boilermaker fabricator

If you're welding the same brackets every day, this is the other kind of boilermaking.

Buckets and attachments that have been brutally broken by operators. A snapped boom for an OEM customer that needs it log spec'd. Quick crack repairs on site to keep a customer's machine moving. Plate work and one-off fabrications off a drawing or a sketch. That's the fab floor at Metro Machining — a line boring and engineering business at Campbellfield — and we need a trade-qualified boilermaker to run it with us. A trade-qualified fitter with solid fabrication experience will get a look too.

Here's why it's worth a phone call:

• The work is the real thing. Heavy repair for mining, quarry, civil, earthmoving and industrial customers. Every job is different and most of them are urgent — you'll see the machine you fixed go back to work.

• You're not stuck manufacturing the same part. The fab floor sits next to a full machine shop and a line boring crew that works from the Latrobe Valley to the Pacific. You'll weld it, then see it bored and pinned next door — and you'll learn rotary ID welding, pin and bush work and the machining side of a repair along the way. Few boilermaking jobs in Melbourne teach you that.

• You work directly with the owners. There's no leading hand between you and the directors on fabrication. They're on the floor and on the trucks, they set the method with you, and they'd rather take a call than see rework.

• Paid properly for what you bring. Casual hourly rate negotiated on your skills and track record, overtime at penalty multiples, a site rate when you're out. Tell us the rate you're after.

• Casual to start, not casual forever. We're adding fabrication capacity because the customers are already bringing us the gear. If the workload holds up and you're the right person, this turns into a permanent position.

Casual, paid by the hour, Monday to Friday. Reports to the Operations Manager; the directors are your technical lead on the fab floor.

This is heavy work. If you're after a bench job welding brackets and sheet metal, this isn't it. If you've rebuilt a bucket, gouged out a crack in a boom and welded it back up properly, keep reading.

Who we are

A few years ago we were two blokes in a shed with one lathe, one mill and one little line boring truck. Today it's three workshops across Campbellfield and Drouin, five self-contained mobile machining trucks, and a crew that's taken line boring and on-site machining from the Latrobe Valley to the Pacific. When a job needs tooling that doesn't exist, we build it ourselves.

Our fabrication floor sits next to the machine shop. That's the point of it: a customer's bucket, attachment or housing comes in, we fabricate and weld it, bore it, make the pins and bushes and put it back together without shipping the gear between three different trades. Ask for a copy of our capacity handbook when you apply and we'll send it through.

The work

Repair and rebuild work for mining, quarry, civil, earthmoving and industrial customers. Their plant is down and they're waiting on us, so it has to be right the first time. A typical run of jobs:

• Bucket and attachment rebuilds — wear plate, base edges, side cutters, adapters and teeth

• Structural crack repair on booms, sticks, frames and housings — gouge it out, prep it, weld it, dress it

• Wear packages and hardfacing on gear that cops a hiding

• Weld reclamation on worn bores, pins and faces, including rotary ID welding alongside our line borers

• Plate work and structural fabrication — brackets, guards, frames, custom tooling and one-off fabrications off a drawing or a sketch

• Attachment modifications, plus fitting and assembly around what you've welded — pressing bushes, fitting pins

One-offs and small batches, not production runs. You read the drawing (or measure the broken one when there isn't a drawing), work out the prep and the sequence, weld it, check it and hand it over knowing it's right.

You'll also be put on jobs across the rest of the business. When the fab floor is quiet or the crew needs hands, you'll be assisting the line borers and the machinists — stripping and refitting around a bore, pulling and pressing pins and bushes, lancing, rigging and lifting, running the ID welder, or going out as the second person on a line boring truck. That's part of the job, not a favour. It's also where you learn the machining side of a repair.

What you'd be working with

• MIG and stick welding, arc-air gouging, OD and rotary ID welding

• Welding positioners and rotators

• 200 t and 100 t hollow presses, thermic lancing kit, and liquid nitrogen for cold-fitting bushes and bearings

• 10 t forklift and lifting gear for heavy components

• A mobile service fleet for site work — trucks and utes, plus a welding trailer with a diesel generator welder for the heavier site repairs

• A full machine shop next door — lathes, horizontal borers, milling, hydraulic cylinder honing — and a line boring crew with kit from 40 to 1200 mm

How the week runs

Fast. We're a breakdown shop. When a customer's machine goes down, their job jumps the queue and the board gets redrawn. The Operations Manager runs the schedule and keeps it moving, but the plan you started the day with isn't always the plan you finish it with. The people who do well here like that — every job is different, and you see the machine you fixed go back to work.

