My time at Florida Metal Craft

DATES: Summers 2023 - 2024

OVERVIEW:

I worked for Florida Metal Craft during the summers of 2023 and 2024 as a metal fabricator and general laborer. During my time there, I developed my fabrication skills and became familiar with shop tools. After my full-time work there finished, I continued to make several engineering drawings for them to reflect work done for customers. Read more to learn about the skills I developed and the projects I worked on.

SKILLS DEVELOPED:

Fabrication: I used shop tools daily, including a metal shear, press brake, drill press, MIG welder, angle grinder, band saw, and more.
Organization: Part of my responsibility was maintaining organization in the shop. This included receiving steel deliveries, organizing metal racks, noting material quantities, and keeping overall organization of equipment.
Communication: I interacted with management regularly to ensure quality standards were met and assigned work was completed in a timely manner.

PROJECTS:

Components for packaging machine frame: I fabricated 200+ components made of various square and rectangular steel tubing with tolerances of 1/64", including drilled and tapped holes. During this project I used a horizontal band saw, angle grinder, drill press, and drill press with tapping attachment.

Miscellaneous custom fabricated items: I fabricated items including custom hanging mounts, rail tracks for a trolley ride, steel gates, stainless steel wall corner guards (200+), custom concrete hopper with auger, removable hand rails, and many more.

Cleaning and prep work on bottom of aluminum barge: One job I was on included cleaning, prepping, and assisting with the reskinning of the bottom of a barge. This included drilling holes in aluminum sheets for plug welds, cleaning the welding surface, and using a grinder to prep the surface for welding along the seams and plugs.

Engineering drawings: In the fall of 2024, I assisted with engineering drawings to reflect work done for customers. This involved taking existing schematics or shop sketches and turning them into SolidWorks drawings highlighting new components, modifications, and scope of work. Some samples of these are shown below.