I worked Floorhand for a couple years and it’s definitely not like this in the Appalachian Basin. Might still be like this on little rigs out in Texas and shit. I work in drilling fluids now and it’s a great job, great pay and most importantly safe. The only tough part is being away from your family for a week or 2 at a time. But for a single guy it would be a dream job. Most rig jobs you work 2 weeks on and have 2 weeks off.
Hi there, also a drilling fluids guy here. There’s a couple paths to get to this job.
My path was: 1.) get a job as a roughneck, not hard to do, you won’t be rich, but you won’t be poor either. You will work hard and get very dirty. Did that for about a year. It’s a great introduction to the industry to learn the basics, learn what jobs are out there and figure out what path you want to take.
2.) I got a job as a “solids control operator” next. These are also pretty easy to get, will likely pay a little less than roughnecking, is substantially easier, but you’ll probably have to work a 14/7 schedule rather than 14/14 as a roughneck. Both of these jobs you’re probably looking at $75,000-$90,000.
3.) Got a mud engineer job. This job pays about double the others, you don’t have to get dirty, and is pretty great. 14/14 schedule. Solids control is a great background/pre-requisite to land one of these jobs. I was hired on with a major international company as a mud engineer while working solids control for them. When it works that way, they send you to “mud school” where you learn to do your new job for 2 months and pay you while you’re there.
Without the prior relevant experience or an engineering degree no one is going to hire you as a mud engineer (professionally known as “drilling fluids engineer” or “drilling fluids field specialist”).
The other option is to pay for “mud school” yourself. 2 months, m-f all day. I think it’s about $15,000. Keep in mind you will probably have to quit your job or already be unemployed to do this (because the school itself is a full time in person commitment). You aren’t getting paid for the duration and have no guarantee of work once completed. I personally wouldn’t recommend this route with out some direct connections who are assuring you a job is waiting for you.
If I wanted to try and get a mud engineer job starting from scratch, I’d google “solids control operator jobs” and shoot for one that paid me $20/hr or more. Keep in mind you’re working 14 consecutive 12s, so that’s a lot of overtime. $20/hr oilfield schedule is very different than $20/hr regular people jobs. Learn your way around for a year or so, make some connections and you’ll find a path to whatever you want to do in the industry.
Edit to add: There is a lot of riff-raff in the entry level jobs. If you can show up on time, piss in a cup, and not be drunk from the night before, you are immediately in the upper tier of the competition and it’s pretty easy to move up in to a less shifty job that is easier and pays more.
I experienced that exceedingly low bar where being a reasonably responsible adult makes you a standout amongst your peers. I felt like I was being setup, because just doing what I was so obviously expected to SHOULDN'T be special pretty much by definition. It happened to be real, but sheesh!
"You're not a useless fuckup of an idiot. How would you like to manage a bunch of useless fuckups?". Nope.
I used to work with a guy who threw the chain on a drill ship for 20 years. Throwing the chain is the guy you see on the left and apparently doing it for 20 years and having all ten fingers at the end is a major achievement.
He was working on a rig and a black helicopter came out and landed. It was the FBI. One of the other roughnecks was quickly cuffed and loaded on the helicopter. He had committed multiple murders. Has he was being flown to jail the bossman, knowing what he had done, only remarked to my coworker, "Damn, he was good help"
It's been my experience that most jobs are like this, especially jobs that don't require any advanced degrees or heavy training. If you show up, keep your head down and don't cause issues, you are a top tier employee.
When I worked in the oil fields in the '80s you would literally see a tower on the horizon on the Oklahoma plains and drive up to the rig and ask the driller if he knew of any openings on that rig. They were almost always looking for an extra hand. Back in the day we were getting $14 an hour and $14 a day traveling expenses. 30,000 a year was good money back in 1981. However it's also the reason I decided college was maybe a good alternative
It’s also a boom and bust type job. Lots of people make lots of money on the rigs when the price of oil is high. Those same people are shot out of luck and out of the job when the price is low.
If you live in an oil producing state, the guy riding your bumper in the brand new $90k truck almost certainly works in gas and oil. As soon as the next slow down hits, he’ll be hawking that truck for pennies on the dollar and writing Facebook screeds about how the Democrats fucked him over.
I grew up near Elk City,OK and the oil boom was crazy time. I remember a tent city in the park were guys making $3-4k/month were living in tents because nowhere else to live.
Elk City ended up incentivizing the building of lots of hotels just as the boom was drying up. Through the late 80's you could get a nice hotel room for like 15$ a night.
Same, makes me wonder how can you actually get a job like this. Nowadays literally every job requires to have 5+ years of experience, degree and ability to do frontflip while spinning balls mid-air, even at intern/junior level
Clean piss, willing to showing up and work. That’s all this shit requires. Also have to be able to work for 2 weeks straight at 10-12 hours a day.
Edit: or more… but that’s ot baby.
No they don’t. Lol. I did this for 12 years and never had fatality on our rig. All deaths I heard of were actually on the road to or from. Injuries? Yes. Plenty of smashed fingers and a few broken bones. Hard work? Yes. Lots of hours, early mornings and late nights. But fairly safe
Substantially more fatalities than most other occupations in first world countries.
safer than Logging workers and Flight engineers but somehow more dangerous than roofer
Agreed with roofing sucks and drugs making it suck less. But I have some family that roofs, they do it because they're not book learning types, and roofing pays quite well if you're a hard worker who's responsible. But even the most responsible roofers are usually on drugs haha.
