What's The Worst Job You Ever Had?

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63

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again.

However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

Well…I was going to talk about how crapy it was to work as a roofer, siding installer, weed eater technician, and collection guy for a bookie but there is no need. You had the worst job ever and anyone who disagrees is just plain wrong.

65

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again.

However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

winner.

66

Blast Furnace story wins easily. Stelco?

My hometown’s mascot was a Polar Bear called “Burr-Bear”. As a teenager, I dressed up as the aforementioned bear at a summer festival, at the request of a family friend who worked for City Hall. My mandate was to bumble around, being expressive with my paws (speaking was forbidden) and to hand out pamphlets about the changes the city was making to the waterfront.

As it turned out, a good number of people completely hated “Burr-bear”, or at least saw in him a potential outlet for pent-up rage and frustration. The indignities I was subjected to included being kicked in the kneecaps and testicles, having hot dogs and funnel cakes hurled at me, kids playing “keep away” with one of my detached paws, and an old man yell at me about how the town was breaking zoning regulations in their waterfront renovations (again, could not speak, all I could do was “bumble” as he lectured me).

When I got back to City Hall at the end of the day, they tried to charge me for drycleaning for the ketchup stains on my white fur (remnant of one of the errant hotdogs that collided with me). I told them they’d need another Burr-bear next year…

67

[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:
Blast Furnace story wins easily. Stelco?

My hometown’s mascot was a Polar Bear called “Burr-Bear”. As a teenager, I dressed up as the aforementioned bear at a summer festival, at the request of a family friend who worked for City Hall. My mandate was to bumble around, being expressive with my paws (speaking was forbidden) and to hand out pamphlets about the changes the city was making to the waterfront.

As it turned out, a good number of people completely hated “Burr-bear”, or at least saw in him a potential outlet for pent-up rage and frustration. The indignities I was subjected to included being kicked in the kneecaps and testicles, having hot dogs and funnel cakes hurled at me, kids playing “keep away” with one of my detached paws, and an old man yell at me about how the town was breaking zoning regulations in their waterfront renovations (again, could not speak, all I could do was “bumble” as he lectured me).

When I got back to City Hall at the end of the day, they tried to charge me for drycleaning for the ketchup stains on my white fur (remnant of one of the errant hotdogs that collided with me). I told them they’d need another Burr-bear next year… [/quote]

Working in a blast furnace for $13.00 sounds far from ideal!!!

Poor Burr-Bear! I feel lucky that I didn’t have to endure that type of abuse while dressed up in the chicken costume. Nope, it was nothing but hugs, smiles, and pictures, lol.

68

[quote]Chushin wrote:
I was once hired as a security guard. My first job was to spend the night in a partially burned out house in the woods, with no electricity.

It was suspected that the owner had attempted arson for the insurance money, and might come back to finish the job.

This was before the days of cell phones, and I was forbidden from carrying any weapons.

Why I even finished the shift before quitting is still a mystery to me.

Oh, I also spent some time on an emergency MH intervention team in a less than “nice” neighborhood, but actually kind of enjoyed that.

OP, you a social worker, I’m guessing? [/quote]

I worked as a security guard all through college. I liked that work actually as it was pretty easy and I had plenty of time to study. I worked alone though and the shifts were 12 hours so it would get incredibly boring. I found myself calling dispatch just to talk to someone, lol. The security job you worked definitely did not sound pleasant!

I’m pretty much a social worker for all intensive purposes. Technically, I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT).

[quote]The Other Titan wrote:
I’m not going to quote the mess you made up there sturgeon but its true that old folks are the worst. And you’re welcome, I have more where that came from.

Did it hurt? [/quote]

Huh, did what hurt?

69

[quote]CMdad wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again. However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

What the hell did they pay you?

