The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 232 - Chasing Skills with Elias Klein
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. Subscribe, listen, and stay connected to the people who keep the world welded together.
A welder’s life rarely follows a blueprint is the common theme with today's guest, Elias Klein, owner of Klein Machine & Weld and Boot Hill Steel Co. Elias leads us down his path from pipe fitting, to motorcycles, self-taught machining, and growing an architectural steel business. It’s a story about chasing skill, ignoring the noise, and turning curiosity into a resilient business that can handle shutdowns, slow pay, and even a brutal injury.
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Website: www.kleinmfg.com
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Canada Welding Supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding. Welcome to the CWB Association Welding Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Hua, and today I have Elias Klein, owner of Klein Machine Weld. Elias, how are you doing? Yeah, pretty good. Right on. Is this uh your first podcast you've ever been on? Yeah, it is actually. It's number one. Number one. Bust in your podcast, Cherry. Yeah, exactly. I don't know if I can say that. So, anyways, welcome. Uh, so tell us a bit about yourself. Um, let's see, I've been in industry now since 2011. What's that going on? 13, 14 years. Um kind of started as a pipe fitter, so I'm a journeyman steam fitter, pressure ticketed welder. Usually do a lot of pressure welding, subcontract with a welding truck, do some custom machining, fabrication, and uh just about anything under the sun. That's cool. So when would you say like you started out in welding? When did you get the bite for it? Would have been uh maybe around like twelve, my dad just showed me how to weld in the garage. Uh, and it's just something I thought was kind of interesting and fun to do. And it's always something I saw him kind of making making stuff, uh fixing things around the house, so I just kind of had a draw towards it. Uh but what really kind of or go on? No, no, no. Was your dad a welder? No, he never was. He worked at the refinery and worked in the weld shop there. So I guess there's a bit more to the story because he he was in the eighties and nineties, he was uh just a welder's helper during the shutdowns. But there's always these stories of these hot shot rig welders at the co-op refinery uh that were just kind of psychotic. So yeah, you know, the stories of these guys would be uh welding all day and fill up the truck with fuel and grab rod and then go work all night and come back to the refinery in the morning and work all day again, or just change smoke and drink super hard, die really young. Like, you know, there'd be guys the story of a guy who'd never fail an X-ray and you know, weld everybody and took his own life at a super young age. So there's all these really weird they just seem like human anomalies almost, right from a young age. I was what is the story of these guys? Um I think I took a strange turn, yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. Everything about him is just kind of weird. Like they're all dying young, but rock stars that's worked like machines, essentially. So I was always like a little intrigued, like what is going on. And then the first I think I wrote in a little uh kind of blurb I sent you. But the first kind of my first interaction, I guess, I was 18 at the refinery, and uh rig welder backs up and his helper gets out and takes all the tools, and we were setting up all the joints for all the rig welders to come in, and everyone's kind of mad about it. Because we're doing all the work and doing all the setup and the rig welders get to come in and just do the easy stuff. But it's all really critical welds, and it has to be perfect, and they didn't trust any of the welders for the company I was working for, and as it goes, so there's another stigma around these rig welders, no one likes them, but they can't help but respect the hell out of them. So, anyways, this guy, the rig welder finally gets out of his truck and does a big stretch after all everything's just ready for him, and walks out like he's the king of the world. Like nice and arrogant, you know, kind of true to uh to character. And I remember seeing that and just being like, that's what I want to do. I was just I was so intrigued. I was like, what on earth is this and the rest of my apprenticeship? It was always this thing, like, what is up with these guys? So that was always that's where the goal started at a young age to To get into the subcontracting world, but also learn to weld it such a way that you could work as a machine and attempt to be perfect every time and faster than their than the next guy, and that was always kind of the the underlying goal. Yeah. You don't have to be the best, you just gotta be better than your neighbor. Exactly. Yeah, so you're talking about your apprenticeship. You apprenticed as a boilermaker or a pipe fitter? A pipe fitter. A pipe fitter. Um so how was that for ya? Um It was okay. I looking back, like I don't regret getting into pipe fitting first because I I learned a lot uh about the piping industry, uh mechanical type stuff, like gas fitting and plumbing and threading and uh pipe fabrication, uh a lot about rigging. Um and just a d another aspect of the trade that I wouldn't have learned if I went into welding school. Mind you, throughout my whole apprenticeship, all I wanted to do was weld. So I was always I tried to stick with welders as much as possible and bug the h out of them, asking them all kinds of questions, and watching and practice every kind of minute I could to trade school. I I was able to uh weld in the evenings at the Union Hall kind of thing. So that's where I kind of started to build some skill. So it was uh it was good. It just you learned a bit more about the trade, and knowing that I wanted to kind of focus on pressure welding and pipe welding. It's a good uh prerequisite. Yeah. So in your experience then getting into an apprenticeship, getting into a union taught you a little bit more hands-on than would you say going to school? Well, I was about to go to pre-employment. Uh my dad and I were kind of talking, he was gonna help me pay for it or loan me a little bit at when I was eighteen to get started, because I didn't know what to do. Like it yeah, I took Welding High School, yeah. I could have tried a lot harder. And afterwards, but we probably kind of left it not knowing what to do. Like, do you hand out a resume to a shop, or does your uncle get you a job or something? Um, so it was my dad's friend worked uh for the union, the like UA local 179, and he was a foreman at the at the refinery as a contractor, and there's a lot of work at the time, so he said, drop off a resume at the hall, they are so desperate for labors, it's uh it was a great way in. Yeah. Because it's a zero zero uh experience required. Yeah. Which I mean, for some people that's the way to go. Like I myself went to welding school and and did my three years of apprenticeship, and and as you know, because we're friends, um, I've never left the company that I work for for the last 20 years. So uh there's definitely different avenues to go. Certainly, certainly. Yeah. So after your apprenticeship was done, you went and got your journeyman's, right? Yeah. Yeah. So just a question here. Would you say that getting that ticket helped you out um in your career, like having that journeyman status? Was that something that people were asking for? Yeah, absolutely. So in the steam fitter trade, I believe steam fitting is non-compulsory, which is different from plumbing and electrical and others. But once you get the ticket, it's kind of you got your weird we called it a degree in dirt vagonometry, is what we called it in uh trade school. The thing is, once you have the ticket in your wallet, every uh every resume or every job you're applying for it, they're you they prefer journeyman. Right? Like that the apprenticeship card only gets you so far because they're only gonna they're gonna hire less apprentices to journeymen. But uh the one I I mean I was ready, a lot of guys are a little more nervous, but once you have the journeyman ticket, the responsibility is on your shoulders.