Anything welding

Lots of monkey days with metal fusion, some clean, some dirty, some on the ground, some way up high. What ever it takes to get the job done. Kids these days don't want anything to do with the kind of work I do, last of a generation right here. Who is going to do all the shit I do in another 10 or 20 years. Why work in 112 degree weather on a filthy environment a hundred miles from anything when you can be a graphic artist and sit at your Mac at starbucks on the Santa Monica promenade as cute girls walk by with a ocean breeze? $$$$$$$

 

Did this last year for a client in Culver City. Built on the shop floor in one piece , delivered and forked into place. Installed easy and quick.

 

Sometimes you have to make your own tools.

 

Some days you might work on a plane, and some days you just glue stuff together that is laying around in the shop.

 

We all pay our Dues one way or another !!

It might also come into play just how you define fire !!

After my burning down the garage and the house when I was 14 maybe I define fire as by how many different fire departments show up to save the foundation!!

 

We have a winner!

I can't top that.

 

Never had one of those. Just little OH, hay, I feel a little heat on my thigh, or maybe, what's that smell working under my helmet, maybe I should check that out. Nothing a good welding glove can't smack out.

Today building a contraption for a heavy lift rigging situation. Will have 4 load points and is engineered to carry 55,000 lbs. in the rigging industry, the rule of thumb is engineered to carry 7 times the real weight being lifted.

My dog is here to to let me know by barking if I start a fire .

 

I love how he is sitting in between you and his stuffy to make sure you don't set it on fire!

 

Freakin love those stairs!

 

I-beams and posts we cut and installed to replace two block walls that support our concrete roof.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/skootter14s-locked-long-bed-sport.437064/page-26

my trailer project. I started a couple weeks ago. Pics throughout thread pg 26-29.

 

To me being on fire means your going to have at least some scars !!

I don`t even count or even notice those smoldering clothing ones after all these years

 

Heres a little repair from 3:30am this morning. Since the threaded holes are long since fubar’d we have inserts we replace from time to time. Got a call this morning that another one ripped out. Laziness was the cause. I machine my inserts with a much more aggressive chamfer. Basically I leave a square shoulder 1/4” down that I make sure I get lots of penetration. Some of the other guys just weld them in and they get ripped out due to lack of penetration like this one did. You can see the edges of where the old weld ripped out. Bolt inserted to protect the threads during welding.

Still a pass or two before I am done. Stick 7018 at approx 140A or so. Not as skilled as say @deog but I have gotten sloppy the last few years. We bubble gum a lot of crap. Massive gaps and greasy contaminated shit. But when you lose $70G in lost production for every hour we are down they want running more than done right many times. Fix it right come the weekend.

 

curious to what is the whole thing you are fixing? Is it a holding tank or what?

 

Exracer, I have a 45k MDM, or EDM machine. I burn out large bolts and pins in industrial applications. I just get them out, normally who ever I am doing the job for will re tap or do inserts after. Don't do enough of it these days as I have too many other things going on, and it is hard to find someone that I can trust to send out with the machine that knows how to use it. For the most part, this kind of work for me was in the oil industry, but I do any industrial jobs that this will apply to. The problem is getting liability insurance. Most large industrial stuff wants a 20 mill $$$ liability bond, and they don't want to bond me because I am one guy who owns a machine as opposed to a large company. I just can't justify that cost unless this machine is running 8 hours a day 5 days a week, so I just do jobs for my regular clients now and that's it. I travel to LA at least once a month to use it though. I wish I could get in on the oil sands in Canada with this thing, it could make some serious money.

 

Anyone have or use one of those new ESAB helmets ? My speedglass had a unfortunate accident in the back of my truck, ( crushed ) and she shall never recover. RIP.

 

Some of my work...

 

It is a expandable mandrel. There are 4 plates on dovetails that expand to hold the inside of large steel coils like you see on transports going down the hwy. Since coils from different steel mills can be different diameters we bolt on “filler bars” to adapt to the different ID’s. This is the uncoiler part of a “slitter”. The coils unwind and go through slitting heads which are basically big rotary cutters. A set of rotary cutting blades on top sandwich the strip between the lower blades and it slits the coils into narrower widths. These smaller coils eventually become steel tubing. Our mills do from 3-8ish and on the other mill up to 16’rd. These are then formed into whatever sq or rectangular sizes.

I have never actually seen an EDM in action. Like many things they are around you everyday but you may not actually see them in person or in action. I know what you mean by justifying the costs. I stopped running my own business because we moved and I don’t have the same contacts here and the cost of liability insurance and the other regulatory BS I need to be legal and cover my ass financially. Even where I work now they won’t bother to set me up as a contractor to do some of the outside work we send out. So I don’t bother to try anymore. One night we had a SS tube get torn off a hanger. It was needed to run production in the morning and I offered to drive the 7 minutes to home and tig it there. NOPE. Legality if I got into an accident at home or hurt myself when there etc. So my options were to stick weld it or have my boss drive 45 minutes to work at 3 am to unlock this guys area who has a tig. So now I just make the call day or night. Screw it I am paid by the hour and well at that so if thats their choice so be it. I will wait until it is an emergency and they beg.

As far as the oil sands go it is great money if you don’t like being around your family. I know many people have retired very young from working there but many have no body left by the time they retire. Many guys work themselves into the ground and then drink themselves into their graves.

 

I see gangboxes. Industrial?

 

Yeah I’m a pipefitter welder. the 2” piping was at Boeing and the 36” pipe was at intel.