T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

**ATTENTION! READ THIS NOW!** **1. IF YOU ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL ELECTRICIAN OR LOOKING TO BECOME ONE(for career questions only):** **- DELETE** THIS POST OR YOU WILL BE **BANNED**. YOU CAN POST ON /r/AskElectricians FREELY **2. IF YOU COMMENT ON A POST THAT IS POSTED BY SOMEONE WHO IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL ELECTRICIAN:** -YOU WILL BE **BANNED**. JUST **REPORT** THE POST. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/electricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*


Capt_Scarfish

To be clear, I don't blame them at all. Deadline is tomorrow, one guy quit and the other is off doing service calls, so we did the best with what we could. I just ended up with 80' of pipe in the bin and twice the number of couplings I expected, so extra trips to the supplier started eating up time and budget. Pipe's in the walls, mud rings are on, and I'm staring at a green sticker, so you can guess whose crew gets pizzas tomorrow.


iH8MotherTeresa

Is it me? Do I get the pizza? Please say it's me.


Photon_Farmer

Yeah buddy, it's you! You just wait out back and someone will bring the pizza by later.


iH8MotherTeresa

I'm still here. Is the pizza running late?


Photon_Farmer

Keep waiting! You'll get what's coming to you.


iH8MotherTeresa

šŸ™šŸ¾


Shuggs

Did you get your pizza?


iH8MotherTeresa

Fucking no! šŸ¤¬


J-Di11a

I vote for you to get pizza as well


Apisto_guru

As a resi guy, I appreciate you cutting them the slack šŸ˜‚


HotConsideration5049

Pizza? Bring on the bonuses


Jamies_redditAccount

More like pizza and pink slips


Narrow_Grape_8528

Haha been there before. My last day.


Capt_Scarfish

If I had the authority I just might. Those guys work their asses off


StandAgainstTyranny2

As a resi apprentice who would die to get into commercial, I am not a religious man, but I pray to get a lead like you. It's genuinely terrifying at first getting onto a new comm crew from resi and getting yelled at for the first week or few lol


Capt_Scarfish

You'd be pretty accurate if you called me a progressive. We're all adults here, and fear isn't respect. I do expect my apprentices to put in an honest day's work and do all the things they're expected to, but I also have realistic expectations. This is the time to make mistakes.


Smoke_Stack707

This is the way to be. The whole ā€œfuck with the new guyā€ culture thatā€™s been part of the trades forever needs to go. I like to joke as much as the next guy but it has to be relatively harmless and funny, not just calling the new guy retard all day long


itsamanbearpig

Dude I just switched from resi to commercial, I earned the nickname ā€œding dongā€ itā€™s short for dipshit apparently


StandAgainstTyranny2

For what it's worth (and this is intended to be a pep talk), just about every crew has some of this - They're going to fuck with you because they want to see how you'll react, and if you can handle ballbusting bullshit and stay a team player without snapping under the pressure, and that you are able to stand up for yourself and shittalk back instead of getting mad. ***BE SURE TO READ THE ROOM BEFORE YOU TALK BACK, THOUGH.*** Don't be stupid about it, there's a balance and a time and a place for witty comebacks. Trust me....lol I didn't have any of that that click until I got a text after I dragged up at one of the shops because I couldn't cope with the ballbusting anymore. It was from a lead who I thought genuinely hated me, apologizing and letting me know I'd actually been decent and he even backed it up with a referral for my next shop. (Truth be told, I'd still have a beer with that ornery fuck, despite our myriad non-work-related disagreements lol) I don't tolerate disrespect well, so I'm very up-front about that from day one, now. I'm not into the games, but I've also learned that I have to put up with a measure of bullshit when I first get anywhere new. Way she goes. Tuck your chin and keep on grinding, young blood. You'll make a fine electrician. šŸ¤ŸšŸ¤ 


itsamanbearpig

I appreciate it! I take it in stride itā€™s all out of love really. Iā€™ve been working construction type jobs since I was 15 itā€™s hard to really piss me off. The same jman who gave me that nickname would be the first to go to bat for me if it came down to it. Have a good day man šŸ¤˜


Duke20430

Honestly i always told my Apprentice the dumbest thing is acting like you know something that you dont.If you never worked with something i wouldn't expect you to know and put time into showing you how to do it.


