/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Appliance repair is pretty gravy and pays well although you will be on call on rotation.

>>1490785
Can you teach a young guy to do it for you later in life? Yes?-good trade.

>>1490785
>Is there a trade where you are not on call all the time, not super physical and can get home and done with at a reasonable hour?
Mowing/landscaping. Not hard if you have the right tools.

>>1490785
>What do you think of the trades?
I'm a cabinetmaker by trade, and it's good...
>Are they that demanding on the body?
If you are bereft of any and all common sense, then yes it probably is...I've been a cabinetmaker going on 28 years now, and my body is fine...
>Is there a trade where you are not on call all the time, not super physical and can get home and done with at a reasonable hour?
Cabinetmaking?

>>1492405
I built a rc mower.

I firmly believe lawn mowing services will be a thing of the past soon.

>>1490785
Learn wood floor amd tile laying. Then pay a crew instead of bust ass.

Trim carpenter

Plumber

General contractor means u just spend all day being a cunt and making money

>>1490785
>What do you think of the trades?
Work as a tool and die maker, I think machinist and millwrights are jokes. Other than those shits pretty good.
>Are they that demanding on the body?
Depends where you work, what you do and how much overtime you work. Shit like welding or any other physical type of work is very hard on the body. Surprisingly contorting yourself to weld one handed above your head on a ladder doesn't do much for you over the course of 40 years.
>Is there a trade where you are not on call all the time, not super physical and can get home and done with at a reasonable hour?
Really depends on the place you work. Ive had jobs that are 7-3 no on call and no overtime. I've had jobs where you work 3 rotations and have all the overtime you want.

Shit varies so much from place to place. But from experience if you don't want to be on call don't be a contractor.

If you're good with tools & figuring out puzzels then try hvacr. Real good pay after you put your time in. A couple of drawbacks: 1) crawling around in tight spots & dealing with sheet metal, 2) when it's beautiful outside you're fixing air conditioners & when it's a blizzard outside you're messing with furnaces, 3) alot of your coworkers/bosses will be assholes.

>>1490785
well a big energy company just hired me for an apprenticeship as an electrician for operating technology. How did i do?
It sounds really comfy and the company told me that robots wouldn't be an issue.

>>1490785
How demanding it is on your body depends on how well you take care of yourself. If you overwork, have shit posture, don't work out, don't do flexibility exercises, don't wear PPE, and so on, you're gonna be cripple.

Start by learning how to bend correctly.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/587735283/lost-art-of-bending-over-how-other-cultures-spare-their-spines

Then make sure you are halfway fit, and do flexibility training, and you'll be fine.

If you have a physical job, you've got to train for it, just like if you played a physical sport. The body mechanics are the same. Do it right and you'll be healthy as fuck for the rest of your life.

>>1490785
Games and Electronics Tech
>In at 8a, out at 4p-6p
>drive out out to client(s)
>on call every other other weekend
>stand sit squat, rumage thru arcade cabs
>diagnose a couple
>lunch
>coin jams out the ass
>replace gun shells and LEDs
>mod old shit to look new

CHILL AS FUCK

>>1490785
Almost all trades will ruin some part of your body, sadly. This is due to the fact it will almost guaranteeably involve repetitive motion of those body parts to some degree. Plumbers get bum knees and backs, wood workers get a smaller form of jackhammer hand and shoddy wrists and elbows, landscapers get blown knees and hurt backs and possibly hurt hands, welders start going blind, any shop or warehouse worker gets some sort of tinnitus, and cooks get crippling downward spiraling depression and alcoholism issues. But, dentists get eye and hand issues, office workers get carpal tunnel and eye issues plus possible back and foot issues.

