Random Nuclear Strikes

Friday was my last day of work at my first professional welding job after finishing my degree. Today is my first at my second.

A couple weeks ago I emailed one of my former instructors and told him I was ready to move on from my employer and attached my resume asking him to give it the once over. We had some back and forth about my resume and then a couple weeks later he told me that the other instructor wanted to see me.

I showed up at the college’s metal fabrication shop and spoke with him there. Essentially, another one of his former students was working at a small, private fab shop, but he had recently earned his pipe welding certification and wanted to move into that part of the industry. The guy had left a message with this instructor to send folks who could do fab work his way so that he didn’t leave his current boss hanging too badly.

I called his number and then met him the next afternoon at that shop. We talked for a 30 minutes or so and did some TIG welding for him. He asked me to come back and spend a goodly portion of the next day with him at the shop and interview with the owner.

I did that and locked the job down by midday. They wanted me to start the following day, but I didn’t want to burn the bridge I’d spent 14 months building. So I put in 1 week notice instead of two and I start at the new job this morning.

No names will be revealed as yet, but the shop mostly does exterior and interior design of commercial spaces, but also some higher end residential design. Once I get up to speed at the shop, hopefully in 2-3 weeks, the other guy will bow out and it’ll be me doing all the fabrication work. The owner and I agreed that after 90 days we’ll review where I began and where I’m at then, and see where we’re at. The better I do, the more of a raise I’ll get. I lateraled my current pay rate to him. That’s how happy I am to be getting this job.

The best part of this is that he wants to sell more metal in his designs, but he hasn’t had anyone with my skill-set come to work for him. He has had welders working there, but not fabricators. They can cut and weld, but none of them has had full-on fab experience and he has had to hold their hands through each project.

He is as excited for to work with me as I am to work with him. This is the job I wanted when I left school, but wasn’t ready for. I’m pretty sure I’m ready for it now. During the interview, he asked about my tables. Apparently, my former instructor had mentioned them to the guy who currently has the job to help him remember me. I showed him the pics of them that I had on my phone and his eyes got huge. So, if he can sell that to a customer, you all could soon be seeing that under your plates while you’re eating.

Anyway, wish me luck. I’m hoping that this will be very exciting.

I’m sure the ropes will be plenty strong enough for you.

I’m planning on building a new porch for the hizzie in the not too distant future. Our current one is as old as the house and leans. I’m not actually sure if it was ever level. Also, it is small and just not attractive.

Since I’m a welder, I’m planning on making it out of steel. Mostly square or rectangular tube and channel. I’ve got most of a picture of it in my head, which is the first step to me starting a project. However, I’ve not been able to come up with how I want the trim to be. Last week I was given the lead in a project that, I think, has settled that question.

This is a gate. It is stainless rectangular tube with 1/4in cables strung across its span. The ends of the cables are swaged into the hollowed out ends of the bolts. After the bolts are tightened at each end, there is no movement of the cables (these ones have not yet been fully tightened, or had the excess threading cut off). The gate will be a lift out gate for a catwalk and have tube welded to the outside edges that will slip over either smaller diameter tubes or solid bar that will be welded to the catwalk.

I’ve already decided that the porch will be powder coated black and have synthetic Trex style boards on the walking and handrail surfaces, and now I know what I will have between the vertical points instead of some sort of pickets.

On a side note, I got handed this job because I had once mentioned swaging during a conversation about with reloading I had with a coworker. That, and my foreman figured I was one of the few in the shop who could make 104 swaged connections without getting my finger stuck in the machine.

And for those wondering where they may have heard this post’s title and intro line before, remember Emo Phillips?

So you all might remember a couple summers ago when I was building table out of car part odds & ends & tools & such.

Well, it seems someone liked them so much they decided to try and claim credit for one of them on Reddit.

A Table I Created From Old Engine Parts

I’m not sure how to go about correcting the record other than to post a comment on that thread, so that is what I did.

I do still have enough parts for 4-to-6 more of them, and I may indeed build some more this summer. I’m not, however, very certain how to expand my customer base beyond RNS.

Any ideas would be welcome.