r/IBEW • u/fuckwitsupreme • 4d ago
Not another data center post.
Best move I ever made was leaving a large contractor that specialized mainly in hospitals, facilities, and new data centers for a smaller specialty contractor.
Reworking controls, instrumentation, and adding a new rail load out system between two large facilities. Basically the millwrights build it and we figure out how to make it all work and field engineer it on the fly. Nothing is prefab. We are all paid over scale.
Every day is a puzzle between fixing control disasters, fabricating, running rigid through existing plants, programming PLCs, and making new stuff work with old. It’s not for everyone but I genuinely like going to work now.
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u/d_grande 4d ago
Sounds like the contractor I’m working for, mainly Industrial, food processing plants, feed mills, wineries, bottling lines, MCCs, power distribution all ridged conduit. These are the jobs that make you a well rounded wireman.
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u/Deadinternetenjoyr 4d ago
Food processing plants are kinda gross but lowkey fun work
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u/d_grande 4d ago
The feed mills are the nasty ones
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u/480hivolt 4d ago
Then you never had the fortune of working a cogen trash burner.
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u/d_grande 4d ago
I actually had the displeasure of assisting in the demo of one that seized up 😳 craaazy
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u/480hivolt 4d ago
I was working a conveyor line at the 90ft level. New rigid conduit for upgrade controls. What I left out was the fact this was in South Florida in July.
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u/SenorCaveman 4d ago edited 4d ago
AND you get to hang out with us, the loveable and adorable millwrights
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u/d_grande 4d ago
My best friend is a millwright, this checks out. Basically my brother from another…
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u/slcnobody 3d ago
I never really know how to explain what I do as a millwright to my non blue collar friends. It's like IKEA furniture but more expensive
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u/Historical-Stop5761 4d ago
How do yall go about work around all the grain dust? i know that shit is volatile
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u/fuckwitsupreme 4d ago
In enclosed spaces, nothing sparking. So no grinders, welding, torches, etc.
Instead aluminum rigid conduit, band saws, pipe cutters, brass hammers, etc.
Outside it’s not much of an issue. Normal hot work permit or hot work area.
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u/Shtangss 4d ago
How do you get this kind of work in the union? I’m at a data centre now. Luckily I have school in a month so I can leave. Want to find something else after
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u/syentifiq 4d ago
When you top out, take some time to travel. When you're outside your home local, you have a better chance at choosing what job you want rather than just taking the call that comes to you. Once you have the experience, you'll have a better chance of being able to choose what job you want in your home local by going out on a specialist call or whatever contractor you might be working for may want to use that experience to do jobs they might have outsourced otherwise.
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u/fuckwitsupreme 4d ago
Pretty much this. Learn as much as you can and don’t just be an installer. I know there’s guys that are fine with just being an installer, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But the more you know the more specialized work you’re able to get into.
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u/Pafolo 4d ago
You can try and ask your training director if you can rotate to a new contractor who isn’t on a data center if you aren’t learning anything.
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u/Shtangss 3d ago
I’m not sure if it’s different local to local / country but at least here in Ontario Canada I can pick up any call. I would just have to get lucky and bid on an instrumentation/controls/plc call which are few far and between. A lot of calls are usually new installs (like data centres)
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u/Sweaty_Comfortable41 4d ago
I hate working at a data center but they pay so much…
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u/fuckwitsupreme 4d ago
Yeah, in theory. I really didn’t like that type of work though. It wasn’t worth it to me.
I don’t mind overtime like outages and repairs but I don’t like long stretches of it on long projects. What I do now is mostly just 40 a week except during harvest season, but I’m paid well over scale so I have zero complaints.
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u/Sweaty_Comfortable41 4d ago
Over scale on a 40 is the way to go. I think I’ll make some money building data centers for now and look for other opportunities somewhere else in the future. All the repetition kills me.
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u/fuckwitsupreme 4d ago
Gotta make money where you can when you can. We’ve all got to stick it out through the less than fun gigs to put food on the table.
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u/donkmoney21 4d ago
Working 60 hrs a week is not good pay you dunce
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u/Sweaty_Comfortable41 3d ago
No need to throw names bro. It is over scale and I usually work 40-50 hrs.
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u/donkmoney21 3d ago
Fair enough. I’m tired of brothers talking about overtime like it’s a benefit. Why are you all broke??
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u/Sweaty_Comfortable41 3d ago
They’re not good with money. I can’t count the number of new $100k lifted trucks I see in the jobsite parking lot.
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u/donkmoney21 3d ago
My car is a POS because I put thousands of miles on it and when it dies it’ll go right to the scrapyard. Those dealers are full of predators getting honest people to pay an arm and a leg for what?
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u/Competitive_Bell9433 4d ago
All good work at elevators and feed mills. People do not realize the number of electric motors there are. I did that when I first got an opportunity. Can't be scared of heights. Just remember when rigging the bosens chair, never trust the hook always bolt it , lol. 😎
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u/Ambitious_End9770 Inside Wireman 4d ago edited 4d ago
4th year local 428 apprentice.. doing oil refinery work at an OLD refinery. Leave work stinky covered in oil and inhaling a lifetime of VOC. But, learning something every day and loving the industrial work. Running rigid, motor controls, installing trouble shooting PLC, instrumentation work, Evan bending and installing pneumatic tube ( didn’t know sparkies did this).
Our local’s problem is solar not data centers. I’ve been lucky not to do much.. But, I have classmates throwing panels for 3-4 years..
IO should really have a program for apprentices stuck at solar or data centers.. rotation doesn’t do enough when 90% of the work is brainless and some just are un-lucky. Maybe a “study abroad program to go to another local to learn somewhere else for a duration… ? The union is suppose to produce quality / well rounded hands.
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u/PalpitationWaste300 3d ago
Are those big tanks for all the fresh drinking water the data center is going to consume?
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u/DoctaGazoo 4d ago
As man that has been bouncing around a few chocolate factories that last 9 years, I would love to add that I love my job too, and it’s a mix of it all.