The takeaway here is that ANY work you do for a living will wreck up some part of your body. That's just how the games played. What you SHOULD be looking into and caring about isn't will this wreck my body but will that shit wreck your soul and will to live. If you love working with wood and/or physical activity fuck it go work with wood, if you love shop work like CNCing or manufacturing fuck your eye sight go do that shit. Just find a job/career/trade you'll enjoy and won't regret taking because nothing kills you faster than having to hate waking up every morning, dreading your work day, hating your day because you hate your work, then going home and hating that theres only so many hours left before you have to go back to work that you hate.
I know it sounds like the "b yurself" of career advice but its honestly one of the best bits of advice out there. Don't go into X trade/job/career because you heard they currently need more of those and it pays good money. Go into X trade/job/career because you have genuine interest in it and ignore the damn pay it will get better to some degree the deeper in you get.

>>1495024

what this guy said

>>1495024
seconding what this guy said.

I'm in low voltage switchboard manufacturing. I love the work, it's about 90% workshop bound and relatively clean, plus you get exposure to alot of different industries when you work on site.

Drawbacks: Heavy on the hands/wrists and neck, and yes I will probably get tinnitus at some point although im very careful with hearing protection.

I only know that I like it so much because i've worked on alot of shitty building sites, dust everywhere, heavy loads, alot of up and down. Builders have it hard, but they do get paid accordingly.

>>1495024
What about electricians, does the electricity actually make you crazy

>>1496115
only if you put your peepee in it

>>1496115
Nah, electricians are born crazy contrary to popular belief. Think like a pyromaniac/pyrosexual is to fire they seek it out subconciously.
What it DOES do is absolutely mangle your knees, sometimes give that whole mild form of jackhammer hand, generally mess with your entire hand especially wrists, and fuck your spine up.
If you have to carry 100lb's of 4" PVC 10 times by hand to the work area from wherever it may be or pull cord by hand that shit can fuck you up offhandedly if done enough outright and most of your job will have you on your knees all damn day for your career possibly at awkward angles or bent over with your wrists and fingers in awkward positions. It's just really harsh on your knees, spine, and hands due to how you end up putting pressure or strain for prolonged periods of times on your body either by holding them up in ways they don't like, contorting them for long periods of time they don't like, sitting your weight on them for periods of time they don't like, or lugging heavy shit by hand like any blue collar work.

There really is no career that won't yield wear and tear to one degree or another on parts of your body it's just the nature of performing repetitive movements as a career.

>>1496225
Lmao fuck I want a career but everything is deadly, might as well be a soiboi musician at this point.

>>1496232
Musicians get carpal tunnel, bum livers, and if they're good at what they do at least one or more std's.

Also I'm not advocating not getting a career because that shit fucks your body. I'm advocating saying fuck it and getting a career you actually want to do as a living not a career you'll end up hating because you don't care about it simply because it pays well. The whole "does X career cause bodily damage" argument while important and kept in mind shouldn't sway you towards or away from a career. It should just be a known and accepted thing that happens as a result of any career you pick.
Like carpentry? Accept that you'll get bum joints from the shoulder to your finger tips and go into carpentry. Like welding? Accept that you'll lose some visual acuity and blow your knees and lower back out and go into welding. Like accounting? Accept that you'll lose some visual acuity and get carpal tunnel and go into accounting. Etc.
Resultant bodily injury from career long repetitive motion is an important thing of note but should in no way dictate your career choice unless you're someone who's got stubs for legs and sitting on the nubs all day as an electrician causes serious tissue damage or something similar where it's not just basic wear and tear but serious harm.

>>1490785
Trades are great, pay is good and a lot of them give as much OT as you do or don't want. That being said a lot of apprenticeships are labor intensive to get rid of the chaff. Stick with it and it will pay dividends.

>>1496232
Usually the more dangerous the better the pay. Worked offshore oil for a few years, worked 6 months a year and cleared 200k easy

>>1496262
I think you're right, big guy.

Anyway, there's all these stats on how there aren't enough skilled workers, but I don't know shit about the actual jobs beyond /diy/ memes. Dunno how young retards around my age decide what to pursue, everyone under 30 is an autist with zero skills and no self awareness. Plus, all my friends who went into the labor force went construction and promptly overdosed on fentanyl. Bananas.

