What kinda sorta rare job have you done for a living ?

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

Interesting ,,my nephew flew jets in the National Guard,,in fact he was the commander of Kingsley Field in Kalamath Falls Oregon and he talked to me once about missiles and he brought up acelerometers or gyro scopes if I remember correctly ,,of course it was above my head ,,you just brought an old memory back and that's all I remember about it ...

Yep! We built the innermost bearings, the floats, gimbal and housing. Its basically a set of gyros that know their position based on the angle and momentum feedback and compare it to the known starting position. Very cool stiff designed in the 60's that they haven't figured out a better way of doing it still.

[projectking]

Originally Posted by 4u2nv

Not me but my son
I think that was at 600 ft.

Is it an antenna job? I did that while laid off from painting one winter.

[Andy4639]

Well I was straight out of high school and applied for a job at McGuire Nuclear station outside Charlotte NC. I had no idea what I was doing except I needed a job.
First 3 monthes I worked sweeping the floors in the aux building then one day they came and asked would I like a pipe fitting helpers job and a .25 cent raise. I said heck yea! 2 years later I was worried about being laid off as the construction was pretty much done. I was offered a job at Oconee Nuclear station with a supervisor who I knew that had transferred earlier. I came to Oconee in 1982 and retired here in 2019.
Once at Oconee things changed pretty quickly for me. I was top pay and they asked for volunteer's for the outage and I did. 6months nights doing upgrades.
After the outage I was asked would I like to be put on the reactor head team to do outages at all three sites and I agree'd. I got to travel all over the US doing core support work and fixing the drives on the heads. Paid very good money and they handled all the expensese back then. After about 15 years they put me in fuelhandling/ headwork. I have moved fuel in all 3 sites of Duke Energy's built plants and ANO1 Ark, I have worked in Crystal River fa 4 times and Racho Sacho in Cal 2 times.
Oconee nuclear station.





Picking up a core barrel for installation inspection. This is a new core never ran yet. If it has had fuel in it it would have to stay under water the whole time as it's lifted. This was for a new plant being built. I have done this so many times I think I could rig it in my sleep.
282,000-pound core barrel



Typical fuel assembly. You can touch a new fuel assembly and it want hurt you at all. Once it's been put in the pool with old assemblies it will be activated and kill you if you where to touch it.

[4u2nv]

Originally Posted by projectking

Is it an antenna job? I did that while laid off from painting one winter.

Yes it is
Install the base footings and the towers and repairs

[yuccales]

Offset press operator. 7 unit Goss Community with an SC folder. This was the ONLY inside job I ever had. For the past 30yrs I've had a steering wheel in my hands. It is the one thing I know I'm good at.

[powerdriver]

34 years of crane work and heavy hauling . company closed and now a School Bus mechanic.

[Ryan_S]

I build and maintain hiking trails for the National Park Service. I guess that's a kind of sort of rare job. We like to joke and say that we're "natural materials utilization engineers", but really we just play in the dirt, stack rocks, and move logs around to provide a safe walking path for people in the Park.

[GOPAPA]

[quote=Andy4639;8481132]Well I was straight out of high school and applied for a job at McGuire Nuclear station outside Charlotte NC. I had no idea what I was doing except I needed a job.
doing core support work and fixing the drives on the heads. Paid very good money and they handled all the expensese back then. After about 15 years they put me in fuelhandling/ headwork. I have moved fuel in all 3 sites of Duke Energy's built plants and ANO1 Ark, I have worked in Crystal River fa 4 times and Racho Sacho in Cal 2 times.
Oconee nuclear station.

I can relate to most of this as you know cause I worked on building a nuclear Plant and then working there in a maintance position ..



Picking up a core barrel for installation inspection. This is a new core never ran yet. If it has had fuel in it it would have to stay under water the whole time as it's lifted. This was for a new plant being built. I have done this so many times I think I could rig it in my sleep.
282,000-pound core barrel

Originally Posted by yuccales

Offset press operator. 7 unit Goss Community with an SC folder. This was the ONLY inside job I ever had. For the past 30yrs I've had a steering wheel in my hands. It is the one thing I know I'm good at.

I can relate to working outside for many years,, in the mud the rain and snow ,,wind ,and I understand you about the one thing you know you are good at ,, I have a one thing to ,,

Originally Posted by powerdriver

34 years of crane work and heavy hauling . company closed and now a School Bus mechanic.

Laying them heavy cranes down is somthing else ,,one would think that they would break the cables..

Originally Posted by Ryan_S

I build and maintain hiking trails for the National Park Service. I guess that's a kind of sort of rare job. We like to joke and say that we're "natural materials utilization engineers", but really we just play in the dirt, stack rocks, and move logs around to provide a safe walking path for people in the Park.

Do you asphalt any trails ? you get to eat some good ol black berries too.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

A "little" rare. When I was 17-19 I maintained pens on a mini horse ranch. Must have be 25-30 of them. They act like pigs, look like horses, kind of a disaster. But nice people, mutual appreciation, and I enjoyed the work.

I've been on a wide range of payrolls for 60 jobs minimum. Nothing that interesting, though I was a correctional officer 1985-88. Max, medium and minimum custody.