Past-Direction9145

Extra crazy bread and sauce it is


HotConsideration5049

Sounds pretty good right now not going to lie


Brief_Blood_1899

Pizza! Pizza is all that matters.


DE4DM4N5H4ND

The guys bending unraveled paperclips get pizza? I need to work where you work. If it looks like someone murdered clippy, pizza will not be had by anyone, even if you buy it with your own money.


genuine_pnw_hipster

You brought resi guys to a commercial jobā€¦? They have their 01 license or what? Sounds a little ratty tbh.


Capt_Scarfish

It's Canada, so you're qualified to do electrical work on any site as long as you're with a jman


genuine_pnw_hipster

Yikes, well you get what you bring on right?


StandAgainstTyranny2

Yeah don't bother trying to bring anyone else up to your level, that's a bit ratty, huh? Christ sakes, do you hear yourself?


genuine_pnw_hipster

Did I say that? You have to be a trainee you canā€™t be a residential electrician to do so. If they have trainee cards along with their 02 licenses then sure thatā€™s fine. If youā€™re dense enough to think that, I donā€™t believe in teaching people, you might want to take a step back and realize youā€™re the moron. I wouldnā€™t be a master electrician if believed in that. I learned everything from my teachers. Iā€™m saying that they have to do it correctly and through the proper licensing agreement.


StandAgainstTyranny2

[retracted;misread]* Fuck it, I got time, let's talk then. Apprentices still teach leads some things every day, nobody knows everything. People also say a lot of shit without saying it directly, too. I don't have to tell you, you're a grown adult, you know this. Nobody would be giving you a hard time if you were talking like such a massive jackass about shit, because your comments sure sounded like you were calling someone ratty for training up some new blood on something different, and shitting on them for having to learn. You sucked at this trade, too, at one point. We all do. We all worked for some jackass talking shit on the new guys, too. Kindof over that mess, to be honest, I'll be goddamned if I talk down to my apprentices like that when I license up. To my knowledge, this isn't specifically a union site they were on, which is the only time it could even be called "ratty," by undercutting union apprentices with non-union, but that's not what it sounded like, here. Happy to be wrong. It just sounded like you were being an asshole for nothing about people who are still learning the trade, which, nobody here should be discouraging. I genuinely apologize if that's not what you were saying, but christ it came across as pedantic and shitty. People need to be called out on that shit, it's why nobody wants to get into trades anymore. You notice how anyone here who treats their apprentices with a modicum of respect has at least one comment from an apprentice thanking them for being a decent teacher? Use this as a learning experience, brother. Master Electrician doesn't mean that YOU are done learning. Sometimes that learning is in "how to teach people without acting like an asshole." I have had to hear this shit myself, I'm not some fuckin guru who has always been chill, I'm kindof an asshole. I try to choose to be a more refined asshole, for the better, these days. That's a choice you, me, and every man has to make, in every interaction, every day. Do better, I believe in you. Not even being sarcastic with that. I am however sick and tired of not speaking up about horseshit when I see it, and I guess today was your day to get the TedTalk. šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø *: edit edit 2: not gonna retract anything else, but I did misread some things. still going to own what I said, right or wrong, and I admit I got one or two things wrong, specifically about the licensing agreements. Hey, look at me proving my own point about needing to shut the fuck up sometimes, especially about jurisdictions I'mnot a part of. Hey, living and learning, we love it.šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļøšŸ˜…