I want for nothing, subsistence with the added bonus of having dad skill (being able to fix fucking everything somehow) is all I need.

>>1496274
Generally speaking you make a decision based on your personality.
Step 1. Are you the kind of guy that wants to do physical or involved work or are you the kind of guy that wants to do office work like typing, writing, and filing?
Seeing as we're talking trades step 2 assumes you chose physical.
Step 2. Look into basic classes at your technical college to see what is offered. Everyone I've seen does workshops or short 2 month classes aimed at working adults with a few hours at the end of the day to spare for 4x 5day classes. Take the plunge and pick one you think you might like, or the one you think you'll hate the least, and see if it's for you. I know plenty of guys who tried welding classes like that who ended up loving the whole deal from improving their welds to know what voltages needed to be used and shit like arc cones. I also know plenty who tried welding and decided it wasn't for them.
Step 3a. Enjoy trying out your new career in an actual in-depth class.
Step 3b. Try out step 2 with another one of the short classes.

These classes are intended to do just what's written above because of the lack of skilled workers in high-skilled blue collar work being an issue. Not enough join so they offer these "just a taste" short term low commitment classes to try and have you shuffle the deck a bit and hopefully get you to decide on skilled blue collar work of any variety rather than get you overwhelmed with choices and walking off. Theres also career counselors and shit which can try to help pinpoint which you might want to take and give you a little more insight into each class and what that career entails in things ranging from what you'll be doing to graduated hiring rates to pay.
As for the labor force deal it is a stressful occupation often times requiring long hard hours under possibly cruel conditions(tight cramped spaces, exposed to the elements, strung up hundreds of feet with no floor beneath you, etc.) Cont.

>>1496262
Nobody is going to listen to you because you are clearly retarded

>>1496269
Doing what?

>>1496283
And is often considered the realm for people who feel they're idiots or don't have other options(which is patently untrue it has more vertical and horizontal movement options than white collar work for smarter or more capable individuals it also has a lot of low skill positions but so does basic office work with less chance for upward or sideward movement) which leads to the stress of the job eating them alive. You also see this with shit like doctors, EMT's, accountants, managers, and cooks to name a few. It's not endemic to just labor workers but every worker in high stress jobs.
This is why its important that you pick a career in this field, IF this is the field for you at all, based not on pay but your genuine interest in it. Pay is only enticing for so long and quite literally lacks the psychological attachments your brain needs to keep you afloat the way genuine desire and enjoyment in the work and workplace does and/or the sense of accomplishment at the end of it all.
You could be in a frozen shit hole like northern alaska working as an electrician on a pipeline going out in -20F before windchill weather to redo the wiring bundles by hand and a tired old hairdryer with a mile long extension cord held together by old electrical tape to make the cables supple enough to move before crashing back in a small bunkhouse hours later who's interior temp is a toasty 10F you share with 20 other asshats who haven't showered in a week and fart more than they exhale for the next 6 months and the difference between it being a living hell you possibly tolerate and it being genuinely one hell of a life experience you'll look back on fondly and maybe even brag about to your kids/grandkids isn't pay but your genuine love of the craft and/or the sense of accomplishment at persevering through that shit. Sure the pays a nice cherry on top but it is not what will get you and your brain through it and out the other side whole and have.

>>1496291
Last bit I swear.

This is why most run off apprenticeships like >>1496268 says. It's for you as much as it is for them and theres no shame in saying it's not for you and moving on compared to locking yourself down with something that will bite you in the ass down the road.

>>1490785
Consider property or facility management, its usually a stready 40 hour job and the schedule varies on which industry you work in. Theres always lateral movement into supervisory or director positions as long as you got some certs/education. Its a pretty comfy job. Kinda fell into it earlier this year. Its pretty much a handyman gig fixing everything what can be fixed and letting contractors handle the more specific detailed work. Bright side is you can easily make a 6 figure job after 10 years, or just manage wealthy individuals properties and for like 600k a year

>>1496289
Got In 1st was fluid power specialist (fancy way of saying BOP mechanic/hydro specialist) Then was subsea.

