question for austrailan members

[SBK]

Hi Ed
Thanks for your reply.
I guess I am looking at food/dairy sector as I have an ASME 1X 6G Coding,and as you say may not be recognized over there.
Don't think I fancy the mine work But never say never if its a way in to the industry.
I suppose nearer the time I should first decide where I want to be based,as you you say it is a vast place.
My dad left the uk in 1969 and never came back and I don't hear of many people disliking Oz,I have got to make a decision soon as I am 46 now
and the limit I think is 50.
Cheers
Chris

 

[Ed.]

Hi Chris, If you like the warmth go to Qld. otherwise Mid NSW, South West of WA or Victoria are cooler all with dairy industries. If you are thinking of moving then it would appear that you aren't entirely happy with where you are, and if that is the case, do your self a favour take up the challenge and do the move, you can always go back later if you decide Oz is not for you! Bear in mind that being here in such a large continent, each region is different so you can travel around freely till you find a place that suits! Life is way too short to be locked in the one place if you aren't happy!

Cheers

Ed.

 

[SBK]

Ed
Wise words indeed.
I am currently talking to someone in the UK about some Dairy work which is going to last till Christmas,so I will have a good look in the New year.
I think I would prefer the cooler region around WA and it sounds as if that's where the work is too.So with that in mind it gives me 6 months of experience
to add to my CV before applying.
Thanks for the advice Ed i will let you know how things progress.
Cheers
Chris

 

[rusty69bus]

hi again ed, suddenly thought whats access like to metals. i presume that there's plenty of merchants, but what about scrap metal places the ones that sell by weight

 

[Rig Pig]

There was a lot of offshore work going on in western Oz last time I was there, may still be busy?

 

[Rig Pig]

Have a look at the job pages:
The West Australian - Perth, WA, National & World News
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/

 

[Ed.]

hi again ed, suddenly thought whats access like to metals. i presume that there's plenty of merchants, but what about scrap metal places the ones that sell by weight

Hi, new stuff there is no problem getting, however most scrap metal merchants now only buy, they don't sell it, as often it isn't worth their time for someone to come in, look around for 30 minutes, just to buy 1 or two small pieces of metal. Having said that, one of my favourite places I usually go to is called Admax http://www.admaxprocessing.com.au/ They have a lot of different stuff there and it's like a little "Aladdin's Cave", you never know what treasures you will find there, a lot of stainless, aluminium, and also steel, computer parts and sometimes machinery, sometimes pallets of stainless TIG and MIG wire. As an example on one of the trips I went down there, they had 3 x 225lt drums of brand new 8mm stainless short link chain so I picked up 24m of it for my boat at $4.50/kg as against $30/meter at the chandleries. Another trip and found they had 2 pallets of new aluminium checkerplate so picked up a few sheets for toolboxes ect. They are about 30 minutes north of Brisbane though but worth a visit.

They may be other recycle yards that sell scrap down towards where you are planning to live, but I haven't tried to find out as they are too far from me to drive from where I live. Most metal fabricating places will sell you off cuts, full lengths or whatever you require. Just have to ring around for the best price.

Cheers

Ed.

 

[rusty69bus]

thanks Ed, i have a place near me that the same from boat anchors to v8 engines with lawnmowers in between. great places.

are houses wired for three phase or does that depend on where you are? as i would like to get a tig welder and there are loads of decent branded second hand three phase ones here...

 

[Ed.]

Hi, the majority of existing houses in the suburbs are single phase, depending on where the house is, most streets and generally all new housing estates have 3 phase on the street unless you are really rural, so if you are building a new house in suburbia you can specify to install the 3 phase in the house build, If it is an existing home and if 3 phase is available on the street then you can get it retro fitted like I did, which is more expensive, I should have installed the 3 phase when we had our house built but didn't.

When I had our home power upgraded, the cost to bring the 3 phase cables from the street to the house pole and the poly phase meter was free, provided that the house input pole was not to far away from the street pole as there is a distance limit, but you have to pay for all the additional charges for the 3 phase fittings from the meter to the house wiring. You would probably be looking at $2000-3000 depending on how complex the setup is to retrofit.

In my street, which is a rural/residential buffer zone (there are approx. 15 houses of 2 to 5 acre blocks), and over half the houses have 3 phase connected.

Cheers

Ed.

 

[rusty69bus]

thanks ed, this means i now have a wider choice

 

[Ed.]

Just tell them you will be installing 3 phase air-conditioning, that is what I was told to do by someone else when I had mine done. However, that may be done a long time in the future, (or not! ).

If you are after a 3 phase MIG or TIG, look for a Inverter type, they hardly use any electricity, I had a 3 phase meter installed for my own use in the shed so I could keep track of the power I used, and after putting through about 2/3rd of a 15kg spool of MIG wire, I thought that the meter wasn't working as it hardly registered. I think it cost me about $2 to $3 in power during that time which was a fair amount of welding.

Having said that, running my large 3 phase lathe was another story. That now costs me about $2/hour to run. The price of electricity has gone from 16 cent/Kw to 28 cents/Kw and is going up again soon by another 15% or so.

Cheers

Ed.

 

[SBK]

Have a look at the job pages:
The West Australian - Perth, WA, National & World News
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/

Thanks RP Thats a good source.

 

[Rig Pig]

Shame I can't talk my wife into emigrating, I liked the look of oz.

 

[SBK]

There seems to be a lot of work in Canada also Good rates of pay upto $40 hr.