DLewis0289 wrote:Lol, you will meet a lot of Bills in the world. The trick is determining when the rubber hits the road. I have worked Union and Non-Union (clarify never a scab) and have met grumpy old guys that were decent stick welders and that was it, that shouldn't impress you. On the other hand find the grumpy old man that really does know his stuff and don't kiss his ass but try and work with him, grind, hold his fit to tack, whatever and if you don't talk his ear off, he will probably warm up to you and show you some things and berate you when you screw up in a positive way.
Not judging, but the usual mentality for a union tradesman is his craft is a guarded secret, he earned it though sweat over four or five years and isn't going to (a) just give it away and (b) put more competition in the pool.
If the ass chewing is positive, learn from it, if the ass chewing is personal, make sure you have bond money and beat his ass after work.
Only two options in this world, handle things or get handled.
OMG that reminds me of punching my foreman in the face, knocking him down, and spitting on him...never got fired, never got my ass chewed by the BA and got plenty of high fives for my trouble...gosh the good ole days
Honestly that's what is wrong in this world. Now they want to kill you , shoot you, stab you for BS. The art of a good old tussle in the parking lot is gone. When I used to respond to bar fights (a) I could arrest for aggravated battery because alcohol was involved. Felony (b) Arrest for simple battery do the whole book in thing. Misdemeanor. In Illinois at the time you could bond for 1000/10% on the misdemeanor and be on the street before I finished the report.
Or what I would usually do if an ambulance wasn't involved, serious injury or property damage, tell both parties to leave and if either one showed back up they were going to jail.
AWS D1.1 / ASME IX / CWB / API / EWI / RWMA / BSEE
Scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality." Nikola Tesla
DLewis0289 wrote:Honestly that's what is wrong in this world. Now they want to kill you , shoot you, stab you for BS. The art of a good old tussle in the parking lot is gone. When I used to respond to bar fights (a) I could arrest for aggravated battery because alcohol was involved. Felony (b) Arrest for simple battery do the whole book in thing. Misdemeanor. In Illinois at the time you could bond for 1000/10% on the misdemeanor and be on the street before I finished the report.
Or what I would usually do if an ambulance wasn't involved, serious injury or property damage, tell both parties to leave and if either one showed back up they were going to jail.
I bounced at a strip club for awhile and got to be friends with the cops who responded to the calls about every half hour and finally one cop says to me, " you know this place has cameras , right?" I said" I know that"...he says "well drag these guys over to this camera (as he is pointing) because it doesn't work and I am getting tired of lying on my reports to cover your ass"....The mayors brother owned the strip club and I guess I didn't respond well to idiots that couldn't keep their junk in their pants Gosh I was good
Let me guess....the Industrial Strip on the Gary side lol
AWS D1.1 / ASME IX / CWB / API / EWI / RWMA / BSEE
Scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality." Nikola Tesla
DLewis0289 wrote:Let me guess....the Industrial Strip on the Gary side lol
No but I got an offer to work there once. This place was called Crazy Rock...what a sewer...I was showing up there to work one day and my BA called as I was pulling in the parking lot and put me to work rebuilding a cooling tower...I asked him his address so I could send him a case of Scotch...I walked in and told the bar manager to FO and I quit. I'm no angel but these chicks were scum and the whole place was disgusting.
I'm a bit of an old hand in the game now, but one thing I have learned over the years is that you cannot pick and chose your path completely in this game unless you are one of the elite welders. Just doesn't happen anymore.
When I first started out, it was possible to do so mainly because there were so many large factories around and you could have been stuck in a favored corner and left to TIG away to your heart's content.
But so many of those factories have closed their doors now leaving smaller places just hiring a few guys that can do everything and most forms of welding.
So now you are basically stuck with two choices as the rest of us are. Either:
Work in a production joint that does TIG as well and build your experience, or:
Go to college and train to that elitist level. But that won't get you in straightaway either, you will have to find someone to give you the experience in your chosen path and build a reputation before anyone will even let you in the same area where it is done.
I am not meaning to be critical here at all, but to be considered as anywhere good enough, downhand welding is not enough.
You will need to master all positions to a minimum standard. Not too hard to achieve, but it will take a lot of time and practice.
Here in Oz, most welders nowadays have to do their own fabrication as well. Welders on their own are a slowly dying breed.
Small companies normally don't have enough work for just a full time welder anymore, they must be multi purpose.
Well, it looks to me like what I need to do is just see what I can pick up on the side. My buddy owns a tire shop and seems to believe that he can bring in a descent ammount of welding work by putting "We Weld Aluminum" on his sign. Were about to find out starting today.