[/quote]
I worked that job for 2 summers as an undergrad student so they only paid me the student rate which at that time (2000-2001) was $13/ hr. the guys who worked there as their permanent job were paid $25/ hr. Those guys were also the definition of “old man strength”. They chain smoked all day and ate doughnuts and Coke for their lunch but, those old fuckers could outwork me any day of the week. [/quote]

Well…

For that kind of money…

I would rather fart in a cubicle…

Yeah…

Cant believe they would not pay more…[/quote]
Actually, that was better money than any other job I could have gotten at that time as a student… I was pretty happy with it at the time. I guess everything is relative. Also, the city I live in is Canada’s version of Pittsburgh: tons and tons of steel mills and heavy industry. It was just kind of expected that at some point in a man’s life he’d work in one of the mills. Most of my friends from university were working in the mills as well during the summer so I never thought anything of it.[/quote]

There was always some industry that hired kids between semesters at college. We had tons of factories, machine shops, etc. Labor was cheap (most paid minimum wage or just above it), but we took to it. Friends got friends jobs and there was always some place with an ad in the paper non-stop.

I worked in a lighting fixture factory when I was 19. This place was a true revolving door, people stayed a month, a week, 2 days, 1 day, a 1/2 day. The best was when I saw a new guy come in, take a look and just walk out. Everyone made minimum wage and some were there 25 years or more. I was there 2 months and was promoted as foreman of 1 assembly line. Actually a piece of cake.

It was also the ultimate drinking and smoking weed job. Every so often we’d have to make a run to the local dump with the company truck. Stop for beer on the way, sometimes bring a BB gun to shoot at seagulls at the dump.

Rob

70

Family Practice in a town full of shrimpers.

71

[quote]orion wrote:
Security guard at a Tina Turner concert, stocking shelves at a supermarket, delivering pizza, …

Those were all kinds of shitty too.

Guess you have to put in your time, before something decent comes up.

[/quote]

I delivered pizza too. I was 20 at the time so it was a decent job, but man there were some cheap customers. It was minimum wage and $0.50 a run, so if we didn’t get tipped, it was next to volunteer work.

72

[quote]flipya4it wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again.

However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

winner.[/quote]

Yeah, no shit!

73

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[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again.

However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

Just be glad you never had to battle a vorash in a blast furnace.

74

[quote]WhiteSturgeon wrote:

[quote]Chushin wrote:
I was once hired as a security guard. My first job was to spend the night in a partially burned out house in the woods, with no electricity.

It was suspected that the owner had attempted arson for the insurance money, and might come back to finish the job.

This was before the days of cell phones, and I was forbidden from carrying any weapons.

Why I even finished the shift before quitting is still a mystery to me.

Oh, I also spent some time on an emergency MH intervention team in a less than “nice” neighborhood, but actually kind of enjoyed that.

OP, you a social worker, I’m guessing? [/quote]

I worked as a security guard all through college. I liked that work actually as it was pretty easy and I had plenty of time to study. I worked alone though and the shifts were 12 hours so it would get incredibly boring. I found myself calling dispatch just to talk to someone, lol. The security job you worked definitely did not sound pleasant!

I’m pretty much a social worker for all intensive purposes. Technically, I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT).

[quote]The Other Titan wrote:
I’m not going to quote the mess you made up there sturgeon but its true that old folks are the worst. And you’re welcome, I have more where that came from.

Did it hurt? [/quote]

Huh, did what hurt? [/quote]
When you fell from heaven

75

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again. However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

What the hell did they pay you?

[/quote]
I worked that job for 2 summers as an undergrad student so they only paid me the student rate which at that time (2000-2001) was $13/ hr. the guys who worked there as their permanent job were paid $25/ hr. Those guys were also the definition of “old man strength”. They chain smoked all day and ate doughnuts and Coke for their lunch but, those old fuckers could outwork me any day of the week. [/quote]

My friends did that, too.

