The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 171 with Jerrick Ash and Max Ceron
The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world to share their passion and give you the right tips to stay on top of what’s happening in the welding industry.
Have you ever stood at the crossroads of a career change, the sparks of a welder's torch behind you and the unknown of a new trade ahead? This is the story of Jerrick Ash, a Millwright from Red Lake, Ontario. This episode illuminates the path from hands-on work to leadership roles, highlighting the importance of continuous learning and development for professional growth. If you're intrigued by the craftsmanship that goes into every weld and the innovation driving the industry forward, you'll find this episode a treasure trove of knowledge and inspiration.
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All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.
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Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Ceron and, as always, I'm looking for great talent and stories from across Canada, north America and around the world. Today I have Jarek Ash coming to me from Ontario, who's a millwright out there, and we're going to be discussing a few of the topics of what is the millwright world and also his job, because I'm very interested because he has listed here that he has worked at a gold mine in red lake, ontario, and I've also worked in a gold mine, so I would like to uh, to talk on that. So let's get started. Jerek, how you doing pretty good yourself.
Speaker 1:Max I'm doing good. It's friday, man, like I mean. It's uh the best day of the week perfect although I would argue, saturday's probably up there, because you don't work at all on Saturdays? Well, not anymore. Now, when you get old, you don't really work on weekends anymore. When you're young and trying to prove it, there's a lot more weekend work.
Speaker 2:How about?
Speaker 1:you, what do you got planned for the weekend?
Speaker 2:I'm hoping to get out and do a little bit of ice fishing, maybe take the little kids on the screws. They've been asking about that all week, so hopefully that works well.
Speaker 1:That'll be a nice means.
Speaker 2:I heard you guys got lots of snow out there, so you're supposed to be getting a little bit, yeah, so that'll be definitely really nice a little bit of fresh snowfall good, good.
Speaker 1:So you're a millerite now, but you started off as a welder, correct? Yes, yeah all right all right, so let's go right to the start. Where are where's your roots? Where, where are you from? Were you born? You know, how did you, uh, where did you start out from?
Speaker 2:so, um, born and raised in red lake ontario, okay, um, so our industries typically here are mining and forestry. And throughout high school you know pretty young wasn't really quite sure what I wanted to get into. I had some friends a little bit older than me, and one of them particularly was going to school for welding after graduating high school. So I thought, well, I'm going to try to check this out too. And so throughout the classes in high school I signed up for the uh trial class and ended up liking it, um, and it just kind of went from there.
Speaker 1:So normally when there's a large miner or operation center of any kind whether it's manufacturing, mining, whatever, near a small town, it kind of becomes like the lifeblood. You know, that's kind of very much a canadian, north american world, you know what. Honestly it's a worldwide thing. But if you got a, if you got a big industry and you got the rural areas around it, they kind of depend on it, they feed into it. It's like everyone knows somebody or that works at the mine or everyone you know, whether it's in payroll or in the office or in the shop or whatever. They kind of hired the town right, um, is it the same thing in in red lake?
Speaker 1:absolutely, yeah, yeah so was your family involved in um the main industries in the area.
Speaker 2:There too, yep, for sure, uh, my father had worked in the mine actually, uh, from start to finish in his, uh, in his career. So that's pretty, uh pretty rare as well. Both my grandfathers um has have worked in mining as well so it's in the blood, eh it?
Speaker 1:definitely yeah and what about your, uh, your, your mom? What? What about her side of the family? Or you? They involved in even the supplementary industries around it.
Speaker 2:She actually worked at the mine for, I think, a limited time, just after high school, and after that she had left. But her father as well worked there too.
Speaker 1:So there's a couple of things there. First of all, does the mine, or did the mine, invest into the high school? Like I mean, I was just in small town, saskatchewan. There's a company called Borgo and they basically fund the welding shop at the high school because they basically want to hire all the kids from the high school for their shop, right, and, and I thought that was kind of a smart play like they get to practice building things in high school that they actually will build in the shop, which I was like, oh, that's pretty smart. It's kind of sneaky but but smart. You know how's the involvement with, uh, the mine there in the town, like for investment wise?
Speaker 2:so I'm quite a bit removed from the high school scene when you were there yeah, yeah, when I was there, as far as I know, there were um, uh, they would bring material there, um and you know, um like bowls, whatever, yeah, yeah, yeah as well, they had um scholarships, bursaries that they would give out, and and so, yeah, there's definitely a presence there.
Speaker 1:So most rural people, when they grew up with a dad who worked at the mine grandpa worked at the mine, wife worked at the mine, father worked at the mine, dog worked at the mine, fish worked at the mine. Usually in that scenario, a lot of young people have the tendency to want to get away. Right, they don't want to do what everyone did, or they want to move away, but you're still in red lake, you're working at the mine. Did you ever have that notion that you wanted to run away? Try something new? Um, did you, or, or or? Have you been pretty happy with the situation there?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely. Um, a lot of people I knew back in high school same thing. They all wanted to kind of take off and experience different things. You know, bigger city living and all that. Myself I did my two year welding and fabrication course at Cambrian College in Sudbury and that was, you know, a bit of a taste of the city for me and just something completely different out of my element. I enjoyed it, it, but I'm I'm I'm cut out to be in a small town.
Speaker 1:Uh, and they just, they just cut the ribbon on a new cambrian college campus. There, uh, this last year I was there for for the one of the opening weeks and it is insane. It is beautiful, huge tech center. I mean, uh, what was that experience like for you, you know, taking the, the two year program at Cambrian? What did, what did you learn, what was the program and what was it like?
Speaker 2:It was amazing. Um, so pretty well from the ground up. Um, you know, as far as uh stake, as uh stick welding, we had some wire feed make and shielded uh, or sorry, a flux core. Um, a lot of fabrication involved as well. So, you know, we had, you know, solid welding classes combined with fab classes. It was great and, like that was where I really um started to build my skills. It was an excellent program. I can't say enough good things about it yeah, and did you?
Speaker 1:did you like the fab side more than the welding side, you know? Or? Or? At the time, was it like I'm going to be a welder? This is what my plan is.
Speaker 2:This is what I'm going to do I do enjoy fab, for sure, um, but I it's nice once you get everything tacked up, fit it up and then you can just drop it. And so definitely both enjoyable, but uh, they each have their place for sure.
Speaker 1:So you finish a two year program. You know it sounds like you. You were missing home, ready to go back. Um, at this point, right out of college, were you like already back on the driving back home, being like okay, time to find a job, or was there work already waiting for you, or what was the? What was the plan once you graduated?
Speaker 2:yeah, so pretty cool story. Actually. I had um dropped a resume off at the mine. Obviously I wanted to get in there um because I had previous experience um being a co-op student there. So I hadn't heard anything and hadn't heard anything and I thought, okay, well, at that time the West was booming. So, I thought well, I'm going to start looking into where I should start dropping off resumes out West. And in that same week I got two phone calls from mine back home and two different job offers.
