I once worked in a steel fabrication plant. The heat was unbearable. Those old factories were also very dangerous places to work. I once had an argument with a university academic, who said he thought steel workers were overpaid. I asked him if he had ever worked in a steel mill. He said no. Had he ever taken a tour in one? Again, he replied in the negative. I replied that if he had ever spent some time in such a place, he would not think that the people who worked there were paid too much. There was a worker who fell onto the rollers in the rolling mill. The worker survived only long enough to crawl up to the cab where the operators who controlled the mill sat. The injured worker knocked on the door, where he was found dead by the operators. This does not happen at your typical university or college. I am of the opinion that those who do the most physically hard and the most dangerous jobs should be among the most highly paid workers in our economy. But maybe that's just me.
How DARE that guy say such a thing. Just the physical risk alone is enough to make it warrant a good living wage. The heat, the hours, the physical labor & the KNOW HOW. My friend in Pennsylvania tries to describe what it's like to me & told me about the tests they have to study for & take; never mind the tests of patience when having a bad apple or two on the crew.
My father worked for USS at South Works in Indiana. He once told me that the standard work week for a steelworker before they unionized was 6 X 12. He also told me that once, one of the workers fell off a catwalk into a ladle that had just been emptied. The guy just bounced around in there for a few seconds, and was turned to ash.
@The Raging Gamer on PS4 that's nasty, I rather come home to an ac chilled room wearing comfy clothing under covers then be next to some hot musty skin yuck!
My husband retires next week from the steel mill he works at. Thank you God! 20 dangerous years. He stepped out of his shanty and barely missed a piece of metal the size of a Buick fell from the ceiling. If the acid and chemical don’t kill him he should have a long happy retirement. He is 55, healthy so far.
I worked in a steel mill 19.5 years, from the furnace, ladles, caster,cooling bed. The last 9 years run a overhead crane, loved that job ! Carrying 90 tons of molting steel you had to be very careful of your actions ! But diagnosed with m/s at age 31 and having to leave at age 38, I wasn't going to put those guys life in danger for my problem ! I miss those guys and loved that job !!
@@DrLumpy Nucor Steel supplies the vast majority of the steel General Motors uses. If you have a Chevy, Caddilac, GMC, or Buick that's where the steel used to manufacture it came from. Those mills have some of the best safety standards in the country. If you work there, the odds of you getting hurt are very low. It is also the largest scrap recycler in North America. Thay do not use iron ore. Their process of making steel is very different to the one in this video. It's all remelted scrap and pig iron. You were talking about cars. I thought you'd find that to be interesting.
My paternal grandfather was a coal miner for 31 years. Men like him, along with steel workers, rail workers, construction crews, and many others are what built America and keep it running. Without their hard work, we’d be without a lot of things we take for granted every day.
I worked with liquid steel for 29 years. One melt 350 tons. The plant produces about 10 million tons of steel per year. In case of danger, always run to the safe side and only then look back at what happened. Sometimes when going to work, an inner voice tells you that something is going to happen at work today... And it does. This is called intuition based on vast experience. At work, like a pilot in a dogfight, you must constantly turn your head and constantly monitor the situation around you. Greetings from Russia
I work at a foundry and just yesterday we had someone dump some scrap into the furnace to recycle it. Turns out some of it was made from square tubing that had developed cracks while sitting outside in the rain for a long time, so some of it was filled with water. Now, dripping water on top of molten metal is somewhat fine (with exceptions) because it just flashes off quickly, but when water turns to steam AFTER it's fully submerged that's a different story entirely. If you've seen footage of naval mines detonating I guess you can imagine the same kinda thing, but with a couple of tons of white-hot liquid iron getting flung sky high instead of water. And the air around the furnace immediately turned pitch black from a dense mist of tiny iron flakes. Everybody in the vicinity looked like Wile E. Coyote after his dynamite trap blows up in his own face, and you could feel the grit in your teeth for hours afterwards. Thankfully the guy working the furnace was behind a sturdy polycarbonate screen at the time, so he got away with just some ringing ears plus a coating of iron flakes and soot. Otherwise he'd have been showered with the wave of molten metal and quite possibly perished in screaming agony. So yeah, these places are absolutely no joke. We're a small operation (Denmark doesn't have much in the way of steel mills and foundries, but we're a historic site so it's kept running) but I can only imagine the kind of blast that would've happened in a bigger furnace like we see here.