While I was in the met lab, sitting on my ass and working drills and saws.[/quote]
Nice. I always remember taking iron and slag samples to send to the met lab to be tested. The only female that I ever saw working in the mill was the driver who they sent around to pick up the samples. It sounds ridiculous but I remember us fighting to be the one who would lower the sample down to her in her Ford F-150. She was supposedly the daugther of one of the foremen and she was pretty good looking but because she was the only female surrounded by 8000 guys she looked like a goddess. Definitely plays tricks with your head/hormones to be completely separated from women.

76

[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:
Blast Furnace story wins easily. Stelco?

My hometown’s mascot was a Polar Bear called “Burr-Bear”. As a teenager, I dressed up as the aforementioned bear at a summer festival, at the request of a family friend who worked for City Hall. My mandate was to bumble around, being expressive with my paws (speaking was forbidden) and to hand out pamphlets about the changes the city was making to the waterfront.

As it turned out, a good number of people completely hated “Burr-bear”, or at least saw in him a potential outlet for pent-up rage and frustration. The indignities I was subjected to included being kicked in the kneecaps and testicles, having hot dogs and funnel cakes hurled at me, kids playing “keep away” with one of my detached paws, and an old man yell at me about how the town was breaking zoning regulations in their waterfront renovations (again, could not speak, all I could do was “bumble” as he lectured me).

When I got back to City Hall at the end of the day, they tried to charge me for drycleaning for the ketchup stains on my white fur (remnant of one of the errant hotdogs that collided with me). I told them they’d need another Burr-bear next year… [/quote]
Not Stelco. I was at Dofasco (which is now Arcelor-Mittal) in BOF #4. Are you from around Hamilton?

77

[quote]beachguy498 wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again. However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

What the hell did they pay you?

[/quote]
I worked that job for 2 summers as an undergrad student so they only paid me the student rate which at that time (2000-2001) was $13/ hr. the guys who worked there as their permanent job were paid $25/ hr. Those guys were also the definition of “old man strength”. They chain smoked all day and ate doughnuts and Coke for their lunch but, those old fuckers could outwork me any day of the week. [/quote]

Well…

For that kind of money…

I would rather fart in a cubicle…

Yeah…

Cant believe they would not pay more…[/quote]
Actually, that was better money than any other job I could have gotten at that time as a student… I was pretty happy with it at the time. I guess everything is relative. Also, the city I live in is Canada’s version of Pittsburgh: tons and tons of steel mills and heavy industry. It was just kind of expected that at some point in a man’s life he’d work in one of the mills. Most of my friends from university were working in the mills as well during the summer so I never thought anything of it.[/quote]

There was always some industry that hired kids between semesters at college. We had tons of factories, machine shops, etc. Labor was cheap (most paid minimum wage or just above it), but we took to it. Friends got friends jobs and there was always some place with an ad in the paper non-stop.

I worked in a lighting fixture factory when I was 19. This place was a true revolving door, people stayed a month, a week, 2 days, 1 day, a 1/2 day. The best was when I saw a new guy come in, take a look and just walk out. Everyone made minimum wage and some were there 25 years or more. I was there 2 months and was promoted as foreman of 1 assembly line. Actually a piece of cake.

It was also the ultimate drinking and smoking weed job. Every so often we’d have to make a run to the local dump with the company truck. Stop for beer on the way, sometimes bring a BB gun to shoot at seagulls at the dump.

Rob[/quote]
Exactly. At the time I worked there, minimum wage in my province was $6.95/hr so that’s why I thought $13/hr was a good deal…almost twice minimum wage. Again, I guess everything’s relative.

78

[quote]GrizzlyBerg wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again.