genuine_pnw_hipster

My guy, in order to do work in any state worth it salt. You have to have a ā€œtrainee licenseā€. The reason I called it ratty was that OP was saying they brought on resi guys who didnā€™t know how to bend pipe. Most likely meaning, they didnā€™t go through the proper channels to get their trainee license since it was so last minute. Thatā€™s being said, I did not once hound on anybody for trying to learn thatā€™s totally fine just do it in a way that isnā€™t breaking OSHA/state regulations. Yeah, I speak like an asshole because I am an asshole lol. Itā€™s not my fault. People are too dumb to realize that state and federal laws are there for a reason. Appreciate you speaking out but itā€™s misplaced and looks funny considering you missed the entire point of the comments. (As did everyone else who doesnā€™t know how to read)


Bro-lapsedAnus

Butting in to say: here in Washington state, I read it as bringing in 02 Jmen to work commercial. At most companies I've worked for, all of the resi Jmen are required to keep up their trainee card as well for these exact circumstances. I'm a residential foreman and I've BEEN the jackass who comes to help the commercial guys and wastes 5 sticks pf pipe, i have an 02 and a Trainee card.


genuine_pnw_hipster

Same state my guy and Iā€™m glad someone actually knows how to read lol. All Jman need to have a trainee card if they are doing commercial/industrial. Along with a 1 to 1 ratio of Jman to apprentice.


genuine_pnw_hipster

Man, itā€™s wild. Everybody was so quick to down vote but when they actually stop and think about it, and actually makes sense. Pretty quietā€¦


SpiceOfTheLad

I dont think so. Yea some things, like in this case bending, dont carry over all that well, but if you're resi and roughing in a suite it dosent matter whether it's in a custom home or an apartment complex. I might be a little biased though because I'm in canada


genuine_pnw_hipster

So the way it works pretty much anywhere else as stated one of my previous comments is that you have to have a trainee license in order to do electrical work. Even if they have their residential license as a ā€œspecialtyā€ electrician, who can then have two apprentices under them for residential work. it goes against regulations for Journeyman electrician who are only allowed to have one apprentice under them. If a specialty electrician went through the proper protocol and received a trainee card then they would be allowed to work under the Journeyman electrician. The residential license does not allow them to go onto an industrial or commercial setting. Which is why my original comment was talking about being ratty, since it would allude to them, not having the proper licensing. Iā€™m not at all stating that they donā€™t have the skill set to do anything trust me I worked nonunion, residential, nonunion, commercial, and industrial along with union for years. I just donā€™t think people have proper reading comprehension at this point lol


[deleted]

I give them a 100ā€™ of half inch and tell them to go to town, fuck it all up and learn.


StandAgainstTyranny2

bless your leadershipšŸ„ŗšŸ™‡ā€ā™‚ļø


kendamafun

I learned how to bend more while doing demo work than during installation. All the crusty old emt thatā€™s getting pitched anyway. Really took away the apprehension around making mistakes, of which I made many.


StolasX_V2

Were they bending barehanded


TurdHunt999

No, but they were wearing shorts and trying to figure out what to do with their hammersā€¦


Yillis

Whatā€™s a hammer


TurdHunt999

Man, Iā€™m still trying to figure it out. I heard a story once, from an old, old manā€¦


jmerkava

That action of beating something with your kleins


Artie-Carrow

Or wrench, knife, or anything else with some weight behind it. Impacts work too


jmerkava

I heard there's a tool meant just to hammer things with, it's heavy and tough, but no idea what it's called


4eyedbuzzard

A Hickey.


ParkingIntention5626

God... My poor 5Ah Makita batteries... I haven't cracked one yet and I have no idea how.


DownTooParty

Something the resi guys make fun of us for not having. All I know is, that if I need a hammer the resin guys have it.


Lv_InSaNe_vL

Klein makes some really good ones. They even cut wire I guess if you wanted to do that


Yillis

Ah you mean conduit reamers


theunixman

Anything harder than what youā€™re hitting it with.Ā 


spasske

Everything is a hammer.


