Thread: Becoming a Boilermaker

Good on you Tom,

My uncle was Boiler Maker, so was my wife's father. It is good honest trade and the skill carry over into many other things.

Soz, I cant steer you in the direction, other than this.

Cheers

Any refineries nearby?

Major manufacturing is probably dropping off in favour of china, but that work can often be boring anyway - plenty of boilies spend all day holding a welding torch in one spot while a drum rotates slowly in front of them...

Power station or refinery shutdown work will give you a lot more variety...

My brother is a boiler maker - started out in fabrication workshops in Newcastle. He found it to be a glorified welder but on the basis of his "boilermaker" status was able to go back to school to learn detail design etc and is now management, designing and project managing the construction of very large trailers - mainly for the mining industry and overseas clients. He has designed and built 250 tonne cement mixers for the Chinese road building programme a few years back.

I once asked if his company could build a trailer to haul out 100t fishing boats if my company contracted them and he indicated that they would not be interested as the trailer would be too small for them.

However while all is good for him now - it was hard yakka at the start.

Garry

As a boilermaker heavy manufacturing is the way to go you'll get alot experience,its where i did my apprentice and end up staying in the same job for another ten years.What I worked on was all types rolling stock for wheat,coal and containers made from stainless steel,aluminium and mild steel.
Also you'll need pretty good welding skills.Hope this helps.
Keith

yes, its a good trade, a good boily is worth his weight in cocky ****. If you can secure an apprenticeship and do certified welding courses alongside your training, the world is your oyster. Good boilys who can do specialised welding dont stay in factories or sweatshops very long, they can earn exceptional pay for their skills.

Good on ya and good luck with getting an apprenticeship.

With all the construction things happening/beginning to happen around the place its a good time to be getting in. If the manufacturing thing doesn't work out some of the larger construction companies/projects maybe interested in taking on a trainee "bucket head" if you're willing to travel and move about a bit so it maybe worth keeping them in mind. There is starting to be a bit of a push from within the union ranks for companies to start training people again, as at the moment there are very few young blokes getting about.

The good thing with a boilly ticket is that its quite transferable to other trades. Quite a few of my mates are, a couple now work as a tubies (small bore stainless pipe) and the others are coded for HP pipe and vessel welding and on MEGA BUCKS. The scope of work on the construction side of things can be quite varied, a manufacturing trade might be better suited as you can get your teeth stuck in and learn as opposed to be pulled from one end of the job to the other.

Good to see someone chasing a trade too, seems to me that there's a real stigma attached to being a tradie with anyone under mid 30's. Apart from one baker I'm the only other person from my high school year (around 230 odd kids) to do an apprenticeship.

Thanks for all the helpful remarks, much appreciated.
I've just noticed a few of the bigger companies are starting to open up applications for January 2013 intake of apprentices.
I think I'll just do a load of applications and see where that gets me.

Originally Posted by keith73

As a boilermaker heavy manufacturing is the way to go you'll get alot experience,its where i did my apprentice and end up staying in the same job for another ten years.What I worked on was all types rolling stock for wheat,coal and containers made from stainless steel,aluminium and mild steel.
Also you'll need pretty good welding skills.Hope this helps.
Keith

Keith, I can only stick weld but consider myself not bad.
Do you mean I'll need good welding skills before I can get in?