Ramblings of mid life cryogenic.

[australian tech]

o.k. Im 37 , worked on domestics, air cons , chillers , industrial plant, commercial, auto, marine, etc.
Whilst not proclaiming to be a master of any of these, im confident that i can work in any of these fields.
Ive been lucky enough to work on remote australian minesites with ambients of +45 c.. and prawn trawlers in rough sea's, or processing plants that (pending your repair ) may suffer huge product/monetary loss. (not on my watch thanks)
My best work satifaction comes from troubleshooting, large plant , industrial /ammonia stuff. I also enjoy installing pipework/machinery or even fabrication of parts that you wont find on the shelf ... How good does it feel, to look at something you've crafted/created.. sounds simple, but its what i like..... about what i do!
Or what about when you spend so much time on a fault that seems too difficult to conquer, then you try something left field... and it works.... theres no shortcut for experience. its practice,for both failure and success...Yep being a fridgy is pretty cool
But where to go from here?
Ive got a drum kit.... Might get lessons from youtube....

[mikeref]

Well just keep on learning. Never a shortage of material on this forum. (Should have started this thread in chit-chat) because now the ever present Brian UK or Frank will moderate us both off here.. mike.

[Tesla]

Hi australian tech
It sounds like you really enjoy what you do, perhaps get a little board after doing the same thing for a while. You could advance your training into design, management or give it back and teach/train others. Who knows we might even see you on The New Inventors one day. I am similar to you except the ammonia and domestic side. I am looking forward to getting back into controls or refrigeration as that's what I like the best - it requires more brain power for the challenge. If you had a break you like I would certainly miss it.

[El Padre]

Hi Australian Tech,

Great title for a thread, if you need a challenge, watch the English cricket team bat again and aspire to their greatness!

Cheers

[paul_h]

o.k. Im 37 , worked on domestics, air cons , chillers , industrial plant, commercial, auto, marine, etc.
Whilst not proclaiming to be a master of any of these, im confident that i can work in any of these fields.
Ive been lucky enough to work on remote australian minesites with ambients of +45 c.. and prawn trawlers in rough sea's, or processing plants that (pending your repair ) may suffer huge product/monetary loss. (not on my watch thanks)
My best work satifaction comes from troubleshooting, large plant , industrial /ammonia stuff. I also enjoy installing pipework/machinery or even fabrication of parts that you wont find on the shelf ... How good does it feel, to look at something you've crafted/created.. sounds simple, but its what i like..... about what i do!
Or what about when you spend so much time on a fault that seems too difficult to conquer, then you try something left field... and it works.... theres no shortcut for experience. its practice,for both failure and success...Yep being a fridgy is pretty cool
But where to go from here?
Ive got a drum kit.... Might get lessons from youtube....

You could start by telling me how as I'm in perth too and the same age as you.
I dropped out of commercial refrig-a/c in the 1990s to go to uni instead, as fridgeys were poorly paid back then.
I dropped out of uni to earn some money as I lost interest in comp sci and fridgies started getting paid decently.

Where I started again though was with domestics and light commercial, using the experience to start my own one man band business.
I'm kind of over it though, phone rings non stop in summer, so hard to do it all on your own, and it's pissing me off a bit to work so hard for a few months than ration in the off season with no money. BTW I hate phones generally as well
Paperwork, taxes and complaining people drive me up the wall. The phones annoy me, did I say that?
I thought I fixed the overwhleming phone call problem of last year by dropping all (effective) advertising except a very small yellow pages ad, but seems like it's still just too many people calling me out of the blue on for just one job. (I've got regulars that paid my bills in winter I rather look after right now in summer thanks).

So yeah, if I don't make a decent income this year, I'm giving it all away for a steady pay cheque and doing something interesting in the trade instead.