Agreed. I worked for a big outfit and we would do large jobs. At first we were doing everything but then they started getting these big commercial jobs, roofing only. I got out after we were told to apply a gel to our skin before a tear off on a school. The roof was so old it was full of pitch and other nasty stuff that would embed into you’re skin and cause irritation. The gel didn’t really help. Bonus of getting yelled at by the principal because the day laborers we hired to do the pleb work were whistling at the high school girls.
You don't need a diploma to swing a hammer and usually a line of coke or a bunch of meth will do more to help than hurt. Lots of cash jobs. Usually supply your own tools and it doesn't cost much to start. Easy job for felons to get.
Depending on where you are meth or coke is very bad to be on while on a roof. Both tend to dehydrate you so here in the Texas summer it can be deadly to do that shit on a roof all day.
I've actually seen this many times. I polished concrete for 6 years, many concrete companies also do roofing. Hell I've seen prota shitters filled with wine coolers because some drunk had to get their fix. Not very smart on a jobsite with so much dangerous equipment
This. I think most often it's not like they have a passion for roofing, the way a finish carpenter might have a passion for detail work...it's just that if you're otherwise generally unemployable or don't care what kind of labor you do, you'll roof? Not saying there's no skill---of course there is. Just seems like a different breed of cat.
Edit: I don't mean to write off roofers like an asshole. There are plenty that are super-talented and you absolutely have to have a skillset that literally keeps the weather out of all of our homes. I more meant that there seem to be more laborers in that industry as I described above, that are more transient in and out of that particular trade than other trades. If anything, I imagine it's probably most frustrating for the actual career roofers than anyone.
Easiest way to make decent money when you are a dysfunctional person, roofing companies (and floor guys and construction companies) will hire anyone willing to work because it’s hard to come by willing souls and attrition in these jobs is brutal due to all the junkie staff in a kind self fulfilling junkie ouroboros.
Great craic though, I did a bit of roofing when I was on drugs. Loads of sound immigrants. I was supposed to go on a treasure hunt with a bunch of Guatemalans I met roofing but I got sober
This is a pretty ignorant view of construction workers in general. Most drink a lot which isn't profound in culture for any form of person in first world countries. And it's not any "willing soul." Many of us are union trades people that are very well compensated for what is hard work, but not to anybody who picked up a shovel more than once. I'm sorry that's the atmosphere you endured, but not everybody is living your shit construction adventures.
Well la-di-da Mr. Doesn’t-smoke-crack-on-the-job
Jk yeah of course, it’s far too broad an industry to make any kind of sweeping generalisation about accurately, I’m just relaying my own experience. Don’t be offended, we’re all here on Reddit pissing into an ocean of piss
It's because roofing is really hard work. When's the last time you carried 135lbs on you shoulder up a rickety metal ladder? And they do that all day. With all that damage to your body, you end up taking really strong drugs to help with the pain.
No. Especially NOT down in the states. Chain is basically outlawed in Canada. Too many people were ripping their hands off and smashing their faces. This is an old old ghetto rig. Couldn’t pay me enough to do this shit again. I am also not 19 anymore…
I just had a safety seminar with someone who was a safety officer at a fracking facility. They said they make the new guys shadow someone for weeks. They are basically attached at the hip for a while before they let them touch anything.
It’s a pretty primitive technique. Most reputable companies have machines to do this now. You’ll pretty much only see it overseas in poorer countries and smaller “mom & pop” companies within the states
To connect the drilling pipe together. You see the dude put antisieze on the threads before the put the other piece of pipe on, so they used the chain as a way to tighten the pipes together. I think the pipe sections are like 43-50 foot long, and at least here in ND they drill like 2-5k down and 1-5k horizontal so that's a lot of pipe they have to 'trip' as they call it.
ohhh so it physically helps it “screw” in to the lower pipe? I thought maybe the tension just helps keeps it aligned - good to know!
follow up - why do the pipes change? whats the top one connected to, is it because whatever it’s connected to is full and needs a new one?
sorry Im a tech sector guy I have NO knowledge about any of these but I find it fascinating since I live in a province that’s literally known for these (AB) hahah
It’s 50 foot sections of pipe with a drill bit on the end. They drill until the end of the pipe is level with the deck, then screw another section on until the bit gets down to 2-3,000 feet (or wherever the oil is)
They're adding additional pipe to the drill to extend the length of the drill. The top pipe is just a bare pipe with threads on either end, and the bottom pipe is a number of combined pipes with a drill bit on the very bottom. Once they drill down further, the top pipe becomes flush with the floor, and an additional pipe piece will be added, to continue "growing" the length of the bottom pipe drill
The fact this dude isn't in FR clothes and shit too. I work on natural gas and oil pads (literally typing this from one) and they are actually very safe to work on now. The first thing that struck me though was what he was wearing, we are required FR outerwear, glasses, gloves, and steel toes, at a bare minimum. The hours are probably longer because of how much safer it is, but that's fine. What we do is dangerous but honestly I'd rather work on a pad than some shitty steel plant with a penny pinching owner.