However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

Just be glad you never had to battle a vorash in a blast furnace. [/quote]
LMFAO!!! No vorashes but there were definitely some bad dudes in there. The worst case happened the year before the first year I worked there. The lead-hand’s wife went missing without a trace one day when he was at work. It was a big story in the news because the police had no leads. Anyways, life went on for almost a year with no sign of her. Then, one day in the furnace when the furnace was down being repaired, some of the guys had been detailed to clean up a never-used area in a back corner where old busted equipment was usually thrown. Just some busy work. The furnace is a big place and there were lots of areas where nobody would go for years at a time. This was one of them. Anyways, one of the guys found a woman’s sneaker covered in blood. This was odd because there were virtually no women in the entire mill. He gave it to the foreman who was friends with the lead-hand and his wife and he remembered seeing the missing woman wearing that type of running shoe. He called the cops, they investigated and arrested the lead-hand. In questioning, he admitted that he had hopped the fence on the night she went missing, went home, murdered her, hid her body somewhere and returned to work before anyone knew he was gone. Later he dismembered her and brought one piece per day to the furnace and tossed them in the molten iron where they vaporized instantly. His alibi was airtight because he had dozens of guys who saw him at work the night she went missing. Apparently he did it for the insurance money.

79

When I was 16 I worked as a punch press and drill press operator in a shitty hot factory for $5 an hour with an asshole of a foreman that yelled obscenities at us all day. I had no money for food for the first couple of weeks before getting my first paycheque so I was starving the whole time and it was hot hard physical labour and I was a weak 105 lb girl. That was hell.

80

[quote]CMdad wrote:

[quote]GrizzlyBerg wrote:

[quote]CMdad wrote:
Working in the blast furnace of a steel mill. If you’ve ever seen the first 5 minutes of the movie “The Deer Hunter” they are doing the same job I did. Had to wear a 45 lb asbestos suit for a full 12.5 hr shift to deflect the worst of the heat. Also had to wear a special respirator to prevent the scorching hot air from burning my lungs. We were the only job category in the whole mill that didn’t have to wear steel toed and soled boots because the ground was so hot the metal plating in them would burn your feet severely. Did I mention that it was hot as fuck in there? Every hour on the hour a hole would be drilled into the side of the furnace to allow the molten iron to flow out through a series of open trenches and into rail cars underneath the factory floor. After the flow stopped, the iron left in the trenches would solidify and then my job was to jump down onto it in the trenches and jackhammer and shovel it out before they opened the furnace again.

However, the iron I was standing on and jackhammering was still hundreds of degrees hot. After 10 seconds my boots would catch on fire and they were designed so that you could still work with them on for another 10-20 seconds before you started to burn, at which point I would have to jump out, hose them down with a water hose to put out the flames and then jump back in the trenches. Did I mention it was hot as fuck in there? And the best part was sometimes certain pockets of iron would cool down slower than the overlying iron and when I would jackhammer through the outer crust, a geyser of molten iron would erupt at you about 5 feet into the air. Deaths happened every year in there. I would drink 3-4 gallons of water a 12.5 hr shift and not piss once. Sweated it all out.[/quote]

Just be glad you never had to battle a vorash in a blast furnace. [/quote]
LMFAO!!! No vorashes but there were definitely some bad dudes in there. The worst case happened the year before the first year I worked there. The lead-hand’s wife went missing without a trace one day when he was at work. It was a big story in the news because the police had no leads. Anyways, life went on for almost a year with no sign of her. Then, one day in the furnace when the furnace was down being repaired, some of the guys had been detailed to clean up a never-used area in a back corner where old busted equipment was usually thrown. Just some busy work. The furnace is a big place and there were lots of areas where nobody would go for years at a time. This was one of them. Anyways, one of the guys found a woman’s sneaker covered in blood. This was odd because there were virtually no women in the entire mill. He gave it to the foreman who was friends with the lead-hand and his wife and he remembered seeing the missing woman wearing that type of running shoe. He called the cops, they investigated and arrested the lead-hand. In questioning, he admitted that he had hopped the fence on the night she went missing, went home, murdered her, hid her body somewhere and returned to work before anyone knew he was gone. Later he dismembered her and brought one piece per day to the furnace and tossed them in the molten iron where they vaporized instantly. His alibi was airtight because he had dozens of guys who saw him at work the night she went missing. Apparently he did it for the insurance money. [/quote]

Holy shit