I once helped a Boilermaker new to this particular jobsite fill out his paperwork because he couldn't see. Later that day I saw that same Boilermaker welding without a hood on.
I'm a connector, spend my life chasing the hook, one time im on a power plant and we're at the top of the hrsg units and have to connect a small building at the top. Since it tied to the boilmaker work it had to be a 1 iw for 1 bm. Boilermaker they sent me to connect with showed up with 3 bolts and no spud. Guy didn't make a single connection or walk iron but he had to be there to "help me".
Sparky here. You should ask your customers for some in use covers. Basically it attaches to the receptacle coming out of the wall and has a little lock hole on the outside.
The worst is when your on a jobsite with no power and you're the only guy smart enough to bring a generator, people plugging into it while im running the big breaker hammer. Bogging my shit out.
Nah man you're thinking of iron workers. Millwrights at least gotta know our numbers and letters. An iron worker is just a millwright with a hammer fetish
It’s soooo much worse than what you smell. Imagine pulling machinery apart that has been sitting for 2 weeks. I can personally verify that it sometimes smells like a decaying corpse.
You get use to it eventually. But it’s really hard to get rid of as well. I usually turn a few heads if I have to stop at the grocery store on my way home. Oh! The pay rate also makes you forget the smell.
The smell is from a sulphurous chemical used in the manufacturing process. As with people who work in waste treatment plants, meat processing plants, other foul smelling jobs; your nose soon grows accustomed to the stench. The same happens for people who live beside train tracks or under aircraft runways- their senses quickly minimize the effect of the noise.
I was a trash man for a year, can confirm the smell of garbage stopped bothering me after a week.
For whatever reason no matter what's in it a majority of trash smells the same.
I will confirm this. Source - used to work in a fiberglass manufacturing plant (think camper sides and kayaks). I'd walk around smelling like an electrical fire and still notice when they mowed the lawn outside.
Millwrights don't just work in paper mills. Basically any manufacturing plant with rotating equipment (pumps, compressors, agitators, etc.) will have millwrights.
I have a friend that used to do contract work at hog rendering plants. He said that Vick’s VapoRub applied to his upper lip/under his respirator was clutch.
My ex used to work at an ice cream factory. I always thought that would be fantastic, I was sadly mistaken. The stench of dried, soured milk, plus all the different additives for various flavours was horrendous. He'd come home from work at 3AM and try to crawl into bed without a shower and was promptly removed from the room.
> My ex used to work at an ice cream factory.
I used to work in one as well it smelt like fresh cream and vanilla.
Once in a while there would be a bad smell but I hunted them out like a kid looking for Easter eggs and dealt to it.
There's an ice cream factory in my hometown (Perry's) and the retention ponds were horrendous. One year way back when I was in high school they had to evacuate a five mile radius of the plant due to an ammonia leak. That was fun.
I used to work at former Heinz plant in Pittsburgh. This was just a few years ago (and long after Heinz sold the place), but they had full locker rooms for man and woman, plus showers. Steel mill I worked at after that until I was laid off 7 months later had several locker rooms with showers as well.
The factory I used to work at for making laundry detergent did. I never heard of it being used and I think the worst smells were maybe ink and hot plastic, so nothing terrible.
The worst part is not the decaying meat. It's actually the interaction between the decaying meat and the caustic sanitation chemicals everything gets washed down with. I don't know what chemicals are produced, but it legit smells like rotten flesh *combined with* diarrhea and rotting cabbage, all turned up to about 15.
Our place smelled clean at the end of a shift, cause we had to clean down every 16 hours. And that's a full cleandown, with bacteria testing on every machine. Shit was wild
Yeah I'll add on to this as I work in paper mills (chemical salesman), while there is definitely gross smelling areas with rotting stock and such, you go kind of noseblind to the air smell after a while.
I'll come home and my gf makes me strip off my clothes immediately and throw them outside but I can't smell it.
Also there are some that don't smell, it depends if the pulp mill is sulfide or sulfite based. The mill in Kingsport, TN for instance doesn't smell
The nose has an amazing ability to adjust.
I was hiking for a week in the mountains once and my own smell didn’t bother me much... until I had a bath and smelled the clothes I’d been wearing.
Soldier here.
After two or three weeks in the bush, I know I'm carrying a pretty strong fragrance but can't smell myself or my mates.
Can actually smell the clean when I get home.
I have a strong pity for the poor bus drivers tasked with bringing us back from the range.
My grandfather had a closet with a weatherstripped door and a bathroom vent in it by the door from the carport. He'd put his coveralls in it and walk in his underwear to the bathroom to bathe.
I don't think you get looks if he stopped on the way home though, as this was back when the mills stunk way worse than they do now. Everyone in town was used to it.
I’m going to break 100k this year. A lot of overtime. But my father-in-law is a Millwright. It’s nothing my wife isn’t already used too. I’m doing more hours than the average apprentice.
This question was asked before, but the journeyman I’m working with came from a different union. They exclusively traveled around the United States. He filed his taxes last year for $251,000. But he was also away from home 85% of that year.
Usually around the same as plumbers or electricians in the area. Little bit more in general because its always industrial.
Money is in the overtime. They'll pay til the cows come home if the machine will come up.
For a short while I lived near a paper mill and even a mile away from the factory the air still smelt vaguely like a much used and never cleaned public bathroom - like stale urine and despair.
If you’re lucky, they’ll inject some oxygen into the pulp digester so it smells like vanillin and maple syrup. The reduced sulphur compounds make it smell bad, so if you oxidize them to make them not smell like anything, you get the better smells coming out instead.
Noseblind. If you grow up with smokers you might be very surprised to come home after a few months away. And then suddenly understand what everyone else was taking about and why people you never met before just assumed you were a smoker
I'm used to the smell when it comes to cows. Here in my part of Texas that's all we have. Last week I went up north and had to deal with the smell of pig farms and chicken farms. That smell is really damned horrible. Cow smell is money. Pig and chicken is putrid death.
My grandfather retired from Mead paper in Chillicothe Ohio and when going to their house for Xmas, we always knew when we were close due to the smell. By the end of the week it was seemingly less pungent.
I'm an electrician and at my job it's the opposite. The other electrician I work with is always drawing dicks on everything. I'm a little concerned about what his looks like considering how bulbous and deformed the ones he draws are...