>>1496274
One good trade (low physicality...comparatively speaking) is good I&C or I$E techs. Work with a lot of automation type stuff (sensors etc) but have to be smarter then average grunt. Involves a lot of trouble shooting.

>>1496291
Well said, I honestly miss oil work. Loved the travel, loved the work, and loved the people I worked with. Oil rig has to be most Un-PC workplace on the planet.

>>1496293
I have worked in a lot of different fields before. Just noticed when I tried to get friends into same fields also majority of my friends wouldn't make it past 1st 30 days. As (OP) is someone looking to go into trades figured a heads up would be a decent thing to warn about.

>>1490848
Only until you start getting cash customers on the side and then quit. Kek. I really should have tried this long ago. I'm about to yeet my oven off a fucking bridge

>>1494167
If they specifically said that expect to be replaced soon. By a robot. Kek

>>1494387
>How demanding it is on your body depends on how well you take care of yourself. If you overwork, have shit posture, don't work out, don't do flexibility exercises, don't wear PPE, and so on, you're gonna be cripple.

CAN CONFIRM

I'm a retard and fell like 8 feet in 2010. Can hardly walk. Anything over half a mile and my ahit pops and cracks and hurts worse for 3 days. I've walked a little ways to my loader and loaded about 20 dumptrucks with rock. Have my bumb cankle propped up in my office. Still hurts like a mutherfucker. And LOL at ever getting a real job again. No education so I'm stuck here at 40k until i find a way to retire early or die beoken and old from a grabber out here trying.

Wear your ppe. Use your fucking brains. And work towards something that pays very well so you can live comfy and save half to invest. Then your working career ends before 30.

Publically anyway

>>1495024
This. I took a 30 hour and lower pay paycut to work only 50 hours and not hate my job as much. Worth it.

>>1496115
No but falling off a ladder will suck. Stand on concrete all day running around. Kneeling down to dick with outlets. Etc


Theres a town somewhere with radio waves banned because people claim injury from it.

>>1496232
>muh carpal tunnel and tinnitus.

Kek. Get a career and invest until you can quit. Maybe hop several careers to deminish wear and tear on your body and get broader experience.

>>1496269
Damn i always wanted to do that. My dad was a tool pusher (kek) growing up.

Got cripoled before I ever got the chance. Now my only chance at working on one is as an OSHA Cocksucker or boat driver or something.

>>1496274
Then go into trades and quit every 6 months to a year.

You should be well versed enough to build your own home and see wich one you like.

Or say fuck all that and get a trim carpentry jobs and then become his competitor or manager

>>1496835
Ha remind me, safety man is decent paying trade...just everyone will hate your guts and be secretly trying to figure out how to mirder you and make it look like an accident.....

>>1496404
I've thought about getting into automation, would you happen to know what classes to look out for?

>>1497332
Instruments and controls, a lot of tech schools out there for it, also online stuff. Or look for opening for apprenticeship

>>1497579
Appreciate it, I do wastewater treatment and the money just isn't in compared to the time it eats up.

>>1496832
tinnitus isnt even that bad and you could easily get it on a worksite

>>1490785
>>1490785


I can tell you now that photo where he has applied the sealant in waves is wrong. it should be applied in horizontal or vertical lines only never waved.

Regards a Mechanical Electrical Engineer

Stuck in a manufacturing warehouse all day and I hate it. I need to look into trade schools but I feel like I am a little too old to go into one and I don't even know what I want to go in for. Maybe carpentry or tileing. All craigslist jobs want experience in doing something related.

>>1490785
go into it with the intention of finding the right kind of job. HVAC tech here. spent years busting my ass and being on call all the time. now i work at a single site thats 3 minutes from home, they pay 100k salary plus bonus and benefits and side cash and most of my day is spent in my bosses office spewing simpsons quotes

>>1498508
All due respect, I'm betting the phrase "close enough" has never passed your mechanical electrical engineering lips. This is why people don't like you, and associate "the spectrum" with engineers.

