What's your trade?

BurdetteDR

Junkyard crawler
This is purely out of curiosity. Seems like there is a lot of smart guys on here in terms of fabrication, engines, and a few who are good with suspension geometry. So what's your trade? I myself am an A card sheet metal worker who specializes in service. Anything from tiny under counter ice machines to drive in freezers for meat packing facilities, as well as everything in between. What pays your bills?
 
Machinist. Pops and I are partners in a shop. We specialize in parts for the nuclear industry. We've designed a few parts for security applications, and we do a lot with shielding. We build stamping dies for a few companies And rearsets, we build a whole lot of rearsets.


Before pops and I opened our shop, I was a professional baseball player, until two Tommy John surgeries derailed that. Luckily I still have many, many friends in the League from growing up playing travel ball, college ball, and pro ball. Free tickets and a couch to crash on just about anywhere I want to go. Six figure payday as a 19 year old was fun, a lot of fun.

I do miss the cleat chasers. Those were a lot of fun.

After that, I used the college scholarship clause in my contract to go to aviation school. Never used that one, opened up the machine shop before I got the chance.
 
From 18 to 29 my stepdad and I owned a contracting company. I walked away to pursue my passion. Up till about two weeks ago for the past year and a half I have been building engines for local MX and ATV racers. Previous 5 years to that it was just repairs and service. MMI was in the middle of that five years somewhere.

Likely have just finished my last two engines and any kind of bike work for a long while. Recently the abundance of opportunity in the commercial contracting industry has lured me back. It's just too lucrative to ignore.

Got a call yesterday, my bid to frame a 7 building two story apartment complex in Lincoln has been accepted. Work is scheduled to start Nov. 2nd.
 
School Teacher. Taught from 4th grade to Honors Chemistry to High School seniors. My specialty is Biology but right now I teach a 5th/6th grade combo class at a Charter school. Worked in both the private school system and public. I love the 6-8 week paid summer vacation, oh and a week off for Thanksgiving and two weeks for Spring. Makes up for the 6+ hours a day I deal with 29 kids that are not mine.

But I love it so I can't complain. Same vacation days as my kids and plenty of time to work on my bike. Plus you get some good connections when you teach the kids of painters and machinists.


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Just finished my masters and workin a one to two year lecture gig at georgia southern university. I teach environmental biology in a 200 student auditorium and a few lab courses. My specialty and research work is on freshwater toxicology(polluted rivers). Then mechanic odd jobs at night.
 
Adult Welding and Fabrication Instructor. Before that, a CNC programmer and tool and die maker. Got my passion for adding and subtracting metal from running around my grandpa's (now my dad's) tool and die shop since I was in diapers.
 
School teacher. I teach Ceramics at a private school to 7th through 12th graders. I also teach as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina. I worked many years as a Ceramics technician with a specialty in kiln construction. My foray in teaching began in 2006 when Temple University hired me to design and build a $2.5 million dollar Ceramics facility and casting studios that are part of Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. For 7 years, I taught classes in Material Science, Chemistry, Moldmaking, 2D Ceramics (tile), Porcelain and Kiln Construction, while also serving as Studio Manager. I also work in architectural restoration. One of my bigger projects was restoring a grotto at Greenwood Gardens and Estate in New Jersey. I was subcontracted to discover and formulate the glazes and produce from molds early 20th Century Rookwood tiles. The factory burned in the 60s and all of the formulas for those glazes were lost. I'm also a full time professional artist with work that has shown worldwide and is included in the collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Mobile Museum of Art, the Porter-Price Collection, The Sanbao Ceramic Institute in Jingdezhen, China and the South Carolina State Art Collection.
 
Hoofhearted said:
Retirement is way ahead of working.

Ain't that the truth!!!!!

I did 20 years as an NCO office administrator in the USAF then worked as a project engineer for a manufacturer of plastic injection molding machines, a support tech for a manufacturing/accounting software developer, the executive assistant for the company president at a place that made power supply equipment for the telecommunications industry, and then several years w/ the VA. Am now very happily retired and loving every minute of it.
 
It's been a bit of a journey. :)

For about 8 years after high school I worked in warehousing. You know, driving forklifts, narrow aisle reach trucks, managing a department, filling customer orders, etc. It was only supposed to be a year or 2 before I went back to school to do college or university, but... I met my wife-to-be, and that was the end of plans for school! 8)

After that I spent about 3 years in commercial paint and spray equipment sales.

Subsequently, I worked for about 10 years in construction project management. It started out with very small jobs and culminated with much larger multi-million dollar projects.

At 38 years of age I moved my family out west to the province of Saskatchewan to do 4 years of college in order to become a Pastor. My BA is in Sports Ministry. We moved back east to Ontario where I worked full-time for 2.5 years with Hockey Ministries International. I still volunteer with HMI as a Chaplin for the junior hockey team here in Mississauga, Ontario.

After the full-time gig with HMI, I left full-time ministry for a while and eventually bought the small business I worked in, testing light duty vehicles for the Drive Clean emission testing program here in Mississauga, Ontario.

Just 2.5 years ago I transitioned back into full-time ministry as a Pastor on staff at my church. We have a staff of 6 pastors and 3 additional support staff.

That's the "short" version. ;D It's been a 42 year, long and winding path. At every phase I hoped that one would be the final stop where I would be able to remain, build a career and put down some roots. That wasn't the case for me. :) Who knows what the next turn will bring. ;)
 
I am a Blowmould Operator.

I babysit machines that make 2L and 3L milk bottles. I also run the coder and labeller.

I regret not taking an apprenticeship as a Fitter, I seem to find myself in the workshop a lot. But the money is good as a Moulder Operator so that's where I will stay. And the 4 days on 4 days off also works quite nicely.

Before that I was in bushland restoration. It as a dead end job that paid terrible. The up side was I had 2 months to complete my set tasks. Even if I could knock it off in 1.
 
Dual role for me. I rotate between operating a powerplant (making electricity) and a Journeyman mechanic. Never a dull moment.
 
Middle manager in a big corporate. Head to my shed on the weekends to make things happen and actually see results.
 
Below is a high level rundown of my work life:
1. Driveway attendant at an Ampol service station (circa 1977),

2. Car detailer for a large car yard (man I hate cleaning cars now),

3. Royal Australian Mint - started a metallurgy journeyman which included,
- General floor hand
- Senior storeman
- Punch operator (punch out coin blanks from rolled metal)
- Press operator (press the heads & tails on above blanks)
- Roller operator (that's where we would roll bars of coin metal to the thickness of the coin)
- Furnace operator (electric furnace to melt the metals to make above bars)
- Hard chrome plating (for the surfaces of the dies used in coin press)
- Engraving (assist the engravers in the production of die faces (heads and tails))
- Production of proof coin (the real shiny coins with the frosted images)
- And time in the machine shop.

4. Worked in various government departments over 29 years.
Started as:
- Mainframe computer operator - various levels (started as trainee)
- Datacentre shift leader
- Mainframe security specialist
- Gateway security specialist
- Server admin
- Service management specialist

5. Tried to retire 12 months ago... but

6. Dragged into my partners business and now a registered Real Estate Salesperson. ;)

Also a very part time tinkerer on project Ol' Red

Phew...
 
Certified Motorcycle Builder and Producer of Bad Ass "how to" videos ;D
 

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Automotive engineer 20+ yrs - design & development of gas engines mostly but have spent some time with structural chassis, suspension and interior components.
 
Purchasing manager. Have a professional designation. OK job I am good at but would love something more mechanical. I fix a lot of crap on the side to keep my hands dirty.
 
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