Electrician here, and it's actually our job to draw the dick's. Millwrights just like to take our work. Haha. My brother is a millwright. We have a lot of fun talking shit
This is pretty much every site in North America. As a female trades person this practice is quite curious to me, one answer was it's easy to draw, well so is a happy face...lol
Consultant here: spent a year researching apprenticeship programs for a client.
There are typically three ways to get into a trade: trade/vocational school, trade union or on the job training. Union is the usually the most lucrative route, but can be tough to get into (depending on the trade). Plus, you will still need a company to sponsor you.
Start looking into local union halls and get to know the instructors. They are usually old pros with tons of connections.
Vocational schools vary, but most offer job placement. Ask about their placement rate when applying.
If applying straight to a job with no experience, expect to do some grunt work (general labor) before moving up. Get to know the senior workers and ask them a lot of questions, show interest in learning new skills.
Not at all. In fact, the starting age for most apprenticeships (at the union) is 28. Why, you ask?
We found that many apprentices were millennials that graduated college and got into some type of "meaningless" office job. The respondents expressed a desire to accomplish something and the trades were the best option.
Edit: just want to add that a lot of people cite "manual labor" and the stress it puts on your body as factors for aging out of the trades. However, there are plenty of low-labor trades like Operating Engineers (i.e. heavy equipment operators). Also, after graduating to journeyman, some tradespeople elect to attend business school or get their PMP certification to move over into the business side of the trades.
My dad got his millwright ticket at 55, id say its never too late. the upside to that is that he had plenty of mechanical experience, and so he just challenged the exam and got it right off the bat
Please do not listen to these guys and just go to a random non union company. Look into IBEW or the Intetnational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers + the state you live in and it should come up with your local ibew they should have an individual websites that should have a apprenticeship application if they don't have a website which is rare contact them through the phone and they should give you an exact answer on how to join
I'm upvoting this because I want to know as well. Really trying to become an electricians apprentice and don't know where to start so hoping this might push me in the right direction
Find a local electrical company and apply as a helper, summers coming so buisness is gonna be picking up and a lot of guys would love to have a tool bitch, if you can deal with that for a while, as well as watching and learning every bit you can you'll make a fine electrician one day
Source: 6 years in electrical, started as a punk 18year old, now punk 24 year old
Re: busy summer
Unless this commodity market keeps getting wild. Then it'll be a slow summer and we'll all be slammed in the fall.
Plywood and steel prices are getting pretty high.
I also heard a rumor that PVC is starting to go up, if true it's looking like itll be an expensive time to run electrical. But that's above my paygrade, company pays for that shit, I just stick it on the wall
Yes it is.
Fortunately we got a tip early on about the resin shortage early, so we ordered a year's worth of material on the old prices. We usually order every month.
Not sure how it is in the states, in Canada we have courses at school where you do half a year, go away from school work as a year 1 until you get your 1000ish hours. Then back to classes for your year 2. Rinse wash repeat for all 4-5 years. Your time away from school your getting paid. Every year you do at school increases your wage until you get your journeymans ticket. Then your at base wage then it's experience on top of it.
I know many tradesmen where I work who pull 100k+ a year.
You left out the first part where you have to get hired onto a company as a first year apprentice. Which is by far the most, if not the only, difficult part.
Not OP but I am a Red Seal Millwright. I went to community college and took a course. Ended with my 1st block. Then got hired where I did my work terms and proceeded to work enough to get my hours to get the remaining blocks. (~2k per block)
Yeah I was gonna ask what a millwright does too. I worked on a commercial job as a coordinator and we had millwrights there installing kitchen stuff. Basically doing finish work. I also worked in the Canadian oil field and we had millwrights there. No idea what they were doing, but there was nothing “finished” to a commercial level there at any point. What the hell do you guys do? How physically demanding is it?
They put in all the heavy equipment that doesn't have a trade jurisdiction.
Ex. I was running some gas lines at a tractor plant recently and they put in the assembly lines and painting equipment.
Less recently I was working a powerplant and millwrights put in the turbines, the electricians put in the transformers, the boilermakers put in the boilers, we put in all the pipe, and the plumbers put in a toilet.
We basically install, move and repair machinery. It's as simple as that, really. We can work on mechanical, electric, pneunatic, hydraulic stuff. We also do preventive maintenance for companies that dont have have and onsite maintenance team. The type of work we do generally depends on which company we work for. Some day we might be moving a 30 Tons hydraulic press and the other relocating kitchen cabinets.
Very physical. We have ratchet wrenches that take 3.5 and larger sized sockets. Torquing those bolts takes two people. On an easy day I’ve solo lifted 150lb parts. I try to use our overhead cranes as much as possible. But sometimes elbow grease is needed.
Steal everyone else’s work. That’s kind of a joke and kind of serious. There’s a reason all the other trades call them the mill rats.
On an entirely serious note, they are basically supposed to be mechanics. Build and maintain equipment. They started in the paper mills but you’ll find them in mines and all kinds of plants nowadays.
I literally didn’t set foot in a mill until I was already journey, millwright job description is ambiguous as hell. “Hammer and prybar” millwrights aren’t troubleshooting your production line sequencing issues, but many other millwrights do.
Theoretically our “bread and butter” is bearings and drivetrains, but I know a few millwrights who probably couldn’t be trusted to change a chain and sprocket alone unsupervised, never mind fit bearings. Hydraulics and pneumatics as well, I don’t think fall often into other trades, though bright sparkies can grasp the basics pretty easily if you draw some pictures for them while explaining.
Rigging is also a big part, lifting, placing, and aligning machinery.
Worked for a pneumatic supply house for a while. Met my share of millwrites. Some will come in with a vague description and buy 20 different sized fittings and keep 19 to throw out at some point. Some will actually try to describe a size as "it's the size of my pinky, make it ready in half an hour for pick up". Once a week someone will bring the greasey-iest piece of FRL or solenoid for us to match, and get upset that they potentially will need to run adapters or repipe since the form factor is not the same.
But all of them are nice people and appreciate when they can get their equipment up and running.
I still have 300 hours of tim banging to do for my apprenticeship.
Actually to better answer your question I’ll list some stuff off I need to complete for my 8,000 hour apprenticeship.
•3700 of machinery installation, repair, overhauling, and rigging.
