Workingmans Dead. Who here has been chipping up rocks for the Great HWY?

[Alobar]

Been out working for a living? Sure, hell we all have! But this is a thread about those who are, or have done a considerable bit of hard physical labor in their lifetime, perhaps under less than ideal conditions, with long hours and hopefully big checks on Friday.

I want this to be a place to tell the stories that those in the glass towers might not be privy about. I like hearing all those little sayings that went hand in hand with the work too although try to keep it clean.. The F word, while fine, probably can be abbreviated for the purposes of this forum..

This thread is not meant to offend to those who stayed in school, got their degrees, climbed metaphorical ladders in their careers rather than real ones and got those assigned parking spaces. Just that there are those who have been doing the other work, the less desirable things that can have a good payday attached, but often with other strings that are not that fun as well.

I for one am retired now but had been in construction my entire life in Alaska and a little down the west coast when the work got slow here. Working out away from home for months on end in miserable conditions has been more normal to me than going home every night. So I got some stories too but I will save them for now. I'd like to hear from others who have or had been doing anything involving busted knuckles, backs, or just plain hard physical work.Tell us about it!

 

[turnitdown]

As a contractor years ago, I would put in some humongous outdoor recreation areas like 2 story decks, etc. I did not nail them together, I used coated screws because the sun is so brutal here in Florida that nails back out and 5/4s would cup. Once the framing is built all that's left is to screw the deck boards in. Boring, and can take a while. I though I'd break things up and came up with a little chant to pass the time. "I've been screwing all day, working for my pay, so I can drill you like an oil well tonight". OK, I'm not proud of it, but it was funny at the time. I have witnesses.

 

[2011etec]

Worked my entire career at Algoma steel which is a fair size integrated steelmaker.Worked in every hellhole in there along with 12000 others at its peak .Been to close to seven deaths of the very horrible kind.It was nothing to work in areas where the temp would hit 140f I worked around molten steel and iron for years ,and in the latter years operated a 400 ton molten steel crane then was a group leader till the very end in 2012.Retired at 54 with 34.5 years.It was a hard but good living doing an honest days work that a lot of people wouldn't even think of doing.Now theres 3 thousand people working there .

 

[elcoholic]

How ‘bout breakin’ concrete in a 10cy drum in the hot sun? A couple yards of hard concrete in a mixer after a breakdown. They send me in with a 50# chipping gun and Marlboro filters for ear plugs. 90* day. The spring to hold the bit on is broken so when a chunk breaks loose the bit goes flying and richochets around the drum. A real fun day for this 15 year old batch plant yard boy. Usually I just got to shovel out the bucket line pit or drag and oil the yard.

By ‘75 I was 19 and starting my career in engineering.

 

[elcoholic]

Worked my entire career at Algoma steel which is a fair size integrated steelmaker.Worked in every hellhole in there along with 12000 others at its peak .Been to close to seven deaths of the very horrible kind.It was nothing to work in areas where the temp would hit 140f I worked around molten steel and iron for years ,and in the latter years operated a 400 ton molten steel crane then was a group leader till the very end in 2012.Retired at 54 with 34.5 years.It was a hard but good living doing an honest days work that a lot of people wouldn't even think of doing.Now theres 3 thousand people working there .

I worked the instrumentation upgrade of Blast Furnace 4 at Kaiser in 1980. I was as-builting instrumentation before they shut it down. The center stove was nearly through the brick so they had firehoses on the 2800* dome 280 ft up. We had to wear air pacs because of the CO leaks above the stove deck. That was bad but watching the guys tap the furnace and run the mud gun was just insanity. They couldn’t last very long. Worst place/job on earth I’ve ever seen.

 

[2011etec]

I worked that very job also elcoholic.Taped the furnaces and was a cindersnapper.One of our furnaces was huge (number 7) at over 370 feet.She,s still going strong.

 

[elcoholic]

 

[Alobar]

How ‘bout breakin’ concrete in a 10cy drum in the hot sun? A couple yards of hard concrete in a mixer after a breakdown. They send me in with a 50# chipping gun and Marlboro filters for ear plugs. 90* day. The spring to hold the bit on is broken so when a chunk breaks loose the bit goes flying and richochets around the drum. A real fun day for this 15 year old batch plant yard boy. Usually I just got to shovel out the bucket line pit or drag and oil the yard.

By ‘75 I was 19 and starting my career in engineering.

Oh man, that's chipping alright! this story reminds me of someone I kinda knew from HS who was driving a cement truck and smoked his brakes on a long grade, panicked and jumped out to his death. Had he just rode it, without doing anything he would have lived as the truck just hit the ditch on the next curve and came to a stop. . Full load there to be jackhammered by some unlucky person. .

 

[Alobar]

I worked the instrumentation upgrade of Blast Furnace 4 at Kaiser in 1980. I was as-builting instrumentation before they shut it down. The center stove was nearly through the brick so they had firehoses on the 2800* dome 280 ft up. We had to wear air pacs because of the CO leaks above the stove deck. That was bad but watching the guys tap the furnace and run the mud gun was just insanity. They couldn’t last very long. Worst place/job on earth I’ve ever seen.

I worked that very job also elcoholic.Taped the furnaces and was a cindersnapper.One of our furnaces was huge (number 7) at over 370 feet.She,s still going strong.

These are 2 of the things I could never stand much of , heights and heat ..NFW would I make it there!

 

[Bobcat]

I thought shoveling hog chit for my uncle and roofing barns with my dad was a chore.
You guys are warriors!

