*Bending and installing conduit, EMT, GRC and Rob Roy.
*Operating a triple-nickel bender.
*Operating a threading table, pony threader and hogs head.
*Operating a one-shot bender and hand benders.
*A good knowledge of proper GRC fittings to use,
when and where.
*Coming up with and installing support systems.
*Operating hammer-drills, band-saws and core-drill (excessively).
*Building and installing cabletray.
*Pulling wire and building a head (with or without a sock).
*Operating a tugger.
*Many types of terminations.
*Motor installations, controls and start stop stations.
*Running ground grids with cad-welds and crimping tools.
*Commercial circuitry.
*Reading blueprints.
*Operating JLG (man-lifts and scissor-lifts).
*Troubleshooting commercial and residential circuitry.
*Ohms law calculations.
*Service changes and additions.
*Overhead mast installations.
*Underground PVC systems with factory fittings and using a hotbox.
*Installing equipment grounds and earth grounds.
*Forklift experience (minimal).
*Residential circuitry and finish work.
*Residential remodel work.
*Commercial remodel work.
*Industrial remodel work.
*Transformer and switchgear installations.
*Extensive safety training for fall protection and H2S.
*Heat trace design, installation and troubleshooting.
*Temporary wiring and installing temporary services.
*Digging (of course).
*I keep a very clean and organized work area.
*There are many tasks I have performed in this field I’m sure I have overlooked.
*High voltage terminations (up to 4,160 V)
*Experienced in working in hot stations and confined areas.
* Most importantly I follow directions very well.
Dick Kotrba started me out at $8.50 an hour which lasted the winter, until I started talking about doing decks in the summertime, then he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. After just one winter I was making $15 an hour, working every Saturday and had my own company van! Needless to say the money was great for a 19 year old, I didn’t have to pay for health insurance and besides that I loved the work. I was and still am fascinated by electrical systems and take major pride in my work. After 8 months of trimming, Dick felt it was time for me to move onto roughing houses. I was even more fascinated by this and worked extra hard in learning this side of the trade and received quarterly raises and bonuses for my efforts. Eventually moving out on my own I had my own project, a helper and still a van I did this for a while until business slowed down and I was forced to move on to a company called Losaw electric, the current owner of which, Monty Losaw, was friends and business affiliates with Dick. Here I performed piecework and made incredible money, also I was my own boss. Unfortunately in the piecework field jobs come and go and so must employees. We were roughing apartments that were three stories and above so I started gaining commercial experience, which led me to be interested in forgetting about my RW and going after my Journeyman’s license.
A company called Creative Electric hired me on and I took part in building a church in Lakewood CO. learned the ropes, transferred to the service crew, did some warranty work and learned to install CT’s, motors, conveyors and overhead services etc. Through no fault of my own I had to end my employment there and by chance Losaw Electric was getting busy and needed help so back to roughing apartments I went. At the next slow period, the economy was getting bad and there was no jobs in the paper, so I went to the yellow pages and started with A, by the time I got to Best Electric I had found a job with Dick Riemer working on a school for Adams county called Adams 12. Likely enough Dick only needed help to get the job done and by that time Losaw needed help again. By this time in my career I’m wishing for something stable and lucky for me Losaw was doing really good and had a lot of jobs so I was able to stay there for a couple of years.
After yet another economic hardship I decided to broaden my career into the industrial field. I applied at a job placement company called Construct Corps, where they placed me at a natural gas plant in Parachute, CO. I subcontracted through B.H.I. (Brad Haslem Inc) while working for Encana. B.H.I. liked my performance so well that they bought out my contract from Construct Corps. After the new construction at the gas plant was complete they relocated me to Rawlins WY to work on the Sinclair refinery where we built a hydro-cracker unit and repaired a lot of damages on an alkaline unit. The damages were due to a chemical fire caused by a chemist who accidentally burned his face really badly resulting in third degree burns all over his face and second degree burns all throughout his chest and sides. This resulted in millions of dollars worth of damages and losses due to safety regulations and the new construction came to an abrupt stop.
Shortly after that incident, before Christmas of 2007, we had a transformer in an on-site substation explode just. Two other apprentices and I, who decided not to leave for Christmas break rushed into work and commenced the teardown of the burned up substation. I-80 was closed due to high winds and several feet of snow and there was no way in or out of Rawlins from the east or west. For roughly 4 days the three of us plus members of the E&I division of Sinclair refinery used chainsaws, boom-trucks, cranes and man-lifts to tear apart the (what was once) substation until our foreman and crew returned. Upon their arrival the real work hadn’t even begun! We worked for at least 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for a little over 2 weeks straight in the blistering cold. It was the best Christmas ever! Details of this repair included replacing several hundred feet of cable tray, building a brand new structure for all the overhead power lines, installing two new transformers, pulling in 5,000 feet of 500 mcm armored cables and of course I was able to learn how to do hi-pot terminations all night long. As it turns out one of the three transformers was the main power supply to the primary boiler for the whole refinery which fed the steam lines to several units including the desalting unit we were responsible for remodeling. We ran around for days with hot water trucks de-icing different parts of the refinery to prevent further damages.
When new construction was completed we relocated to Pinedale WY and worked in the Jonah field and on numerous oilrigs where I learned all about dehydration-stations. To conclude my employment with B.H.I., we did another fairly large remodel of a shell natural gas plant in Rangely, CO. Things went a lot smoother there considering all the PLC panels that needed to be rebooted and the time crunch we were in.
After we finished this job, I moved on to a company called I.S.C. (Industrial Specialty Contractors) operated out of Baton Rouge LA, and Houston, TX. The job site I was on was located in Opal WY. We were staying in Green River. Another natural gas plant needed to be expanded and it was calling for major manpower. This was definitely the highest paid I had been… ever, having passed my NCCER exam (National Center for Construction Education Research), which brought my salary up dramatically. This gave me a few months to save money and drive my wife back to Colorado to have our baby boy, Noah. Since then I’ve been living off of my savings, working for Losaw Electric and going to school for my love of electricity and electronics at Redstone College. I had a 4.0 in every class and made it a little over half way through the courses. At that point they told me they had a wind program coming up in a couple months and all of the classes I have already taken were the core classes for this program. I decided to deviate from my original plan (which was for avionics) and get my degree for working on wind farms first. Of course I won’t abandon my FCC license, as it will allow me to further my career into the instrumentation field, but merely put it off for a while. Since my school is put off for sometime due to economical challenges, I am in pursuit of the right company to work for and broaden my career even more than I have thus far. I am NCCER certified, and many companies respect this license because it allows me to work without the direction of a Journeyman. I can only hope your company will also. As for my Journeyman’s license I am working on that too and have every intention on adding this to my many accomplishments.
Please consider my application because I am a very hard worker, I have a great respect for electricity, construction and take safety very seriously. I am looking for a company who is just as serious to grow with.
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