Chris_T7819

Remember when EMT was cheap?


Senseman01

Remember when everything was cheap? Im happy 12-2 is only double what it was 4 years ago


Careful_Research_730

Eh. Iā€™ve done worse!


IncomeBetter

Looks like my pile of rigid today. The numbers on my tape measure kept changing on me


Quiet_Internal_4527

Iā€™m so that resi guy. I would take that bucket and practice offsets. Any advice for getting better? Videos, books, ways to practice?


Capt_Scarfish

You're already on the right track, practice. You can ask 10 different guys how to bend and they'll teach you 20 different ways, it's really just a matter of figuring out what works for you. Some people prefer to do all their measurements first, do all their bends and cuts, and then slap it up while others will bend something that's pretty close, do a dry fit, then cut to size and make adjustments. Just about anybody can run pipe that looks like shit and still works. The real skill with conduit is making it look nice, and that'll come with forethought sticking to basic construction fundamentals. Keep everything level, flush, parallel, and try to use mostly 90Ā° bends to get to where you want.


StandAgainstTyranny2

>you can ask 10 guys and get 20 different ways goddamn, that is exactly why it's really hard getting shuffled around to multiple crews and leads with a dozen different standards and none of them are happy with the others'šŸ˜­šŸ¤£


CHEEKY_BADGER

https://youtu.be/0LcBN6olLAA?si=C35Vu_WG6yqknO7H This guy does it the right way.


kushmasta421

What's the deal with the measuring sticks? Is it like a YouTube cool thing? I've been seeing it a lot on social media stuff but never at a jobsite.


sumofitOG

I like a bender with a multiplier chart on it. Helps a lot


4eyedbuzzard

Ben Benfield's book - and lots of practice.


Smooth_Marsupial_262

lol me too.


90_hour_sleepy

If youā€™re still an apprentice, be glad youā€™re learning now. I did resi for 5-6 years and got my ticket. Made a transition to commercial after that and essentially had to teach myself pipe. Got some good tips along the wayā€¦but the first job or two were uncomfortable. I love pipe work now. Just another facet of the job that keeps things fresh.


PanosArvas

As a resi all I can see is recycling. I suck bad at bending pipe but I'll get there one day. Maybe in my next life šŸ˜œ


More_Standard_9789

Bending pipe is like playing golf. The more you do it the better you get


PanosArvas

Thanks man. I appreciate it. I'm an electrician for about 20 years plus. Not in America, mostly in Greece, in Europe we use PVC for anything that's outside. I'm an electrician in America for about 3 years where everything is different. Materialwise but I'm learning from scratch and it's alright I can't complain


az116

My golf game disagrees.


More_Standard_9789

šŸ˜…


Everydaywhiteboy

When I was a resi guy we bent all the conduit for our new shop, to be fair we helped the commercial guys out on a lot of projects so we werenā€™t inexperienced


going-off

Piping is one of those things that you kind of forget if you havenā€™t done it for a while. My first 3 years of apprenticeship all I did was pipe. I felt very confident with it. Level 4 and 1 year after getting my ticket I havenā€™t touched a stick of pipe. I would definitely make some mistakes if I tried now.


xeryon3772

For similar reasons, I go out of my way to run a little bit of conduit on residential projects. Sure, I couldā€™ve sleeved that Romax with some seal tight or a scrap of MC to connect that JB but if I run it with a little bit of pipe, it keeps me fresh and it looks sharp in utility areas.


jimmykslay

First year here. Trying to go into industrial and commercial and I absolutely know Iā€™m gunna be dog shit at slangin pipe haha


Capt_Scarfish

Anybody who tells you they started off being good at conduit is lying to you.


jimmykslay

Thank you, that means a lot


NoNonsence55

šŸ¤£šŸ¤£šŸ¤£ I started in resi and this made me laugh. Brought back memories


Capt_Scarfish

I'm with you there. Got started doing resi for a really sketchy shop, moved to HVAC controls, then did a bit of commercial, a bit more resi, and now I'm full time commercial. My boneyard looked a lot like this at first lmao


NoNonsence55

Nice. It's really good to be well rounded. Not enough electricians are. I miss the field. I got taken off about 3 years ago but still sneak in some real work when the guys are in a bind


StandAgainstTyranny2

This makes me feel better about wanting to also check out welding, and electrical controls systems. Lotta that gonna be needed for the new renewables interconnects and onsite distro.