 

[Tom Brennan]

35 years in Boilermakers Local 1, Chicago. Worked out of the hall. Built and maintained powerhouses (both fossil and nuke), steel mills, chemical plants, refineries, smokestacks, tanks, water towers and such. I was also an apprentice teacher. Good racket; worked with great people, got lots done and had fun doing it and retired at 55.

I have hours and hours of good stories but they're for taverns, over an Old Style and a shot of VO.

Building a blast furnace, night shift, working 7-12s, winter of 1980. I'm with the orange hat.

 

[2011etec]

Where was that Tom?

 

[DrumminDaddy]

My hat is off to you guys. And to my father who put 35 years in as a millwright at Bethlehem Steel.

I’m a customer and appreciate your handy work.

Building a pair of Venturi instrumentation. This particular set is aluminum. Many are stainless. Just happen to have pics of these handy.

Starting off with 12” round.

 

[mfrench]

The progress of the life of a set of gloves from a few days around here, ^

And, what those rocks do when in place. It's the getting them up there thing that is the hard part (uphill)

 

[motorstereo]

I've been in the asphalt paving industry most of my adult life. You know those stifling hot-humid days when it means run from the ac car into the ac building? Those days are just another typical day for us. Over the years I've seen sooooo many stupid things happen........from shoveling 300 degree class 4 asphalt around raised structures all day long to a building being destroyed by a truck driver forgetting his body was raised and just this summer sadly we lost a co-worker on the job due to John Q. Public not wanting to slow the **** down in our work zone.

 

[blhagstrom]

I'm an old farm boy from ND.
I have been through Hell and back.
Went to college after going bankrupt in the commodity bubble in the 80s.
Worked in the glass towers.

Seen both worlds.

Still prefer the hard work world.
The mental stress in the glass towers is another kind of Hell.

 

[Tom Brennan]

Where was that Tom?

Wisconsin Steel, on the East Side of Chicago. Place is gone now; Chicago is now pretty much deindustrialized and the town's folkways are changing accordingly, which I find depressing.

 

[Gnesen]

I grew up on a farm and did masonry work in the summers to pay for college. On the farm, I saw a neighbor kid get his shorts ripped right off of him by the PTO on a tractor. Good thing he was wearing old, ripped up shorts. He just stood there and ended up in his undies. The brother of a former girlfriend wasn't so lucky and got his leg caught in a grain auger. He kept the leg, but it was badly mangled.

I avoided major injury for the most part. One summer I was working on a new foundation for a large house. This involved carrying or wheelbarrowing blocks and cement across narrow wooden planks over deep trenches. The only time I lost a load was when an old plank broke when I was right in the middle of the span. I dropped about six feet and landed upright. No major damage, but it sure put a scare into me. Thank goodness most everything is pumped and poured now days.

Seen both worlds.

Still prefer the hard work world.
The mental stress in the glass towers is another kind of Hell.

You got that right. I'm in the ivory tower now, but usually wish I was working outside. On the other hand, I've seen what hard labor does to a body over time.

 

[Alobar]

I've been in the asphalt paving industry most of my adult life. You know those stifling hot-humid days when it means run from the ac car into the ac building? Those days are just another typical day for us. Over the years I've seen sooooo many stupid things happen........from shoveling 300 degree class 4 asphalt around raised structures all day long to a building being destroyed by a truck driver forgetting his body was raised and just this summer sadly we lost a co-worker on the job due to John Q. Public not wanting to slow the **** down in our work zone.

Yeah asphalt, a lotta work there for sure. Before I got in the electrician apprenticeship I drove trucks in construction including a few long dreary summers hauling asphalt. The outfit I worked for only ran the plant for one long shift, usually 12 to 14 hours and always 7 days a week. most of the time these jobs were at least a few hundred miles from home so stayed in camps or motels. I drove those damned tippy semi end dumps 12 or 14 hours every day for months, not that physically hard, but always fighting to stay awake and not do something to get someone killed. Seemed like for a driver I ran the flat shovel and asphalt rake quite a bit too.

 

[nj pheonix]

Me like the OP union electrician.
I've been in trenches in the mud and cold.
, New construction 2 story residential to 60+ story buildings (NYC)
Now I know the OP worked in Alaska so when I say it was cold up high by the rivers in the wind during cold snaps , I can see Alobar smirking (and I don't even know what he looks like.)
When we used to put Galvanized pipe in decks in the summer we'd hang the hickeys (pipe benders) on cables inside the forms. Otherwise they'd be too hot to touch after lunch.
Every now and then we'd lose them in a pour.
I've also spent quality time chopping walls, floors and occasional ceilings.
Fortunately I never had to run anything heavier than 4" Gal. (Which I think is 120 lbs a length).
One pearl of my early career. When I was an apprentice.
They used to install televeyors.
It was sort of like a mini rollercoaster that ran in a small shaft in the building.
What it did was the mailroom in the basement or sub basement would sort building mail. Put each floors mail in a cart. Set the floor on the cart and this went up the building and out onto the proper floor to the floor mail room .
Probably TMI
Anyway, we installed an energized rail system in the shaft.
Prior to completion , being how there weren't working bathrooms for several floors people would pee in the shaft and the brass rails corroded. So they hung me in the shaft in a harness with an electric sander (IIRC it had what appeared to be a scotch green pad.)
I'd dangle from floor to floor polishing the rails.
Honestly I forgot all about it until now.
Luckily I have been indoors doing automated building system work for the past 16 years.
Mostly indoors, (Except cooling towers) not a ton of chopping or even heavy pipe. Using more brain than brawn now. Good thing, I'm not getting any younger.