Speaker 1:They must have had their ears burning. They knew you were about to leave and they're like oh, we better hold them in. So what is it about the gold mine that you like? What was it that attracted you to being there, that that you like? You know, what was it that attracted you to being there, aside from it being in your hometown and being close to home and and you know that family aspect? A lot of people don't like working in gold mines. They're kind of, I would say, on the rougher side of mines in terms of mining Operations. You know, I've I have my background in quite a bit of mining and I also worked at a gold mine, but in Africa. I worked in a gold mine in West Africa and Ghana, which is one of the largest gold mines in the world.
Speaker 1:But I've also been in potash and kind of the other 30 mines I would say. So you know what is it that attracts you to that work? Because it is a lot of well. I would say 90% of your day is repairing things that are breaking down and running around and trying to stop things from collapsing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, it's a challenge and it's definitely fast-paced. But what I like about it is or one of the things will be just the big equipment, everything's heavy, everything is you know, just just on a bigger scale. Yeah, and I definitely enjoy that um and and just a challenge. It's a fast-paced environment, um, lots of tons throughput. So that means lots of repairs, lots of maintenance, lots of work, and it's it's just satisfying to see, you know, the start of the shift there's something in complete disrepair and at the end of the day, when you leave, it's running, it's turning, it's going smooth, it's just it's it's satisfying so what kind of format is the Red Lake gold mine?
Speaker 1:so you know, for the listeners that don't know anything about gold mining, when people think of mines they kind of think of two sort of examples, one being the big shaft that goes way deep underground that you know, they're either digging it out by rock or they're using solution. A solution mine is when they mix it with water and kind of pump it back up to figure to separate it. The other one is the open pit, where they're just scraping the surface and going down in a big, you know cone shaped pit and opening it up more and more. Both those types of mines can be used for many different materials. What kind of mine do they have there in red lake and and what kind of processes are they using?
Speaker 2:this is, uh, an underground hard rock mine. Um there's several uh access shops, um it's more or less like three or four properties amalgamated together under one roof now and so, yeah, all um shaft access. There is a portal um being constructed now. It's it's probably a year, year and a half old, something like that. Um, yeah, and it's all a little hard rock mine, so so blasting blasting, picking, netting, uh all the all that fun stuff.
Speaker 1:I you know, there was a program here in saskatchewan.
Speaker 1:I'm in saskatchewan so there's, a program here in saskatchewan called the general mine safety awareness course, and it's a wonderful course. I think they're it's mandatory in all saskatchewan now, but I think it's gonna be something like it's gonna get moving across the country. But uh, I remember when we were first looking at it they had videos from like the 60s, you know, being like how to be safe underground. You know what I mean. And they have all these people kind of like tapping on the rock, listening to the rock, you gotta. And I was like, you know, for being 50 years old or 60 years old, that video, some of that stuff is still happening, like I mean, the technology has gotten better. But you know, when you're talking about blasting underground and then basically drag lining out rock, you know what? What kind of danger is this situation? You know, if people are like, wow, gold mining sounds really interesting, um, is it dangerous? Is the question. You know what would your answer be?
Speaker 2:I would say it could be, but it's controllable and it is controlled. You know we've got methods like ground clearing, vent clearing, ground support is know, obviously paramount different methods of ground support. So, yeah, I would say it's very controllable.
Speaker 1:What's the? How old is the mine?
Speaker 2:Oh geez, I think it started in the late 40s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Because, like I mean, a lot of the mines in Canada are coming up on 100 years old, I heard, and it's kind of well, it just shows how much resources we have. Like you know, if a mine can go for 80 years and they're still digging stuff out, they found something big right. So, production-wise, you know what's the mine. Like you know how does it rank? Does it do well? Is there layoffs? Is it always busy? What's a?
Speaker 2:year in the life of the mine, it it seems to be um like busy, obviously, um, it's, it's, definitely um, I would say, challenging, like it's always. You know lots of throughput, lots of throughput, and you know, with lots of throughput, hopefully it comes lots of ounces. So that's the name of the game. Yeah, definitely it's, it's, uh, it's just fast-paced, fast-paced environment and how are you for staffing?
Speaker 1:is it the same issues there in the rest of canada, where it's can't find enough workers? Can't find enough workers? Um you know, is there if? If there was young people listening to this, looking to cut their teeth, in a cool mind, would you say hey, come to red lake and apply for a job?
Speaker 2:absolutely. Yeah, I think it's kind of a two-fold issue. Um, it's, you know, obviously tough finding trades, people, uh and and and challenging to get them to move to a small rural setting like we're in right now. So, you know, hard to attract people from a bigger center, let's say from sudbury, to come up here. You know there's there's not as many amenities.
Speaker 1:I want to say that well, you know it's interesting because I've heard that consideration before that, um, people aren't really willing to move to a small town. But then, you know, I'm in the west and every time there's a boom, everyone from the east comes out here. Right, it's just like oh, here we go. Here's another round of people from ontario, quebec, in the maritimes. You know it's uh, and they don't seem to mind moving out to small towns when it's out west, but it seems to be more of an issue when it's just an hour away. You know what I mean? It's it. I don't know what it is, but like. I mean, fort mcmurray ain't nothing fancy, uh, but everyone was like climbing over each other to try to get there.
Speaker 1:And I get, the money was big, but you know if you're in the middle of nowhere, you got 10 month winters and uh, and I mean the nature is nice in the two months that it's nice, but it's it's not a great place, I would say, in my opinion, to stay for a period of time. And you know, I say that my daughter lives up there. But, um, what would be some of the attractions for someone to move into rural ontario? You know if, if there's people being like, oh man, that job sounds cool, but I don't want to move to rural ontario? You know what's the benefits, you know what, what keeps you there oh so much, just this space.
Speaker 2:Like I, you know, I've been to toronto, you know, a few times. It's just. It blows my mind that you know there's just no space and you're waiting for everything everywhere you go. It's a lineup, it's a wait, just a process. Here you're, it's just. You know you've got square kilometers per person. It's, it's fantastic. The wilderness is just unbelievable. Looking out my window right now, across the channel. You know you've got square kilometers per person. It's fantastic. The wilderness is just unbelievable. I'm looking out my window right now, across the channel, of the lake we're on, and it's just stunning. Winter, summer, there's just so much to do, you know. The outdoors is just amazing. It's a great opportunity to be out here.
Speaker 1:It's just quieter, it's, you know, less of a rat race, I find, yeah, and you don't really miss out on anything with the internet.
