! Nice job! I wish I would have gotten my tickets to take the tests while I was still active duty in the military. (aviation mechanic)

 

Thanks Chris. I try. Right now I'm struggling with the "Do I finish college or do I start applying for jobs". I grew up as a 4th generation farm kid in south-central WA state (Klickitat Co), so I'm used to farm-life. 3000 acres of farm land and cows. 12 years in the military as a blackhawk mechanic/crewchief kinda kept things going (head in the clouds). I'm at that point where I have finally figured out the whole "What do I want to do when I grow up".

Ranching/farming and dealing with animals every day is a big self-soothing and emotional help for me. (4 tours overseas). Animals are honest. The daily in's and out's of seeing them, the structure, is good.

 

LOL!!! no worries!!!

 

such majestic animals! i love wolves

 

My 5-6 days a week ride, the big one.

 

You sure it's not the small one? pretty sure it would fit in the bed of my crewmax

 

Theres a picture somewhere of a smart car in the bed of a Dodge diesel

 

Check my long winded post above LOL. Not sure what R stamp is. Here in Canada we have journeyman (I have it), interprovincial Red Seal (I have it), CWB tickets (structural tickets, mine expired, they're expensive and I don't need them for my current job) and B-pressure (pressure ticket, which I refuse to get because the thought of welding vessels makes me borderline suicidal).

There's also a few TIG related tickets, but you need a B pressure to get those.

 

Yeah, our B-pressure would cover that kind of work. There's also a heavy wall ticket that can be added to it for welding on vessels over a certain thickness/PSI rating. I can't remember what it is though. Boilermakers are a tough bunch, it's not easy work. The guys that I've met working on boilers really do love their work, it's not for the guys like me with one foot out the door. LOL

 

Some of the vessels we build are rated for 10,000 - 15,000PSI, but most are around the 3000 - 5000PSI range. Lots of production testing and sand filter stuff.

Here's a pic of some vessels f similar to what we build. We build some on trailers and others on skids. These ones are portable frac separators.

 

2" - 4". We did one last year that had 5" thick walls. We submerge arc weld all the seams and circs on the vessels. MIG root, sub arc fill and cap. The nozzles and manways are 6010 rooted, flux core fill, 7018 cap.