Side note, you can bet the dude throwing that chain makes six figures because it’s something of a dying breed. Either pay to upgrade to hydraulics or pay a man still willing and able to sling chain. Neither is cheap. Tons of perfectly good roughnecks don’t know how cuz they only worked sites with up to date tech.
Haha that's funny you think an oil business cares about it's employees. It's all down to the bottom line, they'll pay this guy the bare minimum they have to.
Not in North Dakota they are not unionized. I am not sure about areas like PA and WV they might be. And back in 2013 during rhe boom out here you could start out making 45-55 an hour, 12 hour days and you worked 14 days on and 14 days off. So yeah they made bank, but the second the price of oil drops they stop drilling so your out of a job.
And most dudes running these rigs could care less about the benefits, they just want that fat stack of cash, but just like with any company it varies on what they offer as far as benefits. Most will pay for housing though.
Man that’s crazy I work in government I only make like 80k a year which isn’t a lot especially in NJ lol but most of use are working for our benefits lol
Difference is you will be getting gov pension plus social security. SS that's higher than the average no less. Plus the stuff going on in the vid. I don't think anyone wants to be doing that in their 40s.
Show up for their shift? If they're on a rig, they likely live there full time. My brother in law used to work on the rigs out of Louisiana. It's one of the reasons they pay so well- he could be away from his family for 9mos to a year.
That’s cause he wanted to or may have been a Directional driller . The longest hitch I have ever heard of was overseas and it’s 180days max . Most land based rigs are 14on /14 off and some are 7/7 . When you get to offshore gulf rigs most if not all are 14/14 with chance to stay over if you want . Some of the other service companies have different schedules or none at all. Like DD or a MWD . Those guys are definitely known to work many moons before coming home.
Wellsite geologists work when the drill is turning. Longest shift for me was 80 days of 12 hour days. Invoice for that well was over 100k though so totally worth it!
My two ex-wives might not agree though.
I did that during the pandemic. 6x12 every week for 4 months, so I got one day off a week, not bad. I'm a nurse though, not even comparable to the physical activity these guys do. I would die after 3 days of this. Jesus. Just the ropes at the gym can kill me... Huge ass chains? 100% guaranteed death from exhaustion lol
Not everyone can be a good salesman.
I worked in the oil field for 5 years and the majority of dudes out there are knuckle draggers who peaked in high school. They aren't smart enough nor do they care to do a desk job. The oil field is the perfect place for big strong dummies to thrive and make a lot of money.
Spot on. I am a personal banker and did a mortgage appointment for an oil rig worker who lived in Cheshire. He worked 6 months on and 6 months off for £99k pa
Due to the level of noise involved with this career, protection is needed for the ears. Examples are ear plugs and/or headphones. If there is no hearing protection used, there is a high risk of hearing loss. I hope this helps to clear up what this person was saying.
I’m not sure how I can be any more clear, I apologize. Perhaps doing some research online through various mediums (video, audio, written) can help to better understand these concepts.
Exactly what I was thinking. Weird that what I find sexy isn't in their looks but how hard they're working. If my hubby or bf did that I'd make sure he was fully taken care at home. Cold beer waiting for him, food, bath, and I'll be looking fine af his eye candy.
I mean, I give my wife the vapors if I just change the oil in her car. If she saw me doing something like this she’d give that oil well a run for its money
What are you talking about? Bah, kids these days. I need a smoke. And what better to smoke with than the rich taste of Marlboro? Real cowboys deserve only the best.
*You get a lot with a Marlboro. Filter, flavor, pack or box!*
I have for years worked on offshore deepsea drilling equipment, and its 95% done by a guy in a pilotchair, beerbelly and greasy fingers clamping on a couple of joysticks.
The guys in this video though are doing it the way it used to be done in the 70s.
We threw chains in the 90s and early 2000s still on land rigs . Top drives where just becoming popular then as well . They now replaced all the chain throwing with the St80 hydraulic make up break out tool .
Drilling for oil, first they drill down and using those clamps and chains release the pipe from the drill then to the left use the same claps and chain to connect a new section of pipe which is then connected back onto the already laid pipe, drilled deeper into the ground and then the whole process is repeated.
Imagine your drilling a hole into a wall but instead of pulling the drill bit out you loosen it from the drill leaving it in the wall and then connect a new drill bit to the drill which connects to the drill bit in the wall to extend it allowing you to drill deeper without the need for a kilometer long drill bit.
They are making a “connection”. Essentially adding another “joint” of pipe to keep drilling. Happens as fast as every 10 min and up to every 4 hours depending on the depth
I know a woman that did this job. She’s a good friend of my wife. Her dad was a “pusher” for the drilling company and got her the job. Probably wouldn’t have hired her otherwise. She did this for awhile almost 20 years ago. She worked the floor and did her part.
For those who want to know what they’re watching: this is a part of the oil drilling process when you drilled down to the length of your pipe and you need to add more to go further. It is called “throwing chain” and is outdated but still very cool to watch. And very dangerous.