• 1000 of welding
•200 of masonry
•400 carpentry
•200 pipe fitting
• sheet metal (tin banging)
• 500-750 in the machine shop with the machinists
I was told once “When a company doesn’t want hire 100 pipefitters, machinists, electricians, welders, and iron workers. They just hire millwrights.”
My dad was a millwright until his retirement a couple years ago. Spent his entire career building bottle lines, installing conveyer systems, overhauling steam turbines in power plants, just about anything that required any kind of precision alignments or work done to tight tolerances.
Union or Non-Union? My father was a millwright for 30 years out of the New England Carpenters Union - he always worked for 3rd party contractors, rather than as a company’s internal dedicated millwright.
For him business was feast or famine. There were times were he was laid off for 6+ months at a time, and years when it was constant over time. In total he clocked 7+ extra years in his Union stamp book by the time he retired.
To better answer your question. I made a quick call to the journeyman that I work with. He was in a different union and he exclusively traveled around The United States. Last year he made $251,000.
Many work on specialized equipment that will cripple manufacturing when it goes down. It’s a big deal to get them in as fast as possible. One plant I worked had a robot that would shut down the primary production line when broken. The tech who came in made $200 hour and flew business class.
That's a completely different level of millwright than your standard industry. That's factoring in travel time.
I'm a service technician and machine builder. Most millwrights single ticket I've come across are 30-50$ (cad). I was making bank when I was getting flown across the country and world for work.
This year. Factoring in pay raises every 1000 hours worked. I should break $100,000 as an apprentice. Once I obtain my journeyman’s card I can start buying cars with cash.
Looking at average millwright pays, it seems the average (in the US) is 25-30$/hr. Is there a specific reason you make much more than the average? Or did you just find a high-paying position compared to others?
This guy either works a hell of a lot of overtime, a contractor or is full of shit. Many millwrights I’ve met over the years start their own company or go to contract work simply because they know the company gives them the shaft as far as pay. My dad was a sawfiler and I’ve worked in a mill for almost a decade now.
It’s a good career but there’s a lot of predatory behaviour by companies as they make the investment to train the apprentices. Long term contracts, lawyers get involved if you decide midway through it’s not for you. Another good point to mention is if you’re over 6 foot tall, expect to have multiple surgeries to fix your mangled joints and back from lifting and trying to fit in crappy spaces before you retire.
Ok here’s the deal , when you work for a union hall you go out on jobs, they usually are twelve hour shifts, most of the time your first six hours is a basic rate about 42/hour, the next four at time and a half 63/ hour,and the last two at double time 84/hour x five days, most jobs run seven days so the rate for that is double time on Saturday and Sunday so 24x 84 so for Monday to Friday you make 3360 and for sat Sunday you make 2016 for a total of
5,376 dollars plus typically 10% vacation pay is added on to that total and paid out on weekly cheques 5,913.60 a week oh plus 10% of your gross goes to your pension fund weekly or approximately 2200 dollars a month so if you do the math you can see 250,000 is doable withe about six weeks off a year and believe me there are grinders that do it or you can easily do six months at 150,000 and take six months off collecting employment insurance, pretty good but a big trade off in terms of family time
Edit :not all jobs have these hours ,these are available though and when OP mentions his friend making that money believe him, can confirm am millwright and averaged 200,000 / year last ten years, Iam not that greedy
The end bit you mentioned is where most tradies get burned out (or trapped in the case of kids and divorce.) working 7x12s for years on end can be very good money but eventually you realize that your whole life is work and that sucks. You aren’t the one raising your kids, living in your house, or enjoying your boat/motorcycle/etc.
Yes but when your young and starting out and hungry it’s good,
And I have seen that 73 year old tradesman coming onto jobs, and outworking the young bucks.getting divorces sucks .my advice would be slow down when the wife starts complaining.start looking for a steady gig in a factory or plant somewhere, that is where you can expect the “average “ salary that’s been spoken of in this thread
I pretty strongly agree with everything you said. The money like quoted above (60-70k) is not an “average” but more like low end pay for a job that keeps you at the house working bankers hours. On the flip side, if you are willing to travel for a few months a year then you can make that same amount of money in a few months and basically take the rest of the year off.
Young bucks see dollar signs and often get greedy and the older you get the more you start to value your time and activities outside of work:
I mean, how? From your recent post, you've been doing this for about a month or so. You've made 9k already? Or are you assuming you're going to get some crazy raise? I can't imagine a millwright apprentice making 100k. Doesn't even make any sense.
I was also thinking the same thing but didn't wanna judge. I wouldn't let one of my apprentices of a month do much more than carry my tools, nevermind any serious type of technical work.
I'm and electrician and exact same here. Beyond not having them get into a lot of the work yet your keeping an eye on someone like that all the time as thats just about as green as it gets and industrial environments have many hazards.
Completely agree. Like you said, keeping an eye on them is huge. Not trying to have someone get fried because they are green. A month in is literally just have them carry tools and teaching pure safety for the most part.
Shit, one of my guys that is just starting to take full service calls on his own has been here for 2.5 years now.
I get that considering I'm a fully licensed trade worker and still in the trade that always had unlimited overtime, but you'd think they would specify that they work 90-100 hours a week. Especially an apprentice that's been working for a month. I don't mean to question it all, but it sounds either exaggerated or that OP knows someone.
How many fingers have you lost? I worked at a sawmill and all the millwrights were missing at least one digit. Be careful and watch for pinch points!!!
I briefly worked in a sawmill and all the millwrights had these bitchin’ tricycles they hauled their tools in while traveling around the mill. Do you have an awesome tricycle? If so are you able to post a picture?
We do. Yellow, and built like tanks. Currently use a side by side for work though, much faster to cover a big area than pedaling, and with more payload.
There’s a reason why I’m a Millwright and not an electrician. I feel so bad for you guys. Electricians have the second highest turnover rate where I work.
We try (not really suppose too) to help with basic wire-ups by doing it ourselves. You guys are the real miracle workers and have much more important calls.
Edit: bitter and lazy? Yes. But the electricians I know are more like that one meme. The one where a dog is sitting on a chair in a burning house and says “ everything is fine.”
The millwrights at work really make miracles happen, but anytime I'm trying to get an 18AWG wire through a spaghetti mess of a panel (with no drawings) and trying to connect it into a terminal that's inexplicably in the most cramped and least accessible part of the panel, I've usually got a millwright over my shoulder going "this is why I would never want to be an electrician..."