Speaker 1:Now, really Like it's not like you're not having access to stuff, although it probably wouldn't be good to be an Uber driver in your town. You'd be pretty slow, I think. So you know this connection for the podcast. It came in through ApprenticeTurtlecom. You know and I'm interested to know what your connection is with that group or how you ended up even getting in those conversations. You know with Daniela and us and you know because it sounds like you're in an interesting table there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I got to meet them at Canwell 2023 in Moncton and I just started talking with Michelle Murray from Apprentice Search and just about just conversations surrounding my co-op experience at the same mine I'm working at now and that really exposed me to just trade and mining environment as well, pulls me to just trade and mining environment as well, and so just talking about that and the importance of that and going forward, how I would like to see that happen more and just provide that experience for other kids coming through trying to, you know, just experience a bit of the trade.
Speaker 1:And what did you think of CanWeld? You know we're working towards CanWeld 2024 now in Toronto in June. How did you like the CanWeld in Monct, did you? Was it your first time at a can weld?
Speaker 2:yeah, first time at a can weld um, and I just thought it was awesome like so many different topics covered, um, high level, kind of engineering, end of things, um, and then like, maybe things geared more towards, like, the person on the floor. I really like that and actually the uh, a lot of my takeaways from that were from the uh, the vendor tables just being able to speak with people from fronius and from, uh, ergo, ergo, mig manufacturers, like that, really interesting products and uh, definitely a lot of takeaways from that awesome.
Speaker 1:So let's go back to the timeline here. I jumped ahead and I'm jumping all over the place, but you're back at the mine after school's done and you're working as a welder right, that's what your certificate was in. Now, did you follow through with the welder apprenticeship and get your red seal in welding, or did you make a transition?
Speaker 2:So it kind of happened all at once. I was working at the time on an underground construction crew as a welder and I saw some job postings. There was just a whole array of apprenticeships that come up and I had some experience. I was a summer student for two summers in the mill on a mill maintenance crew and I thought that would be a really neat place to end up up and one apprenticeship was for their uh, millwright apprenticeship. I put my name in, you know kind of thinking. I didn't really have much of a chance but I thought well, you don't win the lottery without buying a ticket. So I put my name in and, lucky enough to get it and that was the beginning of your millwright journey that was yep.
Speaker 2:So at the time I got that, um, I wanted to finish my welding. Uh, I guess schooling and education. So what I did was I, I challenged my red seal, got my red seal for welding and then, uh, began the millwright apprenticeship and a lot of.
Speaker 1:I think I believe it's about, well, just over a thousand hours of your welding gets goes towards your millwright as well. It's transferable did you know, did you use it?
Speaker 2:well at the time I went. I'm not sure what it looks like now, but it was a, it was a benchmark for hours, so as long as you had your competencies, you could um, and so I didn't really run into any uh any issues hours wise good, so it was interesting.
Speaker 1:You brought up a couple different aspects of the work at a mine. You know, there there's the construction side, there's a lot of framework structural that happens inside of a mine, above the mine, under the mine, everywhere, whether it's expansions of facilities, whether it's even, like uh, trailers for where people eat, and and then just the infrastructure of the mines underneath. That are under constant moving and changing. The things change all the time but then there's the maintenance side of it, which is a whole nother game.
Speaker 1:My dad, you know, he was a boiler maker and he worked maintenance at a potash mine. It's kind of how I got into the mining game and I remember him telling me as a young welder that maintenance is where it's at. If you're going to be at a mine, because you're doing something different every day, it's always creative, it's always neat and you get put on teams where you're with a couple millwrights maybe a machinist and an electrician and a plumber and you kind of have a team of people that go out and just try to solve problems however you can, and some days you're just watching others work and some days they're watching you work and I always thought that was interesting. So when I first started picking up mining work, I would always ask to be on the maintenance crew and I really enjoyed it really.
Speaker 1:I I still tell young kids now, like if you're looking for for work, and not necessarily just a mining, but even if you're looking at plants or factories, the maintenance gigs I feel are kind of the most creative one and um, and I think they get a bad rap. People think maintenance, they think cleaning and nothing. No, no shade against cleaners. We need you, we love you, but uh, but know maintenance is a different thing. In the industrial world it's a different job. What does maintenance look like at your mind?
Speaker 2:yeah, so obviously fast-paced torture and, like you said that you know, working in teams with different trades. Um, you know, I find a lot of times you know no rights welders, uh, hd, mechanics, machinists, and we're all kind of throwing up problems together and it's really cool because you get to pick up a lot of tips and tricks from the different trades and you know, been lucky enough to work with quite a few older, more experienced vets that have been in the industry for quite some time, and so it's it's really interesting to pick up, you know, a lot of knowledge from them.
Speaker 1:How hard was the transition from welder to industrial mechanic or millwright for you?
Speaker 2:I found it to be a pretty easy transition. I mean, I I you know still a millwright welder now, um, you know, do quite a bit of welding still, um, but it's a really nice balance I find. So so you're kind of using both hats, both trades, if you want to yeah, definitely enjoyable. So you know, you got your welding fab side and then you know, the next day you could be rebuilding a pump, changing bearings on whatever kind of machine it's. It's definitely a lot of uh variety.
Speaker 1:And you have your Red Seal in in in mill right now, right.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so dual Red Seal. So for someone who's coming out of either program level one and they're looking at at you know these qualifications um, which one would you say was more intensive for theory and which one would you say was more intensive for practical, or or would you rate them kind of equally, or or you know how do you look at them yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:That's a really good question. So so I would say, from my experiences and my opinion, I would say that the practical was much more intense for the welding side of things.
Speaker 2:Just repetitive muscle memory and just trying to you know, just develop those skills and a lot of repetitiveness on the millwright side. Yeah, um, the the theory was was very intense. Um, even throughout my apprenticeship I was, I was, you know, probably seven days out of ten I was welding, so it was hard for me to get the time on the tools, um, so I found that the theory for for mill writing was uh, yeah, a lot of studying, a lot of, yeah, late nights in the trade school for sure well, and how much of of the mill right theory do you actually have to remember like verbatim?
Speaker 1:because I've looked at the mill right books, I've looked at industrial mechanic books and there's, like you know, the lash on this is 0.001, and then you get an eight point, eight to one compression on this type of gear, on this type of cylinder for this type of pump and blah, blah, blah. Do you actually have to know all that stuff on site, or is it more about just understanding how machines work and kind of working backwards from there?
Speaker 2:yeah, definitely so. So there's really not a requirement to remember the manual verbatim at all. There's OEM manuals that we have all accessible. We actually are given tablets, so we go to the job site and we go on the tablet. The OEM manual can come right up and all the specs are right there. So definitely take that off your worry list. As far as oh geez why I have to remember everything For sure, how important is tech for your work?