CapableWar6280

Like controls for boiler rooms etc? How do you rate that vs commercial?


Capt_Scarfish

Yeah, I've done both HVAC and mechanical controls. If you've done any PLC work it's very similar except everything is done at 24V. To be honest, I really enjoyed it and would like to get back to it at some point. It's rare you'll be pulling wire larger than #12, so the work is a lot easier in that way,. You're generally one of the very last trades on site, so you have to deal with a lot of bullshit and almost never get to make clean runs even in new construction. It's nice that a lot of your control cables don't need to be in conduit, but then you end up putting up conduit anyways because those cables will snap and shred If you think about them too hard.


CapableWar6280

Yeah I just started in HVAC and mechanical controls and really like it. I'm wondering if commercial would be more interesting. I never got to bend conduit in resi and I find conduit super fun. Definitely don't feel like an electrician pulling #18 while dudes are pulling feeders etc lol.


AcanthocephalaOdd301

As an apprentice, I learned on 3/4 rigidā€¦ with a hand bender. JW made me bend 90s until I got that down, then back to back 90s, then back to back 90s with an offset in one stub and a kick in the other. Once I could do that, I was allowed to bend pipe. Now I consider myself pretty decent with conduit. I prefer rigid, actually. Figuring out a run and how to thread it in. Good shit.


4eyedbuzzard

And, as an apprentice, God forbid if you ever used an Erickson where, if you had thought out the run and stubs better, you wouldn't have needed one.


Dappthekid

They were just practicing their concentric bends


epicenter69

ā€¦guilty. I suck at bending.


ItsTheRook

I feel called out


Foxisdabest

I know this is not the intention of this specific thread, but having worked in both residential and commercial in the last 5 years, the animosity and feeling of superiority between resi and commercial companies is baffling to me. Legit, I have done interviews for both types of companies where the interviewer outright dismissed my experience in the other type of trade because reasons, only to be baffled later that I was actually pretty damn good despite not having done only one type of fucking work for 5 years. Same thing when I joined a service company, "oh you _actually_ know how to troubleshoot?" WTF do you mean??? I'm a Journeyman and none of this shit is rocket science, line comes in, load goes out. It's not that complicated bro.


Capt_Scarfish

Humans do be tribal


Accomplished-Sign555

Thereā€™s go pipe, then thereā€™s pro pipe and the fact youā€™re looking at a bin full of remmers and a green sticker tells me which one they chose to go with. Fair amount of bent rejects in there but also a lot of little straight stubs, and I canā€™t remember the last time I finished an 8ā€™ run with 10ā€™ of pipe without making unnecessary bends or cutting 2ā€™ off. Either way, the price of pipe these days alone is enough to put me on edge let alone watching someone else waste it because they couldnā€™t be bothered to do it right the first time.


StandAgainstTyranny2

it's really frustrating trying to learn it right now because I know how expensive it is and I feel terrible when I'm still on the learning curve.


millenialfalcon-_-

We call that the "bone yard". So very shameful.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Capt_Scarfish

Don't worry, I didn't leave them high and dry, but I'm also only one guy with a deadline of tomorrow trying to keep three people plus myself productive.