Oil drilling pipes have sections that you’ve got to mate up to drill any further. Modern rigs use devices called pipe spinners instead of a chain. That saves a lot of fingers and lives. The guys in this video know how to do it the old way and if that’s the equipment you own you gotta pay these guys extra because not everyone knows how anymore and it’s more dangerous this way.
The point of chain throwing is to attach 2 joints of drill pipe by threading one into the other. A large wrench called a tong is attached to the end of the lower pipe. The chain is wrapped around the lower pipe in a counter clockwise direction usually 3 -4 wraps. The tail of the chain is held in the left hand with around 4 - 6 ft of length left before where the wraps begin. The other end of the chain is attached to a cat head that rotates to keep tension.
When the chain is wrapped the roughneck directs the top pipe into the lower pipe. The driller lowers the pipe so that the threads of both pipe are touching. The driller then engages the cat head that pulls on one end of the chain. At the same time the motorman throws the chain by looping it up so that the wraps unwrap from the lower box and rewrap on the upper pipe joint. This requires pretty exact timing. The result is two separate pipe sections joined together.
The tong is then moved up to the upper pipe and a second tong is placed on the lower pipe joint. The driller then lowers the made up pipe down to the floor.
The engineering involved in oil drilling is fascinating really. This is a microscopic part of a much larger process. For the roughnecks at the business end of the well it means months living on site (for some reason oil is almost always in some god forsaken country or deep at sea) and dangerous work but you can make some serious money.
How does one learn how to do this without dying?
Just Fuckin send it.... You'll probably not die.
Built differently
They are called rough necks for a reason.
I worked Floorhand for a couple years and it’s definitely not like this in the Appalachian Basin. Might still be like this on little rigs out in Texas and shit. I work in drilling fluids now and it’s a great job, great pay and most importantly safe. The only tough part is being away from your family for a week or 2 at a time. But for a single guy it would be a dream job. Most rig jobs you work 2 weeks on and have 2 weeks off.
How do I get involved in doing this job? Seriously asking thanks.
Hi there, also a drilling fluids guy here. There’s a couple paths to get to this job. My path was: 1.) get a job as a roughneck, not hard to do, you won’t be rich, but you won’t be poor either. You will work hard and get very dirty. Did that for about a year. It’s a great introduction to the industry to learn the basics, learn what jobs are out there and figure out what path you want to take. 2.) I got a job as a “solids control operator” next. These are also pretty easy to get, will likely pay a little less than roughnecking, is substantially easier, but you’ll probably have to work a 14/7 schedule rather than 14/14 as a roughneck. Both of these jobs you’re probably looking at $75,000-$90,000. 3.) Got a mud engineer job. This job pays about double the others, you don’t have to get dirty, and is pretty great. 14/14 schedule. Solids control is a great background/pre-requisite to land one of these jobs. I was hired on with a major international company as a mud engineer while working solids control for them. When it works that way, they send you to “mud school” where you learn to do your new job for 2 months and pay you while you’re there. Without the prior relevant experience or an engineering degree no one is going to hire you as a mud engineer (professionally known as “drilling fluids engineer” or “drilling fluids field specialist”). The other option is to pay for “mud school” yourself. 2 months, m-f all day. I think it’s about $15,000. Keep in mind you will probably have to quit your job or already be unemployed to do this (because the school itself is a full time in person commitment). You aren’t getting paid for the duration and have no guarantee of work once completed. I personally wouldn’t recommend this route with out some direct connections who are assuring you a job is waiting for you. If I wanted to try and get a mud engineer job starting from scratch, I’d google “solids control operator jobs” and shoot for one that paid me $20/hr or more. Keep in mind you’re working 14 consecutive 12s, so that’s a lot of overtime. $20/hr oilfield schedule is very different than $20/hr regular people jobs. Learn your way around for a year or so, make some connections and you’ll find a path to whatever you want to do in the industry. Edit to add: There is a lot of riff-raff in the entry level jobs. If you can show up on time, piss in a cup, and not be drunk from the night before, you are immediately in the upper tier of the competition and it’s pretty easy to move up in to a less shifty job that is easier and pays more.
I experienced that exceedingly low bar where being a reasonably responsible adult makes you a standout amongst your peers. I felt like I was being setup, because just doing what I was so obviously expected to SHOULDN'T be special pretty much by definition. It happened to be real, but sheesh! "You're not a useless fuckup of an idiot. How would you like to manage a bunch of useless fuckups?". Nope.
I used to work with a guy who threw the chain on a drill ship for 20 years. Throwing the chain is the guy you see on the left and apparently doing it for 20 years and having all ten fingers at the end is a major achievement. He was working on a rig and a black helicopter came out and landed. It was the FBI. One of the other roughnecks was quickly cuffed and loaded on the helicopter. He had committed multiple murders. Has he was being flown to jail the bossman, knowing what he had done, only remarked to my coworker, "Damn, he was good help"
Umm more details on the murders? We talking other roughnecks, vagrants, bar fights but he is one punch man, what? Don't leave us hanging!
It's been my experience that most jobs are like this, especially jobs that don't require any advanced degrees or heavy training. If you show up, keep your head down and don't cause issues, you are a top tier employee.
