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LETTER FROM RICKY
Hello
Hobart,
I’m so sorry to hear about
Dave Via. Dave really did have some great stories! Most of
them were about some shipyard that you had sent him to. The
students used to call him “Ship Yard Dave”… not to his face, of
course. We were trying to pass his class! But most of all,
Dave was a great teacher and a caring person. I know he left
some big shoes to fill at Hobart.
I would also like to take
this time to say thank you to the Hobart staff and the rest of
the instructors. I can honestly say everyone at Hobart is
caring when it comes to the students. You all helped me so much
with my new career. Thanks to Erin Lucas for making all the
arrangements to get me to Hobart; and to Jim Starry, Steve
Randles, Ben Ford, Brian Kendall, Chuck Ford, Elmer Swank,
Nelson Morales, and many more instructors for giving me my new
skills.
I would like to tell you a
story about my first job. You can pass it along to all the
other students if you like. I applied with a contractor in
Arkansas who is building the largest power plant in the U.S.A.
With over 2000 employees, the plant covers 350 acres and
contains 4 power blocks. They called me in about a week to test
for a combo welder… TIG root hot pass and 7018 stick out. I
showed up at the place there the test was given. It was a tin
building with 3 [named brand] welding machines older than Ben
Ford! The indicators were removed and the gas nozzles were as
big as half dollars; tungsten was sharpened with a grinder; and
if that wasn’t enough, the 6” schedule 80 test coupons with 1/8”
root face were outside under an oak tree, rusted.
As Jim, Steve, and Ben
know, I get a “little” nervous anyway when it comes to testing!
Once you touch the test coupons, you have four hours to complete
the test. The man was nice enough to let me crank around on the
old [named brand] machine for a little while. To make a long
story short, I passed the visual but failed the x-ray because of
too much porosity. I retested on plate and passed. I am
welding pipe supports and unistruts. But sooner or later, I’ll
have to retest on combo. The “old hands” told me to use 3/32
rods on fill and cap next time! But on the job site, it’s 1/8.
On the job site, quality
control “will not” tolerate arc strikes, cold lap, or undercut;
you get two repairs and then you’ll get laid off. Power plant
codes don’t allow much defect. Structural welding here pays
$18.00 an hour plus $40.00 per diem. Combo welding pays $18.50
an hour and $40.00 per diem. We work four 10-hour days and two
8-hour days each week with Sunday operating on volunteers only,
so you can take home a good pay check. I would also like to
tell you that this company has no tolerance for late arrivals,
early outs, or call-ins. Three in a month or five in a year and
they will lay you off. They have a lay-off sheet that comes
around every two weeks. But they hire welders every day. Maybe
this will give some insight as to what to expect for some of the
students when they graduate. I wish them all good luck and most
of all, I wish all of you at Hobart only the best! God bless
all of you! ~ Ricky Santifer
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