Observations of building my first forge and putting it out there for criticism.

[SLAG]

Mr. HWBX,

I looked up 'mudlogger'  for you,

Bing  says that it is,

“Mudlogger” is the generic term used to describe the field specialists who monitor the well and also collect samples for the geologist. The career progression for a mudlogger is to generally start as a sample catcher while they learn about the drilling operations, then progress to a mudlogger and with further experience, become a data engineer.

All that I do is to type in 'mudlogger' def. And Voila,

SLAG.

[ThomasPowers]

I was a degreed Geologist that would take and evaluate samples of rock brought up in the drilling mud and create a hand drawn log based on the samples, the geolograph data, continuously running analyzer for gasses in the mud, etc.  I'd call in the basic info to the Geologist assigned to the well back in the big city. Back precell days; finding a working pay phone at 6am in "no such town" was a lot of fun---particularly in winter...

Basically an entry level geology job that was opened up to anyone during the boom. About the time I would qualify to be the geologist sitting at his kitchen table drinking hot coffee and taking the reports the oilpatch crashed. I remodeled a house and then apprenticed to a swordmaker for a year.

It was good money if you lived frugally, 44 hours of overtime a week!  Per diem was tax free too!

[Hawkbox]

49 minutes ago, SLAG said:

All that I do is to type in 'mudlogger' def. And Voila,

I was being conversational, but thank you for the condescending response. It really makes me want to participate in this forum.

37 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Basically an entry level geology job that was opened up to anyone during the boom. About the time I would qualify to be the geologist sitting at his kitchen table drinking hot coffee and taking the reports the oilpatch crashed. I remodeled a house and then apprenticed to a swordmaker for a year.

That makes sense, lot of it became swampers up here (Basically grunts who climbed under the platform to do manual labour) and was a favourite of high school drop outs who wanted a lifted truck and a cocaine problem.  It's interesting the terms, I worked with some geologists here in the late 90's and never heard the term used.  

[George N. M.]

Another former mudlogger here.

My least favorite well site job was:  I had always fantasized about spending a January on the beach.  Unfortunately, I hadn't been specific enough in my fantasy because I was sent to sit a well outside Beach, North Dakota for the month of January.  It never cracked zero degrees all month long. It was typically about -5 to -10 during the day and -20 to -25 at night.  We had to have heaters an insulation on our cars, car batteries, and the propane tanks on the trailer.  When I got back to Laramie and it was in the 20s above zero I felt like I didn't need a coat.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[ThomasPowers]

My "unfavorite" was probably when I was on a site in north wester Oklahoma and there was a 40 mph wind and a lot of dust  and they decided to spray all the drill pipe with a corrosion inhibitor upwind of our logging unit and cars---without telling us.  We were  a mite hot under the collar and downed tools and spent the rest of the tour washing our vehicles with diesel and then with rig wash.  My old ex-phone company van  just went to a matte finish buy my partner's 69's muscle car painted canary yellow was never the same.  The near blowouts were just exciting...

[arkie]

Thomas, oil-based mud has the same sad effect....I got sprayed one day when the rig was making a trip in very high winds and they were pulling wet strings.  It was fun explaining all that to the rental car agent when I returned the car.

19 hours ago, Hawkbox said:

I might be wrong but just the idea of using 3/4" handles for tongs makes my hand cramp.

Hawkbox, you can forge tongs out of 3/4" stock, but the reins should be drawn out (down) to a comfortable size, say 3/8" or at most 1/2".  That way you don't have a 3/4" rein to try to grip.

[Hawkbox]

When I hear Americans talk about doing well site work it terrifies me, even as lax as we can be we'd get shut down doing the things our guys in Pecos talk about doing.  We have/had a site in Dickinson North Dakota and my network minion has gone a couple times and we're just amazed at how much they got away with that we'd get pinned to the wall for.

The safety standards seem to be lower than the ones I worked with in the 90's here in Alberta, and we're pretty half assed by Canadian standards.

[ThomasPowers]

Back in the early 1980's when I was working in the oilpatch, a study showed that 20% of career oil field workers would suffer a life altering injury before retirement.  I had a friend who was an EMT in the oilpatch and his stories of things like washing a person's brains off his hands and going in for lunch always helped us to avoid overeating when we met at an all you can eat Mexican buffet.

[Hawkbox]

Yeah I was a volunteer firefighter from 2005-2008 during the boom here and the amount of oilfield workers that got killed just going to and from the site was staggering. Working 16 hour days then drive 2 hours each way, get 3 hours sleep and go back out.  The worst one I know of was the guy who ran a stop side and got creamed by a logging truck, his legs stayed in the drivers seat and his torso was now in the passenger seat.  Thankfully I missed that call.

