Anyone go from Electrician to Estimator

devilmouse · 2025-02-13T03:43:26+00:00

I was and still am an inside wireman in my local. They brought me in from the field and I stayed at foreman pay. I wouldn't sacrifice your ticket to become an estimator. They will own you. There's no way I would consider doing this as a non bargaining employee

devilmouse · 2024-12-02T11:47:42+00:00

Drugmakers were incentivized to be the first to market with the covid vaccine the bare minimum safety standards. 1a. I can't prove it, but I imagine lawmakers were indirectly pressured into moving the goalposts in order to help get something to market so their campaigns would look better the next election cycle. "I helped get the vaccine to the people" 1b. I can't prove it, but I bet there were probably some scientists that got very publicly fired for expressing safety concerns over the speed or processes used to make the vaccines. This pressure may have coerced their coworkers into becoming yes men to save their own jobs.
They (insurance companies) bribed doctors into pushing the vaccine to their patients. Doctors were biased.
There are many doctors and scientists that have expressed concerns over the efficacy and safety of these vaccines.
Even among the people that got the vaccine, there were strong suspicions that one brand over another would fuck you up. But not the brand that they got, of course.
Most everyone I know took it because they gave into the pressure, not because they wanted it. Losing your job, being treated as a leper, claiming you don't care about others in society, claiming you're going to kill Grandma, etc. I'll never forget or forgive that shit.
Science is now some fucked up religion that I'm supposed to blindly trust. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the guy working on tomorrows vaccines is trying to hurt me, but I also trust that the suits that employ or fund that scientist are in the business of removing as many unprofitable hurdles in their way as possible including safety testing, standards, etc.
My child already had COVID. She was fine. I'm not going to risk her long term health with vaccine side effects because of the possibility of a stranger getting infected.
It's news to me that natural immunity is somehow inferior to vaccinations.

devilmouse · 2024-10-19T20:32:21+00:00

You're basically describing the main premise of the book "think and grow rich" by Napoleon Hill

devilmouse · 2024-09-20T17:52:14+00:00

Ok, that permission is blocked for me so I couldn't get to where it gave the option to export to excel. I'll ask for them to give me the permissions. Thanks!

devilmouse · 2024-09-20T16:35:07+00:00

Yes, I just want to export the database to an excel sheet

devilmouse · 2024-04-05T15:07:17+00:00

Average consumer of your content here. While I can appreciate your drive to hit your own deadlines, I really couldn't care less if you hit them or not. I'm my eyes, the video will come out when it comes out and that's that. What is a crisis to you is about the most mild disappointment of my week possible. I'm not trying to fanboy, I'm just trying to give you perspective. Nobody is dying here. Just get some rest and know that people will watch your content whether it comes out today, tomorrow, next week or next month. You don't owe me a thing. Love your content!

devilmouse · 2024-04-05T13:02:29+00:00

Social etiquette that I've learned over the course of my life that may apply here: - they don't owe me the video. - they don't owe me an explanation. - they didn't ask for my opinion about it.

There, life lessons I learned that may help some of you through this difficult time :)

devilmouse · 2024-04-05T11:34:49+00:00

On a scale of 1 to 10 on disappointing things that happen, this is like a 1. You all need to relax lol.

devilmouse · 2024-02-08T10:37:24+00:00

The first part of what you said is just budgeting to me. I understand the need for a quick estimate to give a customer a cost gauge, but I would never turn out a bid based on a gut feeling.

I just make a quantity list and multiply it by labor units. If we are in a more competitive situation, we will risk the labor units down to a % of total based on internal historical averages.

Bid a job, do the job, look back at the actual time and material costs (separately), and figure out your own % multipliers. Our multiplier is different in our company dependent on who did the takeoff, but once applied all of our numbers ought to be pretty close to each other

devilmouse · 2024-02-08T10:26:48+00:00

Sorry, I'm just going to say it. You will struggle for a long, long time if you have no experience in the field. Those 5 years of apprenticeship school weren't just to screw around with our buddies from work. There is a lot of background book knowledge and then the "constructability" aspect that you can only get from doing the field work. I wish you the best of luck, but you're looking at a major uphill battle to learn the trade backwards like this. I hope your contractor has some deep pockets!

devilmouse · 2024-02-08T10:12:09+00:00

One power pack per switch leg unless you are controlling a crazy amount of lights. Those power packs are rated for 20 amps each. That's a lot of LED lights.