Speaker 1:You know you've been there. What 18 years now, if I do the math. And so if you've been there 18 years, I mean in 18 years I've seen a lot of changes in the welding industry. What kind of changes have you seen in your industry for the technologies coming in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot. There's still obviously some paperwork flying around, but a lot of it's electronic, and even I find our time cards we swipe in and out all electronic. A really interesting thing was these tablets that we just got, issued about a year, year and a half ago, and our work orders come up on there. So when we go to fix a rock crusher, we come up and we see a few issues we want to pass along for whether it's the cross shift or maintenance platters for follow-up work, everything gets captured on there and can't be missed because it has to be acknowledged by so many people and I just find that's awesome, like what a great way to just keep tabs, keep a thumb on your maintenance of machines, rather than just paperwork, because that can get you know slips by a few desks and then all of a sudden you know that problem has now grown into something much bigger. Now you're down for three, four days, right.
Speaker 1:So definitely a a lot of um, a lot of merit to technology in my opinion yeah, and I, you know well, obviously I agree, um, I, I think that one of the biggest improvements that people notice and this is good for young people when it comes to technology is how it's improved safety.
Speaker 1:Safety, and I think it's exactly what you're saying. You know the accountability, the traceability, the information that you need, even lockout systems Like in my path, I've been on machines that were locked out, that still got started up, and that's a terrible feeling because you're very close to dying in those moments, right, and and you realize that there was a procedure, the procedure was followed, but you know, and it didn't work right. So technology is has a really good way now of tracking those systems and making sure that things are done properly. Plus, there's digital lockouts now, where things can happen on a computer, which I've also seen screw up, but at least it's another layer, right, at least there's another layer of safety. Um, you know, with an old mind like yours, there's always just I, just this balance between implementing new equipment, implementing new technologies, systems, but also keeping some of the old systems that have been successfully working for 60 years and are still kicking butt today. You know, just as long as you keep them up, you know, keep them clean and running and going, they're not going to stop.
Speaker 2:So you know how do you see that in your, in your mind, you know, in terms of the old versus the new yeah, um, a lot of old, definitely a lot of old, yeah, but it's I mean it's, it's, it's proven itself, it's made a bundle of money over the decades.
Speaker 2:And, uh, you know, I find with with some, some older equipment, of course it gets more labor intensive as it gets older um, and a lot more maintenance heavy um, but a lot of money is being spent now, like for upgrades um, and just kind of updating the equipment. You know, we've just got a couple of new cone crushers um, like all digitally controlled, which is amazing, and we got rid of them that are probably, you know, made in the 40s or 50s. It was just so definitely not to throw shade at the old ones because they've paid a lot of bills over the years, but it's just nice to see the new stuff come in and like, know, digitally controlled, such fine-tuned um. You know, machinery like that it's, it's interesting to see and then how, how well it works with the old infrastructure, right. So a lot of challenge putting new machines into an old, like an old setting or an old environment yeah, they kind of don't fit necessarily a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Even attachments are different, rails are different, spacings are different. So there's a lot of uh like I mean a lot of the times when we would get new equipment in the mine would there'd be a lot of line boring and drilling of new races and attachment ports because the new thing didn't quite fit the old thing, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2:that's. That's part of the challenge and part of the size. What's, once the new, the outage is done and and we're going to commission the new one, let's. It's nice to see it up and running and the old kind of working with the new.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, definitely satisfying I remember one time I was, uh, I was at a steel mill, um, and I was looking at this machine called the four high and the four high basically, was called the four because I had these four massive gears and it was used to coil the rolls of steel into the coils that get put onto the trains that go across canada.
Speaker 1:So they had this massive main gear on the front of it that you could see spinning, and it was probably about four feet in diameter, just huge, huge pin. And I remember, like I asked one of the millwrights there that I was working I was working on a bearing project underneath with the rollers and I was like man, how big is that main pin that goes through there? And he's like we don't know, we've never pulled it out. I'm like how old is it? It's from the 40s. And I'm like how is that possible? Like I'm here changing up bearing blocks that didn't even last six months you know what I mean and there's a massive like two-story high bearing block with a four-foot pin through the middle. That is still the original pin.
Speaker 1:He says to me and this is before I got into metallurgy and the rest of my career he said the materials that were used to make that pin in the 40s don't even exist on the planet anymore. And that's where technology has to fit in and I've always taken that with me because we have used up our resources on the planet. That's just a fact. The ore that we pull out of the earth is not the same quality, or that was around 100 years ago or a thousand years ago, um, and it's getting harder and harder to find the ore. You know there used to be gold veins that would be popping out of the ground. That's gone long, gone right. So you know you got to go deeper, you got to go farther and you got to get creative.
Speaker 1:And I think about that when I see new machinery. It's like you know you're talking about the digital indexes, the laser scanning of the walls so that they never bump into edges like some of the new mining equipment's insane, it's so cool. But then I look at the front of it, like the cone part or the teeth or the where the carbides are, and I think how long is that gonna last? Because the old machine was made out of materials that are worth more recycled now than it was new. Right, because that's quality of steel 60 years ago was just so much higher. So is this new machine gonna last 60 more years like the old one, even like the fancy tools and all sure, that's awesome. But what about the actual framework or structure of the machine? How do you see that, that that balance between new, you know technology and then the new alloys and new metals and the new requirements expected out of these machines?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's funny. You mentioned that I was actually on a job yesterday. We were tearing apart a cone crusher and we were told to flip the crushing head over and inspect the cracks because our spare one has been sent out for repair for cracks. It's an old jaw crusher. It must be from the 40s, if not the 40s, and it's still chugging along. So it's really funny. You mentioned that you definitely see all the computerization and everything's digitally controlled. That's great. But yeah, I think people are right when they say they don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think they can, or the aloes are just too expensive, and I don't know if this happened in your mind. You've been there long enough, though, but I remember about 20 years ago, when I was at the mine, um, stainless steel got really popular right before the big duplex explosion okay it was like so potash is extremely corrosive.
Speaker 1:So everything you make and and these are solution mines so solution means they take brine salt water. They pump it high heat salt water down into the potash, turn it into mud and then suck it back up and then they dry it in these huge crystallizers, these big turbines heat like ovens to dry out the potash and then turn it back into dust form. So it's basically water, mud, back to dry, and the potash, the salt, salt water, the brine solution all of this stuff just destroys steel like it eats it. Like you're going through an inch thick plate in four months like it's. It's crazy, right. So then, all of a sudden it was like well, why aren't we using stainless? You know, because stainless doesn't oxidize, so let's. It was like dude, I swear it would have been hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars across the West. You know, putting stainless everything stainless handrails, stainless chutes, stainless conveyors, stainless. I got all my stainless tickets at the time. I loved it. I rode that wave, I made a ton of money. Hooray, stainless. Like it was cool.
