What do you do, and do you enjoy it?

[Shox Dr]

I'm a pimp. I has it's ups and downs, butt on the hole, someone has to do it.

Through the day, I can build anything from 100mx40m portal frame workshops/sheds, to offices, in either timber or steel, to TIG welding .9mm SS, milling and machining but I only do bikey sort of stuff for people I know these days, as it's more hassle than it's worth. I've a small home based workshop, and will only do 8-4Mon-Thurs 8-2Fri I charge a fair rate, so only have to do those hours, besides I've done my stupid hrs from one end of the country to the other.

 

[Robotstar5]

Alwys worked in the automotive & related sector. Got interested in industrial robotics in 1980, even put myself through nightschool to get a C&G in them. Best job was designing and wiring welding robot cells 'til my crook of a boss folded the company for financial reasons . Presently looking after the robots fitting glass into "the best 4 x 4 x far" can be a bit monotonous but the company wants to pay us lots of money so I'll stick with it for now

 

[TechnicAl]

Im a Metallurgist as many of you know. I enjoy it and now Im back working for a manufacturer Im like a pig in s**t.
I enjoy solving problems and helping others solve theirs especially when a plan come together.
Ive had some good moments today and if todays results bear fruit I will be very happy (cant expand sorry).

 

[Bede]

Similar to FJ.

My father has had his own fabrication business since he was 21. I started a saturday job there at 12, going on to do an apprenticeship from school and now at 35 and trying to retire him off because he's clinging on too long now in a role he can no longer do.

We have a modest 5000 sq foot workshop fabricating medium to heavy fabs. I love my job and always want to push my capabilities and take on jobs at borderline capacity just to learn and progress. I love it. When I'm not working I'm still working late making stuff for friends, arsing about making stuff for my defender, whatever I have left in the tank at the end of my working day goes on more engineering.

I'm actually pretty proud to still have a business, inspite of many companies going bust and losing us a huge amount of money and business.

It's tough but I always maintain that if you produce quality then eventually you'll land decent loyal custom.

I take pride in my standard of work and capabilities in solving problems. It's tough to get that recognised when many only care about lowest price over quality, but I'll never change that. Our small customer base mainly deal with us because of our quality. If we'd have neglected that during our worst time through this latest recession we simply wouldn't have survived.

Respect to fellow fabricators that give a s**t. Most don't or simply don't have much in the way of ability.

 

[Chickenjohn]

Last year after being made redundant and being unemployed for a few years
I turned a hobby into a business and I now restore classic cars for a living.
I love what I do, the trickiest part is making the work pay. Charge too much
And you don't get enough customers, too little and you can't make a living.

If you're interested, google East Kent Vehicle Restorations.

I know we are not allowed to post links here. But if allowed I might put some
photos of resto work up.

Currently working on a customers 1989 Lancia Delta Integrale.
Mostly rust repairs then a re-spray.

 

[malcolm]

Bung up a thread with photos. The rule is more that we don't allow people to register or post only to promote their business.

I'm in noise development for production cars. The excitement of messing with prototypes has long worn off, but it's still fun to diagnose where the noise is coming from and how it goes through the car. Haven't managed to even out workload though - sometimes there is no work for months and then it comes at once and I don't get weekends.

 

[Wozzaaah]

What do you do, and do you enjoy it?

Straight to the point...work in a factory and no.

 

[the repair man]

Straight to the point...work in a factory and no.

On the plus side your working it could be worse!

 

[roofman]

Well my username gives a lot away...ime 52 now and been in this game since i was 12 years old with my old man,then worked for him fulltime at 15 upto i was 20 then i went my own way by becoming self employed and by 25 had 5 vans and 13 men in the company. Ive worked 7 day weeks right upto a year ago when i decided to scale things down and kept 2 best guys plus myself and just tick along now ironicly making more money being smaller."Do i love my job" you bet i would,nt change it or being self feeding for anything and hope to cruise into my retirement right up to when i cant climb ladders....