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Which I I was kind of ready for. You know, after I I don't know, you kind of run with uh what you're doing and pay attention. Or if you're invested, I guess, in your uh in your trade. Yeah, I thought uh I thought being a journeyman gave me an opportunity to do a bit more. Once you got it, it just kind of felt like you're you're ready to start your career, is what it felt like to me. Yeah, you've arrived. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Very cool. So when was it 2011 you started rig welding? No, twenty eighteen. Twenty eighteen. Would be the first year, yeah. Yeah. So what made you make the jump? Uh well, I've thought about this one too a bit. Uh I've only ever worked as a contractor. Uh right from 18. So the longest job I've ever worked is about ten months. Uh which would be a decent like project for me. So once you know I slowly you get the all your insurance and your business set up and your tools ready and you're you're kind of ready to start work. When you're used to working short-term jobs and someone offers you five days of work, it's not like I have to quit a full-time job to go to it. It's like, oh perfect, I'll uh get a little bit of money this week.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I guess the one the one slight jump, as weird as it sounds, is uh going off of EI. Because I was used I was used to being on EI in between jobs, and like there was right around that 2017-2018, there was next to no workaround. Yeah. So I was used to starving. I was used to being broke. So I was kind of cut the tether with EI and just start doing, you know, working for farmers, welding pile caps, or anything anyone would pay me to do, I was more than happy to. Yeah. Oh, you definitely gotta scrape the bottom of the barrel when you start out, that's for sure. Yeah. Um, so starting your business, was that difficult getting that insurance, getting your your um workers comp and all that set up? Uh it's just as simple as paying the money. There's a fair bit of paperwork to do, but yeah, it's just once you uh stroke the check. That's the only thing. Um with the mobile welding, your expenses are mainly your truck and equipment. Compared to some others, yeah, and obviously there's lots of tools, but uh once you're in a few thousand dollars worth of insurance and uh WCB, I think you're kinda ready to go. Compared to being bonded like a gas fitter would, or uh, you know, carrying like a van's worth of tools, which might equate to a welding machine and some cable, but Yeah. But if you've got your truck, you've got your truck, you've got your tools and your paperwork, you're ready to go. Pretty much. Well that's that's pretty uh to get started. Yeah, then you gotta go find the work. Yeah. Alright, and you mentioned uh you're a pressure welder, you have your uh pressure welding certificate. Um so when you go on to jobs, which is a question I've always had, uh, do they ask for that ticket or do you do the on-site test, the qualifier? Uh so I always submit all your pressure tickets or the uh required tickets they're looking for, which would be like your uh uh depending on the pipe you're welding, your CWB, they generally ask. Unless there's zero structural to be welding. And then you go on to your test it, your pre-job. Uh let's say they call it a pre-job test, or uh sometimes they'll just give you a production weld that they can X-ray. Mind you if you fail it, they gotta cut it out. Yeah, so yeah, so they they are always looking for your pressure test test to make sure you're up to date and required thicknesses. So your first joint is your test? Generally. Yeah, it that can be up to the uh inspector's discretion. Which is fair, yeah. Yeah. So all this time rig welding, what made you decide to kind of branch out into you know doing handrails and and more artistic things, I would say? Yeah. Uh that would kinda come from probably working on motorcycles, which I've been doing since about 2012. Because the inclination to buy tools, like from back when I was an apprentice, the inclination to be buying tools and making things always came from trying to build motorcycles. As I if I get a uh tube bender, I could make handlebars or frame pieces, or you know, if I get an ACDC welder, I can weld aluminum for the reason of repairing cylinder heads. Or so throughout my apprenticeship as I'd work a shutdown and have a bunch of money, I'd buy a new welding machine, I'd buy more tools, but it's usually it's like the underlying reason was to work on bikes. Like that's why I wanted a lathe and a mill to start making parts for my own self. So through that, over time, and eventually as I build my shop, which is a elevated garage, you could say. It's a really tall garage. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, not a lot of people I know have a crane in their garage, so that's all right. And three phase power. But uh just through that enough I was always down to help someone out or make something, so it you're always fixing something, always making something. There's a friend of mine, uh, Matt, with Incorde Developments. I just needed a hand roll one day. I thought I'd give it a shot. Then it was a h challenge off the hop. Yeah. But from there, there's like three more that same summer. And then a couple more and a couple more, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, you do this? Like, I suppose I do. Yeah, unfortunately I do. But yeah, what it would have been coming from a fabricating background. Just a hobby fabricating background. Aside from work, you know, you finish work and then you go to the garage and then you're you're still welding and grinding all night, but yeah, I think for a different purpose. Yeah, I think you have the same problem as I do where welding's not your job, welding's also your hobby. Like it's oddly enough. Yeah. I never I never fall out of love for welding, you know. I might get tired and need some rest, but we get right back into it. Yeah, it just kind of feels like second major. Yeah. It just feels normal. I already know how to do this, you know. Like myself, during the day I don't weld much as you know, uh, the informant and stuff. So when I do get the chance after work to weld, like that's when I really kind of, you know, the mind the mind kind of turns off and start having fun again and it's fun fab and stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So let's uh let's rewind a little bit to your motorcycles and stuff. Where did your love for motorcycles come from? Uh, that would be right from a young age as well. My dad always rode a motorcycle. So just kind of like uh natural transition, like yeah, when you get your license, then you'll get