Speaker 1:But it only lasted about eight years, nine years, and then everyone realized that all the stainless stuff corroded just as fast. Well, it actually didn't slow down the process of corrosion at all, because there's just so much natural oxides in the world. In the ground iron, the stainless gets contaminated instantly. Once it's contaminated it it's just as bad as everything else. Have you seen in your industry? Things come in a trend, come in and be like this is a new, great thing. And then five years later, six years later, you're like actually that didn't really work, let's try something else yeah, um, in the processing plant where I work, they had, um, some pre-treat tags that they were replacing.
Speaker 2:They were I don't know what the old ones were they they may have even been carbon, I'm not quite sure carbon steel. They replaced them with, uh, new stainless ones and, uh, really nice, impressive looking. Um. Something happened with the weld process. I'm not sure if the heat affected zone wasn't treated properly or pickled after welding. I don't think the tanks lasted a year and they started leaking through the heat affected zones. Wow, yeah, so they took those out and they put fiberglass ones in, which is pretty interesting. Another section of the processing plant. It's a pressure oxidation plant and so high heat, high acidity, uh, oxygen, uh enriched environment and um the slurry will go through there and it just makes it easier to extract the gold. They're using a lot of uh. I think that the older guys were saying, um incalloy does that make?
Speaker 2:sense oh yeah, yeah. So they were, yeah, incanel 620 or something like that, and, um, they were finding that, uh, the the high acidity in the environment it was put in was lasting and it was just it was expensive. So they made this to, uh, grade two titanium and, uh, it's unbelievable like the corrosion resistance is just nuts well, let's take our break now.
Speaker 1:We've actually gone past our half an hour. There's been a great conversation and we'll take our little break now for our sponsors and advertisers, and when we get back I want to ask you some questions about that process, because that sounds pretty interesting. I that that that was a good section to leave, so don't go anywhere. I'm here with Derek Ash coming to us from the millwrights at Red Lake, ontario Goldmine, and we'll be right back after these commercials.
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Speaker 1:And we are back at the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Theron. Today I'm having a conversation with Jarek here, who's a Millerite welder coming to us from the gold mine here in Red Lake Ontario. So right before the break we were talking about, you know, things that we try in the mines that work and then sometimes things we don't work and some of the solutions can be very creative and, you know, technology based. I want to go back to the first solution that I thought was interesting when you said when they went to fiberglass. You know that is something that we're seeing more and more.
Speaker 1:Cwb Group has just you know well, not just, but we've gotten into the automotive game and we now have a VW Audi lab in Milton which where they do some R&D for VW and Audi here in Canada, right in the Milton office with CWB, for VW and Audi here in Canada, right in the Milton office with CWB. So we're a part of that whole process which is really cool because it's less and less welding. So now we're looking at a world where welding isn't just welding, fusion, welding materials, but it's also just materials joining, because epoxies, fiberglass, carbon fibers, all these types of things are as strong, if not stronger than steel in many cases now. So that changes the outlook in terms of how we use certain materials, and we've even learned how to successfully join steel to fiberglass, carbon fiber to aluminum. You know these cross mixes, which are wild, so you know you get a. You know these cross mixes, which are, which are wild, so you know you get a.
Speaker 1:You have these old carbon tanks that didn't leak but were carbon falling apart. Just because they're carbon, they fall apart in time. And then you bring in stainless. But stainless is is very picky material and as much as it's wonderful, it's only wonderful when it's perfect. If it's not perfect, it's actually less wonderful than mild steel. It's worse than mild steel if it's not good. So now you're in a situation where, okay, we invested heavily into this beautiful thing that didn't work, and you end up with fiberglass tanks and people immediately are going to go fiberglass. How is that? They think of the bumper on your car that's just gonna crack and break right and it's. It's not like that. It's that these are different materials that are getting invented and cast and put together. You know like? What was your impression when they're like oh yeah, we're getting fiberglass tanks. Were you like a? What like?
Speaker 2:yeah, definitely a little skeptical. It's the first time I had heard of it. But, um, I I thought, maybe just with the abrasive slurry and the agitation in the tank, that maybe you know, we would see a leak, you know in the vegetation zone. But uh, it's, it's holding up and actually on the inside I don't know what exactly this coating is made out of. Um, it's like a two-part coating, uh, colors as well, so that when you do a tank inspection, if it's worn through the first color, the second color will show and it's going to indicate, you know, a race of wear and oh wow yeah, so pretty interesting that's super helpful.
Speaker 1:But like oh we, I can see purple there. Time for a patch or whatever you gotta do you know like? Yeah or relining. I don't know if you reline those things or or if they just are cheap enough, you throw them away because fiberglass is a much lower cost product, you know. So maybe it's just like a disposable and you put in new ones, I don't know like yeah, I guess time will tell.
Speaker 1:It's been like speakers now and uh, they seem to be working fine, so hopefully they keep on taking yeah, and then the second example you brought up was you know the hot flurry and how it was heating up. You know everything, like there was no material that would put up to it in canal is a nickel based. Nickel is very you know, very strong material. Nickel gets used to hard surface a lot of things, um, but what nickel's best against is like impact resistance and and making sure that it doesn't wear down for scraping or actual dynamic load. Using it in a liquid hot situation for me would not have been my first choice and it sounds like it didn't really work that well in that situation.
Speaker 1:But then going to titanium is kind of like going to the rainbow You're going to like the most expensive material on the planet almost the most expensive material on the planet and an extremely difficult one to weld Like. I mean you have to have a very, very specific process good gas, good purge, good materials, good tungsten, good. Everything's got to be the three Cs right, clean, clean, clean. Yes, to do titanium, which a lot of people avoid because you may buy it, you may install it, but repairs can be a disaster, right? How do you feel about that process? How's that working out?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm lucky enough to be directly involved in it, one of the people that will make the titanium repairs, one of the people that will make the titanium repairs and, yeah, definitely overwhelming learning to deal with it. I mean not just weld it. You know, the preparation is half the battle, right, like cleaning up, as I always say, and it's so true. So, yeah, definitely a pretty big learning curve there. But once you've kind of figured out the game of how to prep it, how to kind of treat it, um, prior to welding, the welding it's, you know, once, once you get the hang of that it's, it's definitely enjoyable and really satisfactory to see, uh, that product come out. This is just, you know, so shiny and just, it's completely different than a carbon steel or a stainless steel type of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very interesting to work with for sure.
Speaker 1:So I've had a few people on the show that are titanium welders, but usually in the non-industrial side. They're usually, you know, exhausts, or fancy manifolds, or you know things related to things to do more with, eat less with, wear. Um, so, in your instance though, the industrial setting, what, what was it like to learn? So, like, what, what, what are some of the tips and tricks you could tell me. Like you know, if I, if I get hired, you know, I get fired from CWB next week and I come show up in red Lake and I say I want to be a titanium welder with you, you know, uh, what are some of the things I'll need to know right off the top when I'm walking out onto the, into the shop or into the mind to be like I gotta go repair this um like as far as as weld procedures.