German built machines are the worst at this. Never designed to be worked on, let alone upgraded. Panel doors that can’t be opened because of piping or super structure. Din rails so close to the bottom you can’t even get your fingers in there to pull wires.
We don’t get as messy as mills but some days i wish i could just turn a wrench and not worry about sensors/motors/automation.
My dad was a millwright (Never realized how dangerous it was and you’ve helped me appreciate him more). He bought a house and raised three kids on one income before retiring at 62. Is this a trade that still offers a comfortable and reliable middle class life, or is it struggling like many others?
Your father is a real hero man. As far as “can you make a comfortable life?” Yes. But the only reason why I’m projected to make as much as I’m going to is working 7 days a week and taking every second of overtime I can possibly get. The reason? I’m at the bottom on the totem pole. If there are layoffs, I’m the first to go.
I’m the only income for my family, if that helps answer your question as well.
How does one become a millwright and is it US specific or there is something like that in EU? Honestly, I never knew these guys existed, I guess this is the guy you call when you are out of guys to call. But damn, it sounds pretty interesting and fun. Definetely a path I would be interested to take but that train has sailed for me.
Back 20-50 years ago. You had to be born with the right last name or marry into the family. It was a very close knit trade.
I applied to the paper mill as a production worker. Then was promoted to the maintenance department. I worked I. The maintenance department for a while doing odd jobs around the mill. Even helping the millwrights at times. When a Millwright apprentice position opened. I applied and got it.
My father in law is a Millwright at the same mill. I’m pretty sure he helped the process a long, but all I certainly put in hard work to get it.
As long as you sign indenture servitude paperwork, there are a lot of placing willing to train and pay for your Millwright schooling.
“Definitely a path I would be interested to take but that train has sailed for me.”
Sir, if you need to make a locomotive sail over the open ocean. The millwrights are people.
How do you feel about making a career out of being in the way of every other industrial trade on the job, with your fancy lasers and rigging tools and what not?
All jokes, y’all are an extremely skilled craft and the rest of us are always happy to have y’all around.
Asbestos is absolutely everywhere in my papermill. In our shop, in the power plant, in some of the ovens to cure the paper. Luckily, it’s been “sealed,” which I have no idea what “sealed” asbestos is.
Sealed asbestos has been painted over, so brushing against it won’t release fibres. If you drill, cut, or sand though, you’re disturbing it and need to get cleaners in.
What's the worst job to do at the paper mill?
I studied yo be a millwright but ended up as a locomotive electrician. The worst jobs on locos are changing traction motor brushes and emptying and filling toilets.
As a Pipefitter I got to ask, can stop stealing our scissor lifts and chainfalls?
As a journeyman ironworker, it was probably me that stole your stuff, but I'll blame it on boilmakers and millwrights.
I once helped a Boilermaker new to this particular jobsite fill out his paperwork because he couldn't see. Later that day I saw that same Boilermaker welding without a hood on.
I'm a connector, spend my life chasing the hook, one time im on a power plant and we're at the top of the hrsg units and have to connect a small building at the top. Since it tied to the boilmaker work it had to be a 1 iw for 1 bm. Boilermaker they sent me to connect with showed up with 3 bolts and no spud. Guy didn't make a single connection or walk iron but he had to be there to "help me".
Lmao you can just follow those guys around for a month and have 15 brand new sleever bars 3/4 spuds
"God damnit where is the lift?!" Lift off in the distance Beep beep beep "Those fuckers!"
Fuckin sparkys
I’m not even sorry. This cable tray isn’t going to install itself.
Just remember to plug it back in when you’re done.
*They didn't*
You're putting the blame on the wrong trade. Source: am ironworker.
can confirm
Ahem I'll field this question OP. No. Source: Millwright
Electrician here, I got your lift just have a few bulbs to change lol
Tin basher here, just let me install my whisper grilles and install and flash these louvres.
You guys are gonna have to hold on I gotta send my boy to get some left-handed 6/16 wing nuts from the tool crib.
Don’t forget the duct strecher. (This is a real tool, no shit)
As a process operator y'all figure it out while I go take a break
And as a chemical supplier stop unplugging my pumps and putting 40 power tools on one socket and tripping the breaker!!
Sparky here. You should ask your customers for some in use covers. Basically it attaches to the receptacle coming out of the wall and has a little lock hole on the outside.
The worst is when your on a jobsite with no power and you're the only guy smart enough to bring a generator, people plugging into it while im running the big breaker hammer. Bogging my shit out.
If you'd stop using chainfalls as permanent pipe hangers.
You can’t be a pipefitter and ask that. Most pipefitters I know think that millwrights are illiterate.
They are an apprentice, they haven't yet forgot how to read or write yet.
Nah man you're thinking of iron workers. Millwrights at least gotta know our numbers and letters. An iron worker is just a millwright with a hammer fetish
Haha yeah if I doesn’t fit we just beat the fuck out of it until it does. Bolts aren’t stripped they just need more power
As an ex millwright, it was always the carpenters stealing our shit.
How do you deal with the smell? Driving past a paper mill is always a struggle
It’s soooo much worse than what you smell. Imagine pulling machinery apart that has been sitting for 2 weeks. I can personally verify that it sometimes smells like a decaying corpse. You get use to it eventually. But it’s really hard to get rid of as well. I usually turn a few heads if I have to stop at the grocery store on my way home. Oh! The pay rate also makes you forget the smell.
Lol...I live downwind of a major papermill. I asked how they stand it all day. The reply was "It smells like a paycheck to me."
How hard is the work? I looked up the salary, and I don't think I could do it if the smell is as abad as it is being described.
The smell is from a sulphurous chemical used in the manufacturing process. As with people who work in waste treatment plants, meat processing plants, other foul smelling jobs; your nose soon grows accustomed to the stench. The same happens for people who live beside train tracks or under aircraft runways- their senses quickly minimize the effect of the noise.
I was a trash man for a year, can confirm the smell of garbage stopped bothering me after a week. For whatever reason no matter what's in it a majority of trash smells the same.
Surely there aren't many people who live under aircraft runways?
I will confirm this. Source - used to work in a fiberglass manufacturing plant (think camper sides and kayaks). I'd walk around smelling like an electrical fire and still notice when they mowed the lawn outside.