 

[Wedg1e]

Oh well, here goes... left school at 16 and was supposed to go to 6th form to do languages, redo maths 'cos I was cr*p at it etc. etc.
Then my mother asked if I wouldn't rather get a job (I found out years later they thought I'd bin college) so I worked for Yorkshire Bank as a cashier/clerk for two years (doing OK in accountancy exams, ironically) before getting sick of 13 women telling me what to do and resigning at 18 (when you know it all, eh ).
Then I went to join the RAF but didn't like the recruiting guy's attitude so I ended up signing on but working for my dad to earn my keep - i.e. unpaid. He ran his own car repair business, mostly trying to keep the garbage of the 1960s/70s British car industry in one piece for ex-ICI old blokes who were busy smoking and drinking their pensions away - but I digress.
It didn't take long before I got a schoolgirl pregnant so I was married at 19, a father at 20 and worked as a security guard on cash-in-transit vans, in between paid jobs with the old fella and teaching myself electronics (I'd got into CB radio before it was legalised and found that there was easy money in fixing simple faults with them).
By 22 I was a divorced single parent, drove taxis, hearses and carried coffins and did back-pocket repair jobs for a local ham radio shop until it closed down. The old fella wrapped-in fixing cars and went back to working for other people. Interestingly, once the DHSS knew I was a single parent they wrote 'Suspended' across my file and I never had to go for any interviews, to Jobclub or explain why I couldn't find work. As long as I declared any earnings from part-time jobs they were happy, they just altered my Giro for the next week.
A mate of mine worked as a mechanic for a local Honda bike dealers, he started bringing me bike alarms to fix. One day I walked into a local car alarm place and asked if they could repair alarms: they said nobody repairs car alarms, I said 'I do' and that was it, instant job
One day I'd gone into town for a pie and had a strange urge to take a walk into the Jobcentre: the first card I saw on the first board inside the door was for an electronics techie on non-destructive testing hire equipment, I knew nothing at all about it but thought I'd give it a stab and 19 years, 7 months later I'm still doing it... but the job has changed out of all recognition!
Whilst a chunk of what I do is still electronics, I also do CAD design work, fabricate and machine bits for jobs, travel the British Isles as a field service techie, install new x-ray systems and decommission pipelines for the MOD.
I don't enjoy any of it. I'm counting the months till I'm 50 and the weeks till my mortgage is paid off and the sooner I can start lining my own pocket rather than that of the multi-millionaire who owns this (and a few other companies) the better. As it's a family firm there's no career progression, they bring in other family members to do jobs about which they know sweet F-A and whilst the boss expands his collection of old sports cars, yachts, villas in Spain and houses in the country, I haven't had a meaningful pay rise in 10 years.
So Nursy and I have a plan: I move in with her (she has no mortgage either), tart up and rent out this place (to pay my share of the bills, five grand a year should be more than enough, surely) and I can find 'something' to do to bring in as much or as little money as I feel I need
People keep asking me to repair their TVRs, now there's an idea...

 

[Welderpaul]

Hmm.
I worked in the utilities game on the emergency engineering/uncontrolled escapes side of things; good money, unsociable hours, worked with some good lads. Got fed up of having my head in trenches in the early hours of the morning so did a BSc in Construction Management. Worked as a construction site manager on £40 million + projects for a while, before the politics got in the way of building. Worked for a couple of fabricators, then set up my own business (In a recession..). 5 years on, really busy, employ quite a few men now, work for some of the big boys. Run ragged, stressed, long hours, tight deadlines, not enough time at home etc etc etc.
Do I enjoy it? Oddly enough, yes I do. Ask me at 7.30am Monday morning and I would happily pack it all in.

 

[CRB]

After three years on the sick due to 'reactive stress and depression' the company I had given ten years to did not want me back.

When Littl'un was born, 19 1/2 years ago, she quickly became very ill, meningitus. I was asked to do overtime rather than see her and Dearly Beloved at the RVI. I left a few moths later.

They phoned me up at the end of April and asked if I wanted a job. On the tools after fifteen years. Yes, please. I am still finding my writing around the place, twenty years on.

