muffster

Evening,
Any plumbers or sparkys around? i'm starting to think about what i will do when i leave the forces and this sort of employment (i hope!) would be ideal for me. So can anyone offer some advice on either trade, both good and bad, do's & don'ts etc.
When the time comes it will be a big step so i don't want to make a move in the wrong direction.

Many thanks,
Muffster.

vaughant

iTrader: (1)

Hi mate,I'm a spark myself so I hope I can assist you a bit.

I'm assuming your talking about becoming a domestic electrician as to become an industrial spark like me you tend to need an apprenticeship of some description.

Domestic electrics are pretty boring to be honest,quite monotonous as a hell of a lot of it's pulling cables,channelling,trunking the only real challenge is if your doing alarm systems or something but their only 6 wires or so.

I found the domestic side really boring,it's mainly lacky work.the testing sides a bit more interesting and you should at least look to eventually do that as it's a very interesting course,inspection and testing 2391 city and guilds.the main one to get you started is the 17th edition of the electrical regulations.

This is an open book test which proves you know WHERE to find the information in a very large book which tells you exactly how to keep things within "code".

If you eventually decide to progres to industrial work,automation,plc's,3 phase,drives etc it gets really interesting,learning how to read diagrams,fault finding etc,its really interesting stuff.

I think the only problem you'll face is there's fucking millions of domestic sparks out there right now as a lot of people jumped in when the building trade went silly in the boom but of course now in recession there's a lot of competition.

Plumbing I thinks also had a kick in the balls with the recession but their both good trades to have and there's always going to be work involved with them.

Out of interest,if your retraining,welding pays well,average about £13 per hour and anything "environment" related is good,energy saving etc!!

Cozzie Bhoy

I come from a family of plumbers and served an apprenticeship myself. I'd highly recommend it, Its a brilliant trade. Even with the recession there's always essential maintenance work to keep one busy. It also involves a bit of wiring, carpentry, concreting etc.

dangerousbrian

personally if it were me i would prefer to be a sparky as its more of a specialist job in my opinion..plumbing is pretty straight forward..these days with the plastic pipes that lock together even i can do most plumbing work and that saying something ha

Cozzie Bhoy

Plumbing is a lot more complex than pushing a few plastic pipes together mate!!

dangerousbrian

didnt say it wasnt. but an electricians job is WAY more complex than plumbing, which in turn means less people will undertake sparky stuff than plumbing themselves. meaning more work for a specialist. lets be honest though, plumbing is hardly the hardest trade to learn, hence there are shitloads of them about..

Sonic Boom

iTrader: (11)

You want to try outdoor plumbing as i call it working for Severn Trent fixing burst mains and services thats serious graft.
Rich

vaughant

iTrader: (1)

TBH mate,domestic electrical work could be carried out by a trained monkey!!

I do generally agree with you about basic plumbing,its been made a lot more straightforward over the years but theres some serious stuff out there to get your head round with flow rates,lift pressures and fucking all sorts!!

I`d say with electrical stuff the sky`s the limit really on how much you can learn and once you get into the electronics side of it I`d say its a lot more difficult than plumbing then.Mind you,once you get talking about hydraulics some of the stuff they can do right now is just mindblowing,its getting to be a trade on its own.

I did a multiskilled apprenticeship so we touched on everything and although I was specialized in electrical,we did a lot of pneumatics/hydraulics and its very interesting,but also frustrating.

A good trade I forgot about earlier is refrigeration engineer,that way you can do both plumbing and electrical and theoretically never be out of work.

pompy1

+1 Totally agree. If you are going to be doing this as part of your ressetlement package why don't you do both or as many related courses as possible.