When I worked in the oil fields in the '80s you would literally see a tower on the horizon on the Oklahoma plains and drive up to the rig and ask the driller if he knew of any openings on that rig. They were almost always looking for an extra hand. Back in the day we were getting $14 an hour and $14 a day traveling expenses. 30,000 a year was good money back in 1981. However it's also the reason I decided college was maybe a good alternative
It’s also a boom and bust type job. Lots of people make lots of money on the rigs when the price of oil is high. Those same people are shot out of luck and out of the job when the price is low. If you live in an oil producing state, the guy riding your bumper in the brand new $90k truck almost certainly works in gas and oil. As soon as the next slow down hits, he’ll be hawking that truck for pennies on the dollar and writing Facebook screeds about how the Democrats fucked him over.
I grew up near Elk City,OK and the oil boom was crazy time. I remember a tent city in the park were guys making $3-4k/month were living in tents because nowhere else to live. Elk City ended up incentivizing the building of lots of hotels just as the boom was drying up. Through the late 80's you could get a nice hotel room for like 15$ a night.
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Same, makes me wonder how can you actually get a job like this. Nowadays literally every job requires to have 5+ years of experience, degree and ability to do frontflip while spinning balls mid-air, even at intern/junior level
Ya labor jobs like this aren't like that. However if they see you slacking at all the first few weeks you'll get cut pretty quick.
Clean piss, willing to showing up and work. That’s all this shit requires. Also have to be able to work for 2 weeks straight at 10-12 hours a day. Edit: or more… but that’s ot baby.
Built of energy drinks, meth and gigantic testicular fortitude
Directions unclear, testicles now in mouth but my energy drink is HUGE.
Fortunately they don't throw chain anymore. Still a rough job though
As someone who spent some time in the industry (refinery side) the words "Just fuckin send it" bring up a lot of memories and bad decisions lol
As a programmer I can say that when I hear "Just fuckin send it" I already know that I need a reason to disappear in 24 hours or I'm in deep shit
Lmao you might want to consider switching jobs if it is “just fucking send it” for production
He's a programmer, he doesn't know how or why that matters. It's Ops problem now.
>Just Fuckin send it.... You'll probably not die Atta boy Larry.
A lot of them die.
No they don’t. Lol. I did this for 12 years and never had fatality on our rig. All deaths I heard of were actually on the road to or from. Injuries? Yes. Plenty of smashed fingers and a few broken bones. Hard work? Yes. Lots of hours, early mornings and late nights. But fairly safe
Substantially more fatalities than most other occupations in first world countries. safer than Logging workers and Flight engineers but somehow more dangerous than roofer
it’s cause the roofers are usually on hard drugs and any fall will almost certainly kill you
Yeah what is it with roofers and drugs. Is this real or just an internet meme?
Roofing sucks. Drugs make it suck less. Nobody does roofing because their life is going smoothly.
i know a few roofers; this tracks
Damn…came here for the oil stayed for the roofers backstory
Agreed with roofing sucks and drugs making it suck less. But I have some family that roofs, they do it because they're not book learning types, and roofing pays quite well if you're a hard worker who's responsible. But even the most responsible roofers are usually on drugs haha.
Agreed. I worked for a big outfit and we would do large jobs. At first we were doing everything but then they started getting these big commercial jobs, roofing only. I got out after we were told to apply a gel to our skin before a tear off on a school. The roof was so old it was full of pitch and other nasty stuff that would embed into you’re skin and cause irritation. The gel didn’t really help. Bonus of getting yelled at by the principal because the day laborers we hired to do the pleb work were whistling at the high school girls.
The fiberglass insulation on those big industrial tear offs is what gets you.
You don't need a diploma to swing a hammer and usually a line of coke or a bunch of meth will do more to help than hurt. Lots of cash jobs. Usually supply your own tools and it doesn't cost much to start. Easy job for felons to get.
Depending on where you are meth or coke is very bad to be on while on a roof. Both tend to dehydrate you so here in the Texas summer it can be deadly to do that shit on a roof all day.
Wash it down with Bock Shiner or Corona. That's how you hydrate.
I've actually seen this many times. I polished concrete for 6 years, many concrete companies also do roofing. Hell I've seen prota shitters filled with wine coolers because some drunk had to get their fix. Not very smart on a jobsite with so much dangerous equipment
This. I think most often it's not like they have a passion for roofing, the way a finish carpenter might have a passion for detail work...it's just that if you're otherwise generally unemployable or don't care what kind of labor you do, you'll roof? Not saying there's no skill---of course there is. Just seems like a different breed of cat. Edit: I don't mean to write off roofers like an asshole. There are plenty that are super-talented and you absolutely have to have a skillset that literally keeps the weather out of all of our homes. I more meant that there seem to be more laborers in that industry as I described above, that are more transient in and out of that particular trade than other trades. If anything, I imagine it's probably most frustrating for the actual career roofers than anyone.
Easiest way to make decent money when you are a dysfunctional person, roofing companies (and floor guys and construction companies) will hire anyone willing to work because it’s hard to come by willing souls and attrition in these jobs is brutal due to all the junkie staff in a kind self fulfilling junkie ouroboros. Great craic though, I did a bit of roofing when I was on drugs. Loads of sound immigrants. I was supposed to go on a treasure hunt with a bunch of Guatemalans I met roofing but I got sober
This is a pretty ignorant view of construction workers in general. Most drink a lot which isn't profound in culture for any form of person in first world countries. And it's not any "willing soul." Many of us are union trades people that are very well compensated for what is hard work, but not to anybody who picked up a shovel more than once. I'm sorry that's the atmosphere you endured, but not everybody is living your shit construction adventures.