Speaker 1:You know what. What do you? How do you set it up? What do you do? What type of settings, what do you use?
Speaker 2:okay. So yeah, that's a really cool question. We've got um a booth dedicated to, uh, you know, to take welding, um, so yeah, first thing, definitely no material, um, cross-contamination kind of thing. You know we'll. We'll prep the booth. If we've done a carbon job or a stainless job in there, everything's cleaned Acetone, acetone, acetone.
Speaker 1:So clean, clean, super clean.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, From there we'll prep the machine, make sure we've got our 100% argon nice full tank running through a manifold. So you've got your trailing shield, your back purge, everything. You know, all our trailing shields, our back purges are cleaned as well. Um, you know, set the machine up and, um you know, obviously that would be like a dc straight polarity um setup um roughly 200 amps, depending on the thickness of your material and 200 amps is pretty high, like that's.
Speaker 1:Uh, does it take that much heat to get the titanium to, to puddle up like a you know 200 amps and you're? I assume that's probably a 1.8 tungsten. You know what's? Uh, you got to move quick. Is that fast? Or is that just the heat it takes to get it to to wet?
Speaker 2:and in my experience, yeah, it's, it's just to get that, to get it to wet, exactly. And I've always, uh, you know a lot of the titanium plate that we're working with you know it's it's three-quarter plate uh, welding it onto a like a pretty thick, uh probably like a you know a 10 inch hub it's here. So, so there's there's a lot of heat sink there as well, yeah, and just just a lot of say prepare, clean, and then also on the other end of things, you know making sure people don't come in, and you know, oh, go and touch it and then all the contamination in your gloves and just you know it kind of goes south real quick.
Speaker 1:So I break out the acetone again and clean it out, and yeah, and then in terms of like, uh, you know, is it like an aluminum, where it's gonna drop out if it gets too hot, or is it like a stainless if you sit too long it'll sugar, like what are some of the the scary things you got to be conscious of when you decide to weld titanium yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 2:I haven't found the dropout like like an aluminum, uh wood, but definitely, uh, if you've got improper uh purge it'll, it'll sugar for sure. It just goes like a white I call it white deck, it's like a white shot. Just it's telling you something's wrong, um, something. Um. I got sent out to a, to a place in in Montreal that does a lot of titanium and in their shop actually, if one door opens in the shop whether it's a roll-up door, a man door, whatever there's an alarm that goes off and everybody just stops welding Just because if the wind, the breeze comes in, takes your purge away. It's just a lot of repair and a lot of grinding and die grinding and carbide burring to get all that contamination out.
Speaker 2:So that is something, something a huge consideration. Like I, the booth I'm in it's, we've got really tall welding curtains. It's just kind of, uh, an enclosed welding cubicle really, and you know it's in the same shop. There's 60 ton trucks coming in and out daily for maintenance. So I know the doors are open. So it's just another consideration and another layer of, you know, just kind of covering, covering little bases as far as material cleanliness and just proper hygiene for the product.
Speaker 1:I can't even imagine how you keep a booth like that clean in a mine, like there's so much stuff flying around all the time that I mean I, I would be shocked that you get through with zero contamination, but you, you do somehow right yeah, yeah it's, it's.
Speaker 2:Um, it is surprising for sure because we need a big equipment like that and you know, those things that come in an hd shop are grease soaked, oil soaked, like it's. Just you know. So, yeah, there there are challenges for sure, but, um, you know it's, you take the time and and and proper cleaning, proper prep and, and you end up proper welding and then how many?
Speaker 1:or let's start with the tungsten. What type of tungsten do you use? Is it just, uh, your green 100 tungsten? Or do you use like a lanthanated, like orange, or seriated, blue, brown or red or orange, or yeah, we're lanthanated, gold is what we were okay yeah, nice to use.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's what we're at. So, uh, depending on the job, the thickness of material average, um, we use the 1.8 for the heavy stuff, obviously, and then, uh, you know, if we're doing um, pipe work and video open route stuff, I like to have the 332.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then do you do like a pulse at all or do you just run it straight DC negative and you just go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dc negative. But since CanWeld actually, and I was listening to some Archonkeys podcasts, I've been kind of looking to broaden my horizons as far as big settings goes. So, uh, false is definitely something I want to try to play around with and see if, uh, and see if I can make something like that work. There's a lot of videos and just a lot of. You know, tick talks about, uh, different settings, that, and the outcomes are just you know, they're like it's like artwork.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny because I've been bitten the butt because of that. So I'm not a fancy welder. I never was a fancy welder. I was a mine welder and then I got into manufacturing and big structural. So really I was burning big rod, big wire, big whatever all the time and I mean obviously like there's inspection, there's nde. I was all that game. But pretty wasn't always at the top of my list for for work, right, and when I started getting into like this type of work where I was on the management side and then here at cwb, there was a kind of idea that if you're a good welder, you're a pretty welder, like it's fancy, you got fancy stuff, you got fancy settings. I remember I only had one job once where I had to do fancy stuff. It was in a place called um pro metal and I had to do like stainless countertops and stuff for like medical facilities I hated it.
Speaker 1:I hated it I hated working on 20 gauge. I hated working on 16. You know these thin materials and tIG, and it would be so slow and arduous and I was like and everything would warp so much. It was just like everything about that job pissed me off. I I quit after like I think it was a year I was out of there but I was in Fabtech and I and I was with Jason Becker from Arc Dunkeys and we had a weld off competition and we had to weld this little uh diamond out of stainless with tick and I was a tick stainless welder for years so I had no problem. I was like, yeah, I'm down.
Speaker 1:But I got my hand to me because I came at it like a minor where I was like I'm gonna slam this thing together, set it to 100 up up the sides, done, sealed it up, done, deal, look pretty good, done. It's on my shelf back there. It actually looks pretty good. But then I look at what jason had done and he's running this phronius on like a 55 hertz with the disc and the 200 pulse and the. He knows all the settings, he knows all the toys on that machine. He has them all set and he just puts in this weld and it just yeah. It took him twice as long, but it was just beautiful, so I I lost I lost the weld off.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know mine would pass a leak test. I'll say that like it'll pass, but it wasn't as pretty as as his. And there is definitely something to be said about, you know, the new processes, the new technology and just the amazing welds that can be attained, and I would assume it must make it easier. It might be slower. The manufacturer in me gets nuts. Like I watch some TikTok videos and I see people take welding on brackets on the side of a tank. I will never do that, bro, I don't care who you are. I'm grabbing the make gun and I'm zapping that on. There's no way I'm gonna waste an hour putting on. You know, hold down brackets on a tank with tig. Like what a waste of time. But there is places for it, right? Oh, definitely in your industry. You look at this new technologies for tIG welding and do you see the places where you're like that would definitely help me in this situation.