You'll be told what good looks like on each job, then trusted to get on with it. There's no leading hand over the fab floor — on fabrication, you work directly with the directors on method and procedure, and they're on the floor and on the trucks, not in an office across town.

Straight up, this job also means

• It's casual to start. Workshop days run 7am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, but the hours follow the work — when a customer's machine is down we start earlier and finish later, and a quieter week is a quieter week. We'll be straight with you about what's coming, and straight with you about when it can go permanent.

• Heavy, dirty work. Earthmoving and mining gear arrives as it comes off the machine — mud, grease, worn steel. You'll be on your feet, under plate, in awkward positions, with a grinder and a gouger a fair bit of the day.

• Some site work. Most of the work is in the workshop, but when a repair has to happen where the machine is, you'll go out in one of our service vehicles — quarries, mine sites, industrial plants — and back to the shop between jobs.

• Not every day is a welding day. You'll be assigned to assist on line boring and general engineering jobs when that's where the work is — in the shop or on site. If you only want to stand in a welding bay all day, this isn't the one.

• Runs to Gippsland. We've got a branch at Drouin and the crews work between the two. When Gippsland needs a chop out, you'll be asked to do a run of work out there — day trips, or a few nights away when the job calls for it. Accommodation and meals are on us when you stay over.

• Some customer sites run random drug and alcohol testing. You need to be fit for work every shift.

If that puts you off, this isn't the job. If that sounds like real boilermaking, keep reading.

Our core values

Four values, and we hire for them.

1. Innovation & Technical Excellence — Innovation is the thinking: we solve bigger problems by discovering bigger solutions. Technical excellence is the execution: quality and craftsmanship, right first time, every time. One without the other is worthless.

2. Accountability — Take responsibility for the result. Do what you say, finish what you start, and own a mistake early so it gets fixed properly. No excuses, no finger-pointing.

3. Honesty — Say what needs to be said, clearly, early and with respect. Speak up when something's wrong. Same to your face as behind your back.

4. Teamwork — Nobody is more important than anybody else. Step in before you're asked, carry your weight, share what you know and help finish the job. We win together and lose together.

What you need

• Trade-qualified boilermaker / fabricator / welder — or a trade-qualified fitter with solid fabrication and heavy-plate welding experience (Australian-recognised, or an overseas trade with full local recognition)

• Strong MIG and stick welding on heavy plate, and confident with arc-air gouging, cutting and grinding

• Able to read a fabrication drawing on your own, mark out and set up your own work

• Experience repairing heavy equipment — earthmoving, mining, quarry, civil or industrial plant

• Physically up to heavy plate work, all day

• Willing to work across the business — assisting the line boring and machining crews when that's where the work is

• Current driver's licence

• Full, unrestricted right to work in Australia already in place. We are not an approved sponsor, so we can't sponsor visas or support visa applications — please don't apply if you'd need one.

We can teach you

• Rotary ID welding and bore build-up alongside the line boring crew

• Pin and bush work — thermic lancing, press work, liquid nitrogen cold-fitting

• The machining side of a repair — how the bore, the pin and the weld fit together

• Our job paperwork and job management system

Nice to have

• Medium Rigid (MR) truck licence — highly desirable. The trucks have to get to site, and a casual who can drive one is a lot more use to us

• Welding tickets or recent weld tests (structural, pressure or hardfacing)

• Hardfacing, wear-package and GET (ground engaging tools) experience

• Forklift, overhead crane or dogging, EWP or confined space tickets; White Card; current mine or quarry site inductions

• Oxy and plasma cutting, flux-cored welding

• Hydraulic cylinder or heavy mechanical fitting experience

Pay

Casual, paid by the hour. You get a casual hourly rate negotiated on your skills and track record, overtime paid at penalty multiples on top of it, and a site rate when you're on site. Tell us the rate you're after when you apply.

Casual is the starting point, not the ceiling. If the fabrication workload holds up and you're the right person, we'll talk about making it a permanent position — we're hiring because the work is already coming through the door.

How to apply

Apply through SEEK. Send your CV and answer two questions in a few lines each:

1. Tell us about one heavy repair you've done start to finish — a bucket rebuild, a structural crack, a wear package. What was wrong, how did you prep it, how did you weld it?

2. This is casual, the hours follow the work, and you'll be put on line boring and engineering jobs as well as welding. Does that suit you, and what's your availability?

Tell us your tickets and the hourly rate you're after — and ask for the capacity handbook if you want the full picture of what we do.

We read every application and get in touch with the people we want to talk to.

Know a gun boilermaker?

Put us onto them. If we hire the person you refer and they get through their first three months, we'll pay you $500. Conditions apply — ask us for the terms.