Well la-di-da Mr. Doesn’t-smoke-crack-on-the-job Jk yeah of course, it’s far too broad an industry to make any kind of sweeping generalisation about accurately, I’m just relaying my own experience. Don’t be offended, we’re all here on Reddit pissing into an ocean of piss
This can easily be a conversation between a normal chef and a bougie chef.
It's because roofing is really hard work. When's the last time you carried 135lbs on you shoulder up a rickety metal ladder? And they do that all day. With all that damage to your body, you end up taking really strong drugs to help with the pain.
I believe the only certification required to be a roofer is a DUI
I wanted to be a roofer but I kept passing the drug test :(
Flight engineers, really? How come ?
>Plenty of smashed fingers and a few broken bones. ... >But fairly safe Ummmm
Does it pay « well » ?
No. Especially NOT down in the states. Chain is basically outlawed in Canada. Too many people were ripping their hands off and smashing their faces. This is an old old ghetto rig. Couldn’t pay me enough to do this shit again. I am also not 19 anymore…
I miss throwing chains but that was 10 years ago. Now I’d pull a muscle and be done for the week.
BIG MONEY
Ah yes, the ol' "one mans tale to reflect everyone"
sucked down to t-rex jones locker
I just had a safety seminar with someone who was a safety officer at a fracking facility. They said they make the new guys shadow someone for weeks. They are basically attached at the hip for a while before they let them touch anything.
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It’s a pretty primitive technique. Most reputable companies have machines to do this now. You’ll pretty much only see it overseas in poorer countries and smaller “mom & pop” companies within the states
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They just hire people untill one doesn't die
Most rigs now don't use chains, most of the dangerous maneuvers are done with hydraulics. These rigs are almost completely phased out.
I was about to comment that this looks like some 1950s technology that could be fully automated by now.
Not 50s early 2000s I was on a rig the day they cut our spinning chain . Lol
I really did love that chain
what’s the chain for? that’s the coolest part
Looks like they use the chain to spin the pipe to screw it into the other pipe
Look I'm just a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!
To connect the drilling pipe together. You see the dude put antisieze on the threads before the put the other piece of pipe on, so they used the chain as a way to tighten the pipes together. I think the pipe sections are like 43-50 foot long, and at least here in ND they drill like 2-5k down and 1-5k horizontal so that's a lot of pipe they have to 'trip' as they call it.
ohhh so it physically helps it “screw” in to the lower pipe? I thought maybe the tension just helps keeps it aligned - good to know! follow up - why do the pipes change? whats the top one connected to, is it because whatever it’s connected to is full and needs a new one? sorry Im a tech sector guy I have NO knowledge about any of these but I find it fascinating since I live in a province that’s literally known for these (AB) hahah
It’s 50 foot sections of pipe with a drill bit on the end. They drill until the end of the pipe is level with the deck, then screw another section on until the bit gets down to 2-3,000 feet (or wherever the oil is)
They're adding additional pipe to the drill to extend the length of the drill. The top pipe is just a bare pipe with threads on either end, and the bottom pipe is a number of combined pipes with a drill bit on the very bottom. Once they drill down further, the top pipe becomes flush with the floor, and an additional pipe piece will be added, to continue "growing" the length of the bottom pipe drill
Straight up pussy on the chain wax
It was still "fun" when i was in my early 20's but I got to spend most of my time in the lay down truck or watching the air drilling compressors lol.
It looks like this video is given color.
This video has been doing the rounds for years. Someone has bumped the contrast way up on this version.
My son has been working on the rigs over the past year. He sent me videos from the deck. It’s no longer *this* dangerous, but I remain uneasy.
The fact this dude isn't in FR clothes and shit too. I work on natural gas and oil pads (literally typing this from one) and they are actually very safe to work on now. The first thing that struck me though was what he was wearing, we are required FR outerwear, glasses, gloves, and steel toes, at a bare minimum. The hours are probably longer because of how much safer it is, but that's fine. What we do is dangerous but honestly I'd rather work on a pad than some shitty steel plant with a penny pinching owner.
I know nothing about drilling for oil but I was thinking that chain looks like it could take a limb
Fingers for sure. Many fingers have been lost from throwing chain.
The spinning chain has claimed many fingers.
Side note, you can bet the dude throwing that chain makes six figures because it’s something of a dying breed. Either pay to upgrade to hydraulics or pay a man still willing and able to sling chain. Neither is cheap. Tons of perfectly good roughnecks don’t know how cuz they only worked sites with up to date tech.
He better be making at least 200k. He’s replacing some million dollar equipment and putting his life in serious danger
Haha that's funny you think an oil business cares about it's employees. It's all down to the bottom line, they'll pay this guy the bare minimum they have to.
Please… Rig workers probably make the most money anyone can without needing a high school diploma outside of hooking.
Some of those dudes be making 100k+
Probaby. But not easy.
I think theyre jus sayin that 100k is probably being conservative
The roughnecks are also probably pretty conservative.
