I often get the sense that I’m in the only one here doing manual labor but I’m sure there are others.
Identify yourselves.
Machinist here. But not just any machinist. I work almost exclusively with graphite. I’m sure you can imagine what a mess that makes. We do have a powerful dust collector that runs all day, but it doesn’t catch everything. We get covered in the dust every day. The company does have a locker room and showers for us though, so it’s not too bad. We still leave nice and clean.
What kind of things need to be machined out of graphite?
Sorry for the delay. Apparently this app doesn’t tell me when people reply.
Most of what I make ends up in space. We use pyrolytic graphite, which we actually make ourselves on site, which can stand up to some pretty extreme temperatures with very little expansion or contraction. There are other applications as well, mostly involving any situation where conductivity is important. Some hospital imaging machines use it instead of aluminum in high temperature scenarios. It’s very good at what it does, but its use is fairly limited due to its absolutely insane price tag.
Thanks that makes sense.
Charts.
I debug the worst spaghetti code you have seen. Does that count as getting my hands dirty?
No…?
Ok, never mind…
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Wash them??
Hurr durr!
Soil scientist. I spent 10 years stomping through the bush and digging pits when I got there.
Now I sit behind a desk.
That’s a good picture, great beard. And it’s exactly how I imagined someone in your profession.
Best I can grow is a Syndey Crosby playoff beard, but you’re not far off for most of my colleagues
There’s hope, at least for Halloween and if you have access to a 3D printer.
Behold! https://youtu.be/_MR7JzPXWNU
How can I reduce my poly count IRL to look more like a Dire Straights video like you do?
Shipwright welder. I crawl all throughout the bowels of Navy and civilian ships with my gear in tow. I build new areas, cut out old areas, and perform repairs on hulls and pipes.
I love welding. One of my favourite things to do in my previous job. I’m highly skilled at oxy-acetylene welding steel pipes in really tight and difficult places but my favourite one was TiG welding stainless steel with automatic and ventilated mask while listening to podcasts. Really meditative just being in your own bubble staring at the bright spot of molten metal.
I’m shit at welding for someone who’s generally handy in just about every other area. If you want two pieces of metal that barely stick together, with wires sticking out all across the seam, then I’m your guy!
Right? I tried my hand at welding a rec tube to a plate to make an oil tank for knife making. I had to use epoxy to keep it water tight.
Do you get covered from head to toe with grease and grime? Does it pay well? I have a friend who’s about ready to wrap up his underwater welding classes, and supposedly he’ll make some big bucks after he graduates.
So… what’s your hand care routine?
I’ll go first.
Self-employed general contractor / plumber
Do you happen to be in the Toronto area?? I’m looking for a plumber. Lol
Sorry, I’m across the Atlantic
Thank you for your service
o7
My boss just had me change two coworkers’ passwords so they wouldn’t be able to log back in.
I keep washing and washing, but the blood won’t come off.
Flooring and Flooring Accesories
Ah, the ol’ Hank Hill of flooring.
Farmer
Awesome. What do you farm?
Tallship sailor/rigger
I don’t have a dirty job anymore, but the dirtiest job I’ve had by far was industrial carpenter. I’d go to work with clean jeans and a clean white shirt, and every day I’d come home with jeans that were black from the knees up, and a shirt that was black from the chest down.
I had to wear white shirts because nothing else would come clean. Only white with a lot of bleach would give any appearance of being laundered after a day at work on that job.
I still have a T-shirt from that job, some-odd 20 years later, and it has Hilti C100 industrial epoxy stains all over it, just as hard as the day the shirt was stained. That’s my “shit’s about to get real” work around the house shirt.
what about industrial carpentry caused that?
Working up in the rafters for concrete tilt-up buildings that had already been in service for decades. There’s so much nasty-ass grime up there, and years worth of dust and crud.
crud being a technical term I assume
I believe the industry standard term is “fucking bullshit”. ie. “Now I’ve got this fucking bullshit all over me!”.
I used to be a programmer, but I got sick of the whole corporate scene. Now I build and maintain houses - and my hands are dirty a good amount of the time!
Damn that’s a crazy transition. How do you like it?
Well, it’s been about twenty years and I haven’t gone back to the cubicle farm!
Software engineer. Sometimes I spill coffee, sometimes it’s chocolate or chips crumbs.
It’s honest, hard work, but someone has to do it.
As a software dev, I have spilt coffee on myself a number of times. People just don’t understand what a hard working environment it is. 😞
I work in disability support so I may use various creams while massaging, I get messy while helping people with washing and toileting, and I feed people which can get messy. I also help people with their yards, cleaning their house, washing their pets, whatever they need.