Regards, Nige

danneth

I dont find the industrial side anymore thrilling tbh, its just bigger cables and made off different all quite boring now

Alot of sparks hate the domestic side but its where the money is really ( although no where near what it use to be )

stevos

+1 I do refrigeration and air conditioning and we are always busy, and i have a very varied work load as i can be doing service work, maintenance or a/c instalation .
Best career move i ever made And the wages are pretty good as well.

muffster

Firstly thanks for the positive respones fellas.
I'm thinking that a sparky/plumber is the sort of trade which people will always need and it seems like intersting work. I did the 16th edition years ago just for interest value and to do something with my time, but that was 2001 and i haven't used it since.
I've also thought about the air conditioning trade but have no experince of it.
I've been an engineer in the Navy for 18+ years. Mainly mechanical but i've worked on plenty of electical systems including 440v, 3 phase all the way down to 12v communication units. Also done hydraulic and pnuematic stuff but that was a few years ago. Bit of a jack of all trades, master of none.
At the moment i'm teaching the lads to become armourers on ships but there isn't much call for repairing machine guns on civvy street!!!
I need to become retrained/qualified to be attractive to an employer, so which courses can you recommend, and which are the training courses to avoid as i've heard that some of them are quite poor?
Many thanks,

Muffster.

cjwood555

If you wanted to be a sparky, you can do
- 16th - 17th ed update course
- Domestic Installer (Part P) if going domestic
- 2391 Inspection & Testing if going industrial.

Your time in the navy would be sufficient to cover the vocational element, so you would be able to register with the IEE still, if you wanted to. There is no requirement in law to have anything other than 17th ed to carry out commercial work, however the extent of work is limited by testing and design/documentation requirements.

focusv8

Keep away from domestic, with your experience you'll be bored after a couple of weeks.

I'm Electrical, Mechanical, Control Systems, Plumbing, Heating, Gas Safe registered and a load more skills aquired over the years, I'm not ex forces.

3 of my work collegues doing the same job are ex forces.
1 Electrical Tiff - Lack
1 Mechanical Tiff - Kirby
1 RAF Weapons technician

All retrained to get Corgi, now Gassafe registration about 7 years ago all of us do Commercial Building Services Maintenance work.

Over the years I've also come across Commercial Refrig Engineers who retrained when leaving the Navy.

Hydraulics / Pneumatics will help you into Refrig.
.

rubinsbin

poles and the like do it all
now!!!! immigrant labour do it for food-
HOW ABOUT EXPORT? PAKISTAN IS LOOKING FOR SQEEGEES AND SPONGES-
BIG MOPPING UP OPERATION GOING ON THERE SINCE THE PIPE BUST!!-
THERE YOU GO!!>>> THEY MAY NEED PLUMBERS----GET THAT DENZO TAPE OUT.

Mark_

how good is 'pretty good'?

jameswrx

Based on friends in both trades.. I'd be a plumber if you want to be loaded. Mind you my dad was a plumber but he never used to charge much and always remember my mum having a go at him for not charging enough. And i remember him coming home with a motorcycle and a boat as payment for jobs

Dave Hewy

iTrader: (3)

Im a plumber, mainly commercial but a reasonable amount of domestic stuff too. The installation side is quite good but ripping out bogs and unblocking drains is horrible. I'd much rather be a sparky to be honest, you don't have to put up with the shit.

Ryan

i've always thought domestic sparkys and plumbers are massively over paid for what is very simple work.

although i fully understand there is a league apart from a top plumber and your average plumber, as i think half of it is in the install and eye for detail, i.e boiler and board installations

Mark_

ive added extra sockets and moved sockets in my home and im no expert.
ive also had them checked over by a sparky mate just to make sure its safe

danneth

we are

Lee Reynolds

Both jobs if domestic are quite monotnos and boring tbh! and not very rewarding in the job satisfaction sense but can be where money is concerned.
Id say they are both on a par with each other, go with whatever you fancy the most!

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

Muffster, send me your mobile number by PM, I'm leaving the RAF in 7 months, and have lots of good info about resettlement and courses!