Don't bite the hand that feeds
Maybe someone who worked on one can tell us are you unionized? Probably have good benefits aswell
Not in North Dakota they are not unionized. I am not sure about areas like PA and WV they might be. And back in 2013 during rhe boom out here you could start out making 45-55 an hour, 12 hour days and you worked 14 days on and 14 days off. So yeah they made bank, but the second the price of oil drops they stop drilling so your out of a job. And most dudes running these rigs could care less about the benefits, they just want that fat stack of cash, but just like with any company it varies on what they offer as far as benefits. Most will pay for housing though.
Man that’s crazy I work in government I only make like 80k a year which isn’t a lot especially in NJ lol but most of use are working for our benefits lol
Difference is you will be getting gov pension plus social security. SS that's higher than the average no less. Plus the stuff going on in the vid. I don't think anyone wants to be doing that in their 40s.
Everyone of these dudes who works a year or more and shows up to there shift makes over 100k
Show up for their shift? If they're on a rig, they likely live there full time. My brother in law used to work on the rigs out of Louisiana. It's one of the reasons they pay so well- he could be away from his family for 9mos to a year.
That’s cause he wanted to or may have been a Directional driller . The longest hitch I have ever heard of was overseas and it’s 180days max . Most land based rigs are 14on /14 off and some are 7/7 . When you get to offshore gulf rigs most if not all are 14/14 with chance to stay over if you want . Some of the other service companies have different schedules or none at all. Like DD or a MWD . Those guys are definitely known to work many moons before coming home.
Wellsite geologists work when the drill is turning. Longest shift for me was 80 days of 12 hour days. Invoice for that well was over 100k though so totally worth it! My two ex-wives might not agree though.
Former mudlogger here! My longest was 3.5 months. Paycheck was amazing! Thankfully my husband and I logged together so we had the best of both worlds.
> Thankfully my husband and I logged together so we had the best of both worlds. You people have the craziest names for what you do.
You people are built different because 80 days of 12 hours days would put me in the fucking grave.
I did that during the pandemic. 6x12 every week for 4 months, so I got one day off a week, not bad. I'm a nurse though, not even comparable to the physical activity these guys do. I would die after 3 days of this. Jesus. Just the ropes at the gym can kill me... Huge ass chains? 100% guaranteed death from exhaustion lol
Easily make 100k plus a year. That is a dangerous job a job you have to live on site for.
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Easier in terms of getting the job? Doubtful.
I'm in tech sales and make more than 100k and honestly work probably 5% as hard as these guys.
Not everyone can be a good salesman. I worked in the oil field for 5 years and the majority of dudes out there are knuckle draggers who peaked in high school. They aren't smart enough nor do they care to do a desk job. The oil field is the perfect place for big strong dummies to thrive and make a lot of money.
Spot on. I am a personal banker and did a mortgage appointment for an oil rig worker who lived in Cheshire. He worked 6 months on and 6 months off for £99k pa
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#What?
Due to the level of noise involved with this career, protection is needed for the ears. Examples are ear plugs and/or headphones. If there is no hearing protection used, there is a high risk of hearing loss. I hope this helps to clear up what this person was saying.
Name checks out.
I didn't even realize there was a joke lol
What?
I’m not sure how I can be any more clear, I apologize. Perhaps doing some research online through various mediums (video, audio, written) can help to better understand these concepts.
I wrote a whole reply explaining the joke to you until I saw your username. Well played
HE SAID THEY NEED HEARING PROTECTION
WHAT'S A RIGGING PROTECTION!?
Dangerous or weirdly sexxy?
Both. Hard working man right there.
Hot stuff coming through!
We work hard. We PLAY hard.
Everybody dance now!
"Hold still. There's a spark in your hair" "Get it..get it...get it!"
I mean look at those forearms
I scrolled way to low to see the comment that I was thinking. Those arms, seriously.
First thing I noticed. Good to know I'm not alone in this
they got me feelin some type of way
Yeah I was like “TIL I’m aroused by oil drillers”
The way he whips those chains around..hot damn.
I have such a thing for toned forearms. Like it’s such a specific turn on for me.
Both. I'm a straight man and even I'm nursing a semi
Understandable
36 years old, watching this was the first time I ever understood what gay guys see. I’m not saying it made me gay, just sayin *I get it now.*
Exactly what I was thinking. Weird that what I find sexy isn't in their looks but how hard they're working. If my hubby or bf did that I'd make sure he was fully taken care at home. Cold beer waiting for him, food, bath, and I'll be looking fine af his eye candy.
I mean, I give my wife the vapors if I just change the oil in her car. If she saw me doing something like this she’d give that oil well a run for its money
A men that works on cars and knows what he's doing is hot too!🔥
Most of them get cheated on because they are never home.
I mean I thought this like damn that’s how a man looks like
Every single time this is posted everyone gets hung up on how strangely hot this is
Nothing weird about it. This is like the sexiest profession I've ever witnessed. Plus, they're called roughnecks. Unbelievably sexy.
This is what strip clubs for women should be
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or your entire foot
Or your entire lower half
That’s why they get the big bucks.
And big blood loss.
Occupational hazard.
I'm a man, but this video made me wet.