Today (nice sunny 37C weather) I was doing a domestic a/c compressor change on a tin roof. My feet were burning through the soles of my dunlop volleys, my hands were burning with every tool I picked up. I think even my lips are sunburnt as well as the rest of my face, neck and arms. edit: I'd love to hook up with a local fully qualified fridgey experienced in the installation area to sub it out to them all the the installs and relocation jobs, and if they weren't too hot on the repair work, train them up on that for when I'm flat out on repairs too. I hate installs as I've never worked for an install company, but I can fix almost anything domestic or light commercial (sometimes with a little help from RE ).

[mikeref]

Hello all, I see we were moved over to here. Paul H, what i do is to manage the one off customers over summer by (unfortunately) doing the secretary role in the morning, like now, till phone rush hour is over, then hands on, otherwise mobile phone won't stop and message bank fills. Only do what you can! Allocate work for the day and leave gaps for possible (regular) client calls. I've taken forever to follow my proceedure so as not to get stressed out. Example: while writing this, both phones have been going off and time frames have been allocated for today, not in hours but morning or afternoon. Tomorrow is already full except for a 2 hour Breather for the unexpected, anything else has to be put off and if caller doesn't like it than i have to let them go. Hope you can relate to this post.. Mike.

[sedgy]

hi ausy tec you should retier and live with the aboes, you might just learn how to suvive, well you got a drum kit, so you might as well mime your life away yours < in controle< sedgy.

[Magoo]

Yip, definitly rambling and you sound bored. Try PLC programing to get the grey matter moving around.

[lowcool]

sedgy
our indiginous australians survive very well on government hand outs,other peoples propertyscamming for more government hand outs and dealing with illicit contraband.

now if you really want to get ahead you attain illegal refugee status,get to live in the picturesque adelaide hills in a place called inverbrackie,cash clothes education etc,riot or kill yourself for more self pity.
if your an australian jobless and homeless then your well and truly farked.
its the australian way


apparently

[Magoo]

Hi Lowcool.
obviously you are talking about the boat people, those low lifes that invade your shores.
Me, I would sink them before they get there.
The PC brigade, the touchie feely mob disagree.
If they wont to emigrate to OZ why not do it through the normal chanels already in place. OZ also needs to tighten up on the low lifes that arrive in NZ, get residency here then jump across to OZ.

[paul_h]

Wow this thread went in a bad direction pretty quick
edit: have to say I had to search for a bit to remember the name (never visited the site). But this isn't the stormfront . org forum or some southern cross BS website.
It's bad enough on some australian websites I visit, let alone see the issue dragged up on some UK based forum.
The aboriginies hated the english arriving. The english hated the other europeans arriving. The other europeans hated the middle eastern people arriving. All above plus the middle eastern people hated the viets arriving. All plus above the vietnamise hated the indians arriving. And now all plus above hate the africans, sri lankans and afghanis arriving.
Get a life.
It's only the new zealanders that are a problem

A modest proposal:
Wipe out all the kiwis, and send the boat people there.
Or to not offend all the new zealand natives, let them come to australia (if there are any who aren't here already), me not wanting to wipe out a race of people; then declare NZ terra nullius, and send all the boat people there
I'd be on the boat, sick of WA

[australian tech]

sedgy , you should go back and complete primary school... because your spelling is atroshush.

[australian tech]

Maybe my original post sounded a little somber, but after a busy hot day at work .. i self medicated with a bottle of red wine , and proceeded to blurt out some sooky spiel into cyberspace about getting bored with work.
Well, the next day, i logged on to R.E. ,curious to see the response (if any).
yep Id posted in the wrong forum , twat!
Let me resfresh my angle..sober.
Im keen to hear stories from fridgies, that have changed careers, successful or not.
Inspire!
great website ,

[mikeref]

Aussie tech, career change is just not going to happen. Once a fridgie... Too much time and money spent to get this far. I've known some who let licences lapse and now have a mountain of red tape to get through to be back in the game. Hmm, would not want to be on the Aussie cricket team... England is giving us a hammering!