>>1499180


i think if you drop a heavy item and your tiles break because you didn't set your adhesive right is worth pointing out , you should have a minimum of 80% coverage when tiling. but hey here's me happily married loads of friends and tons of money . if that's being on the spectrum sign me up.

I post on /biz/ all the time. I've been laying tile for 4 years now. I charge about $50 an hour for my labor. I usually only do actual labor about 20 hours a week, then spend 15 hours getting customers, putting out fliers, answering emails.

So I work like 35 hours a week. I never fight traffic and I'm usually home before 5pm. I'll make about 75k this year.

I'm pretty happy and I used to think this was great, but now it's starting to catch up. My neck and spine have minor pain and clicking noises. It's very clear at this point I'm damaging my back. At most I can do this another 5 years.

So I'm looking at other jobs I can get with my experience.

Trades seem like good money in the beginning, but that manual labor catches up on the body.

>>1496269

What qualifications/ experience do you need for these jobs?

>>1495024
>welders start going blind
only if ur retarded with a shit hood.
My Aerospace shop has a few 70yr+ welders that see well enough to pass X-ray and penetrant inspection.
but then again, we use less than 60 amps for most parts.

>>1492411
What kind of hourly wage does an experienced cabinet maker make? What location are you?

I'm currently working at a millshop doing work for Vegas casinos, I do all the shops custom work and operate the cnc.

I'm a furniture maker by profession, but there's no furniture making here so I'm doing cabinets instead for a while.

Very enjoyable trade, if you can call it that. I've been doing it 10 years, only complains are lower back pain, but I'm working on that. I am worried about long term dust exposure though. It's not practical to wear a respiratory all day.

>>1497601
Buddy of mine went to I&C tech school in Texas, think class was around 12 months cost around 6-10k and he is making around 43/hr with a ton of OT opportunities. And he has only had the job for 2-3 years.

>>1499270
Several routes, you can start as a roustabout, and work your way up. Or get into drilling/oil/gas tech training. Most companies will pay for the tech school if you sign contract for 2-4yr commitment (with 20-50k bonus at end of contract)to stay with that company. Sniping is bad in oil-n-gas. If you are good at what you do is not uncommon to get at least 2-3 job offers a month from other companies. And these guys will absolutely throw money at you, had one guy tell me didn't care what I was currently making he would double it if I worked for his crew.
Schedule is rough for normal people, if you get on a drilling crew standard rotation is 21days on 21days off. Used to be 28/28 but a lot went to 21/21. And this is 7 days a week 12-16hours a day. If you are field service side can be a lot tougher I did a rig move from S Korea to Singapore and that was 90 days straight 12 hour days 7 days a week. Made about 90k in 3 months though.

>>1499467
One more thing, a warning or heads up, oil-n-gas is a very boom bust environment. When it is booming it is awesome, but in bust phase expect to get laid-off until it booms again. It is just the nature of the industry. Great for single guy, but not so good if you have a family. Just a fair warning.

>>1499323
Not much you can do to avoid it outright unless you're all wearing wrap around entirely contained helmets complete with shade 14 passive lens 24/7. Any exposure is exposure. Not bashing it nor am I saying you'll actually go blind blind but the UV/IF it gives off are essentially welders burn on your retinas and damage to that area doesn't heal like it does on your skin. Thats just the nature of that profession.
Sidenote: this is why passive lens are arguably "better" than ADF as ADF has lag between the spark and it darkening which, while insanely short, yields exposure that passive lens would have protected against.
Just like ear pro theres only so much equipment can do to prevent long term wear on your body.

>>1499512
That's fuddlore
Your old fudd is blind because he didnt wear a helmet all the time

The uv/ir protection is always on.
https://www.eweld.com.au/blogs/news/7074284-how-does-auto-darkening-work

>>1499540
Well shit. I heard that from teachers and professionals alike for years now.
A quick googling gave me this though https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15221/will-using-auto-darkening-welding-helmets-damage-your-vision which makes some sense. Its possible the visible spectrum flash you receive before the best filters can kick in is still a possible danger if ill studied as of yet though who knows now. I'm trying to find that EN379 bit they mentioned. Either way you're still getting flashed to some degree unless the other guys working in essentially another room until your helmets on.