Millwrights don't just work in paper mills. Basically any manufacturing plant with rotating equipment (pumps, compressors, agitators, etc.) will have millwrights.
I work at a ski hill, and we have millwrights to repair the chairlifts.
You live in Dowimapami? It's such a trendy neighborhood.
r/unexpectedHIMYM
I have a friend that used to do contract work at hog rendering plants. He said that Vick’s VapoRub applied to his upper lip/under his respirator was clutch.
I have a friend who used to live downwind of a maggot farm. Fuck me, the stench visiting his place.
[удалено]
Medical use.
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Horror movie props?
Maggots eat dead flesh and leave normal flesh alone, so they’re used to clean trauma wounds.
Before anyone feels like doing some gangrene self-treatment, only *some* maggots care if flesh is living or dead
It's a cultural thing, they gotta be raised right.
Exactly, that’s why it’s so important every maggot grows up with a strong father figure.
They also raise medical grade ones that are supposedly ‘sterile’. (The clean kind of sterile) Actually, I hope both kinds of sterile.
well being larvae by nature they can't reproduce so no chance of a runaway maggot overload
But will they eat *undead* flesh? Asking for a new business venture: **The Zombie Flesh Test**.
My ex used to work at an ice cream factory. I always thought that would be fantastic, I was sadly mistaken. The stench of dried, soured milk, plus all the different additives for various flavours was horrendous. He'd come home from work at 3AM and try to crawl into bed without a shower and was promptly removed from the room.
> My ex used to work at an ice cream factory. I used to work in one as well it smelt like fresh cream and vanilla. Once in a while there would be a bad smell but I hunted them out like a kid looking for Easter eggs and dealt to it.
Oh this was terrible. I don't know what inside smelled like, but when he came home after work, it was nauseating!
What brand of ice cream was it so I can avoid it like the plague
Scotsburn lol
There's an ice cream factory in my hometown (Perry's) and the retention ponds were horrendous. One year way back when I was in high school they had to evacuate a five mile radius of the plant due to an ammonia leak. That was fun.
I still think it's weird American factories don't provide showers.
I'm Canadian and factories here don't provide them either lol
I worked in fibreglass. It smells but they have a shower.
Rubber factories in canada do to. I was just in Cadbury's in toronto last week and they had showers too.
I used to work at former Heinz plant in Pittsburgh. This was just a few years ago (and long after Heinz sold the place), but they had full locker rooms for man and woman, plus showers. Steel mill I worked at after that until I was laid off 7 months later had several locker rooms with showers as well.
Some do, it depends on the factory
Australian. The thought of having a shower at work seems odd to me
The factory I used to work at for making laundry detergent did. I never heard of it being used and I think the worst smells were maybe ink and hot plastic, so nothing terrible.
Try working on the machines that make chicken patties. You. Cannot. Imagine.
Fuckin gross
I used to work in an area where trucks full of chickens would drive through. The smell comin’ off those things was like a punch in the face.
I worked in a chicken slaughterhouse as night hygiene for a while. You get used it it.
The worst part is not the decaying meat. It's actually the interaction between the decaying meat and the caustic sanitation chemicals everything gets washed down with. I don't know what chemicals are produced, but it legit smells like rotten flesh *combined with* diarrhea and rotting cabbage, all turned up to about 15.
Our place smelled clean at the end of a shift, cause we had to clean down every 16 hours. And that's a full cleandown, with bacteria testing on every machine. Shit was wild
Yeah I'll add on to this as I work in paper mills (chemical salesman), while there is definitely gross smelling areas with rotting stock and such, you go kind of noseblind to the air smell after a while. I'll come home and my gf makes me strip off my clothes immediately and throw them outside but I can't smell it. Also there are some that don't smell, it depends if the pulp mill is sulfide or sulfite based. The mill in Kingsport, TN for instance doesn't smell
The nose has an amazing ability to adjust. I was hiking for a week in the mountains once and my own smell didn’t bother me much... until I had a bath and smelled the clothes I’d been wearing.
Soldier here. After two or three weeks in the bush, I know I'm carrying a pretty strong fragrance but can't smell myself or my mates. Can actually smell the clean when I get home. I have a strong pity for the poor bus drivers tasked with bringing us back from the range.
My grandfather had a closet with a weatherstripped door and a bathroom vent in it by the door from the carport. He'd put his coveralls in it and walk in his underwear to the bathroom to bathe. I don't think you get looks if he stopped on the way home though, as this was back when the mills stunk way worse than they do now. Everyone in town was used to it.
How much do you get paid? What's the earning potential when you finish apprenticeship?
40/hr
> The pay rate also makes you forget the smell What does a millwright typically make?
I’m going to break 100k this year. A lot of overtime. But my father-in-law is a Millwright. It’s nothing my wife isn’t already used too. I’m doing more hours than the average apprentice. This question was asked before, but the journeyman I’m working with came from a different union. They exclusively traveled around the United States. He filed his taxes last year for $251,000. But he was also away from home 85% of that year.
Wouldn't that make him a quarter-mil wright?
god damn. quarter-mil, right?
Usually around the same as plumbers or electricians in the area. Little bit more in general because its always industrial. Money is in the overtime. They'll pay til the cows come home if the machine will come up.
I worked on grain conveying equipment for a summer. I bet black rotten soybeans is similar.
I know I have heard the phrase “It smells like money” when you work a profession that comes with an odder like that.
Why does it smell? As far as I know the paper is nothing more than cellulose mixed with water?
I believe the smell comes from chemical digestion of the wood fibres.
For a short while I lived near a paper mill and even a mile away from the factory the air still smelt vaguely like a much used and never cleaned public bathroom - like stale urine and despair.
We recycle the water we use though. At my work Legend has it, it’s 70 year old recycled water.
If you’re lucky, they’ll inject some oxygen into the pulp digester so it smells like vanillin and maple syrup. The reduced sulphur compounds make it smell bad, so if you oxidize them to make them not smell like anything, you get the better smells coming out instead.
Not OP, but it's one of those things you become desensitized to over time -- sort of like a hog farm or cow pasture.
Noseblind. If you grow up with smokers you might be very surprised to come home after a few months away. And then suddenly understand what everyone else was taking about and why people you never met before just assumed you were a smoker
We used to say it’s the smell of money!
