Like the age old question of boxers or briefs, what do all you engineering or (fresh air dept, deckies too) types prefer to wear while working. I personally hate boiler suits unless I have to get extremely nasty. When working overhead all those wrenches in the back pocket weigh a ton and the wedgie given by the suit is a pain in the ass. Also you can change out a tee in hot weather with a dry one at lunch and dinner so you don’t catch pneumonia in the ac. My humble opinion only.
I wear Carhartt pants and thrift store t shirts. I am with you, I hate coveralls. The only time I put them on is when I have the duty and get an alarm at night. Those and my pull on boots are quick and easy to put on when jumping out of bed.
Thin lightweight coveralls all day everyday. I hate having to pull my pants up all day and I hate suspenders and belts. The captain and I recently had to do some training. It was the first time in 6+ years of working together he had ever seen me in jeans and t shirt.
For me, it depended upon what type of work was involved. For watch standing and maneuvering I wore a boiler suit. For maintenance it was work pants and a "T’ shirt, especially if working in an enclosed area. Oh, I always had a railroad engineer’s hat too. I hated hard hats but had one handy when working below guys working above me, yes, I learned the hard way about that.
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Always like wearing a boiler suit when i used to spend hours down the engine room on a daily basis…easy transition back to my filthy deck clothes. My hands, well that’s another story. Just didn’t like bringing soot and grease to the wheelhouse if i could avoid it. But i am a stained/beat carhart individual of the deck variety. Lately have been wearing a carhartt bib especially around the house to avoid scaring the neighbors. those chest pockets really come in handy.
Ever drop you sleeve of your “tuxedo” in the bowl when you sat down. I have. Another time I was cutting a 36" diameter pipe blank out of steel plate and the acetylene hose had leak in the hose where it flexes at the torch connection unbeknownst to me. It was on a large steel welding table and I steadied my arm by holding it near my waist. I had a soaking wet tee shirt under a flame retardant Con Edison boiler suit (chief I worked with supplied them to us form his brother-in-law) with a belt at the waist. The gas entered my boiler suit through the “happy pocket” and finally lit off from a spark. It felt like someone punched me in the gut. I shut off the torch and saw a small burn hole in my “tux” by where my stomach was. My wet tee shirt kept me from burning my stomach and chest. Never liked boiler suits since.
Man steam, you and I could spend coffee time telling similar stories. I did drop a pair of channel locks in the porcelain bowl. And one time I was stick welding a pipe hanger overhead in a small space. I was squatting down welding without an apron and just gloves and hood. I was a smoker then and a piece of hot slag burned a hole through my pocket and hit my lighter. lighter blew up in my pocket. Didn’t hurt me, but sure scared the piss out of me.
[QUOTE=brjones;96368]Man steam, you and I could spend coffee time telling similar stories. I did drop a pair of channel locks in the porcelain bowl. And one time I was stick welding a pipe hanger overhead in a small space. I was squatting down welding without an apron and just gloves and hood. I was a smoker then and a piece of hot slag burned a hole through my pocket and hit my lighter. lighter blew up in my pocket. Didn’t hurt me, but sure scared the piss out of me.[/QUOTE]
I got hot slag on my veiner schnitzel one time but it was similar situation you had kneeling down welding. Could not blame it my boiler suit though.
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;96364]Ever drop you sleeve of your “tuxedo” in the bowl when you sat down. I have. Another time I was cutting a 36" diameter pipe blank out of steel plate and the acetylene hose had leak in the hose where it flexes at the torch connection unbeknownst to me. It was on a large steel welding table and I steadied my arm by holding it near my waist. I had a soaking wet tee shirt under a flame retardant Con Edison boiler suit (chief I worked with supplied them to us form his brother-in-law) with a belt at the waist. The gas entered my boiler suit through the “happy pocket” and finally lit off from a spark. It felt like someone punched me in the gut. I shut off the torch and saw a small burn hole in my “tux” by where my stomach was. My wet tee shirt kept me from burning my stomach and chest. Never liked boiler suits since.[/QUOTE]
Oh my fucking good grief !
Never had this one, but some fucking close.
Well, no matter how good a welder you are, there are times when you spark overhead, little nuggets of fire find their way down to your belly button.
I have scars too but not any show stoppers. Good to start off sex though. Wanna see some interesting tats, honey?
A guy I worked with in 1989 told me a doozie. He was doing his 2 week active duty Navy reserve on some ship. He and some other maritime grad were ordered to burn something off with a torch. The guy working with him had his mouth open while burning and a piece of hot slag went down the guys throat and burned the guys voice box. The guy had to have surgery to correct it.
He was probably wearing a “Tux”
I had a piece of slag fall down the front of my shirt (flannel) and burn a spot on one of the “girls”
It left a blister. This was the shipyard. Guy above me somewhere in a ladderwell was carbon arcing and hadn’t put up any firecloth.
The guys thought it was hilarious watching me try and dig it out of my bra.
I prefer tshirts and BDU pants (army pants) with the cargo pockets. PS, if you are in the market for old BDU pants please avoid the ones the Navy is issuing these days. The blue pixel types. They have been found to be flammable and melt in a flame. Better if you can find old used Desert storm era stuff.