I live in Detroit. I used to haul steel coils for selman transportation trucking. I seen all of the Detroit based Mills like Dearborn steel plant. Like mini cities with their own railroad. Lots of overhead cranes. Massive. Big props to the steelworkers of America!
I worked as a steel hauler in Michigan and those plants are no joke. When the Ford's owned there mill in Dearborn that place was a death trap if you didn't know what the heck you were doing. Sometimes those coils would still be hot on my truck taking them down to Spartan steel off exit 18 on I-75. I use to do 5 loads a day! Shout out to all the mill workers and rest in peace to the ones we lost in the mills!!!!
Excellent video! Love the history of USS too with Judge Elbert H. Gary as the first CEO and J.P. Morgan as the underwriter of the $1.4B stock offering in 1901! Best of wishes to all the great people at USS. Great Americans doing REAL work to add value to society!
Incredible, would love to visit a place like this someday. Worked in a cast iron foundry in France a few years ago, now working in an aluminium foundry. Absolutely love it. Love metals and all the transformation process I find it fascinating. Much love from France, good luck to all metal workers man...✌️
@@Shaker626 Sadly the two fouderies that I used to work on have closed (cast iron and aluminium). Both of them were producing engine blocks for Renault mostly and a few other makes, but the automobile industry isn’t doing very well at the moment…Changed job but I will miss working in the foundry with the lads for the rest of my life.
A nice introduction for the people that didnt know of that process . When I did my apprenticeship at Port Kembla steel works NSW Australia , there was the soaking pits for ingots and the open hearth , the slab caster was only a few years old , not a place I'd like to work at again . No 6 blast furnace produces 1100 metric ton / day . Australian hematite from The Pilbara and Hamersley are some of the purest grades that can be arc welded together . Illawarra NSW coal has extremely low ash and sulphur being the best for metallurgical coke used in steel production .
I worked at Bethlehem Steel in the 70's and 80's. I worked in Homer Research Labs in Bethlehem PA. Projects. I worked on were at Lackawanna Plant (Buffalo NY), Bethlehem PA Plant, Sparrows Point Plant (Baltimore MD), Burns Harbour (Chicago), Johnstown PA Plant. These videos bring back many memories, Thanks.
There is no better demonstration of our dominance over nature than iron melting. I work in an iron foundry and it's breath taking every time I see it. On the flip side modern processes are still very crude, I guess we've haven't been able to completely tame nature.
To actually see how important the work I do in the steel industry is beyond fascinating! Makes me realize the impact I have on the world on a daily basis.
I was a millwright at a steel mill for almost 10 years. I worked the 80" rolling mill, EAF /BOF, cold strip, and even did a short tour of the coke plant. It was a hot dirty job. The guys I worked with is what made the job so great. I was a 3rd generation steel mill worker. It was a really good job.
This is the most incredible documentary on the steel making factory ,love seeing this get goosebumps thinking of how this originated in Pittsburgh., Wow I'm taken back at this.
Seriously, I have heard a few stories through my life and I wish they would be published somewhere. Unbelievable stuff. Dangerous but fascinating work.
I was on Zug Island, worked recovery, damage control ect. The island was like something straight out of a sci-fi movie it was absolutely insane, but awesome, I've been from 2 stories below Zug Island and all the way to the tops of A&B furnaces. I did a lot of wild and crazy things on Zug Island and unless you've been there, you could never even imagine. Loved it.
And this is why US Steel is the best they have been cooking steel in Pennsylvania and the Pittsburg Valley since Andrew Carnegie their founder opened the mill 1873 and fired up the massive furnaces in 1875 and the first beam was made and shipped to its customer and used to build our buildings and bridges. This is why US Steel is the best they make our world.
US steel is know for high quality steel that more than meets my factory's product requirements. We used Chinese steel too, but we usually regret it later, we get more warrantee claims from Chinese steel, so back to US Steel or Mexican Steel, but you can count on the bean counters to be bean counters looking to pinch pennies wherever they can.