My apprenticeship, such as it was, was in modelmaking. Swan Hunter and MOD mainly, then plastics, proper fabrication, just like steel but half the weight. Into the office, naturally, to do estimating and production management.

Then, a job too far and I break down on Boxing Day 2010, worrying about January and the to$$ers I need to deal with when I return.

I was a modelmaker for ten years, a plastic fabricator/estimator/production manager for twenty years, and the last three have shown to me the meaning of work/life balance.

I have been lucky to have enjoyed the working life that I have had, and now am have gone back twenty years to a company, I resigned from, who now treat me with reverence and respect. I am welding, plastic, like I never left, am only doing three days, my choice though they keep asking for more.

Unlike Woz, plastic fabrication and I love it.

Once Littl'un is out of college and Dearly Beloved is on her summer holidays, I may start doing full weeks, just 'cos I can.

 

[skotl]

Like Joel, I work in IT. I work for a Scottish-based software developer and we have offices in 13 countries and customers in 40 countries.
Love it - get to be my own boss and see countries and people that I wouldn't otherwise be able to (afford!).

Why am I on here?
My dad ran an HGV repair and recovery shop and so I grew up around tools, cars, trucks and heavy recovery (my mum worked nights so whenever Dad went on a callout, me and my brother were dragged out of bed and taken along - even as a ten year old I remember the Leyland Hippo with the Holmes 750 lifter).
So, I've always had a mechanical bent. Electronics was a hobby when I was a boy so I initially went to college to do electrical and electronic engineering (29 years ago).
Swapped to computing cos I thought there may be money there, with less chance of electrocution.

Now I've got to middle age I seem to have regressed and I'm way more into my pickup truck (Mitsi L200), tools generally, welding recently, and electronics.

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

I work for a precision and production engineering company. I spend most of my time in the tool room and machine shop. I'm now the only person wo can tig weld at our factory so I end up in the production shop fairly often. Been there since a week before my 17th birthday. Before that since I was 13 I did weekends after school and school holidays with a jobbing weld/fab company making gates railings balconys ect. Loved it there and worked my way up from sweeping up and making tea to doing everything the other welders and fabricatiors did. Sadly they're really struggling and short of work now.

 

[Windy Miller]

I work for a precision and production engineering company. I spend most of my time in the tool room and machine shop. I'm now the only person wo can tig weld at our factory so I end up in the production shop fairly often. Been there since a week before my 17th birthday. Before that since I was 13 I did weekends after school and school holidays with a jobbing weld/fab company making gates railings balconys ect. Loved it there and worked my way up from sweeping up and making tea to doing everything the other welders and fabricatiors did. Sadly they're really struggling and short of work now.

Glad to see that's you're doing so well Mate - well done! It's been nice to watch your post content change over the past year or so. Keep it up!

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

What do you mean? =) Thanks!

 

[Windy Miller]

What do you mean? =) Thanks!

I mean it sounds like you know what you are talking about nowadays!

 

[toddy]

i started off working in a fish factory when i was 16 and still doing my a-levels,
then when i finished i got a pipe welding apprenticeship, worked on an LNG storage place. and loads of other places around. built protp type equipment for the MoD at one place and got loads of metal for my car

and now i am a welding specialist scientist working for the MoD

so i have gone from the shop floor to designing new ways to weld stuff. behind a desk

 

[Drains]

Great thread!
I served an apprenticeship as a production and test engineer making industrial fans. After redundancy (when all the mines shut), became a building site chippy; at the next recession went to uni and had fun; built and mostly fitted out a 50ft dutch barge, on my own; fannied about in theatre building sets,then managing festivals and events; back into engineering doing R&D for Mitsubishi; now have a small holding in New Zealand with 24 cattle and a few sheep and pigs (the missus is the breadwinner these days). Haven't run a bead for months, the work never stops, I've lost better part of a stone (and I was never a big fella) and have muscles like Popeye. Absolutely loving it.

 

[JoelC]

I work in IT for my sins for a large manufacturer of cranes and Foodservice equipment.

Jobs ok, but busy

This week (and next) I will be mostly working in Tampa FL. So its really not that bad.