# Advice on getting into industrial work



## Lone Crapshooter (Nov 8, 2008)

Find a Industrial maintenance contractor that is hiring. More than likely you will start on a wire pulling crew. Then if you are lucky they will put you on a conduit crew. You are not going to start out doing control rooms or motors control centers. Hang in there your time will come.

Lc


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Welcome aboard Andy! Enjoy the ride here.

Keep an eye on the hiring ads in your area or just drop off a resume at the places that do industrial work near you.


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## V-Dough (Jul 22, 2014)

Apply to electrical companies that do industrial work, keep applying to different ones and do not get discouraged. Like others have said, you will start doing the least complicated work, but you have to start somewhere. I was lucky enough to get hired as a maintenance electrician only one year after getting my ticket, but most places look for older people with more experience under their belt. I don't think many places look for apprentices, but you can still try applying. Good luck!


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## Cl906um (Jul 21, 2012)

To be the well rounded electrician, hit the road while you have no strings attached. To do industrial work as an apprentice, you have to follow where the work is. I just don't think it will all be what it is cracked up to be. When I was starting out, I got in with a company that did industrial, and needed a warm body for heavy back work. Worked at a new scott paper mill for a year. I can bend any piece of rigid conduit you throw at me. Not huge for a resume. Better off learning how circuits work in a residential situation. Housing has more code to learn than any other area in the trade, and if you are working steady, I wouldn't bite the hand that feeds. Take some motor control course at your local technical college. Get some knowledge before diving in. Otherwise you'll be set up on a jlg all day putting all thread drops from beam clamps feeling more dead end than ever. Maybe they will pull you off the lift for a bit to help you pull a triple 500 mcm down a cable tray. Fun!


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## Cl906um (Jul 21, 2012)

I kinda got lucky and was on the jumbo roll tissue machine. Took a motor control course that was way over my head during my first year, yet here I am. Company had no tools. We unwrapped the pink horse **** off the spool by flipping it over the spool and dragging it out. Over and over. Looking back, we must have looked pretty low scale. Wuh.


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## Corysan (Jan 20, 2017)

A few things really helped me transition in the same direction.
1. Cross train in mechanics and fluid power at a trade school. This will help you learn how machines function as a system.
2. Get some good books on maintenance. Maintenance is pretty much a science now. It goes far beyond simply reacting to break downs. Google maintenance and reliability books. Anything by Ricky Smith is gold. This will help you understand the process of maintenance and where maintenenace falls in the larger picture. Even contractors benefit greatly from this.
3. Learn as much as you can about motors, how they work, and how to troubleshoot them.
4. Really get into electrical theory. A good place to start is www.allaboutcircuits.com. Pay attention to things you would normally ignore as an electrician like digital electronics and digital logic. These subjects will help you immensely to understand boolean logic and how controllers function in general. Boolean is helpful for programmable relays. Practical electrical theory will help you understand what is going on electrically. Why does the phenomenon of "in-rush current" occur.
5. Get this book, Electrical Motor Controls by Rockis and Mazur.
6. Get a good book on PLC's that includes a tutorial CD-ROM like the book by Rabiee. It works with the site The Learning Pit. Good basic stuff without a lot of fluff. Also PLC E University and Youyube PLCProfessor channel.
7. Find the hardest part for you about industrial controls and get good at it.
8. Learn some industrial electronics. You will likely run into SCR's, you will run into VFD's and soft starters, and you need a good understanding of both digital and analog DC systems. Machines are heavily trending toward a combination of 120 VAC and 24 VDC controls, with the emphasis on DC.

As a side note, stop thinking "motor controls" and start thinking "industrial controls". This is the big picture under which motion control and process control fall. Motor controls does just that. Now, how do you control pressure, flow, temperature, etc.

I have found that what you are doing is not trying to branch out in a different direction, but move into a related trade that is different from your own. It takes a lot more knowledge, but if you apply yourself it can be very rewarding.

Cheers!


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## Corysan (Jan 20, 2017)

One more point. Your location states east coast. I don't need to know U.S. or Canada, but if you are in the U.S., get a copy of NFPA 79 and familiarize yourself with. Also get to know NEC art. 430 intimately.

If you get a chance to work on a new machine, open the control panel and take a boat load of photos. Look at them at home and think of that panel like a building. Main disconnecting means, Main overcurrent protection, power taps (tap rules and functions like the buss in a distribution panel), individual branch circuits (moves you into article 430 right away), separately derived systems for AC control power, grounding, etc.
NFPA will tell you why the wires are colored why they are and other useful things.

Another important point. When you are learning schematics, get a good cross reference for IEC symbology from NEMA. You will doubtless run into European and Asian machines, and you will be completely lost unless you know the IEC system.

Sorry to go on about this stuff, but I travelled that path already, and I really get into this stuff.


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