The University of Minnesota saved the iron mining industry in the Great Lakes region by developing the method to remove the iron from taconite rock as the reserves of natural iron ore began to fail. At the end of the benefaction process you get taconite pellets that are about 60% iron plus the limestone added in when the pellets are baked. US Steel divested the mines it owned around the Great Lakes and the logistics chain of trains and ships it used to transport the iron ore. Cliffs mining (Arcelor) owns the mines now and Canadian National owns the railroads and a good part of the shipping used to get the ore to the mills. Iron mining is a boom-and-bust business in the U.S. because there is huge competition among ore suppliers all over the world. The world is not going to run out of iron ore any time soon.
A "Great Story" for all students and professionals to see the basics of steel-making operations. THANKS! T J (Tom) Vanderloop, Author, Technology Instructor & Consultant
They failed to mention that 22 year old college kids are trying to boss around 60 year old steel workers with 30+ years of experience and it doesn’t go well.
Not just in the steel industry. In my opinion, the MBA degrees ruined America. Nothing like book-smart people telling workers how to do their job. I have 2 degrees in geology and there is nothing like field work, getting dirty, followed up by lab work. I had so many managers quiz me about "how do you know?" and I wanted to scream. It's my job!!
Thank you SO much for causing a hum that disturbed most of South Western Ontario with your Arc furnace.. way to be an good neighbor. Say.. how is Zug Island doing? Still leaching giga tons of toxic waist into the great lakes?
I work in one as a casting grinder 8 hours standing with this big angle grinder in your hands. I’m grateful I have the job though as I’m only 19 and not really sure what I want to do yet.
it's one of the processes that really made the industrial revolution possible, more efficient iron/steel making. The first process that really harnessed the power of coal.
@davedalton--My Father used to work at a Steel Mill. He did this for over 40 years. Lost a lot of his hearing. Even tho he did wear ear plugs they didn't help much. He used to operate a Huelette and then he was a pipefitter and he worked around the Blast Furnaces. He would work 8, 12 or even 16 hour days just to provide for our family. He would get up every morning at 4:30 am to do this nearly every day. He used to pre-wash his work clothes in an old ringer washer before he would wash them in the regular washer. He passed away 2 years after my Mother at the age of 81. He told us some stories of how men died there. One man had his arm ripped completely off by a machine and another man fell to his death. My Mother would always pray that he would come home safe every day. Really enjoyed this video and reading your comment. Have a blessed day to everyone!! 😊😊😊😊
@@g1sokool669 well yea we can reuse it im just saying theres an underlying thing here that this is how we treat everything there are things we cant just easily reuse
So much incredible footage went into this, but the quick-cut editing looks like a videography student's first-year final project where they inevitably get told that it's not necessary to use every wipe and transition in the software within a single project.
I worked in a rubber extrusion plant a few summers. Always thought it was hot around 110 in the summer, but I can imagine this is pushing the limit of what's allowed by law. If the steel is 2700 degrees in some places that air would be hot enough to melt skin if you're within a few feet I bet. Thankfully I have a nice air conditioned workplace now courtesy of my overpriced degree
The holes in Northern Minnesota, seen from space, saved us from certain annihilation in World War 2. I just wish now that Japan owns US Steel, they would fill those holes back in. After all, they attacked us first. It hurts the ecosystem here, still to this day as that is raw materials in open air, a once pristine wilderness!
Took a high school summer job at a lumber yard…..them forklift operators couldn’t be trusted always hurting or getting hurt…. Can imagine the Trust it takes to work in a foundry of your co worker’s …Flesh and Molten Lava don’t mix. Hats off to anyone retiring with all their fingers and toe’s…
A bow and arrow can defeat steel, in such a way that it would be better to have wood armor. But, when treated properly, it can be made into a cannon, that shoots a steel miles away. That is the divergence, of Knight, to Yeoman... less steel, of a higher quality. They didn't realize that high carbon blade steel makes bullet proof armor, until about 1917. The heat of constant firing will anneal the barrel of a steel cannon. Enter the age, of rediscovery, of Egyptian metal casting techniques... in 1850
I was a contract rigger, did stints at Llanwern in Wales and Redcar in N England. Top quality. British, American and Swedish steel by far the best, but peeps opt for the Chinese 💩 as it's cheap, but fails.
This was a totally random video. So interesting. We really do not appreciate all that goes into the convenience that we have available to us on a daily basis.
There is a conception menial/ manual/jobs are low grade accoring to uni graduates. Most finish their studies utterly incompetent and thus eligible for jobs they despised