your motorcycle license and you can start riding this one. Yeah, yeah, okay. So what was your first yeah, what was your first bike? Uh I think it was the 1982 Yamaha Sika 750, which is a hand-me-down, like my dad's old bike. Yeah. Uh so I started riding that around, I think I was 17. And then just through reading magazines that you'd find at 7 Eleven, like like Street Chopper and trying to think of the other ones at the time, Wrench was one of them. There's all these custom bikes. I just started going through and was just kind of intrigued or almost confused by like people are cutting frames in half and raking the neck and putting different tanks on. So I just kind of I was super intrigued at making your bike look different. And then you find the blogs and the YouTube pages, and you and then I'll see you see videos of how they're doing it. I was like, well, I think I could handle that. You know, the guys are welding inserts into a frame to put a new tank on, or they're and then I sort of just the gears start turning. It's like, I think I could figure that out. If I had a specific tool, I could probably make that happen. Yeah. So it's kind of and then slowly you realize, oh, I need this, and this oh okay, I'll go buy a die grinder, and then I can figure this out instead of using a file, and then next week you learn the next tool you need. And oh yeah, I I remember helping you out with some heads and just trying to get in there and work the fins down so that they looked perfect and make sure they weren't leaking and stuff, and like we spent hours grinding those things down, and I think uh the next set you did on the mill. Yeah. Do the next set better. Yeah, figure that one out. Yeah, cool. So you learned a lot from from getting online and watching videos and watching the people that you kind of looked up to. So like YouTube, Instagram, like what was your your game of choice? Yeah, it would have started so in those years, Instagram was still early. It was still like maybe a couple years old. Um, so it was mainly with blogs. Yeah. There was a lot of motorcycle-related blogs. And then in the magazines, at the back of this one magazine called Dice, there was always a how-to by a fabricator I still look up to. He's an intra just an interesting but his how-to's. I always really like his how-tos because they had this weird kind of sarcastic, I know you can't do this, but here's how I'm doing it kind of feel to him. So I always really enjoyed looking at him. And just again, he searched okay, he's using this tube notcher, and he's got this bender. So I look up the website, uh, he's kind of look close at a logo on the picture, and then you go on the line, okay, JD Squared, that's the bender he's using. So I'm gonna save up for that, and then you figure, okay, he's using a hole saw, you know, to make the frame tube match the other, and start playing with that. Yeah. So yeah, it was a lot of magazines at first before now Instagram has everything on it, but before then it was you remember the early days, there's nothing. It was kind of a useless little app, right? It was just kind of for fun. Yeah. And now it's everything's on there.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and a lot of people just hate being on there. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Now it's gone too far.
SPEAKER_01:Way too far. Uh so you did a lot of detective work, I guess. You you have a passion for motorcycles. Yeah. So what was the first thing you chopped up? Uh was a 1979 Honda CB400. It wasn't a Harley. Your first bike was not a Harley? No, oh, never afford that. Oh wow. I I paid$500 for the uh for the bike for my friend Max. Uh and then that night, the night I got it took it all apart, and a guy in Saskatoon did some work to the frame, and then the follow- I was it was so so the following winter I made a new frame right from scratch. Like from the neck to the axle plates.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Which was kind of the introduction, like, okay, well, it's too late now. Everything's cut off. I have to figure this out. Yeah. So I'm not sure that bike, I think it eventually made its way to Fort McMurray or something. But it could still be case. I was gonna say, and then it got taken apart again for drug money. Sorry, sorry, Fort Macers. Sorry. That's a that's a stereotype. But no, like with that you use an oxycety torch to bend round bar to make pegs and a sissy bar, and making handlebars in the frame are kind of similar using DOM tube. Uh in those days there's definitely no machining by me. So they're things are a lot more primitive. But grind of sheet metal. Yeah, grind or machine. Yeah. So when did uh when did the because you used to be Klein Mobile Weld, and then you became Klein Machine Weld. So when did the machining aspect come into play? Yeah, that let's see. Bomb I labeled 2020, and the bridge port I just got well, I had a mill in 2020 as well, a smaller mill. Um yeah, that kind of rebranded like a business name is still Clyde Mobile Welding or CRA knows. Yeah, big shadow. Yeah, big shuto. Um my Instagram before was Slippery Jim. I remember when you're Slippery Jim. I think like we didn't know each other face to face at that point. Yeah, right. It was a while back now, but that was there's no rhyme or easy to that name. It just popped in my head one day. But I thought like if I'm gonna be operating as more of a business, I should probably have something maybe more professional sounds. Slightly professional. Yeah, I went uh go on. I went through the same thing with my uh email address. Oh yeah. So yeah, I used to be uh Sim Sims Boy69 for the longest time. The longest time. I was really into Sims snowboards, I still have one of them. But uh yeah, Sims Boy 69 wasn't gonna fly anymore, so I switched it up. Kevin Kevin Roy welding, spam me all you want. It gotta uh gotta grow up eventually. Yeah, yeah. Essentially Klein machine and weld, it's at least KM Delby. So it's close to uh Klein Mobile Welding. Yeah. Little similar. Little similar. Easy transition. Yeah. So do you do more just hobby stuff or do you do stuff for yourself, or you do you spend weeks machining stuff sometimes? Uh certainly a lot for myself. I've kind of called it before machining as required for welding. So like when we do those pound in those 1018 round bar pound in pickets, I'm machining a couple hundred of those just down an eighth.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, so that without that we wouldn't be able to attach them to the floor and weld the top. Yeah. So I'm not exactly doing aerospace uh you know, precise work by any means. Or like uh when we're doing uh an angled picket passing through a flat bar, tilt the head of the mill to the same angle of the stairs so that we have an angled hole for our picket to go through. You know what I'm saying? So we can get a nice weld detail in there. Oh yeah, that's a slick finish. Or uh making a lap joint, root machining the half the thickness of two pieces of flat bar and drilling and tapping them to bolt together. That makes sense without a visual. Oh, I think. So it's all fairly basic work, but uh without it, it you It's fairly primitive, I guess. Oh, step it, step your fabricating up just a little bit. With some simple machining. So you are self-taught at uh your machine yeah, school of YouTube. Here we go. Here we go again. Yeah. Yeah, get online, find what you like. Yeah, seriously. Seriously. All the knowledge you've got to do.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Seriously.
