Welcome to the community! Tell us about yourself, your welding interests, skills, specialties, equipment, etc.
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Just attempting to use the courtesy Momma taught me and introduce myself, so here goes. My name is Chuck, I live in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California on a small farm that my folks bought. We grow vegetables and raise chickens, all naturally and just to feed the family for now, but we hope to expand this Winter and plant a larger area and variety in the Spring of 2014.

I grew up in Hawaii, where I spent my free time in the ocean...surfing, fishing, scuba diving, you name it. I started work in the pizza business as a teen, progressed into painting cars, and then I got a job sitting on a 5 gallon bucket as a Fire Watch for my Pops. He was the engineer for the Pacific division of HMT, we specialized in tank farms, refinery retrofitting, and fuel depots for all the main islands. At 1st I was a basically a tour guide for the pipeliners we brought in from the "mainland", then became a helper after 3 months of Fire and Manhole watch and learned the cutting torch, grinder, and even got pretty good with the boom truck. I started to fit up flanges, pup pieces, etc., etc. after our "expert" got one too many cases of the bottle flu. Then after proving myself on all that jive I bugged my way into some lessons from a buddy named "Mac" from Pocatello, slowly worked my way up from welding on thread-o-lets and structural supports, to getting my 5g plate test X rayed. Passed on that baby just about that time we built out every petro-chem job we had in the state, LOL!

I did pass a 6g test on some 6 inch schedule 40 for an outfit called Cory-Delta, but when they hired me on they wanted to ship me to Alaska so I hung up my hood and started working on tourboats. Taking people snorkeling and whale watching in the tropical sunshine was the best job ever, even with numbskulls asking me "how far around the island does the water go?", or "what's the elevation here" as we motored along at ...you guessed it, SEA -LEVEL! :lol:

Anyways, that was a long time ago and I now look after my elderly parents and run things here on the farm 100 miles from the ocean in Santa Cruz, and it is not only frosty and cold, but also home to the big man in the gray suit! So, I bought myself a little welder to get in a little hood-time for a good time while stretching my brain thinking up ways to craft some handy nic-nacks, brick a brack and hope things don't turn out like a sh*t-stack. Ahem, pardon me..it was all I could come up with that rhymed in such short order.

Thanks for the great place to shoot the breeze while I learn some "Tips and Tricks"!

Aloha and Mahalo...Chuck aka "Chuckie"
Hood Time is a Good Time!

Avatar photo is from 1992, on Maui.
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Hey,

Welcome to our forum, sounds like you have a bit of experience under your belt.

When you said "big man" i thought you were talking about a bigfoot hoax. Sorry but thats how my mind works.

Mick.
Mike
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Welcome to the forum.
M J Mauer Andover, Ohio

Linoln A/C 225
Everlast PA 200
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I did have a bit of experience and hope it will aid in my new endeavour, alas that was over 10 years ago and mostly SMAW. I used to rely on the sound of a good sizzle to aid in QC, how tig will compare is yet to be seen. I also did tons of spot welding and a little mig too at my body and paint shop...rust made me heaps of cash in Hawaii.

Haha, love the Bigfoot thought Mr. Mick...oddly it was some Australian friends that I surf with in Indonesia that reminded me of what "the man in the grey suit" meant after commenting about the rise in attacks worldwide lately, especially in your neck of the woods, Scary!

It had been years since 1st hearing the term on "the Endless Summer" and after hanging about with my mates all Summer I tend to pick up their lingo and have to catch myself when I start using some of the naughty words the keep handy in their vocabulary! I also have to keep from growing a Southern accent...Southern hemisphere that is. It grows on you when in a country where most of the English speaking guys I hang out with are from Australia. I also catch myself speaking Bahasa Indonesia with a Hawaiian pigeon accent, and that confuses EVERYONE!

Off to get my 240v outlet wired up and finish setting up for my first tig weld, wish me luck and thanks for the welcome, Aloha...Chuck.
Hood Time is a Good Time!

Avatar photo is from 1992, on Maui.
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Hey,

I had to look it up, the grey suit bit, but now i get it. You really have traveled around. I only see the world via Facebook.

Mick
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Welcome to the site Chuck! Hope you enjoy your time here...Great bunch of people in our shop.

p.s. you owe me a keyboard, coffee everywhere, "how far around the island does the water go".
Image
Go break something, then you can weld it back the right way.