[ThomasPowers]

16 hour tours are particularly bad as they tumble your nights and days continuously.  I generally did 12 0n 12 0ff with a 3 hour drive home or 24 On 24 Off.  I was young and did work a 16 On 16 Off on one well, had another guy get sick and so worked 16, drove 2 hours, worked 12, drove back 2 hours and worked 16.  Sort of thing that explains why I bought an old van, insulated it and put a mattress in it and camped at the site a lot. Also why I have never looked into going back when making a job change!  It would kill me now I'm diabetic.

[Hawkbox]

I was working K-12 IT during the time and could have made triple my salary if I wanted to go work those jobs as people who could count and show up reliably were even more prized but I had absolutely no interest in going back to that kind of work after I stopped apprenticing.  I'd have ended up with a massive cocaine habit just to stay awake I can picture it.

I felt for the guys doing it but so many of them were wildly irresponsible with the money so when things tanked in 2008 most of them lost almost everything.

[ThomasPowers]

I'm a bit scared: 

I worked as a Geologist in the oilpatch  it went bust in the early 1980's.

After a few years of wandering I got a job with AT&T Bell Labs; which was spun off as Lucent during the dotcom boom; when the bust hit I was laid off in the early 2000's.

Got a job working for NRAO on the ALMA project; when it went from construction to operations, they laid off 50%, including me.

Got a job working for DELL at the maquiladora in Juarez, when the border got iffy; production went down and I was laid off again.

Now I work for a University; what could go wrong with that?---Covid-19 shut down F2F classes...

I've decided to not change my name to Jonah; but to just retire when this job tanks...

[George N. M.]

Hawkbox:  That is typical of young (and some not so young) men with good paying jobs.  When I was working in Riverton, WY as a geologist in the late '70s and early '80s I was making a decent salary but the guys working in the local uranium mines were making twice or 3 times what I was.  They had LOTS of nice toys, trucks, snow machines, dirt bikes, guns, etc. but were often credit poor.  After they had made all their payments they didn't have much to live on.  I tended to buy more than my share of beer late in the month because I didn't have that debt load.  Once uranium busted Riverton was a great place to pick up second hand boys' toys at a cheap price.

Thomas' and my careers diverged in the early '80s when he went into IT and I went to law school after geology tanked.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."  

[arkie]

I spent 37 years as a pet geologist, working for majors and independents.  Some good, some bad.  The last one was run by bean counters and engineers and they considered geologists to be the scum of the earth...I had a belly full of that, cashed in my chips and retired to the hills...never been happier!!

[George N. M.]

Although it has been years since I earned my bread as a geologist I still consider myself a "recovering geologist."  It is one day at a time and you are never completely cured.  Whenever I am tempted to hit a rock with a hammer or make a map, I call someone up to talk me out of it.  "Hi!  My name is George and I'm a geologist." (applause and calls of "We know where you are coming from.")  Unfortunately, my late wife was also a geologist and we were co-dependent.  (I met her in the early '70s in an underground organization.  The National Speleological Society.)

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[pnut]

8 hours ago, arkie said:

I spent 37 years as a pet geologist

I've had cats, dogs, birds, about every type of pet you can think of EXCEPT a geologist. How involved is the care and feeding? 

JK I couldn't help myself. It's Friday. 

Pnut

[arkie]

They LOVE peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a warm bed to sleep in.  They go to regular doctors, not vets (vets give bigger shots and pills).  They are, however, VERY hard to train on most matters but ARE usually potty trained.  Yes, it is Friday....LOL

Yes, George, it is a hard habit to break.  I never pass a highway road cut without a severe rubberneck reaction.

[ThomasPowers]

So, ever had your spouse yell at you while you're driving "Stop looking at the Strata!"

The swordmaker I worked with also had a geology degree; when we had a bad day we'd down tools and go caving---NW Arkansas.

[BillyBones]

I used to live with a girl who was a geologist and her father was a geology professor. Together they would go out and do ground testing at superfund sites. Me, i attended the school of hard knocks after dropping out of high school my junior year. Cant say i ever had a job that i hated. I became a machinist after the Army, then when i got laid off went on to be an auto tech, now back to being a machinist.  

[ThomasPowers]

More skills you have the more jobs are available to you!  My grandfather never got past 6th grade; yet ran his own businesses  and even when older I remember people coming to ask is opinion about deals they were looking at.