Latest news with #OnTheClock
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Classic car fabrication skills get fine-tune: On the Clock
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — At this point in our On The Clock with Natalie McCain series, you've seen me lay down welds and precisely slice materials. In this week's edition, I get to fine-tune my fabrication skills, combining my new skills from the past 10 weeks at Ruben's House of Classics. Amateur welder braves 10K degrees, 300 mph sand blasting: On the Clock 'Right off the bat, this place is huge. There are a ton of cars here, and they're all waiting to get worked on,' I said. 'We have everything from the 1930s to the 1940s and 1950s; all these classic cars are getting their special touch.' That special touch? Shop Supervisor Ruben Junior Rodriguez said it's from basic fabrication to full-blown restorations. Our job is to drop this 1948 Chevy Fleetline — an intimidating job, but I'm revved up. 'We can start by cutting off the brackets that we need for the airbags in the 1948 Fleet, and then we'll lay them out,' Rodriguez said. These brackets will go under the car and house the suspension airbags, allowing the car to be slow and low yet with maximum movement. After cutting the brackets, we smooth them out with an air grinder. 'Pretty nervous to have that air grinder. Just the sparks flying. I could feel them coming and hitting me, but they didn't hurt,' I said. 'But just getting over that initial fear and moving past that, it's pretty incredible. So I'm excited to see what else we do here today.' …Perfectly measure them out, and bend them in the press for a perfect fit. That in-house precision is Ruben Jr.'s favorite part. 'Learning the tricks of the trade, what works for us [and] having the equipment to be able to do everything ourselves in-house,' he said. It's pedal to the metal for Ruben Jr., but the job isn't without its challenges. 'Working on a car that you've never done before,' he said. 'The issue you might have runs into another issue, which runs into another issue, and creates a chain effect.' But between the geometry, grease, and sweat, the hardest tasks turn into reality. With Ruben Jr.'s lifelong expertise on my side, it's time for us to mount our metal—my welding experience, coming in handy. After two hours of grinding, welding and measuring, my time was up. 'Be completely honest with me. Based on my performance today and the things that we did, would you hire me as an apprentice?' I asked. 'Yes. You had a good start,' Ruben Jr. answered. It's safe to say these classic cars are geared up for greatness. 'Keep it simple. Keep it straightforward,' he said. 'Do it step by step and you can't go wrong.' Ruben's House of Classics is located at 417 Indiana Avenue. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Amateur welder braves 10K degrees, 300 mph sand blasting: On the Clock
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Beyond glancing through doorways at my peers' high school welding classes, I've never understood exactly what the trade does and why. But after this installment of On the Clock, I certainly have a new appreciation for how physically demanding—and hot—each step of the welding process is. When I first pulled up to Chantex Manufacturing, I had no idea what to expect. OTC: How do arborists remove trees in tight spaces without destroying property? 'We'll do all the flat welds first,' welder David Dickey said. But David here showed me all the ropes. Step one: get geared up. Now, we're ready to spark up the welding machine, and the arc is hot, reaching up to 10,000 degrees. 'You want to angle it to where you're at about a 45-degree [angle],' David said. As a beginner welder, I was assigned leg duty. This hunk of metal will later be welded to an even bigger vessel for natural gas. After my shaky welding… 'Based on my performance today, would you hire me? And you can be honest. You can say no,' I asked David. 'Um, to be honest, I think you're trainable,' he responded. 'I think we could find you a spot or a position somewhere.' …It's time to prime it for painting with sand blasting. 'That's really intense,' I said while watching a seasoned employee sandblasting. 'It'll be good. Yeah, it'll be good! I won't hit myself with sand.' Julio got me all suited up, but after that, it was all on me to shoot out sand particles at nearly 300 miles per hour. 'Oh, that's good. That's fun. Honestly, I was more afraid of the welding than I was of this,' I said after blasting. 'This was cool; it had a lot of kick to it. It's like art. You're painting with sand. 'I think I did better with this than the welding because with this, it's sort of like sweeping with a bigger brush, and with welding, you have to be really precise, and I have really unsteady hands.' With a hard day's work of pure heat under my belt… 'Based on my performance, would you hire me?' I asked. 'Yes! You did good,' Julio said. 'You did pretty good.' Nothing sounds better than an ice-cold water. Tune into KFDX 3 for the next installment of On The Clock, which will run at noon and 6 p.m. on Friday, May 2. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
OTC: How do arborists remove trees in tight spaces without destroying property?