Speaker 2:For sure, for sure. I've had a few jobs where we've had to do some field fitting of pump inlets and stuff like that and obviously, to get a TIG machine set know, in a plant like that, probably not super time effective, you know it's not. So we'll uh, you know we'll opt for the, the stick, fit up, um, you know, feel fit, and then bring it to the shop and you know, if you want to pretty it up with tig, then great. But um, I think each, each process definitely has has its place for sure.
Speaker 1:Do you do much stick welding still, I would imagine. So I mean, most maintenance stuff is usually stick-related.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. Yeah, it's either the main processes I'm involved with, like carbon steel stick, stainless stick, and then some titanium TIG and stainless tig as well so 308, 309 stainless yeah 316 is it?
Speaker 1:yeah, this is. I was wondering if this is 316.
Speaker 2:Still still out there lots it seems to be for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what about?
Speaker 1:324. That was pretty rare. I haven't seen that in a long time.
Speaker 2:I haven't encountered that. Oh 324?
Speaker 1:Yeah 324 used to be like the highest. It was like 304, 308, 309, 316, and 324. When I was a stainless welder 20 years ago. Those were like all the bands of what was in the 3 Series and then after Duplex came out with the 22 Series, 324, I never saw it again. So I think it was like kind of just got.
Speaker 1:It was probably just too expensive to make and it got replaced by a different, different type of stainless is right okay and I haven't seen 304 in a long time either, so I don't even know if there's, if it goes down that far anymore yeah, I haven't really encountered I'm just I'm just showing everyone listening how old I really am. These electrodes don't exist anymore and, in terms of the tig is or titanium, is there stick titanium like? Is there a company that has a stick titanium option like that?
Speaker 2:that might be useful yeah, that would be really useful, I think. But yeah, there's definitely, uh definitely merit if they could make that work, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:But to the people listening to this episode. I know eagle alloys and uh rock mount. You guys are out there doing some cool stuff. Let me know. Let me know, is there a titanium stick? I know there's lots of crazy stick electrodes. I remember welding a tool and die one called 95 98. That was like 300 for eight electrodes. Um, but it was also very, very cool you could. It was like, uh, it was a chrome finished electrode. So as soon as you were done welding it was, you popped the flux off and it was a shiny chrome finish like right under. But it would get such bad porosity Like if you got any contamination. It would be like a, a hole like a hole you could look into like space.
Speaker 1:It was so bad it was like it's all coming out. There's an $80 electrode all getting ground out, right? What are repairs like on titanium like? Do you? Like? I can't imagine you can just go grab a grinder and start grinding in it like you. Grinders hold so much dust, like I remember when I was working in a full stainless shop, you would not even be able to move a grinder from that section to that section because the stainless grinder stayed in the stainless side type of thing, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, totally so. Yeah, um grinding wheel maybe to start, um, you know, to rough out, you know if you've got contamination you've got to remove a section. Well, grinder to start, but definitely carbide were um dedicated to titanium, you know, for the, for the finishing, so you're not getting anything impregnated in that titanium that's got to be pretty slow though oh, yeah, yeah because it's not like titanium is soft oh, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:So so patience definitely comes in I'm sure you got some pretty serious pneumatic, uh air tools there. Hopefully it's not something like dremel or something. So what's, uh, what's up next for you? You know like what's on the horizon. You know, 18 years in a mine is serious business. I'd imagine you're moving into some supervisory roles or lead hand roles. You know what? What is it that you see yourself doing at the mine for the next 20 years?
Speaker 2:um, well, lately, I've just finished. This past summer I just finished my cwb, uh welding supervisor for steel. Oh, how'd you like that? Course I really liked it yeah, I liked it too, yeah but uh, a lot of uh found it built upon a lot of the theory that I had been exposed to in subray at cambrian awesome. Uh, a lot of the theory that I had been exposed to in sub-ray at Cambrian Awesome, a lot of the weld symbols.
Speaker 2:you know, that was a really good thing to brush up on, for sure. So yeah, so got that Just kind of getting into the role of doing the welding supervisor thing. You know on the site that I work and it's interesting to see the other side, like the administrative, administration side, um something I haven't really been exposed to. So that's really cool. You know, doing the well testing, um, keeping all our um paperwork up to date, like as far as well their qualifications, you know processes, positions and so on interesting stuff for sure. And as I gain experience with that, I would like to the next thing I'd like to look at would probably be my level one welding inspector. So I'd like to maybe take that course and Well, the level one builds right off of the supervisor.
Speaker 1:So you'll find it. The sooner you take it after, you're gonna realize that a lot of it overlaps and you're gonna find it quite a bit easier while it's still fresh, because the supervisor ties into that the level one quite well, and then level two is its own game. I mean, you're already out in the field for a while by the time you do your level two, but you know is. Is there a requirement that your work to do these things, or is this just you? Professional development.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is, this is just. Yeah, I want to expose myself to something different. Just uh, keep keep learning, keep challenging myself and uh, you know, I just don't want to stay stagnant. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:it's kind of you know stuff like that. There was an opportunity. That's why I I did the uh, the uh, welding supervisor steel course. There was an opportunity to to try the welding supervisor role and I was offered that and I thought you know what that's? That's great. I'll take it like why don't I try it out? And it's, it's going really well.
Speaker 2:It's a it's a super cool balance of you know office versus floor, you know I definitely, and, and it's more, it's still more floor work than than office, but it's, it's, it's a nice balance for sure, and and uh, you know, I'm not getting any younger either like I would you know. Nice to have that balance and just easier.
Speaker 1:Well, you definitely do think about it as you get into your 30s and 40s. It's like how much longer will I last on the floor? And and you and you look around, you see the 50 year olds that are still on the floor and you're like I don't know if I want to do that that long. I mean kudos to them for holding it out, but I mean my dad my dad worked as a welder right until he retired and I I was like, by 35, being like I don't know like, but I do miss the balance to, to be honest, like I'm in the office all time now like I mean
Speaker 1:once you get into that other side, it starts to kind of suck you in because there's a real lack of experienced, knowledgeable people on the management side. And I'm sure you've noticed that already and you'll see it a lot more as you expand your career that so many people at the top of the welding games companies, infrastructure, really know nothing about welding. They came in from other fields, right and so it's. It's you know a person like yourself looking to to move into these roles, they'll take you like, they'll like right away.
Speaker 1:So, which is awesome, it is awesome. But you know, I got to a point where I was like, oh man, I wish I could still, uh, you know, go go weld something or take something apart or use my skills, cause I have all these skills, you know, 30 years of being on the tools that I don't use at all. Now, like I try to tell the stories you know the podcast I try- out there, I I was a teacher for eight years, but but where does?
Speaker 1:it. Where does it go? You know what I mean. Like, if I get hit by a car tomorrow, all that knowledge is gone, right?
