How would you define yourself professionally apart from being a welder?

[premmington]

Professional electrician by trade, inquisitive trier by nature
I used to weld 1/4" stainless steel plate on nights as a bowling alley mechanic but wasn't trained or anything, I'd just fire up the welder and blast out the Red Hot Chilli Peppers all night long
Been fixing motorcycles and cars since I was a teenager and I'm currently restoring my house so have done everything including brickwork, plumbing, electrical, structural, woodwork, kitchen fitting, bathrooms, drylining and decorating! That work is also a better standard than a lot of what's happening on building site these days by so called professionals...

I can turn my hand to most things - and yes I would agree with you about the above.

 

[Morris]

Retired so now a hotrod botherer and general tinkerer of anything that takes my fancy.

 

[chunkolini]

18 years ago i resigned from social work; unplanned just announced it and strolled out of a meeting.
I knew my sculpture hobby could never support a family but gave it a go.
After about two years I grudgingly accepted the term sculptor to describe my profession.
I still can't use the word studio to describe my Empire of Rust.
Happy, fulfilled and unemployable

 

[Domdom]

Computer geek

 

[Perry Owens]

Started my career in a research institute working on the fundamentals of papermaking processes. Ended it in the USA as Principal Scientist for a multinational instrumentation company, still in the papermaking and printing field. The toilet tissue that softly caresses your behind was probably tested on one of my inventions.
I always envied the ability of my R&D team to turn my fag-packet scribbles into finished prototypes so when I retired I fitted out the garage with welder, plasma cutter, lathe, etc and set about teaching myself. I mostly make steel target furniture for my shooting club, with the occasional foray into metal flowers or sculpture.

 

[steve t]

Retired at Christmas 42 years after burning my first rod

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Retired Civil Servant

 

[daleyd]

I’ve been variously a weapons engineer, factory technician/electrician, and more recently worked in field service - 9 years for machinery in the printing industry (newspaper/magazine printing) and the last 12 years as a DCS/SCADA/PLC engineer, with some thyristor (occasionally some very big power jobs) and small instrument work thrown in, so a real mixture - I’m more a field based projects engineer than proper field service where I go and fix things - but I do a bit of both as required.

I got into welding when I was in the printing industry as I worked a lot on industrial dryers and oxidisers with a lot of fabrication/repair work (We had a fabricator who worked for us but I thought it would be handy to learn) - but have no real need for it nowadays in my work.

 

[Munkul]

I started as an apprentice mechanical fitter.

Nowadays I'm a chartered mechanical engineer.
I turn my hand to anything from design, calcs and regulatory/client approvals through to overseeing production, quality and NDT, with a bit of project management. Custom 1-off fabrications, a bit of structural, a bit of hydraulics, a bit of EC&I, all sorts.
I have a side gig as a fabricator/welder also.

I love what I do right now. The other day our COO said to me “I think we need to define your role a bit more” and I replied, no, I’m perfectly happy with doing a bit of everything. It may not work always, and sometimes I get too much on my plate and can’t do it all, but in general, it keeps me interested.

I get bored of doing the same thing over and over. I may not be great at one thing, but I’m fairly good at quite a lot of things.

 

[Barking Mat]

Fascinating thread.

What a diverse set of skills we all have !

 

[Ross365]

There used to be a guy at Surrey University who was the Professor of "Interfacial Technology" (maybe there was/is an entire department? I was always drawn to that.

 

[malcolm]

I glue accelerometers and microphones to the underside of cars for a living. Got a car with 200 of the things on at the moment.

 

[JOEPRO]

Retired Civil Servant

Is there any difference between a civil servant and a retired civil servant though in terms of output?

 

[Blobber]

Been sparking since 1980 but gave it up 10 or so years ago due to the change in qualifications required and the extra paperwork, just the Vauxhall/Opel/Bedford spares business now and the other stuff that comes with a 12acre smallholding
Some very talented folks on here, makes me feel inadequate!

 

[winchman]

My Degree is in Bodgery so i am a Bodger. No not the sort who makes wooden furniture. I just do the cheapest bare minimum to get it working again.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

On a serious note I’m a sheet metal worker by trade, went and did structural welding for a while, engine building, teaching, hydraulics, etc so a bit of a Jack of all trades. Except wood butchery and electrics

 

[Brad93]

Lately i'm the motor boy



And I say 'boy' because my pal the rewinder is the oracle and I know about 0.1% about motors compared to him. Humble disciple.

Just another welder who dips their toe into other aspects of the engineering trade.

 

[Memmeddu]

Lately i'm the motor boy

View attachment 449722

And I say 'boy' because my pal the rewinder is the oracle and I know about 0.1% about motors compared to him. Humble disciple.

Just another welder who dips their toe into other aspects of the engineering trade.

That's something I'd like to be ,in part I am, I try to be , but it's hard to do .
Stay humble.
I'm not the one who says around, I can do this , it's to be done this way , or something like that.
I know to be able to do something,I surely figure out one of the dozen ways to do something, but I can't figure out the way to expose my idea without looking like a @#*c head .
And worst thing ever is that I try to not look the upmentioned head .
Maybe because if you don't look or talk like you are an expert about ,you are treated like an idiot and or your idea will not even listened so never take in consideration.
And that's something I hate .
Because I'm not perfect I can do mistakes , corrigendum I certainly do mistakes , but if you argue my idea explaining why it's not going to work I can figure out a better way to get the job done, or just agree with yours and be conscious about what we are doing, and be active in the process and not just following the instructions , wait and ask what we're doing next every two seconds .
I struggle a lot for this reasons .
That's something I wish to be in the future smart and humble.

 

[Morrisman]

I served my time in a machine shop, and practiced that for 13 years. Next job was whatever I could find as a penniless backpacker in Asia, which turned out to be working as a mechanic in a yacht marina, in Singapore, though I’d never set foot on a yacht before. It was interesting, definitely a learning curve.
2 years of that and I blagged a spot working offshore, on oil survey ships, maintaining massive air compressors mainly, but also a bit of everything else that needs fixing on ships. Then I retired at 56.
Not sure what I’d call myself nowadays, maybe just Jack of all trades blah blah.

 

[Tigman]

I am or was a pipefitter / welder , still work as a pipefitter but most of the time making gates , railings , machinery repairs , I also help builders with their structural steels , ie measure up and sometimes fit , I look after a few factorys on the plumbing side and a few schools !