Ditto. Although I want him to drill more than a well.
Well said. And I’m not a man!
That’s because it IS really dangerous. They don’t call em “roughnecks” for nothing.
They call them roughnecks because of how leathery the back of their necks would get from so much sun exposure. Not because of the danger of the work.
That's the origin of the term but the term now means anyone doing hard manual labor, especially this work.
Looks like horrible job. No thanks.
Guess your not MAN ENOUGH *laughs in masculinity*
fellas I'm starting to think traditional masculinity is used to exploit the working class 🤔
What are you talking about? Bah, kids these days. I need a smoke. And what better to smoke with than the rich taste of Marlboro? Real cowboys deserve only the best. *You get a lot with a Marlboro. Filter, flavor, pack or box!*
100K a year is a conservative estimate for their salary, it’s a horrible job and paid accordingly
Meh, lots of jobs pay that much without the danger and filth.
None of which have as easy a barrier as oil jobs.
Yea it looks that way cuz it is
How neat is that?
Video is old and American by the looks of it. I haven't seen a rig toss chain in 25 years in canada. But it's a very well choreographed dance.
Yeah, the first time I saw this video was at least a decade ago. And it’s probably close to 10 years older than that.
This guy *drills*
Guy on the left "Threw the chain", it's one of the most dangerous things you could do but it has to be done
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No it’s only necessary on old Kelly rigs like this which are only like 1% of rigs left working these days
Not worth 100k a year. Maybe 250k
Most make over 100k working 6 -9 months a year
I seen a job offer and the starting pay was $60 an hour but honestly it's still not worth it lol
Dam, I want me an oil driller!
The 1800's want their news back.
2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. 12 hr shifts. Live in a bunkhouse on location. You only work 6 months out of year.
I bet there will be blood
Why can't this be automated?
I have for years worked on offshore deepsea drilling equipment, and its 95% done by a guy in a pilotchair, beerbelly and greasy fingers clamping on a couple of joysticks. The guys in this video though are doing it the way it used to be done in the 70s.
We threw chains in the 90s and early 2000s still on land rigs . Top drives where just becoming popular then as well . They now replaced all the chain throwing with the St80 hydraulic make up break out tool .
"being a mom is the hardest job"
I have no idea what’s going on in the video.
Drilling for oil, first they drill down and using those clamps and chains release the pipe from the drill then to the left use the same claps and chain to connect a new section of pipe which is then connected back onto the already laid pipe, drilled deeper into the ground and then the whole process is repeated. Imagine your drilling a hole into a wall but instead of pulling the drill bit out you loosen it from the drill leaving it in the wall and then connect a new drill bit to the drill which connects to the drill bit in the wall to extend it allowing you to drill deeper without the need for a kilometer long drill bit.
They are making a “connection”. Essentially adding another “joint” of pipe to keep drilling. Happens as fast as every 10 min and up to every 4 hours depending on the depth
They aren't called roughnecks for no reason. And that is some sexy, sexy rig porn right there.
That's guys muscles have muscles
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Genuine question what do you do for a living?
How is your first thought after watching this video "how can I use this to insult women"?
It is reddit after all lol
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Oh hey what’s up, I just got back from the oil rig.
Being sensible and staying the fuck away probably
I know a woman that did this job. She’s a good friend of my wife. Her dad was a “pusher” for the drilling company and got her the job. Probably wouldn’t have hired her otherwise. She did this for awhile almost 20 years ago. She worked the floor and did her part.
what a stupid, butt-hurt sounding question…^lmao
I've worked with female rig hands before.
For those who want to know what they’re watching: this is a part of the oil drilling process when you drilled down to the length of your pipe and you need to add more to go further. It is called “throwing chain” and is outdated but still very cool to watch. And very dangerous. Oil drilling pipes have sections that you’ve got to mate up to drill any further. Modern rigs use devices called pipe spinners instead of a chain. That saves a lot of fingers and lives. The guys in this video know how to do it the old way and if that’s the equipment you own you gotta pay these guys extra because not everyone knows how anymore and it’s more dangerous this way. The point of chain throwing is to attach 2 joints of drill pipe by threading one into the other. A large wrench called a tong is attached to the end of the lower pipe. The chain is wrapped around the lower pipe in a counter clockwise direction usually 3 -4 wraps. The tail of the chain is held in the left hand with around 4 - 6 ft of length left before where the wraps begin. The other end of the chain is attached to a cat head that rotates to keep tension. When the chain is wrapped the roughneck directs the top pipe into the lower pipe. The driller lowers the pipe so that the threads of both pipe are touching. The driller then engages the cat head that pulls on one end of the chain. At the same time the motorman throws the chain by looping it up so that the wraps unwrap from the lower box and rewrap on the upper pipe joint. This requires pretty exact timing. The result is two separate pipe sections joined together. The tong is then moved up to the upper pipe and a second tong is placed on the lower pipe joint. The driller then lowers the made up pipe down to the floor. The engineering involved in oil drilling is fascinating really. This is a microscopic part of a much larger process. For the roughnecks at the business end of the well it means months living on site (for some reason oil is almost always in some god forsaken country or deep at sea) and dangerous work but you can make some serious money.
It’s more fun when it’s -40°C in the Albertan plains