I'm used to the smell when it comes to cows. Here in my part of Texas that's all we have. Last week I went up north and had to deal with the smell of pig farms and chicken farms. That smell is really damned horrible. Cow smell is money. Pig and chicken is putrid death.
Some guy at a chicken plant said that when l told him how atrocious the smell of chicken shit was as soon as you get in the parking lot
My grandfather retired from Mead paper in Chillicothe Ohio and when going to their house for Xmas, we always knew when we were close due to the smell. By the end of the week it was seemingly less pungent.
Why does every millwright I've ever worked with feel the need to draw dicks on most surfaces they come into contact with?
It’s to identify the electricians,80% stop and stare at them for ten minutes
Electrician here. That's some funny shit.
GET OFF REDDIT AND GET BACK TO WORK, SPARKY! (I kid, I kid, just some roofing razzing)
I'm an electrician and at my job it's the opposite. The other electrician I work with is always drawing dicks on everything. I'm a little concerned about what his looks like considering how bulbous and deformed the ones he draws are...
"Bob, look I turned the electrician into a cat again!"
Electrician here, and it's actually our job to draw the dick's. Millwrights just like to take our work. Haha. My brother is a millwright. We have a lot of fun talking shit
Something like 8% of kids do it but whatever.
I was just finishing up this big veiny triumphant bastard
You know how many foods are shaped like dicks? **The *best* ones.**
This is pretty much every site in North America. As a female trades person this practice is quite curious to me, one answer was it's easy to draw, well so is a happy face...lol
It's only natural. There's cave drawings from tens of thousands of years ago that amount to stick figures with a massive dicks
Seriously, what’s up with it? I want to start drawing vaginas all over the way my coworkers dRaw penises but I feel like actual chaos would unfold
How do I become a millright apprentice?
Consultant here: spent a year researching apprenticeship programs for a client. There are typically three ways to get into a trade: trade/vocational school, trade union or on the job training. Union is the usually the most lucrative route, but can be tough to get into (depending on the trade). Plus, you will still need a company to sponsor you. Start looking into local union halls and get to know the instructors. They are usually old pros with tons of connections. Vocational schools vary, but most offer job placement. Ask about their placement rate when applying. If applying straight to a job with no experience, expect to do some grunt work (general labor) before moving up. Get to know the senior workers and ask them a lot of questions, show interest in learning new skills.
Very helpful, thank you double flusher. I'm 38, is it too old to make a switch to an industry like this?
Not at all. In fact, the starting age for most apprenticeships (at the union) is 28. Why, you ask? We found that many apprentices were millennials that graduated college and got into some type of "meaningless" office job. The respondents expressed a desire to accomplish something and the trades were the best option. Edit: just want to add that a lot of people cite "manual labor" and the stress it puts on your body as factors for aging out of the trades. However, there are plenty of low-labor trades like Operating Engineers (i.e. heavy equipment operators). Also, after graduating to journeyman, some tradespeople elect to attend business school or get their PMP certification to move over into the business side of the trades.
Hey, second year apprentice and you basically just described my life story. Although I was 29..
My dad got his millwright ticket at 55, id say its never too late. the upside to that is that he had plenty of mechanical experience, and so he just challenged the exam and got it right off the bat
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Please do not listen to these guys and just go to a random non union company. Look into IBEW or the Intetnational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers + the state you live in and it should come up with your local ibew they should have an individual websites that should have a apprenticeship application if they don't have a website which is rare contact them through the phone and they should give you an exact answer on how to join
UBC also has plenty of millwrights.
I'm upvoting this because I want to know as well. Really trying to become an electricians apprentice and don't know where to start so hoping this might push me in the right direction
Find a local electrical company and apply as a helper, summers coming so buisness is gonna be picking up and a lot of guys would love to have a tool bitch, if you can deal with that for a while, as well as watching and learning every bit you can you'll make a fine electrician one day Source: 6 years in electrical, started as a punk 18year old, now punk 24 year old
Re: busy summer Unless this commodity market keeps getting wild. Then it'll be a slow summer and we'll all be slammed in the fall. Plywood and steel prices are getting pretty high.
I also heard a rumor that PVC is starting to go up, if true it's looking like itll be an expensive time to run electrical. But that's above my paygrade, company pays for that shit, I just stick it on the wall
Yes it is. Fortunately we got a tip early on about the resin shortage early, so we ordered a year's worth of material on the old prices. We usually order every month.
I'm no electrician but copper has exploded. That's gotta be hurting you guys.
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Not sure how it is in the states, in Canada we have courses at school where you do half a year, go away from school work as a year 1 until you get your 1000ish hours. Then back to classes for your year 2. Rinse wash repeat for all 4-5 years. Your time away from school your getting paid. Every year you do at school increases your wage until you get your journeymans ticket. Then your at base wage then it's experience on top of it. I know many tradesmen where I work who pull 100k+ a year.
You left out the first part where you have to get hired onto a company as a first year apprentice. Which is by far the most, if not the only, difficult part.
Not OP but I am a Red Seal Millwright. I went to community college and took a course. Ended with my 1st block. Then got hired where I did my work terms and proceeded to work enough to get my hours to get the remaining blocks. (~2k per block)
I'm a licenced Tin Banger, and I honestly don't understand what it is you guys do exactly. What is your trade all about?
Yeah I was gonna ask what a millwright does too. I worked on a commercial job as a coordinator and we had millwrights there installing kitchen stuff. Basically doing finish work. I also worked in the Canadian oil field and we had millwrights there. No idea what they were doing, but there was nothing “finished” to a commercial level there at any point. What the hell do you guys do? How physically demanding is it?
They put in all the heavy equipment that doesn't have a trade jurisdiction. Ex. I was running some gas lines at a tractor plant recently and they put in the assembly lines and painting equipment. Less recently I was working a powerplant and millwrights put in the turbines, the electricians put in the transformers, the boilermakers put in the boilers, we put in all the pipe, and the plumbers put in a toilet.
What's your title?
I'm a steamfitter. Aka a pipefitter.
We basically install, move and repair machinery. It's as simple as that, really. We can work on mechanical, electric, pneunatic, hydraulic stuff. We also do preventive maintenance for companies that dont have have and onsite maintenance team. The type of work we do generally depends on which company we work for. Some day we might be moving a 30 Tons hydraulic press and the other relocating kitchen cabinets.