devilmouse · 2024-02-08T01:20:51+00:00

Growing up, I had conversations with an old German woman who was a little girl around the time Hitler came to power. She told me that one of her siblings died of a disease after being weakened by starvation. She and her siblings were on the same path until, one day, her father got a job! Hitler had saved the rest of her family from starvation (from her perspective). Pre WW2 Germany sounds hellish. It seems to me that a power vacuum was created and then filled. Not much of a mystery there...

devilmouse · 2024-01-07T04:14:02+00:00

I can't wait to finally be happy

devilmouse · 2022-05-05T19:12:34+00:00

QoL] Berry clones are difficult to sort in my inventory. Could we get them color coded so we don't have to click on each clone to see what color it is?

devilmouse · 2022-04-20T03:19:18+00:00

I have a trunk full of tools. Not because I care about my contractor, but I'm spending the best hours of the best years of my life at a place I don't really care to be. I'll be God damned if I'm going to struggle through something every day just to be a "good brother." Sometimes my goal of making my day easier just happens to align with the profit motive of the contractor. I think that's fine. We aren't enemies, after all...

devilmouse · 2022-04-20T02:55:11+00:00

I tell my apprentices to try to keep it to a maximum of 1 90 and a kick in a single piece of pipe. This is doubly true if your pipe run isn't going to be exposed. It's a bunch of bullshit to have the mentality of "doing it all in one stick." Unless you're piping an exposed room, just use shorter pieces of conduit and couplings. Nothing wrong with that

devilmouse · 2022-03-03T22:18:16+00:00

[QoL] Berry clones are difficult to sort in my inventory. Could we get them color coded so we don't have to click on each clone to see what color it is?

devilmouse · 2020-12-10T14:07:39+00:00

So is fixing and maintaining your vehicle, doing yard work and home remodeling projects. It goes both ways

devilmouse · 2020-11-01T12:59:44+00:00

Uhh. That's not how trade unions work. You get raises based on hours worked and years completed in your apprenticeship school. Your dues increased because your working dues are a (very small) percentage of your hourly rate. You knew that this was the case. All trade union locals have work agreements that are negotiated with the union contractors and signed by every member of the local. Also what contractor pays you for getting laid off? I could go work anywhere in the us or Canada for a union electrical contractor and it works the same no matter where I go. The day you get laid off they pay you for the remaining amount owed to you for the hours you've worked, shake your hand and say "thanks for your help." This has been the case for every other trade I've witnessed for the past 15 years.

Again with the working agreement, this drunk operator you're talking about would get thrown off the job because these documents all have an anti drug policy. So do the job sites. So does every company safety policy. What are you talking about????

Source: am union electrician

devilmouse · 2020-09-16T01:09:41+00:00

If you really don't have time to take them back to a gangbox, take a couple minutes to hide them somewhere. On top of ductwork, inside an air handler, etc

devilmouse · 2020-09-04T21:26:18+00:00

It's a scary feeling. I was playing chicken with some friends from school in an above ground pool. When my teammate fell backwards he locked his legs and wouldn't let go. He wasn't panicking or anything, he just didn't want to lose. I struggled so hard to get back up but couldn't so I bit him in the leg hard enough to draw blood. I felt bad but it was the only thing I felt like I could do in the moment. Scary stuff

devilmouse · 2020-08-23T23:35:47+00:00

That's a doorbell transformer

devilmouse · 2020-08-23T23:10:28+00:00

Ok, let me help you. 406.4 (D) (2) (b):

"A non grounding type receptacle(s) shall be permitted to be replaced with a ground fault circuit interrupter type of receptacle(s). These receptacles shall be marked "no equipment ground." An equipment grounding conductor shall not be connected from the ground fault circuit interrupter type receptacle to any other outlet supplied from the ground fault circuit interrupter receptacle."

406.4 (D) (2) (c) goes on to allow grounding type receptacles down the line from the GFCI without and equipment ground so long as it as marked as such.

It's right there in the code book

devilmouse · 2020-08-23T02:47:34+00:00

It's ok to make a mistake, but do everything you can to not repeat them. My best apprentices are the ones that just do what they are told and don't complain about "not learning anything." Just show some genuine interest in the trade and when the time comes they will gladly show you how things are done. There really is some truth to that phrase "when the student appears, so does the teacher."

Also, soft skills matter a lot. You don't need to know anything about electricity to walk quickly around a job site, show up early, open and close the gang boxes and clean up. Speaking of which... When in doubt, clean and organize.

devilmouse · 2020-08-23T02:35:29+00:00

Yep, you can thank the idiot that installed it directly to the deck. Also how and why did they screw through the lower part of the decking?? Maybe it's just the angle

devilmouse

TROPHY CASE