SPEAKER_01:Honestly, me too. Like I I got on you know Instagram, got on YouTube, and there's no one in my shop that could teach me how to tig weld or tig weld light stuff. So I just started asking people, started watching videos, like all the knowledge is out there, you just gotta go and find it. Yeah. What welding tipsandtricks.com was huge. Oh what's that guy, Jody? Yes, yes, sir, yeah. It was huge. I uh when I was about twenty twenty or twenty-one, I took a weekend TIG welding course offered through the Union Hall while I was at trade school. Uh it was great. It was a really good course. It mainly kind of taught you how to start doing horizontal TIG roots. And it's just it's really good to have someone over your shoulder telling you what not to do and and where you're going wrong. And it went quite well. Like I thought by the end of the weekend, like I had him down really well. And he asked, like, uh, where do you work? I'm a first-year apprentice. He's like, Well, uh because the union doesn't have welder apprentices. He's like, You're a pipe fitter? Yeah, he's like, Where'd you learn to weld like that? It's uh YouTube. It was like the internet. He's like, Wait, what? I was like, I told him that weld welding tips and tricks, and he's like, Oh, I'm gonna check it out. I might learn something. It was great. Oh yeah. Jody has helped way too many people to name For free, yeah. Even like the big names out there right now, they all have some kind of of direction uh that leads to Jody. He's good. He's a good teacher. Super good teacher, yeah, awesome teacher, breaks it down very well. Yeah. Way better than me. Right on, man. So I gotta ask the question because it always comes up. Um, being a rig welder, uh, how how did you make it through COVID? How did you survive that storm? Because everything shut down. Yeah, so we were working on the Western Pod Ash pilot project up until April of 2020. So kind of through after every everything shut down, we had to get the project to a certain point. And then after that, I kind of built out my shop, got my shop kind of ready, more work more work friendly kind of thing. And then I started making hand sanitizer stands. Uh a welder that I knew, an apprentice welder, moved into my place, started renting a room for me, so he became my first employee. Uh, and then the two of us made uh uh probably a couple thousand, maybe fifteen hundred hand sanitizer stands over the course of that summer. So it's kind of just jumped right into production work, and we did a small uh compressor station maintenance run. It was a lot smaller than 2019, but yeah, so there's still some work. Yeah. So it's like you know, after that job ended, what happened then? Did you were you able to keep them on? Were you what was the next project? Oh yeah, I just ended up getting undercut on that and just kind of cut out of it. Oh I was also owed tens of thousands of dollars and eventually kind of muscled it out of them. So it's kind of good to wash my hands of that before we got into the you know six digit kind of accounts owing, which happened to the guy after me. But uh yeah, that's you got it, it it's a lesson learned, eh? There's red flags you can kinda now see when a guy's not gonna pay you. Yeah, if you break about a Porsche being paid for, or is there certain things, eh? Like if someone tells you they got money, you you're gonna be getting your lawyer to phone him. Yeah. Or getting one of your motorcycle friends to visit him at the tattoo shop. No, it's it's something to learn when you're running a business is how to spot these things. Yeah, usually if somebody's telling you they got a ton of money, they probably don't. Yeah. It's all spent. Exactly. Yeah, people with money usually don't fly. Advertise. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Well, uh, I think we'll take a little break here to hear from our podcast. Our audio cut. We'll try that one again. My second official episode with you, so we're we're still learning here. Yeah. Okay, we'll take a little break here from our podcast sponsors, and we'll be right back with Elias Klein. Just of gases.ca. Your one stop weather superstore. Whether you run a welding stop or are discarding your wealth store. Everything's a good thing. I am Kevin, and I'm joined tonight by Elias Klein, owner of Klein Machine Weld, Klein Mobile Well, Food Hill Steel. The list goes on. So yeah, um with everything that was been said here, Booth Hill Steel, how did that brand start? Oh yeah, that started my friend Camp uh Newen was wanting those uh steel shells we make. It's kind of like a 14 gauge kind of picture shelf we call 'em. Uh trying to think the best way of describing it. But anywho, he wanted this shelf. We thought we might as well make a few of them and powder coat them. And then we're talking, he's like, yeah, maybe we should make a brand and sell them online. And he came up with the name Boot Hill Steel. I was like, oh, that sounds good. It's convenient to the neighborhood, and he he did all the graphic design. That's all camp. Yeah, and it all just came from those shelves, and that was right around the same time as I did like the first ever handrail I ever did. Yeah. So it's kind of an easier way to uh kind of transition to that brand a bit. You're not gonna get a pipe welder to make you uh you know, you're gonna drop enough cash. Uh rig welder's not your first choice for some fine welding inside of a house. Yeah, you're yeah, you're absolutely right. It's good to separate the two things, right? I mean, there is a lot of pipe fitting involved with making some handrails, as we've as we've learned. But uh yeah, yeah, that's very cool. I really like the Boot Hill Steel brand. It's very clean. Yeah, so well Kemp is he's a pro at that. Yeah, yeah. Big thanks to the yeah. I think all the projects that you've done too that I've sh that you're showing on that page is just it's high end. It's it's super nice and clean. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, you don't see that too much, you know, anymore. Somebody who you know, it's not just about the dollars, it's actually caring about the work. Yeah, absolutely. But the the name attached. Yeah. Yeah, you don't want to ruin both businesses. Yeah. Yeah. So Eli, uh, for those that don't know, um you hurt yourself pretty badly uh trying to kick start your motorcycle a little while back. Can you run us through that? Uh yeah, one one backfire sent my ankle the wrong direction. Uh just did it dislocated and then tore all the ligaments and tended a muscle, and it fragmented a bone. It was a small piece, but as I set uh a bit of a record in the operating room with the worst one they'd ever seen. So the last thing I wanted to hear. Uh so I just started putting weight. That was on July 11th, 2025. Uh I just started putting weight on that foot around maybe October 10th. Now, maybe October 15th. Uh, then I'm in an aircast now until about mid-December. So that put all subcontracting to a screeching halt right from July. So that'd be my one main client who has has been without a welder since. Yeah. So it's a good thing. That's a good thing that they're hanging out and and waiting for you. But yeah, so as a business owner, as a rig welder, um you injuring yourself, like what does that look like? Well, I kind of focused a bit uh internally. Uh downloaded Fusion 360 and got a new computer, try and learn some 3D modeling, bought SketchUp to uh be able to try and make some rough renders for handrail and projects when we're gonna go in to a house. Uh the the idea was be able to kind of estimate or uh give a rough mock-up to a client a little better. Well I was when I was with at my parents' house for like I was on all kinds of meds and painkillers, and I wasn't doing anything in the shop whatsoever. It's in the recliner most of the day, so I was trying to do more computer-based stuff. Uh just trying to organize all the loose ends that I neglect constantly. Um later, yeah, but we're fortunate enough this past summer to have uh quite a few projects that we did uh almost entirely out of the shop, and then you and Kieran were on site in a number of days doing the on-site welding for a few handrails, so that definitely took uh the front seat. Yeah, this was this was kind of good summer for it, though, with that aluminum project. We had making uh floating barges for a gold mine and none of it. That was all work that can be done out of the shop quite easily. Yeah. So it was a good timing-wise, I guess it worked out. It couldn't have worked any better, yeah. Yeah, I guess so. If we're not insolvent. Yeah. That's kind of where I was Yeah, sorry, that's kind of where I was going to is being a business owner and not having EI or not having I mean, some people have their own personal insurance, right? But like you have you have to be prepared for the unforeseen, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, you better figure it out. So that I think got some merge sales going, like selling any anything someone will want to buy, like t-shirts and jackets. I made that TIG welding consumable pack, uh so you know, advertise that my welding lenses a bit more and hats to kind of get a couple bills paid throughout the month. And yeah, the I guess the bonus without pipe welding this year, we're able to meet deadlines a lot easier because I'm able to just navigate other projects instead of doing three things at once. Yeah. And having a couple more hands in the shop. Yeah, absolutely. You realize how just how valuable that really is. Yeah, well, actually, I I've been really enjoying it, right? Like I said, I don't mutt weld much during the day, so spending a night in the garage fabbing cool stuff up with you is is rewarding. It's pretty awesome. It's worth more than it's worth more than than the money, right? It's it's it's a lot of fun. Yeah, which is good to hear. Yeah, man. Um so yeah, so do you want to shout out your your uh website right now? Because you listed off all these products that you have. So where can people find your stuff? It'll be uh kleinmfg.com, which will link you to the Shopify store. So yeah, have uh yeah, two different types of uh auto-darkening welding lens, uh TIG Welding Consumables. I believe the rest are just uh company merch. Yeah. Do you s do you sell motorcycle parts online too? Uh a little bit in small runs.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:They're they're generally spoken for before they get to the site, but ideally it would be nice to uh just have a larger stock.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That could be uh stocked online, but shipping right now is also something uh shipping like shipping internationally specifically into the states is something that's not as easy right now with the new uh repealing of the De Minimes Act, the duty uh under eight hundred dollars. So it's just something that we don't want to be shipping anything of too much value or too much weight into the states currently. But oh that's fair. So recently um you and I were able to have a Fronius machine in your shop, brand new one, not released to the public yet. Um what did you think of that machine coming from a rig welder standpoint? You know, 6010, 7010, 8010, all going down. What did you think of that that experience? Yeah, it was pretty impressive. The uh lack of spatter, the lack of anything you have to do fancy, like how we got that vertical mig dialed in with no weaving, there's no backstepping, like I've never I've certainly never MIG welded with anything like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And well, having Mitch say he's never chipped spat or not chipped, but uh removed any MIG spatter in the number of years he's worked at stockdales. That's saying something, because you get something back from Powdercoat and you miss you miss something, and you're like, oh no. Like you know how much how big a deal that is. Yeah, so I sure, yeah, it is something else to see. Yeah, that's how stock deals so like yeah, stock deals keeps everything pretty hush hush. Like I didn't know these people, these people work there until I met them face to face or like a CWB event or whatever. Yeah. And uh, but you are right, yeah, the lack of spatter, uh, the pulse technology, the open route. Yeah. How like effortless. Yeah, effortless, right? Yeah. And then um from that night, I think I mean I definitely got the bug, but we had to go check out Fronius at Saspauly. Yeah, that was very interesting. Yeah. What did you think of uh CMT cold metal transfer? Yeah, that with that aluminum was something else. Like I couldn't imagine what we did to the miles, it was almost 30 pounds of aluminum wire we burned with those barges. If we would have had those Vroniuses, we would have been curious to see how that yeah, that would have been the machine to have for that. That was really that was something else. I mean