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;96389]A guy I worked with in 1989 told me a doozie. He was doing his 2 week active duty Navy reserve on some ship. He and some other maritime grad were ordered to burn something off with a torch. The guy working with him had his mouth open while burning and a piece of hot slag went down the guys throat and burned the guys voice box. The guy had to have surgery to correct it.
He was probably wearing a “Tux”[/QUOTE]
Lol. I hate to laugh because it was as serious injury but I see a lot of guys doing stuff with their mouth wide open and now I am going to share this story.
We are forced to wear heavy ass long sleeve flame retardant coveralls anytime working outside. Everytime I have to crawl up on top of one of our cranes, go outside to work on a winch, or god forbid have to go help the ROV crew with something, I have to wear those dang things, so I hate them. The only time I wear them in the engine room is if I am doing something really nasty or crawling tanks. The rest of the time it is blue jeans and a ragged T-shirt.
Our safety man is such a prick I use there own safety manual against them. The engine room is considered authorized personal only space. So I make anyone call the control room before coming down here, or I get to wright a nasty little stop card on them for violating policy. Sometimes all these insane safety rules do have benefits. Since the safety guy can’t come into the E/R to check on us he has no idea what we wear down stairs.
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;96389]A guy I worked with in 1989 told me a doozie. He was doing his 2 week active duty Navy reserve on some ship. He and some other maritime grad were ordered to burn something off with a torch. The guy working with him had his mouth open while burning and a piece of hot slag went down the guys throat and burned the guys voice box. The guy had to have surgery to correct it.
He was probably wearing a “Tux”[/QUOTE]
You gotta be shitting me!
A smoke wrench!
Oh my goodness!
I’ve been hit in the teeth with slag and it feels worse than biting aluminum foil on an amalgam filling. The guy who told me that was 3rd engineer on the Golden Endeavor sailing between Quebec City and Mongstad, Norway during the winter of 89-1990 but that is a whole book of sea stories on that trip. The third had a down vest that said on the front “Grounds are Us” and on the back it said “Golden Bend-Over The Rock and Roll Nightmare”. I was 1st on there. The seawater pipes had frost on them in the engine room (29 degree sea temp) and we broke through the ice from Sidney, Nova Scotia til we got to the Ultramar dock across from Quebec.
After a 20 hour power pack party in Tampa, my assistant announced that his ass was dragging and he was going to the pay phone to call home before he crashed. (before cellphones) I sat down on the dock, cracked open a cold beer, (this was back when going to sea was fun) as he shuffled up to the phone booth. After about 15 minutes, I observed a rat darting around the dock. It then made a straight run to the phone booth and up my assistants leg of his boiler suit. Now if I didn’t know any better, I’d have sworn he was a seaman off one of the Russian ships breaking out into a Kalinka dance. After the leg kicking failed, he frantically shucked his boiler suit, ripping it in the process. The first thing he did was grab his pecker to check for bite marks.
I’m not sure if I pissed my pants or if it was the beer that shot out of my snout as I was laughing and chocking!
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;96446]I’ve been hit in the teeth with slag and it feels worse than biting aluminum foil on an amalgam filling. The guy who told me that was 3rd engineer on the Golden Endeavor sailing between Quebec City and Mongstad, Norway during the winter of 89-1990 but that is a whole book of sea stories on that trip. The third had a down vest that said on the front “Grounds are Us” and on the back it said “Golden Bend-Over The Rock and Roll Nightmare”. I was 1st on there. The seawater pipes had frost on them in the engine room (29 degree sea temp) and we broke through the ice from Sidney, Nova Scotia til we got to the Ultramar dock across from Quebec.[/QUOTE]
As difficult as it may be to believe, I don’t recall ever biting down on aluminum foil.
I’ve experience frost in the engine room, Winter in Germany, Summer up in Greenland,
Interesting sounds too, slicing through the ice in the Sondrestrom Fjord.
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We were in NorShipCo in Norfolk for a yard period back in the early 90’s. We were staying in a hotel and I really messed up my shirt while filling some batteries. With the way I was sweating there was not much left to it. Well the yard safety guy nailed me for now where proper clothing. I told my Port Engineer that I would go back the the hotel and change and then come back (Not). Well, he saw through my bluff and told me to go get a set of coveralls from the yard, which I did. After getting dressed I was welding some hangers for the duct work when one of the A/E’s started hitting me on the ankles. I looked down and my lower leg was on fire. It turns out that these “Shipyard Issued” Coveralls were 100% Polyester. I was lucky that I had my engineer boots on as they saved me from getting some bad burns on my leg. I gave that safety man a chewing out when I saw him. He said that he did not know that they were supplying clothing that was flammable and would look in to it.
At least I got to go back to the room early that day!
S&G don’t tell me you never put a 9v battery on your tongue either. The other bad thing about boiler suits is when you break wind it goes right up through the suit to your nose. As they say in Boston “It’s like giving yourself a dutch oven” or for the guys/gals out west “Playing covered wagon” with your better half.