>>1495024
>cooks get crippling downward spiraling depression and alcoholism issues.

I worked in kitchens(short-order to fine dining) through high school and college. Every single person I worked with smoked like chimney and drank like a fish. The cooks, chefs, sous-chefs, dishwashers and waitstaff, all addicts.

>>1499658
Yeah, that one was from experience.
Everybody gets stressed when it's a properly running kitchen so things like weed, alcohol, and nicotine become vices that people can take solace in. Especially when things go from stressful to you FINALLY getting time for a nic fix which instantly makes you feel better. Possibly coincidentally I've yet to work in a kitchen where there was never less than 70% of the staff having experienced the wonder of being jailed for any period of time at some point in their lives and plenty of others simply admitted they were just good at not getting caught.

>>1493024
>tool and die maker
What do you think of the trade?

>>1499254
Have you also tried making sure that you are working with proper form, bending at the hips and not arching yout back? Maybe it's something that you could fix and.

>>1499652
https://youtu.be/qMyeVXuElkQ

>>1496262
This is sorta true, but doesn't really address the amounts. Generally, construction workers and similar have a lifespan of about 10 years less than desk job people. Every job will lean on parts of you more, but some will fuck you up way more than others, and many trades tend to. It totally depends on the specifics like the company, but in general manual labor jobs are underpaid, overworked, and will wear you out.

Worked as a painter between the ages of 18-25, enjoyed the work and made some really good cash doing it (taxes? lol). One winter when work was slow I was browsing jobs on my counties website and saw a listing for a locksmith at a mental health facility, filled out the application, got a phone call 2 days later and was offered the job on the spot at the interview.
Less money but the benefits for a state employee are insane. You get tons of paid time off, sick days, and in my state a pension that matches you dollar for dollar (eligible to retire at age 50 after 20 years vested). Stay pretty busy too because its basically an asylum where every employee has keys and every door is locked.
Long story short check your county/state websites for government employee jobs

>>1496407
Even better I'd assume there a few to no women. I work in a warehouse with women and hate every day I wake up for work at 3am. When oilfields open back up this spring I think I'm going to go try it.

>>1502468
Majority of trades have very very few women. The ones who do show up either get fired/quite because they are fucking idiots trying to larp as a man. But the ones who stick around and make it are some of the best trades people I know.

What are some low-risk trades, both in terms of legal liability and physical danger? I'm not about to be a roofer and risk being crippled just for a few bucks over something much safer.

>>1502575
Instruments and Controls/Electronics. Very low voltage, growing field (automation) a lot of thinking/problem solving involved, relative to other trades not super physically demanding. Fairly safe depending on work environment.

>>1502610
Any tips for how to get started in the field?

>>1502784
Tech/trade schools are best bet, apprenticeships are awesome but often only posted for legal reasons. If good tech/trade school chances are you will have multiple job offers before you even complete the course. I am in Texas so wages may vary by state but here entry level can expect 30-35$/hr and if you are good at what you do 38-45 after 2-3 years to try and keep you there. After you become I&C guy with experience can pretty much apply anywhere that your trade supports and get a job easy. Better bargaining power if already working though, as in you can straight tell prospective employer not enough money.

>>1496407
>work on a tug boat
>getting groceries in Ballard (homo area)
>captain says quite loudly “I couldn’t live here. Too many fucking faggots”
>”put that line on the fucking nigger head!”
>”this fucking guy fucking came right fucking over here and didn’t fucking put his fucking line up”

>>1503773
Ha, sounds like tug CPT might have rig crew beat.

>>1496232
Lol don't go into the residential or commercial areas of electrical. Go for industrial electrical. I work hard some days, but then theres weeks that I'm just chilling out for 8 hours waiting for something to break down. Not all trades and two year degrees will put wear and tear on your body.