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — If you're anything like me, seeing once towering trees chopped down can be sad. But in this episode of On The Clock with Natalie McCain, I reach new heights with North Texas Tree Experts as I learn how dangerous dead trees can be and how many problems can arise from them. 'It's got to come down sooner better than later,' arborist and owner of NTTE Mike Ibarra said. Thanks to tree borers and Mother Nature… 'It's always at risk of falling on, most importantly, people, the property next,' Ibarra said. 'This tree is over a sidewalk. There was already falling limbs present on the sidewalk.' …It's the end of the road for this red oak. That's where Mike Ibarra and his crew with North Texas Tree Experts come in. 'Tree removals are fun. We love trimming them and taking care of them and making sure they are healthy,' Ibarra said. 'But, the tree removal is definitely fast-paced. It gets your blood pumping, and sometimes, you get a little nervous when you're up there.' And if they still get nervous after decades of tree removal, you better believe I was freaking out 30 feet up. Ibarra loves it, but challenges still sprout up. 'We're always in really tight locations,' he said. 'We're always having to work over houses, over fences, near power lines, over service lines, and under service lines. Trees grow wherever they want.' It's why they use the ziplining method, streamlining the branch's journey from dead tree to chipper. 'That's the most challenging thing is just trying to get it down safely to me, my crew,' Ibarra said. 'The people's property—nothing's hurt. Nothing's damaged, and everybody goes home happy.' 'Based on my performance today, would you hire me, at least as an apprentice?' I asked. 'Yes, definitely. You definitely have to do a lot more training,' Ibarra said. 'Some of the stuff that you did, you can work on stuff, but you could definitely make a good point for you.' Watching them work their way from limb to root, maybe I've planted the seeds to start my arborist journey. The next On the Clock will run at noon and 6 p.m. on April 18. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Get a firsthand look at plumbing daily duties as first On the Clock airs
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — If you've ever wondered what goes into the dirty jobs that keep your home running, a new segment will take you through all the grimy ins and outs. 'On The Clock: With Natalie McCain' gives viewers a firsthand look at trade jobs and beyond around Texoma, and on March 7, I spent the morning with Brian's Plumbing to learn just what goes into their daily duties. 'They're never happy to see us, but they're generally a lot happier when we leave,' second-year apprentice Jesse Krum said. 'Today, we had a call from a customer that their sewer was backing up; they couldn't flush their toilets.' 'I'm kind of nervous seeing the toilet paper right there,' I said. 'I knew we'd be plumbing, but, like, this is plumbing. It's going to be an exciting one. I'm excited.' We arrived at Brian's Plumbing at 7:45 a.m. and set out to the resident's house. I wasn't sure what to expect, but after gearing up in larger-than-life rubber boots and cowhide gloves, we got to work. 'He's having some backup issues with his toilet, so it'll definitely be a good feeling to get him back in working order with his pipes, get him, you know, cleared up from this mess of things,' I said. 'But we'll see how it goes.' As I learned alongside plumbers Asa and Jesse, plumbing is no easy job. 'What the most complicated thing to learn is probably learning all the fittings and the coding,' Jesse said. With no shortage of heavy lifting. 'The most physically demanding aspect of it is probably when we have to trench, especially up under a house, using hand shovels,' Jesse said. 'We ran about 85 foot or so of cable, K1500 through it, managed to break the clog.' Even with an industrial drain snake, when it comes to older sewer lines, more problems can arise. 'We attempted to camera it and found multiple shifts where we couldn't really even get the camera in,' he said. 'Our suggestion for this customer moving forward is that they should contact their landlord, have a couple other camera crews that have smaller cameras come out, finish scouting that line, and then prepare to be dug up and replaced.' But no matter the clog or what flows out, the pair told me it's all rewarding. 'Easily when we have a job like this; y'all saw how grateful he was,' Jesse said. 'He had a problem, and we solved it.' And after a full morning of being on the clock… 'Based on my performance today, would y'all hire me—at least as an apprentice?' I asked. 'Yeah, oh yeah,' Asa said. 'You showed up, you weren't afraid to get in it, and you actually tried,' Jesse said. 'I'd hire you, yeah.' …I think I'll leave my plumbing woes up to the pros. 'On The Clock' will run every other Friday at noon and 6 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