Image
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Yeah, I got a chuckle from that, too. At least the "elevation" question has a legitimate answer... At high tide, you can be a few feet ABOVE mean sea level, and at low tide, a few feet below...

:roll:

Steve S
jwmacawful
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Stirmind wrote:Just attempting to use the courtesy Momma taught me and introduce myself, so here goes. My name is Chuck, I live in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California on a small farm that my folks bought. We grow vegetables and raise chickens, all naturally and just to feed the family for now, but we hope to expand this Winter and plant a larger area and variety in the Spring of 2014.

I grew up in Hawaii, where I spent my free time in the ocean...surfing, fishing, scuba diving, you name it. I started work in the pizza business as a teen, progressed into painting cars, and then I got a job sitting on a 5 gallon bucket as a Fire Watch for my Pops. He was the engineer for the Pacific division of HMT, we specialized in tank farms, refinery retrofitting, and fuel depots for all the main islands. At 1st I was a basically a tour guide for the pipeliners we brought in from the "mainland", then became a helper after 3 months of Fire and Manhole watch and learned the cutting torch, grinder, and even got pretty good with the boom truck. I started to fit up flanges, pup pieces, etc., etc. after our "expert" got one too many cases of the bottle flu. Then after proving myself on all that jive I bugged my way into some lessons from a buddy named "Mac" from Pocatello, slowly worked my way up from welding on thread-o-lets and structural supports, to getting my 5g plate test X rayed. Passed on that baby just about that time we built out every petro-chem job we had in the state, LOL!

I did pass a 6g test on some 6 inch schedule 40 for an outfit called Cory-Delta, but when they hired me on they wanted to ship me to Alaska so I hung up my hood and started working on tourboats. Taking people snorkeling and whale watching in the tropical sunshine was the best job ever, even with numbskulls asking me "how far around the island does the water go?", or "what's the elevation here" as we motored along at ...you guessed it, SEA -LEVEL! :lol:

Anyways, that was a long time ago and I now look after my elderly parents and run things here on the farm 100 miles from the ocean in Santa Cruz, and it is not only frosty and cold, but also home to the big man in the gray suit! So, I bought myself a little welder to get in a little hood-time for a good time while stretching my brain thinking up ways to craft some handy nic-nacks, brick a brack and hope things don't turn out like a sh*t-stack. Ahem, pardon me..it was all I could come up with that rhymed in such short order.

Thanks for the great place to shoot the breeze while I learn some "Tips and Tricks"!

Aloha and Mahalo...Chuck aka "Chuckie"
now that's what i call an intro!! welcome. i was in hawaii a few times the last being in the waikiki area. what a beautiful place. i'd love to go back but had some trouble with the sp on hotel st.
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Thanks again for the warm welcome and I am sorry about the keyboard...I actually do have a spare one if you need it, it is just sitting in my spare parts cabinet along with all the other do-dads that my computer company sends along with the three orders I've made with them over the years. So, if you(or anyone) could use a decent, lightly used keyboard with more buttons on it than I need just send me your address to cavannatta@gmail.com and I'll box it up and mail it out. I'll do it for nothing if it's in the US, but international would probably be more than the keyboard is worth.

Just the way we do things in Hawaii, and even though I'm in California now I don't ever plan on changing the "Aloha Spirit" that runs though me...I would ask a favor though, maybe someone could tell me how to get email notifications for any replies to threads I'm involved in, if that is a feature on these forums? I'm not sure what program this site is running and so I don't know if it has that capacity, but if it does I sure would like to use it. I'm pretty forgetful as well as busy as a bee, so to keep from being rude and unresponsive any reminders I can get will be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks again for the replies and Aloha til next time...Chuck
Hood Time is a Good Time!

Avatar photo is from 1992, on Maui.
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Belay that last request, I took some initiative and found what I was looking for in my settings, so I think I'm all set to not look like a jerk who's too aloof to respond 8-)

I hope everyone has had a great weekend and all of your bets come up for the win, Aloha...Chuck.

P.S. I'll post a picture of the keyboard up for grabs if anyone is interested.
Hood Time is a Good Time!

Avatar photo is from 1992, on Maui.
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-Jonathan
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