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peteplumb80

@peteplumb80

1st-year apprentice, UA · 1 year · Essex County, NJ

Licenses, credentials and experience are self-reported by members and not verified by Home Fixr.

UA Local 24 apprentice, 1st year. Based around Montclair. Still figuring out which side of the work I like.

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Recent answers from peteplumb80

Replied to “Started an hours log like people said. What should actually be in it?”

union side the apprenticeship tracks our hours but i keep my own anyway, i do it in the car at the wawa before work. foreman says the union's records are good but yours are better lol

1 helpful · Sep 30

Replied to “Prevailing wage vs PLAs: why the big public jobs look the way they do”

1st year in 24, did a week on a public school job in july. the sign-in sheet thing is real. the safety orientation was 3 hours and half of it was ladders lol

1 helpful · Sep 23

Replied to “Failed Core by a couple questions, passed Type II. Do I retake everything?”

local 24 1st year, i failed core the first time too!! got it the second time. the practice tests are the move

1 helpful · Sep 23

Replied to “Local 1, Local 3, Local 638: how did you actually get in? Roll call”

Jersey side but same idea: UA Local 24, first year, first try. I think timing and luck were a big part of it. Commercial bathrooms all day lol

1 helpful · Sep 21

Replied to “Buddy from my vo-tech class ranked low and says he's done trying. What do I tell him?”

update: brought him to a Saturday side thing with my foreman's buddy, a basement bathroom in Bloomfield. He was better at it than me lol. Says he'll 'think about' reapplying. I'll take it.

2 helpful · Sep 18

Posts from peteplumb80

peteplumb80 · 1st-year apprentice, UA · 1 year · Essex County, NJ · Sep 14

Question

Buddy from my vo-tech class ranked low and says he's done trying. What do I tell him?

Kind of a different one. I'm a 1st year in Local 24, got in my first try, and I know that's partly luck. My best friend from school applied the same time, ranked way down, and now he's saying he's done. He's going to keep working at the Wawa in Montclair and "figure it out." He's better with his hands than me, honestly. I don't want to be the guy who got in lecturing him, but I also don't want him to waste a year. What would you have wanted someone to say to you? Or is it better to just leave him alone for a while?

5 replies 8 helpful

peteplumb80 · 1st-year apprentice, UA · 1 year · Essex County, NJ · Aug 30

Question

First real paycheck in the apprenticeship. What tools are actually worth buying now?

1st year in Local 24, mostly commercial bathrooms so far. Got the tool list at the start and bought the basics. Now I've got a couple real paychecks and I'm tempted to go nuts at the big box store. What did you actually end up using every day in your first year that wasn't on the list? And what's a waste of money until later? I spend enough at Wawa already, trying to be smart about this.

5 replies 11 helpful

peteplumb80 · 1st-year apprentice, UA · 1 year · Essex County, NJ · Aug 14

Question

what does a 4-way switch actually do in the middle?

UA 1st year, plumbing, so this is pure curiosity. The electrician on our job (commercial bathrooms in a building in Montclair, long corridor outside them) was explaining the corridor lights at lunch. 3-way at each end, I followed that from the other thread on here. Then he said there's a 4-way in the middle and it "flips the travelers" and he lost me. Flips them how? Why can't you just put a third 3-way in the middle?

3 replies 3 helpful