I didn't always detail cars...

Mike Phillips · 03-28-2012, 12:54 PM

I didn't always detail cars...

Two of the more interesting jobs I've had in my life was working as a Roughneck on an Oil Drilling Rig in Oregon looking for Natural Gas. Huge Oil Drilling Rig! When it was set up and you climbed the steel ladder to the top you would be looking down at the top of Douglass Fir Trees. That's high up!

I was even the Tower Man a couple of times, kind of scary. (no pictures)

These are Roughnecks changing section of a pipe either coming out of the hole or going into the hole. (not pictures of me but that's how we dressed)

Another time in my life I was a Scoop Operator...

This was taken a few months before I went to work for Meguiar's the second time, I was a Scoop Operator at a Willamette Industries Paper Pulp Mill, (really fun job), and I was the first disabled person the Mill and Union, brought into the organization as the norm was for people to leave missing a limb or losing their life.

A person died at the Mill on average every two years. It was a real challenge as the job was very "Blue Collar", as in very physically strenuous. My nickname at the Mill was Crash, (don't ask), when I got my Union Card and switched from a White Hard Hat to the Orange Hard Hat you seen in the picture, they put the name Crash on it. LOL (I still have the Hard Hat)

I don't mind working hard, whatever the task but my true passions are,

Detailing cars
Showing others how to detail cars

**erobertson** · 03-28-2012, 01:02 PM

Think everyone will agree we're glad you have a passion for detailing. I certainly learn a lot from each of your posts. Thanks for your hard work, it certainly helps improve my skills!

**Mustang81** · 03-28-2012, 01:03 PM

Awesome picture. Why did they call you "Crash"?

Mike Phillips · 03-28-2012, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by Mustang81

Awesome picture. Why did they call you "Crash"?

The Scoop I'm standing in is the one I drove and one night I almost tipped it over backing down a wood chip pile in the fog.

It rocked to my right side and that's very scary. They teach us to shove the bucket down hard and fast anytime you feel the Scoop rock and that's what I did and it saved the Scoop from tipping over onto it's side.

That's what green Scoop drivers do, they get off their track backing down in the fog and sometimes it happens. Fast reflexes and paying attention to what was going on prevented what could have been a very bad experience.

The next day they had two options, have old Jim crab it off the hill or bring a crane in and pick it up and reset it so it was level and old Jim saved the day and the company a lot of money. That's why they called me Crash.

Not as bad as the girl that was in training to be a Scoop driver, she burnt one to the ground and her nickname was Smokey!

**Mustang81** · 03-28-2012, 01:15 PM

So was there anything that you took from those jobs that you think makes you a better detailer?

**BobbyG** · 03-28-2012, 01:15 PM

Life's a journey, enjoy the ride!!

Thanks for sharing Mike....

**mdb917** · 03-28-2012, 01:19 PM

OMGoodness!! Oil Field Trash is what we were called but you also garnered the name of CRASH

.

BTW: The pics show what is referred to as "tripping" pipe (i.e. pulling drilling pipe out of the well) and a good crew can do that so fast it is mind boggling.

I too worked in the fields for a couple of years primarily in Mississippi. Eventually I earned an Engineering degree and moved to a desk job in Denver but at least it was still in the oil/gas field of work.

Truly one of the toughest jobs out there and certainly one of the most dangerous. There is NOTHING small on a rig other than the people. One rig I worked on could stack 3 x 40' sticks (aka pipe) which were connected to one another. That's going from the floor/deck up. 120' and you are not at the top of the rig and below the rig floor are things like BOP (blow-out preventers/stacks/etc.) which puts the floor 20-50' off the ground. We were driling for a formation 16,000' down at the time. Nowadays that is almost laughable but in those days that was a long ways down. Amazing structures when you see them up close and personal like.

I knew there was something else I liked about your Mike

**jdscooby** · 03-28-2012, 01:21 PM

How the heck do burn one to the ground?

Mike Phillips · 03-28-2012, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Mustang81

So was there anything that you took from those jobs that you think makes you a better detailer?

An appreciation for a job I love... I never mind doing hard work and detailing cars is hard work but it's a different type of hard work than the above two jobs.

I also pulled on a Green Chain and a Simpson's Plywood Mill, talk about fast and hard and hard on the back...

Originally Posted by mdb917

There is NOTHING small on a rig other than the people.

One rig I worked on could stack 3 x 40' sticks (aka pipe) which were connected to one another. That's going from the floor/deck up. 120' and you are not at the top of the rig and below the rig floor are things like BOP (blow-out preventers/stacks/etc.) which puts the floor 20-50' off the ground.

That's the size of rig I worked on, we would pull out three pipes at at time and I have to tell you, putting on a safety belt and leaning out over the hole and then throwing a rope around the 3 lengths of pipe and pulling it into the corral when you're that high up is definitely a thrill! Especially when it's snowing and you're looking down on top of HUGE Douglass Fir Trees...

Originally Posted by jdscooby

How the heck do burn one to the ground?

Yeah I know, that's what everyone says... basically it caught on fire and she didn't set off any of the fire extinguishers so anything that could burn did burn. It left an ecological disaster on the wood chip pile!

It was the newest Scoop in our team of Scoop and all the Scoop drivers like to drive it the best but I like old #3 in the picture. Well broken-in, lots of power.

One night one of the Foremans called me in as an extra and asked me if I could move a mountain? What he meant was they were going to take down the number 2 Feeder Bowel because a motor drive was going out and they had no options but to start pulling chips from Feeder Bowel #3. Problem was... there wasn't a mountain of chips a Feeder Bowel #3. So for 12 hours I pushed wood chips as hard and fast as my scoop would go, basically push chips toward the bowl and then back up as fast as the scoop would go and do it again.

I started around 6:00pm at night, it was Oregon winter so it was dark and raining. By sun-up there was a mountain where 12 hours before was a flat base. I was no longer considered the new guy...

Fun job! Like a kid in a giant Tonka Toy playing in a sandbox.

**Mike lambert** · 03-28-2012, 02:29 PM

I was an iron worker for my dad who taught me about work ethic,then became a firefighter, then after emergency one came on tv,I became a paramedic. Wound up an ems lieutenant, blew out two discs and was bolted back together, retired,and now I do for a living what I have done all my life. Funny how things work out!