Speaker 1:yeah how does it work for for new hires at your work. You know like let's say for the listener, someone what does want to come apply at your work, what would be some of the qualifications you would hope they would have or would make them more employable for where you are yeah, so I'm definitely nowhere near the hr end of things, but for me, yeah right, you know, I would definitely encourage them to have their, their red seal qualification, for sure, and just um, what does it matter?
Speaker 2:like the open mind, willingness to learn, be eager, you know. Ask questions definitely.
Speaker 1:Um, I assume it's shift work or there's uh, because most of the minds I've worked at a shift work and that always scares young people away and I always tell young people just works a part of life shift work is a part of this industry. It is what it is, um, you know. So what are the shifts like in your work? So there's a few different ones. That's constantly you know changing.
Speaker 2:What are the shifts like at your work? So there's a few different ones and that's constantly, you know, changing too, but the predominant shift where we are is 7 on, 7 off, 12 hour days. That was another bonus of going to the welding supervisor. So I got out of that and went to the 5 and 2, which is, you know, normal supervisor. So I, I got uh, I got out of that and and went to the uh, to the five and two, which is, you know, normal. Yeah, yeah, you don't get to be off and you kind of miss that, but it's, it's.
Speaker 1:They've each got their roles they do, they do, you know yeah, so typically, uh, that's probably, I would imagine you know, industry-wide, I think seven and seven is probably pretty popular, um, but I've heard of you know eight and six um some variation of it, you know yeah, yeah, exactly yeah, but yeah, definitely shift working ball for sure yeah, I know I just had some friends move to saskatchewan from ontario looking for work, chasing the money which is great because we have lots of work out here in the west and uh, they were like oh, I'm having trouble finding a day job. Like who do you think you are you got to cut your teeth for like 10 more years bro? Like yeah, you don't just slide into like the primo day job. That takes a little bit of time to get there that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure but I mean kids can dream, I mean if they get lucky and get it, I guess. But I definitely had to do a lot of shift work for a lot of years and and, like you said, there's pros and cons. In the summertime I loved shift work because then I could book holidays for camping, because I love camping. So then I would just look at my shifts for coming up for summer and I'd book uh, I could take off for like 10 days and then none of it would be holidays. You know, I'd find that right when you hit a long weekend and your seven days is coming up. So you got 10 days off paid, perfect yeah, you know yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:and what about, uh, your involvement with like can, weld and future things, you know, do you do you want to be more involved with the conferences? Do you want to get more involved with, maybe, some of the chapters of cwb stuff that we're doing, you know, in terms of the outreach and being involved with schools and stuff like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had you know prior to going to Canada 2023 a month and I had no idea about. You know the, the chapters you know, and the CWB association and the podcast and all that. I just think it's awesome. Like you're, you're, you're advertising trade and just like's something great that, if somebody wants to, you know new, whether they're in high school or want to do a change in direction as far as career. Like you're getting that, uh, you're getting that information out and just a bit of exposure to the trade right.
Speaker 1:So I think that's that's important for sure and what would you like to see, but what is something that we could do better? Well, geez, good question. Hit me with the stick. What am I doing wrong, buddy?
Speaker 2:Come on, I can't think of anything. No, I think it's awesome. I think the podcast is great, just to see the different industries that people are in and the different experiences, and it's just awesome. I can't think of anything. To no constructive criticism for me, that's for sure well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:We get lots through the internet. Don't worry, the comment sections are often disabled. Awesome man. Well, just last question before we let you go here. It's been a fantastic interview and I love running into fellow. You know people that work in the mines or that are in the mines. Um, I love that industry, I love the heavy industry in general. Um, but for for yourself, and you know we kind of touched on it a few times. But you know, let's say you're a young person coming, coming out of school, and you're kind of thinking trades or you're maybe not even sure you know what you should do. There's always that obvious pressure go to university, go to university. But you know, you're kind of, you're kind of not feeling it, you're not looking forward to sitting behind a desk for the next four years. What would be a piece of advice you'd say to them to kind of look, look at the trades. What would you? How would you convince them?
Speaker 2:I would say, try it. I mean, I I don't know um many courses or or programs in university where you get called and and two job offers in one day to work in your field um, that'd be awesome, right, and like so many people, whether it's mill, right, class electrical, whatever trade there's always industries that are probably, um, you know, using that college as a farm team kind of thing, and like we'll take your top five kind of kind of uh deal, right. So I think that's a huge benefit and a huge attractant to like why not try the trades and I mean, you know the apprenticeships are available up there and just just try it and and talk to people that are in the field, right?
Speaker 1:That's true and that's wonderful. I love the farm team comment. I bring that up a lot because it's true there's such a need for the trades right now that the colleges and training centers are farm teams. When I was working at the college, I would get calls from the local companies being like when are your students graduating? When's graduation day, you know? And they wouldn't even say we want your top five. They would just be like tell them all to come apply, we'll sort through them or we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:And it's like and it's been like that for a year, like I mean, it's not just now. There was a little bit of a lull. I would say maybe like 2014,. 2015 with hiring. But little bit of a lull. I would say maybe like 2014 2015 with hiring. But even if that's gone now, I think right now pretty much, I think I saw a stat like 97 hiring rate for people coming into welding school which find another profession. That's got a stat that high, good luck yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:All right, man. Well, it's been very good to have you on on the podcast here. Is there any shout outs or anything you'd like to say to anybody before we let you go?
Speaker 2:I just want to say thanks to you guys for this opportunity and I just think it's great that you're getting the welding word out there and just showing people different facets of it. I think that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you very much and I hope people got interested in what gold mines do and what the mining industry in Canada is like. And for the people listening, it's a huge, huge industry that's growing. There's massive mine builds planned all across Canada for the next 20 years, so it's a great industry to get into. Now. I'm almost jelly of all the young people getting into it now. I would love to see what's coming up as a young person in those trades and I I personally and as you can attest to jerick, I had a great time working for that industry. So you know it was uh, it was always really, really good and kept my skills at the top of my game awesome all right, and everyone that's been following along with the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for making us have the wonderful run that we're having. We're growing and and growing. We're closing up the season here in June, but we got lots of stuff coming between now and then. We got CanWeld, we got National Trivia, we got Fabtech Canada we're going to be working with Skills Canada in Quebec in May. We got Women Empowerment Month in March.
Speaker 1:We got oh man, there's just so much stuff coming up, so make sure you keep following us downloading. Oh man, there's just so much stuff coming up, so make sure you keep following us, downloading the episodes and commenting on them. We're always looking for new people to come on the show and we're always looking for new topics, and if you're going to be at any of the big conferences around North America, look for us. We're probably going to be there somewhere and we're probably going to be doing podcasts. So come, find us and find out what we're doing and how we can either work with you or help you. We'd love to meet you. All right, so have a good day and stay tuned for the next episode. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 4:You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast with Max Serra. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB Group and presented by Max Serrano, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.