GARETH T

why not do both if your thinking domestic?
i would say if your thining about doing something industrial i would say "specialise" as theres many different areas, and there is always experts in these areas like:
instrumentation-calibration of sensors and transducers and setting up of control loops
process control- PLC, scada programming
robot programming, well as it says really
motor control, selection and setting of drives and inverters
hydrolics and pneumatic
panel building (i totally believe this is a trade on its own, as some panels you go in are just shocking)
and of cause mix and matching of them all

muffster

PM sent.

All positive stuff fellas, cheers.
Muffster

e30cossie

stevos +1 I do refrigeration and air conditioning and we are always busy, and i have a very varied work load as i can be doing service work, maintenance or a/c instalation .
Best career move i ever made And the wages are pretty good as well.



+1 I also do refrigeration and air conditioning. I love my job and is very rewarding. The only down side is you do not get many private jobs.

plumber vs electrician I would choose plumber. I have just finished a 2 year night course in plumbing as I thought it would be easy but was surprised how much there was to learn.

good luck with which one you go for.

cozzy940

what do you do then?, if its that simple and well paid surely you would be either

vaughant

iTrader: (1)

Hi fella,no i didnt mean the power side of it,I specialised in control electrics,plc,relays,automation etc.it was a really good job and well paid too but sadly manufacturings on it's knees and stuff like that's few and far between.

As I've just finished up in business now I'm hoping to start work with a company called powerman who apparently specialise in high voltage stuff,switching etc so that should be interesting,another string to the bow so to speak.

To the o/p,it sounds like your pretty well qualified to take up both the trades your interested in,good luck with whatever path you wish to take,and pm me for any advice or help I can give you.

Steve the Plumber

iTrader: (11)

[QUOTE=Ryan;5105571]i've always thought domestic sparkys and plumbers are massively over paid for what is very simple work.


Really Ryan,

Now Im a 3rd generation Plumber and Heating engineer, Natural Gas and LPG registered and work for myself,

By the time we pay for our quailifications (which need renewing every 5 years), Liabilty insurances, Gas safe registration, accountancy, tools and testing equipment, advertising and a van to get me to your house and not including any spare parts,

So before we've "massively overcharged you for simple work" we've spent a hell of a lot money 1st, which all needs to be paid for!!

cozzy940

more money to be made in domestic side at the minute

cozzy940

[QUOTE=Steve the Plumber;5106070]+1 , prob a painter,they always chip on bout everyone earning more than them

danneth

[quote=cozzy940;5106081]
i thought it was the plasterers

cozzy940

Nick.W

iTrader: (1)

I am a Process Electrician for a water utility and all of my work is based around 3 phase motors,relays,contactors softstarts, plc's, scada control etc and I really enjoy my job, its always something different. Since my apprenticeship I have also multi skilled to Instrument control.

Its well paid and operates an every one week in six standby rosta for critical breakdown and emergencies.

I would recommend to any body to get into that line of work, every year I average 35-40k a year and have a stakeholder final salary pension. Its Probably not the same amount of money as a good house basher spark would get but then I don't mind less money for job security.

I recon you cant go wrong with either trade, just go with the one you have the most aptitude for

neal666

if you think plumbing is less complex than electrical you are very much mistaken.

fezzajsy

iTrader: (9)

best advice ever

Cozzie Bhoy

There's shit loads of shit plumbers about! Who make plenty of work for good plumber/ pipefitters like us! Theres plenty of them about who'll bang in a bathroom in a few hours and the wont even use a drill or screws. Just a tube of sealer. Ask them to fab up a spool of pipe work and they look at ya if you've got two heads.

Cozzie Bhoy

[quote=Steve the Plumber;5106070]Well said!!

vaughant

iTrader: (1)

Thankyou!!!

Rcjm88

Thought about sticking more to engineering?

We have had a few ex forces service engineers at our place. Servicing, repairing and comissioning saftey equipement for the marine environment.

Is there nothing you could find more service work orientated? I know I'd find sparking pretty boring.