I don't mind fab work unless it's big production runs. Monotony like that makes ne feel like a little kid who is being punished with his nose stuck in the corner of a wall.
Most of the tig work that I saw the old boss get was repair jobs. That seemed to always keep things fresh and interesting because you never knew what was coming in that day.....aluminum car rims (he did a lot of these), various small widgets, stainless exhaust manifolds, noodle machines, dirt bikes, ramps, hydraulic cylinders, tool boxes, headache racks, etc.....
Thanks for the info.
Well I certainly wish you the best of luck. Having some contacts certainly helps sometimes.
I don't think we are even allowed to do weld repairs here on alloy rims (but I'm not sure). Some of them are not even weldable. I know we are not allowed to weld tow hitches on trailers anymore, only bolt on ones permitted.
But anyway, all the best for you, hope you find your niche.
I've never actually done a repair on a rim but the boss showed me how to do it several times. That is THE ONLY THING that he ever REALLY showed me how to do. I asked him if he was ever worried about them breaking. His response: "How many times have you heard me tell people 'I guarantee it until you get off of this street' "? Then he asked me "Have you ever seen the same rim come back"? I never saw one come back due to a bad repair.
It is my understanding that welding on any rims is a dangerous practice but when customers are faced with a $70 repair or buying a new $800 - $1200 rim then they are usually willing to assume all risks involved.
There was only ever one aluminum rim that I saw him do that REALLY scared me. It had been curbed and was bent. I asked him how do you bend this back without breaking it? He said "put that rosebud on my torch and watch how it's done, boy". He lit up the acetylene and sooted up the inside of the rim and told me " now we're gonna heat up the other side until that soot almost disappears". When the soot was about 2/3rds gone he had me put an adjustable wrench on it and bend it back in place. Then he welded it up and had me slick it back down with a flap disk so that it matched the original profile.
That one really worried me because I knew that he had just annealed it. It must have worked though because it never came back either. That was an easy $100 for about 45 minutes of work. Not bad at all. I don't think that I'll be doing any repairs of that magnitude because as far as I'm concerned that kind of thing is just asking for trouble. I do not mind repairing dinged up edges or holes where some other vehicle threw a bolt through the tire and punched a hole on the inside of the rim.
The old boss really knew his stuff bit was a real prick to try and work for. He was even rude as hell to the customers a lot of times (read that one as "racist a-hole").
I would only take payment in cash and get a case of amnesia after they leave. Cars that drive on US roads (not off road, ATV etc.) rims are governed by FDOT. I built some rim lines back in the 80's for Titan Wheel and when we were doing run-off parts on the profiling stations (steel rims) testing the equipment (a) we were not allowed to punch the valve stem hole and (b) cut the rims in half and scrap after they came off the line. Trying to remember the stamping that went on the rims, I think it was manufacturing data including date and I am for sure they had to have DOT stamped on them. To get this stamp it means they had to pass a criteria and be documented. Any modification and/or repair I would think would invalidate that. Kind of falls in the category you can but should you?
AWS D1.1 / ASME IX / CWB / API / EWI / RWMA / BSEE
Scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality." Nikola Tesla
I only ever saw one steel rim come into the shop. There was a whole lot more work involved in that repair. The customer had bought a used set of factory Dodge five spoke mag rims for his truck and one of them had been curbed. The boss told me to take it over to the bead blaster and strip the coating off. I did and he sent me back to the blaster and told me that I needed to strip it all off at the base of the spokes around the hub. He said there would more than likely be cracking in that area. He was right. Two of the spokes were cracked just where he said it would be but you couldn't see it due to the coating. I'm not sure what that coating was but it was as tough as any powdercoating that you have ever seen.....and it was five distinctly colored layers deep. I spent well over an hour trying to get that crap off. I didn't even bother watching him weld that up because I knew I would never want to weld on something like that. I still had to slick it off when he was done. It was very hard to try and match the profile lines of that rim and I was not happy with the job when I finished. The boss told me it looked good enough and if the customer didn't like it then that was just too bad because he could take it somewhere else....after he paid for it.
One time a customer got pissed about the price after the repairs had been completed. The boss told the customer "just tell me to cut it off and I will cut it off". Customer told him to cut it off. The boss did. Then the boss told him "it's still gonna be $80 if you want your part back because I don't work for free". Customer called the cops. Cop shows up and tells the customer to pay if he wants to get his part back. Customer started to call the cops again to report that cop. Cop told him "you better put down that effin phone or I'm gonna lock your sorry ass up"! Customer paid for his now non-repaired part and left.
It just so happens that this particular customer had his wife with him and her name was Yowanda. The old boss has been calling his girlfriend "Yowanda" ever since.
