My time working for a steel company

[Brian B]

In the mid 90's I was working on a help desk for a steel company North of Pittsburgh. We worked 2 weeks of 6 AM to 6 PM shifts, then 2 weeks of 6 PM to 6AM shifts and a week of 8AM-5PM shifts. We mostly supported VAXes in the 5 levels of computer hierarchy. Most of you have no idea what a VAX is and that's fine. The sysadmins told a story about going into the mill to change backup tapes. They woke someone who was sound asleep and felt bad. 10 minutes later they passed his office again and he was sound asleep again. I guess he knew how to rest when he worked. One night I was working the overnight shift alone as I usually did. I got a call from another plant. Apparently all of the network equipment went offline. The guy was in a pulpit with the network equipment. A pulpit is a protected room where people manage the steel making process on a given part of the plant. Places like the hot melt plant, z mill, annealing line, pickling line, strip shears etc. I asked him if he could turn the equipment off and on again. He said it was in a locked cabinet but would be happy to open the cabinet with an acetylene torch. I said no thanks and managed to get someone to go out to the plant. One of the guys I worked with and liked had a funny way of approaching work. I hated working help desk there, but I'll never forget the tours of the mills in PA and Ohio. If you haven't seen 25 tons of molten steel being poured from on giant ladle to another below, then you are missing out. The radiant heat is so strong that it feels like you face is melting and if you aren't wearing welding goggles when you watch it its so bright that it could blind you. Once the steel is almost gone they pull away the lower ladle and dump the slag on the ground. They have an AOD, argon oxygen decarbonizer for stainless steel as well as a continuous caster. The steel is released from the ladle and sprayed with water as it gets formed into long slabs that are cut into 20 slabs with a plasma cutter. also seeing the flat rolled steel flow down into a 60 foot pit while part of the line is stopped so that they could butt weld rolls of steel together and continuously process steel without having to stop and reset the line is also pretty cool. It was a good experience that I would not want to try again.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Reminds me of my older brother taking engineering at university work term at steel mill he was a real Klutz asked to get sample for lab analysis. somehow pored it down his boot, on disability for a while

 

[Uppity Creek]

I find things such as that fascinating; I'd like the chance to visit such a mill. I used to visit Ashland, KY where they have an operation of some sort like that, right behind a flea market that we frequented. The rail cars never seemed to stop.

 

[Tom]

Early on I worked as my Dad's maintenance helper at his second job he worked on weekends at a foundry. They made zinc and aluminum parts. I actually started unpaid once in a while at about age 11 so sort of grew up there finally going on the payroll around age 15-16. We did electrical and plumbing work mostly. When we broke for lunch I was allowed to wander around (The factory did not operate on weekends) and I would make my own molds out of wood and pour the zinc in. I was a careful kid, my Dad always taught me safety and trusted me. Unlike my older brother, who was the complete opposite, who also grew up working there, lol. (He became a lawyer) I worked there until I went in the military and knew the bosses and their kids who were taking it over slowly. They were the references I used to get in the Air Force. Before I left I made a futuristic model fighting vehicle completely out of parts they made at the factory and painted it and gave it decals, etc. The boss loved it and kept it on his desk thereafter.