[Ryan_S]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

Do you asphalt any trails ? you get to eat some good ol black berries too.

I personally have never asphalted a trail. Some parks do it, but the two that I work in don't. We only have one asphalt overlook, and I assume when it's up for replacement we will use a different material. Last summer I did build a concrete trail for ADA. I wish I had some pictures. It was neat to do a bit of non-linear flat work. It's not usually the type of work that I do. If we need a "hard" surface, we will usually lay stone, or look to soil stabilizers, or just pack the crap out of a 3/4" road base/decomposed granite mix.

The berries are very good. We have a couple of honey holes that most visitors don't know about. When we work those trails we always try to take lunch close to those little clusters of bushes and eat fresh berries.

[joeydurango]

Man, there are all kinds of interesting jobs described here! Pretty cool stuff, you're a bunch of talented people.

I spent three years as a pro traveling mechanic, working for the United States National Mountain Bike Team. Worked our National Series, the World Cup Series, and World Championships. Drove all around the country in a big red, white, and blue truck setup, got to support racers and ride bikes all around the world, worked a lot of 12-18 hour days, received an official invite to wrench at the Olympics, and had a blast. Was a great way for a poor kid to see the world, never would have happened without that job.

These days I'm in textile manufacturing, of all things. We still make all our products right here in Colorado!

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by joeydurango

Man, there are all kinds of interesting jobs described here! Pretty cool stuff, you're a bunch of talented people.

I spent three years as a pro traveling mechanic, working for the United States National Mountain Bike Team. Worked our National Series, the World Cup Series, and World Championships. Drove all around the country in a big red, white, and blue truck setup, got to support racers and ride bikes all around the world, worked a lot of 12-18 hour days, received an official invite to wrench at the Olympics, and had a blast. Was a great way for a poor kid to see the world, never would have happened without that job.

These days I'm in textile manufacturing, of all things. We still make all our products right here in Colorado!

Very interesting job you had for sure.. I have been reading up on the building of the cross country highway 30 from coast to coast and found that the first reason for highways was because of the Bicycle clubs wanted more bike roads.

[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by Ryan_S

I build and maintain hiking trails for the National Park Service. I guess that's a kind of sort of rare job. We like to joke and say that we're "natural materials utilization engineers", but really we just play in the dirt, stack rocks, and move logs around to provide a safe walking path for people in the Park.

Interesting. Is your department different than the one who handles trails for off-road vehicles? I went with a buddy to go see the Colorado AMA Motocross National back in 08? and had the privilege to rent dirt bikes and ride all day in Rampart Range, one of the most beautiful places I think I’ve ever been.

[Ryan_S]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Interesting. Is your department different than the one who handles trails for off-road vehicles? I went with a buddy to go see the Colorado AMA Motocross National back in 08? and had the privilege to rent dirt bikes and ride all day in Rampart Range, one of the most beautiful places I think I’ve ever been.

We don't do any motorized trails. I volunteer a bit in my off time to help maintain some of the local ones though. The OHV trails really do get you into some incredible places.

[powerdriver]

Back In The Day I Did what ever it took to keep the cranes working .

[slowcpe]

I design, install and program high-end Home Theaters, sound systems and full-blown Smart Homes. Been doing it for 20-years now all over the country. I've been in some pretty amazing homes and have met some very interesting people.

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by slowcpe

I design, install and program high-end Home Theaters, sound systems and full-blown Smart Homes. Been doing it for 20-years now all over the country. I've been in some pretty amazing homes and have met some very interesting people.

Interesting work .. my daughter has a friend who used to install whisper walls on yachts for theater quiet rooms out in Westport Washington ,, and once was I believe George Lucus at his home in California .

[BiltByMe]

Well being only 19 I don't have a whole lot of job experience but when I was younger I worked for a loan office that repossessed houses and I would occasionally help in the cleaning up. Most times the people just packed their stuff and left so any food or meat would be left in the refrigerator for months with no power. Yuck. Now I'm into my 3rd year of working behind a parts counter and anything even remotely retail has its stories. I'm putting myself through school studying mechanical engineering and hope to be able to use that to start my own fab shop kind of thing designing custom suspension and other stuff for four-wheel-drive applications.

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by BiltByMe

Well being only 19 I don't have a whole lot of job experience but when I was younger I worked for a loan office that repossessed houses and I would occasionally help in the cleaning up. Most times the people just packed their stuff and left so any food or meat would be left in the refrigerator for months with no power. Yuck. Now I'm into my 3rd year of working behind a parts counter and anything even remotely retail has its stories. I'm putting myself through school studying mechanical engineering and hope to be able to use that to start my own fab shop kind of thing designing custom suspension and other stuff for four-wheel-drive applications.

Good for you ..going to school is very important to get where you want to go .. keep it up ,,you are young and you have the time ..

I know what you are talking about as I did repair work on apartment houses a friend owned and when people had to move out by not paying their rent ,they would trash the place ,food strew all over the kitchen ,,and worse..

Once the booted renters broke off the bath tub faucets and luckely I found some old parts at a junk store to fix them..

I did not clean it up , I hired two highschool kids brother and sister who needed the money .. but I seen it ..smelled it that was enough.