Welding Tips and Tricks

Thanks to a lot of help from Otto I am now a bonafide new fella here, been trying for about a week, mostly when we were snowed in, but its all good. I been lurking here for a month or 2 and I see a lot of good people here, hopefully I can be half as good. Anyway I do a lot of work out in the strip mines on mining machinery and in coal breakers in the Anthracite region of northeast Pennsylvania, this is where I learned most of what I know, I had my own rig doing it for about 10 years then after 9-11 things kind of dried up so I sold the truck do to the fact I needed the cash for bills and hit the road hangin iron and welding building power plants and such.

At 59 years I no longer have the patience for the crap what goes on in that line of work, so I came back home and am back doin what Ive always done, which is basically go to work mind my own busness and quietly go about the busness of making a living.ome of you may remember me from the innernet, and some of you I may have worked with over the years. If so hello and God Bless.

My background...I grew up workin in the mines and cutting timber for the miners with my Dad, an old miner I worked for taught me how to weld so half, well he showed me how to strike an arc run a bead and light and cut with a torch, said make this mine buggy look like that buggy and left me to my own devices...seriously....and so I learned a lot by trial and error..not so many errors so I got pretty doggone lucky...And say what you will but God looked over me the whole time.

So here I am back home now rebuilding dragline buckets excavator buckets dipper fronts booms for this stuff, heavy haulers, stuff for coal breakers you name it I get to play with it or most likely have played with or will in the future.

Best part is I am back home with BDW ( Beautiful Darling Wife) of 35 years, get to see my kids and 6 grandbabies and go hunting rabbits deer and whatever right in my backyard like I used to. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

Thank you for letting me join up and Thank you Much Otto

Welcome aboard mate!
That is one good gig you have! Welding on big stuff, going home, and hunting. That is a lot of experience and life you have lived. Look forward to hearing from you on other threads and seeing some work of yours.

Popeye,

All these years and I don't think I ever knew you lived in Schuykill County. It hasn't been that many years since I worked a couple of jobs up near there. Not quite your backyard, but near Harrisburg and Lancaster, so "day trip" distance. At that time, I had extra money in my pocket and enough free time that we could easily have met for lunch and/or a beer somewhere (depending on your travels at the time, of course!)

My silly avatar picture of me on the AirGas bike was taken at Mt. Joy, PA, by an executive VP for AirGas.

Welcome aboard!

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:Popeye,

All these years and I don't think I ever knew you lived in Schuykill County. It hasn't been that many years since I worked a couple of jobs up near there. Not quite your backyard, but near Harrisburg and Lancaster, so "day trip" distance. At that time, I had extra money in my pocket and enough free time that we could easily have met for lunch and/or a beer somewhere (depending on your travels at the time, of course!)

My silly avatar picture of me on the AirGas bike was taken at Mt. Joy, PA, by an executive VP for AirGas.

Welcome aboard!

Steve S

Well you get around-Pennsylvania to New Orleans.

Nick, I was in 19 states in three years. I'd have to do some serious thinking to tell you how many I worked in and how many I just passed through, but when I decided to travel for work, I was all-in. It didn't last that long, but long enough to satisfy that thing that had been nagging me. I only regret I didn't travel farther west. I'd have loved to have worked Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Washington and Oregon. I'd have loved to work the desert southwest, even if just one season. Seeing America is a great excuse to travel and make a ton of money. I had to pass on a great job on the Washington coast for immediate financial need, which broke my heart at the time, but led me where I am today.

Steve S

Farmwelding...Yeah its been an interesting life and the work I do was always fun. At times it is a bit brutal, most of the time we do this stuff outside in any kind of weather, snow, rain, cold, wind whatever mother nature throws at me, one of the fellas I did a lot of work for called me the abominable welding snowman when he came up on the mountain to see how I was doing, (most of the time I am by myself), and when he saw the pile of snow on my shoulders he called me that. One of the last jobs on the road I worked on was in Wisconsin working in the sand mines building their prep plants, I wore myself out listening to the bullshit doin one of them and figured enough was enough and decided to come back home.

Steve...If I remember right we talked about it once when you mentioned Lebanon PA, I mentioned my Mother was from Annville PA just east of Lebanon, and we talked about the state game land north of there, think I mentioned Jeffs Swamp if I'm not mistaken. Back in 2003 till 2005 I used my rig down at Steelton PA when we rebuilt Bethlehem Steel's old pipe mill there, that was some good work...worked all day there then I went up to Lykens or Tower City and worked in the mines up that way, then turn around and run back down to Steelton...used to stop at a little all night restraunt on Cameron Street in Harrisburg for breakfast.. had a big ol boy from West Virginia workin with me for a few months. Worked on a few shutdowns with him...first time he ever ate scrapple..he fell in love with the stuff. There were days we were never more than 60 miles from home and wouldn't get home for a week workin like that...Tunzafun

I have a cousin who lives in Mt Joy, not far from the Airgas store down there

in any cased its great to be here

Popeye the old miner wrote:Farmwelding...Yeah its been an interesting life and the work I do was always fun. At times it is a bit brutal, most of the time we do this stuff outside in any kind of weather, snow, rain, cold, wind whatever mother nature throws at me, one of the fellas I did a lot of work for called me the abominable welding snowman when he came up on the mountain to see how I was doing, (most of the time I am by myself), and when he saw the pile of snow on my shoulders he called me that. One of the last jobs on the road I worked on was in Wisconsin working in the sand mines building their prep plants, I wore myself out listening to the bullshit doin one of them and figured enough was enough and decided to come back home.

Steve...If I remember right we talked about it once when you mentioned Lebanon PA, I mentioned my Mother was from Annville PA just east of Lebanon, and we talked about the state game land north of there, think I mentioned Jeffs Swamp if I'm not mistaken. Back in 2003 till 2005 I used my rig down at Steelton PA when we rebuilt Bethlehem Steel's old pipe mill there, that was some good work...worked all day there then I went up to Lykens or Tower City and worked in the mines up that way, then turn around and run back down to Steelton...used to stop at a little all night restraunt on Cameron Street in Harrisburg for breakfast.. had a big ol boy from West Virginia workin with me for a few months. Worked on a few shutdowns with him...first time he ever ate scrapple..he fell in love with the stuff. There were days we were never more than 60 miles from home and wouldn't get home for a week workin like that...Tunzafun

I have a cousin who lives in Mt Joy, not far from the Airgas store down there

in any cased its great to be here

Sorry about the bad experiences in Wisconsin. I guess we are just a bunch of ornory drunk Germans eating brats and watching football. Where is Wisconsin was it exactly?

Farmwelding...it wasn't the folks in Wisconsin I had problems with...its just the crap you go thru when you work those big construction jobs what with safety and people using you to climb the corporate ladder, none of the people I worked with were from the area...all were roadwhores just like I was. Lots of backstabbing and other BS, if you get into that line of construction you will see what I'm talking about pretty quick..We were at Tunnel City and Taylor. The folks in Wisconsin were wonderful people. By the way about 90% of me is German, the rest is Lithuanian or Polish

Otto, welcome to the forum.

Take it Otto, its been a long time coming


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Coldman wrote:Take it Otto, its been a long time coming


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I suppose it has, now that you say it.