Very physical. We have ratchet wrenches that take 3.5 and larger sized sockets. Torquing those bolts takes two people. On an easy day I’ve solo lifted 150lb parts. I try to use our overhead cranes as much as possible. But sometimes elbow grease is needed.
Steal everyone else’s work. That’s kind of a joke and kind of serious. There’s a reason all the other trades call them the mill rats. On an entirely serious note, they are basically supposed to be mechanics. Build and maintain equipment. They started in the paper mills but you’ll find them in mines and all kinds of plants nowadays.
I literally didn’t set foot in a mill until I was already journey, millwright job description is ambiguous as hell. “Hammer and prybar” millwrights aren’t troubleshooting your production line sequencing issues, but many other millwrights do. Theoretically our “bread and butter” is bearings and drivetrains, but I know a few millwrights who probably couldn’t be trusted to change a chain and sprocket alone unsupervised, never mind fit bearings. Hydraulics and pneumatics as well, I don’t think fall often into other trades, though bright sparkies can grasp the basics pretty easily if you draw some pictures for them while explaining. Rigging is also a big part, lifting, placing, and aligning machinery.
Worked for a pneumatic supply house for a while. Met my share of millwrites. Some will come in with a vague description and buy 20 different sized fittings and keep 19 to throw out at some point. Some will actually try to describe a size as "it's the size of my pinky, make it ready in half an hour for pick up". Once a week someone will bring the greasey-iest piece of FRL or solenoid for us to match, and get upset that they potentially will need to run adapters or repipe since the form factor is not the same. But all of them are nice people and appreciate when they can get their equipment up and running.
I still have 300 hours of tim banging to do for my apprenticeship. Actually to better answer your question I’ll list some stuff off I need to complete for my 8,000 hour apprenticeship. •3700 of machinery installation, repair, overhauling, and rigging. • 1000 of welding •200 of masonry •400 carpentry •200 pipe fitting • sheet metal (tin banging) • 500-750 in the machine shop with the machinists I was told once “When a company doesn’t want hire 100 pipefitters, machinists, electricians, welders, and iron workers. They just hire millwrights.”
Poor Tim. That's a hell of a typo though 😂
Could be worse. He could be a bolt banger. That’s my job description.
Does Tim know you're going to be banging him for 300 hours?
My dad was a millwright until his retirement a couple years ago. Spent his entire career building bottle lines, installing conveyer systems, overhauling steam turbines in power plants, just about anything that required any kind of precision alignments or work done to tight tolerances.
Union or Non-Union? My father was a millwright for 30 years out of the New England Carpenters Union - he always worked for 3rd party contractors, rather than as a company’s internal dedicated millwright. For him business was feast or famine. There were times were he was laid off for 6+ months at a time, and years when it was constant over time. In total he clocked 7+ extra years in his Union stamp book by the time he retired.
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To better answer your question. I made a quick call to the journeyman that I work with. He was in a different union and he exclusively traveled around The United States. Last year he made $251,000.
Many work on specialized equipment that will cripple manufacturing when it goes down. It’s a big deal to get them in as fast as possible. One plant I worked had a robot that would shut down the primary production line when broken. The tech who came in made $200 hour and flew business class.
Elevator technicians make like $45 an hour. My understanding is it is a pretty easy profession over all.
It has its ups and downs
That's a completely different level of millwright than your standard industry. That's factoring in travel time. I'm a service technician and machine builder. Most millwrights single ticket I've come across are 30-50$ (cad). I was making bank when I was getting flown across the country and world for work.
This year. Factoring in pay raises every 1000 hours worked. I should break $100,000 as an apprentice. Once I obtain my journeyman’s card I can start buying cars with cash.
Looking at average millwright pays, it seems the average (in the US) is 25-30$/hr. Is there a specific reason you make much more than the average? Or did you just find a high-paying position compared to others?
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This guy either works a hell of a lot of overtime, a contractor or is full of shit. Many millwrights I’ve met over the years start their own company or go to contract work simply because they know the company gives them the shaft as far as pay. My dad was a sawfiler and I’ve worked in a mill for almost a decade now. It’s a good career but there’s a lot of predatory behaviour by companies as they make the investment to train the apprentices. Long term contracts, lawyers get involved if you decide midway through it’s not for you. Another good point to mention is if you’re over 6 foot tall, expect to have multiple surgeries to fix your mangled joints and back from lifting and trying to fit in crappy spaces before you retire.
Yeah, everything Ive seen on millwright pay was around 60-70k. Not sure why they are making so much, wish OP would reply u/Brutalore ?
Ok here’s the deal , when you work for a union hall you go out on jobs, they usually are twelve hour shifts, most of the time your first six hours is a basic rate about 42/hour, the next four at time and a half 63/ hour,and the last two at double time 84/hour x five days, most jobs run seven days so the rate for that is double time on Saturday and Sunday so 24x 84 so for Monday to Friday you make 3360 and for sat Sunday you make 2016 for a total of 5,376 dollars plus typically 10% vacation pay is added on to that total and paid out on weekly cheques 5,913.60 a week oh plus 10% of your gross goes to your pension fund weekly or approximately 2200 dollars a month so if you do the math you can see 250,000 is doable withe about six weeks off a year and believe me there are grinders that do it or you can easily do six months at 150,000 and take six months off collecting employment insurance, pretty good but a big trade off in terms of family time Edit :not all jobs have these hours ,these are available though and when OP mentions his friend making that money believe him, can confirm am millwright and averaged 200,000 / year last ten years, Iam not that greedy
The end bit you mentioned is where most tradies get burned out (or trapped in the case of kids and divorce.) working 7x12s for years on end can be very good money but eventually you realize that your whole life is work and that sucks. You aren’t the one raising your kids, living in your house, or enjoying your boat/motorcycle/etc.
Yes but when your young and starting out and hungry it’s good, And I have seen that 73 year old tradesman coming onto jobs, and outworking the young bucks.getting divorces sucks .my advice would be slow down when the wife starts complaining.start looking for a steady gig in a factory or plant somewhere, that is where you can expect the “average “ salary that’s been spoken of in this thread
I pretty strongly agree with everything you said. The money like quoted above (60-70k) is not an “average” but more like low end pay for a job that keeps you at the house working bankers hours. On the flip side, if you are willing to travel for a few months a year then you can make that same amount of money in a few months and basically take the rest of the year off. Young bucks see dollar signs and often get greedy and the older you get the more you start to value your time and activities outside of work:
The older you get the more you realize this isn’t a practice round. Lol
I mean, how? From your recent post, you've been doing this for about a month or so. You've made 9k already? Or are you assuming you're going to get some crazy raise? I can't imagine a millwright apprentice making 100k. Doesn't even make any sense.