the work we did was quality, but it could have just elevated us a little bit. I say, yeah, and for speed. Yeah, too. Yeah. It's absolutely insane. Yeah, yeah, they got something they got something figured out there. Yeah, so a big shout out to Fronius Alberta. Gotta shout them out because they've been very kind to me and us and pretty much the whole uh community. So What we gotta do is demo one of those inverters in the field. Yes. We can run it either off of uh my Vantage 400 or run it off of housepower, something we should it'd be nice to demo one in the field. Portability and how easy it is to set up when you're out of a shop setting, and and you know, playing with the pulse on kind of on the fly, like you said. Yes. When you're in the field, everything nothing goes the way you plan it. So it'd be interesting just to try it out because you're packing in and out, you're setting up, you know, it'd just be uh just see how compatible they are, I guess, with our day-to-day on site. Yeah, because some of the machines are pretty big to lug around, so it'll be interesting. Yeah. And they're they're you know, their slogan is Fronius Perfect Welding. Perfect weld. So when you're not in a perfect situation, it'll be interesting to see. Yeah, absolutely. So while we're touching on on these machines, and Fronius is super high-end, um, what do you think about all the other manufacturers out there? Like I personally have an Everlast at home. Now I have a couple Arc Captain machines. Um, what do you think of these, you know, more let's say uh wallet-friendly machines? Yeah, I know uh Bernard uh years ago ran an Everlast, upgraded to a Dynasty because it was on sale. It was very at the time very wallet-friendly. Um and then recent more recently bought another Everlast because I thought the Miller high frequency contacts were broken. Which I you come to realize the dynasties the millers are very high end, but and they're repairable, don't get me wrong, but the repair costs can also be very high. And I've also had uh there's a dynasty in the garage that doesn't work. It's giving a code, it's been deducted as one of two boards, no one wants to guarantee a fix because if it's one or the other, the part you replace will break. Not saying that they're bad machines by any means, but that's not very economical when a machine is ten thousand dollars and a fix could cost three. Yeah. The Everlast I bought to replace it was thirty three hundred with a three-year warranty. That I've pushed it's been maxed out at 300 amps. Like it's it could melt I think I've melted at least one torch Tig welding with it. Hotter than the guy should be. And we've had it on site. I've repaired done aluminum repairs high up on scissor lifts with that thing, and they perform pretty good. Yeah. I have no complaints. Like yeah, I make the same amount of money. Yeah, that's right. They I stick welded with them. They no issue. 60 ten, they're not great. Yeah, you need to get a certain feature to burn 6010 with some of them. Um you gotta spend a l a little bit more money, and I think they most of the budget machines, I mean similar. They don't they don't claim to be able to burn the cellular cellulose rods, so I mean if if you're gonna do that, if you're gonna do code work, I mean do your homework, but now the newer machines have the cellulose function or the 6010 function. Yeah, they've so that's already been kind of rectified. But for TIG welding, I mean all the the pulse, uh your AC wave options to change and your pre and your post flow and your ramp in and out, all the features are there. Yeah. So yeah, I I personally can't be mad. When I got those Art Captains, and I I Art Captain is probably the most affordable machines out there. Yeah. Right. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying by affordable? Yeah. But running those like non-stop, full open, just like you said, and they keep up, then what's doing us? Yeah, what are we doing here? Yeah. They're working pretty good. Well the thing with that, yeah, your duty cycle. Um that one you know, starting out years ago, you go to a site and you wonder why why do they have this specific machine? Like why, you know, they chose well, they wanted a hundred percent duty cycle. But in what universe, and I don't know, maybe you can attest where are you maxing out your duty cycle this much? I guess like you you buy a cheaper machine with a 10% cycle. That's not much. But my everlast might be a 30 or 40% cycle. But where are you welding at 325 amps for two minutes? Straight. Yeah. Without melting equipment. You know what I'm saying? I know if you all would I want a machine with a hundred percent duty cycle. Okay, the twenty thousand dollar Lincoln Vantage 400 on my on my truck has a hundred percent duty cycle. If you're maxing that machine out, your cables will be bare copper. Because the blasting of the rubber has melted off. And your hand you won't be able to hold the stinger is what I'm what I'm getting at. So it I've never had an issue with uh running out of duty cycle, basically. Yeah. If that makes sense when choosing a machine, like that's not my first thing I'm looking at.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I would I would agree with you. Like, even in a production shop, like you're still you're still putting that that stinger down, you're still putting that torch down, you're still loading up parts. You're getting cool. You're never welding 100% of the time. Unless you're actually the shop I bought my bridge board from is called Shimek, I think Shimek Industries in outside of Brooks, Alberta. They converted to all Froneus, and he was showing me what they're doing. They're doing a lot of metal core on like it was almost three quarter inch plate for these large buckets. So they were having issues with duty cycles, but not only that, melting whips. So they went with the liquid-cooled Froneus Mig Whips, and that was their main thing with the millers, they're destroying equipment and wearing three pairs of gloves to be able to hang on to the things. I was like, you're getting in a uh it's it's not too often where you're welding so hot and so frequently for such long stretches that you're gonna be doing that. He was going like over 30 volts for like two minutes. Like click the trigger and go on a little scooter and get one large massive seam on a on one of these buckets. That's crazy. So so very niche, very unique needs there for me at