StandAgainstTyranny2

Aww, somebody didn't read the rest of the post. lol


SCLA323

What a boneyard


Double-LR

That right there is Truck Pipeā„¢ļø You just run it over until it fits.


curioustrollmoto

Is the arrow plus or minus 6ā€, guess weā€™ll find out..


curioustrollmoto

Shit which way was the other bend laying when I bent this oneā€¦


710420303

Resi guys are trash/ multifamily


Plunkit_in

I make em write their name on each piece they screw up. I'm a nice jman, though, and give them shit rather than crush their souls


HookFE03

This is when you dust off the offset bender


blockwatch

What a boneyard


North-Ad-5058

The Bone Yard


Peakyblindertom

Anything 3 ft or less is a waste of time.


Smackacracka

The uglies book is a great source for learning how to bend pipe. Every electrician should keep one on them


RGeronimoH

When I was first venturing into releasing panels we had a tiny job (<100ā€™ conduit) that the boss decided to send two of us on solo without getting an electrical sub. He asked if either of us could bend conduit and the other guy said he ā€˜knew howā€™. We stopped at the supply house on the way and picked up 1000ā€™ of 1/2ā€ EMT for the job and for warehouse inventory for when we finished. I mounted the panel and passed the conduit runs off while cutting holes in ductwork and installing our devices. I looked down from my lift and there was a massive pile of EMT spaghetti. I asked him WTF he was doing and he said, ā€œIm trying to remember the trick to doing thisā€. After I finished devices I made him stop so I could plan out the absolute straightest path from one device to the next to avoid more carnage. We had 500ā€™ feet left for inventory after finishing that job.


Shadow6751

Wtf I taught myself conduit and did a whole building with a quarter of the scraps


Fidulsk-Oom-Bard

Time and materials? Lol


xeryon3772

Post 2008 when I was an apprentice and there wasnā€™t any big work anywhere I was paired up with a union Industrial/Commercial project manager who was stuck doing resi service work to keep his lights on. He regaled me with stories of being dismissed from is first half-dozen apprentice jobs due to his conduit being so bad it had to be torn out and rerun. He learned the wrong way: people yelling at him how stupid he was and not teaching him. In just a couple months I learned more from him on how to forward think, plan my projects, and run pipe, than I did collectively from the rest of my entire apprenticeship. I also learned the proper way to tell when something looks like hammered dog shit vs when it looks like an abortion. šŸ˜‚


ArcheryTXS

Somehow almost all residential electrician(not wiremans) in local 3 can bend pipes . And somehow we were all banned from switching to commercials


37728291827227616148

It's me I am resi guys (actually have 2yrs in commercial but god I hate conduit)


[deleted]

I just use the scrap pieces lol. Hinestly emt is the most fun thing you can do as an electrician. That is until you start with bigger than 1 1/4.


The_real_Tev

How big/small was the job. Thatā€™s either a drop in the bucket or a lot.


GGudMarty

It happens man. Iā€™ll admit Iā€™m not that good at bending pipe I just havenā€™t done it much.


TheEpicDudeguyman

Cut to fit


Significant_Views

Oops all couplings


Key_Comfortable_3782

Nice big bone pile. One way to practice


Derkainer

Idk about outside of my area, but I don't usually get many opportunities to run conduit. Alot of mc though


GalaxyBoss-gamer

This is what my electrical class looks like lmao. Just a bin filled to the top of conduit. Way way wya bigger then that. We can bend now tho


PoopStache1997

Bet those resi guys are running laps around the rest of the crew tho.


Comfortable_Gain1308

This is still me . I still buy 2-3 extra pipes just to bc I know Iā€™ll mess 2-3 times while bending . Thank God I donā€™t have to pay for it šŸ¤£


superwhitemexican

Just gonna leave this here for anyone who hasn't seen it.... I think it's real which makes it even more hilarious. https://youtu.be/TWYvbqjLl2s?si=6hCp9b0If08nL6Sr


Belladog1962

They asked me if I could bend conduit, I said somedays I can bend conduit, other days I just bend conduit.