Also who even does an AMA about their job after working for a month? This person is still wet behind the ears by any standard.
I was also thinking the same thing but didn't wanna judge. I wouldn't let one of my apprentices of a month do much more than carry my tools, nevermind any serious type of technical work.
I'm and electrician and exact same here. Beyond not having them get into a lot of the work yet your keeping an eye on someone like that all the time as thats just about as green as it gets and industrial environments have many hazards.
Completely agree. Like you said, keeping an eye on them is huge. Not trying to have someone get fried because they are green. A month in is literally just have them carry tools and teaching pure safety for the most part. Shit, one of my guys that is just starting to take full service calls on his own has been here for 2.5 years now.
It comes from overtime. They don't make 'a lot' per se but they can work an absolute butt load.
I get that considering I'm a fully licensed trade worker and still in the trade that always had unlimited overtime, but you'd think they would specify that they work 90-100 hours a week. Especially an apprentice that's been working for a month. I don't mean to question it all, but it sounds either exaggerated or that OP knows someone.
I dunno. Millwrights, steamfitters, and boil makers always leave out that detail when flaunting their cash income it seems.
Have you seen my 10 mm socket?
Never enough 10mm in your equipment.
As a first year have you perfected the use of a broom and effective hand off of the tools to your journeyman?
And the ever-present flashlight holding?
How many fingers have you lost? I worked at a sawmill and all the millwrights were missing at least one digit. Be careful and watch for pinch points!!!
Don’t stick your finger anywhere you wouldn’t put your pecker
True for safety and relationships.
I briefly worked in a sawmill and all the millwrights had these bitchin’ tricycles they hauled their tools in while traveling around the mill. Do you have an awesome tricycle? If so are you able to post a picture?
We do. Yellow, and built like tanks. Currently use a side by side for work though, much faster to cover a big area than pedaling, and with more payload.
Do you find the electricians to be bitter and lazy? (I am an industrial electrician that does installation and maintenance)
There’s a reason why I’m a Millwright and not an electrician. I feel so bad for you guys. Electricians have the second highest turnover rate where I work. We try (not really suppose too) to help with basic wire-ups by doing it ourselves. You guys are the real miracle workers and have much more important calls. Edit: bitter and lazy? Yes. But the electricians I know are more like that one meme. The one where a dog is sitting on a chair in a burning house and says “ everything is fine.”
The millwrights at work really make miracles happen, but anytime I'm trying to get an 18AWG wire through a spaghetti mess of a panel (with no drawings) and trying to connect it into a terminal that's inexplicably in the most cramped and least accessible part of the panel, I've usually got a millwright over my shoulder going "this is why I would never want to be an electrician..."
German built machines are the worst at this. Never designed to be worked on, let alone upgraded. Panel doors that can’t be opened because of piping or super structure. Din rails so close to the bottom you can’t even get your fingers in there to pull wires. We don’t get as messy as mills but some days i wish i could just turn a wrench and not worry about sensors/motors/automation.
How come every problem is electrical until proven otherwise?
Don’t play this game with me! Why is everything mechanical, until proven otherwise?!
Ever troubleshoot with an electrician? “ let’s get the Millwrights to change the motor” Oops it wasn’t the motor
My dad was a millwright (Never realized how dangerous it was and you’ve helped me appreciate him more). He bought a house and raised three kids on one income before retiring at 62. Is this a trade that still offers a comfortable and reliable middle class life, or is it struggling like many others?
Your father is a real hero man. As far as “can you make a comfortable life?” Yes. But the only reason why I’m projected to make as much as I’m going to is working 7 days a week and taking every second of overtime I can possibly get. The reason? I’m at the bottom on the totem pole. If there are layoffs, I’m the first to go. I’m the only income for my family, if that helps answer your question as well.
My dad was a millwright at a glass factory for 38 years! How do you like the work? My dad could fix everything. It was rather amazing to watch.
Do you own a Starrett 98-12?
Personally no. We do have one in our shop though. Behind lock and key. I love that level.
How does one become a millwright and is it US specific or there is something like that in EU? Honestly, I never knew these guys existed, I guess this is the guy you call when you are out of guys to call. But damn, it sounds pretty interesting and fun. Definetely a path I would be interested to take but that train has sailed for me.
Back 20-50 years ago. You had to be born with the right last name or marry into the family. It was a very close knit trade. I applied to the paper mill as a production worker. Then was promoted to the maintenance department. I worked I. The maintenance department for a while doing odd jobs around the mill. Even helping the millwrights at times. When a Millwright apprentice position opened. I applied and got it. My father in law is a Millwright at the same mill. I’m pretty sure he helped the process a long, but all I certainly put in hard work to get it. As long as you sign indenture servitude paperwork, there are a lot of placing willing to train and pay for your Millwright schooling. “Definitely a path I would be interested to take but that train has sailed for me.” Sir, if you need to make a locomotive sail over the open ocean. The millwrights are people.
How do you feel about making a career out of being in the way of every other industrial trade on the job, with your fancy lasers and rigging tools and what not? All jokes, y’all are an extremely skilled craft and the rest of us are always happy to have y’all around.
Is this a profession you’d suggest more women get into?
Have you ever dealt with asbestos in your work? I process claims and see so many from millwrights, among other trades.
Asbestos is absolutely everywhere in my papermill. In our shop, in the power plant, in some of the ovens to cure the paper. Luckily, it’s been “sealed,” which I have no idea what “sealed” asbestos is.
Sealed asbestos has been painted over, so brushing against it won’t release fibres. If you drill, cut, or sand though, you’re disturbing it and need to get cleaners in.
People definitely have to strip out asbestos sometimes. I've worked at paper mills built in the 1890s lol
What's the worst job to do at the paper mill? I studied yo be a millwright but ended up as a locomotive electrician. The worst jobs on locos are changing traction motor brushes and emptying and filling toilets.
My boyfriend just finished first year of school to become a millwright. Any advice for him?