least. Like I've never come across that. What you're saying is no one's welding giant, you know, 10-yard buckets in their garage. Certainly not me. Maybe someone out there, but not me. Yeah, what's your crane rated for? We'll we'll find out the hard way. Yeah. Yeah. Right on. Yeah, I'm I've always been a big believer that you don't need the fanciest equipment to get started. Like welders are super affordable now. And like we talked about, you can learn to weld like basically online. You buy your own equipment and you go online and you start it up, you start out. Yeah. So figure, yeah, figure it out. Yeah, figure it out. Um, so what is what's really next for Klein Machine Weld? How do you want to see kind of things progress and grow? Obviously, you gotta heal up your foot, make sure that thing doesn't get amputated. That's gonna help. That's gonna help the company's future for sure. Uh, this winter I have one bike to build in its entirety. Uh a couple frame repairs. So I'd like to start making a small production run of a certain type of Harley frame, like a custom Harley frame. Okay, get a bit better at those. Uh the next kind of project for me is largely drag race related. So I'm gonna be doing a lot of cast iron welding on a combustion chamber of cylinder heads. So I'd kind of like to dabble in a bit more of that, a bit more custom engine machining, uh, maybe into some engine building, so a bit more precise type work. I would say that's more hobby related for myself, uh, but you never know once people's if people have a desire to hire you. Right, you may switch gears a little bit, right? Yeah, that might be maybe in my downtime, but I'm sure everyone will be involved once welding starts. Yeah. So they can't, yeah. We're not doing video right now, but yeah, heavy winking at my direction. Yeah. Um and as far as like the boot hill steel side, like that, I'd say it's uh the more fun side of Klein mobile welding. Um, I've been buying a lot of architectural books, uh, just kind of showcasing famous architects, like a fame worldwide architects, uh, their work and a lot of their work was steel. Uh, just at the the point to just try and get some new ideas, because we get a lot of screenshots from pin Pinterest, or like, oh yeah, we saw my friend's house at this. But I'd like to be able to come into a house with uh something a little more fresh, an idea that's maybe uh inspired by something abroad, like something international, you know, as in uh uh like a building from across the world that we can kind of bring to Saskatchewan. Like for a bit of a new flavor, you know what I mean? Like a just change design because we see a lot of the same thing again and again. So if we could it'd be nice just to bring some fresh design ideas, which always opens up uh just new opportunities to me. Once someone sees something new, guessing some a new idea or inspired by something, you can build something no one's seen before. Oh definitely, like I'm in innovative. I remember you went you went to Japan. You travel quite a bit, but you uh you went to Japan and I was just following you along, and basically your whole story was just like photos of handrail, photos of handrail, photos of the handrail. Did you see this? This wouldn't pass code over here, but look at this. Oh, yeah. That's an architectural tour. Exactly. I do that everywhere I go. Yeah. Yeah. So on the handrail in Japan, let me tell you it was something else. Some steelwork I've never seen before. Unreal. You're into handrail. Yeah, you'll love Japan. So you have traveled quite a bit. Where around the world have you been? I think you've been have you been to France? You told me a story about France. Yeah, 2022 I went to France. And lots of good handrail there as well. Lots of good architecture, not all steel, but uh interesting buildings. Yeah, I've been to France there. Went all over from Paris to the uh Riviera to Lyon with a lot of cheese and wine and cured meats, which they do. But uh actually another and in the interest of welding, architecture and steel, Milwaukee in in Chicago, but mainly Milwaukee is a really good city for that, just uh because in the early 1900s, I think there's they said there's over a thousand machine shops in Milwaukee. There's boundaries and steel mills, there's so much industry there. So all of Chicago, Chicago is kind of the white-collar city that had money, and after their large, large fire in the 30s, they had architects and artists and funding to rebuild the city. All that steel came up about an hour, hour and a half away from Milwaukee. So being in a Milwaukee as well, everything is steel. There's a lot of marble and granite, but large, like all the bridges are massive, massive exposed steel girders and architectural steel all over Corten steel everywhere, which to me I think looks amazing. Yeah. It's a city with a ton, it's the blue-collar version of Chicago. It's a fair bit smaller, but just a ton of industry all around it. And everything is, you know, a lot was made locally years ago, which is cool to see. Very cool to see. Um, so being you know, primarily steel and working primarily with steel, some aluminum, like do you ever want to get into some more exotic stuff? Like, of course, we've done some stainless work, but are you have you dabbled with brass? No, that that's what I was gonna bring up is that brass would be a nice thing to start working with a bit more. Cost prohibitive a bit. But uh yeah, that that's another frontier that I haven't touched ever. I believe you've done a bit. I've I've done a handful of things. Literally, I can count them on one hand, my brass projects, which yeah, that's uh it's a different material, that's for sure. And I did a a brass range hood with uh Chris Murray, Christmurray cabinets here in Regina. And uh the sheet alone, and it was like a three by eight sheet, you couldn't even get a four four foot sheet, and like the sheet itself was twenty four hundred dollars. Yeah, just oh man. And like right away, as soon as I heard that, I wish I had never heard that, but like right away, I'm I'm sweating bullets. Like, I have one shot at shearing this, I can't scratch it. I have one shot bending this thing, I cannot scratch it, and then afterwards I have to put a finish in it, you have to put a grain in it, and brass can go so many different ways, like you leave it out too long, it turns a different color. You put your handprints on it. Well, good luck getting that thing out, like it's a huge deal. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, but one thing I did find out because I did a brass handrail once, is some people use silicone bronze as filler. And an old friend of mine's like, Why are you using that? Just you know that sheet you got uh scared of? Just cheer little strips off of that and use the brass itself as filler. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then you you don't have that color difference. But yeah, brass brass is a beast yet. Don't get it too hot. It's popping and cracking, burning zinc out in your face. Not gonna like that. Yeah. So, anyways, we got lots of experience in it. Send uh brass projects this way. Yeah, we'll do we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Yeah, speaking of figuring things out, um what's like one of the biggest mistakes that you've made in your welding career? Like, did like you know every everyone's failed an x-ray here or there, but like is there something that sticks with you that anytime you think about it, you get like goosebumps? Oh boy. There's so many. And what do I want to admit to? Or what's uh there's some I shouldn't say. That's for sure. Yeah. But also if you never tell anyone it's a mistake, it was never a mistake. Yeah. Yeah, let me see. That I should think it will come to me at a weird time. A worse one or something will come. Yeah. When I was 18, I put uh diesel in a gas JLG. That was kind of funny. I did that to a I did that to an SA200, filled it right with diesel. Yes. At least I went the right way, right? We're not gonna burn out any seals. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh boy, I'm gonna have to think on that one for a minute. There's certainly there's been many. Numerous expensive mistakes. Yeah. I always tell like any new guy in the shop, or even you know, more experienced guys, I've literally wrecked every piece of equipment in the shop that I work at. So not only do I know not what not to do on them, but I also know how to fix them when they get wrecked. Because I've wrecked them. Like we always we all make mistakes, right? Mm-hmm. Can always, as long as they can be fixed, you're good.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:If you can weld, you should be able to fix it. In a odd big way. Yeah, 90% of things can be fixed with welding, right? Yeah. Because a lot of people they share like the wins and stuff, especially online. They share the winds, they share all the cool stuff they're building, but there's never the oh, I I screwed this up, and here's what happened, and here's how I fixed it kind of deal. So I always like to I always like to dig and and find out. Well, you know, one time I was like what went wrong? Yeah, like I bid this job for like, you know, 10 grand and it cost me 20. That was a big mistake. Yeah, I've certainly come under before. Whoops. That took a lot longer than figured, or material prices change.
unknown:Oh boy. Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I guess one I guess I haven't I haven't wrecked things in houses too much. Like, you know, you pop the odd casing or trim board with leg bolts in it too hard and Whoops. Everyone see where you push something into the drywall a little too far. It can all be fixed or Yeah, you can't find the stud, so there's eight holes in the wall. You know what? Drywall is easy to fix. That's the easier thing, yeah. Steel is a little less forgiving. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've had situations where I've I've burnt carpets. Um I've yeah. So you know, you've got ramboard in the house, right? You've got ramboard down, right? And I, you know, dropped the bottle a little too hard, I guess, and tile underneath. And yeah, you don't you don't find out you broke that tile until they take the ramboard out. Uh and then it's the what uh who did this? Yeah, the the blame game. The blame game. The finger pointing game. Yeah, it was the drywallers. Yeah, always. Hey man, well, I think this has been really great. Um is there something that you want to wrap it up with? Is there some advice that you would give you know the next generation or the the person maybe trying to start out rig welding? Is there some piece of advice that was very helpful to you or that you want to put out there? My main advice I received while I was trying was uh you're never gonna make it and you should give up and you're never gonna be good enough and you're gonna have to sell your truck because it's done enough work. So I was always told not to. So I did it out of spite. It's wrong. So I would say if you want to do it, you have to really want to do it. Uh if everyone's worked with welders that have earned it for the money and they're miserable and hate their lives. So if you're gonna be welding, if you if you think you're inclined, if you like welding or you're interested by it, I'd say to pursue it, make sure you like it before you go a hundred thousand dollars into it into an investment to a business, but uh once you got there, it's worth going for. And you can only go as far as you're willing to put effort in, is what I kinda think. You can always tell when someone's just not that interested or welding is. It for them, but they do it for a job. You're only gonna you're gonna hit a ceiling, basically. But if you're uh yeah, if you the d desire is there, it's something worth pursuing, and it's a skill that you'll never truly master. So it's something you can always get better at constantly. And if you look at it like an art and like a craft as a more than just a nine to five type of job, to me you'll never get old because you're always trying to pursue uh another level of skill or a kind of a f a further goal for yourself. They look at it like a personal best almost. So for me, that might be why it's never gotten old. Awesome. I really like how you put that. That's a great piece of advice. So, Eli, uh thank you so much for being my guest on today's episode. Uh, it's been really great talking with you and getting to know a bit about your background. Yeah, thanks for having me. You're welcome. Uh so please stay tuned. We've got episodes coming out weekly. So uh make sure you subscribe and like and share with your friends. Thanks very much.
SPEAKER_00:You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at CWBassociation.org 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. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.