Anyone know a good steel fabricator in Surin City area that makes excavator buckets?

[Stargazer]

Not as simple as that. Law suggests it's a job a Thai could do.. you cannot own the land the works carried out on, even being your wife's property!
20 or so years ago, I was told to get off my Kabota tractor by the village headman.

Wow! So far, even though everyone sees me discing and tilling, and now doing minor excavating with our little Kubota U17-3, no one has complained. Maybe it’s because we are generous contributors to the temple and such, and help neighbors, and pay above average for workers. Our village has about 600 homes, and everybody knows everything that goes on to anyone, which husbands have girl friends on the side, etc.. At the ceremony at the temple after the passing of my wife’s mother a year ago, the head monk asked me why I have an excavator. He is well-educated, with a master’s degree. Just curious. (My first thought was ‘How does he know I have an excavator?’) Part of what I had to explain is the pleasure of doing work my father and brother and extended family did for 70 years. I wrote a poem for my dad’s 85th birthday that included the lines “My father was an artist, when he worked on the land. Reaching out with his dragline, just like it was his hand. He dug with such smoothness, and an effortless grace, people gathered to watch him, with a smile on their face.” It’s fun to run.

 

[Stargazer]

As I explained to the monk, the excavator excels at digging out old stumps, turns compost piles easily, transplants trees, inserts drain lines between fields, and the little bucket that came with it holds one wheelbarrow load of material, so you can have a worker wheeling material to odd places, but load his wheelbarrow with heavy material quickly. We’re going to need to put several hundred meters of lining along the edges of our lake to stop gradual bank erosion, and may get a post hole digger attachment to insert 2 1/2 meter concrete posts every two meters, maybe 150 post holes. I hire a great local excavator for big work, but his rigs are too big to access everywhere (such as around our lake), and expensive to move. No one else locally has a small excavator.. I can foresee a problem when locals might ask me to do work for them, which I cannot risk, even for free.

 

[Benson]

I remember being told of a large fabrication shop. Go past Nakonchaiair terminal.
To end of street turn right, T junction, go past on the right the old driving range can still see the high nets. Next door you will see large metal sheds I was told this is what you could be looking for.

 

[Pat]

I remember being told of a large fabrication shop. Go past Nakonchaiair terminal.
To end of street turn right, T junction, go past on the right the old driving range can still see the high nets. Next door you will see large metal sheds I was told this is what you could be looking for.

That's where I'd go for this project.
I've had them build stuff for me before and they've been OK.

They have the machinery to bend/roll big sheets of steel too.

 

[Stargazer]

I remember being told of a large fabrication shop. Go past Nakonchaiair terminal.
To end of street turn right, T junction, go past on the right the old driving range can still see the high nets. Next door you will see large metal sheds I was told this is what you could be looking for.

Thanks! Which airport?

Or you have to bribe the local headman and hope nobody rats you out to immigration !!! I also got caught some 20 years ago whilst harvesting rice manually with a bunch of Thai workers on my exes riceland. Got reprimanded and asked to refrain of any labourwork that can be done by the Thai.

Thanks, Croc, for the warning. So far, I’m OK. I have been hiring local workers to the tune of 1.5M THB a year, which builds good will. One issue is that in paying above typical rates for good workers, I’m causing inflation and my Thai wife says to never underestimate the motive of jealousy. I have always strived for humility and understanding by doing some of the manual labor I ask workers to do, so I really know how hard it is, and by giving rest breaks for particularly hard work and in very hot weather. In my experience here, the workers are not stupid, but often uneducated and used to doing things the local Thai way. I learned growing up in rural Washington State that not all smart people have the opportunity to become well-educated, and that not all well-educated people are smart. A friend taught me a principle, written by Lao Tzu: “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” So I try to treat my Thai workers with kindness and respect.

 

[Rice]

Thanks! Which airport?

Thanks, Croc, for the warning. So far, I’m OK. I have been hiring local workers to the tune of 1.5M THB a year, which builds good will. One issue is that in paying above typical rates for good workers, I’m causing inflation and my Thai wife says to never underestimate the motive of jealousy. I have always strived for humility and understanding by doing some of the manual labor I ask workers to do, so I really know how hard it is, and by giving rest breaks for particularly hard work and in very hot weather. In my experience here, the workers are not stupid, but often uneducated and used to doing things the local Thai way. I learned growing up in rural Washington State that not all smart people have the opportunity to become well-educated, and that not all well-educated people are smart. A friend taught me a principle, written by Lao Tzu: “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” So I try to treat my Thai workers with kindness and respect.

I do love your sentiment and life philosophy but it is a hell of a fine line in Asian culture. You go over what is exceptable and you risk ridicule as a fool or worse.
An example was played out in my village a couple of years ago. A local lady came home with a foreign husband (German) she had met overseas. They had been married some time.
She built a modest house for her family on the outskirts of the village. He went overboard on the new house party. Live Morlum show and free flowing grog. It went 24 hours a day for 3 days !!!!. At first they were calling him a nice hearted bloke then it turned to scorn. Now they just refer to that German bloke as the F ing idiot.
I was not directly invited so I never went to the party. Kreng Jai. I am more Thai then farang these days. Because I speak the language and am a foreigner I get told all the stories true or false I have no idea. It is just the culture.

Did You really state 1,500,000 Baht ?? That is 30,000 man hours at 50 Baht an hour laborer rate.
To get this in to perspective building a custom, high-end home involves thousands of man-hours, often ranging from 2000 to 8000 hours.
Tell me you wrote that figure wrong 1.5M THB.

 

[FERRET]

I do love your sentiment and life philosophy but it is a hell of a fine line in Asian culture. You go over what is exceptable and you risk ridicule as a fool or worse.
An example was played out in my village a couple of years ago. A local lady came home with a foreign husband (German) she had met overseas. They had been married some time.
She built a modest house for her family on the outskirts of the village. He went overboard on the new house party. Live Morlum show and free flowing grog. It went 24 hours a day for 3 days !!!!. At first they were calling him a nice hearted bloke then it turned to scorn. Now they just refer to that German bloke as the F ing idiot.
I was not directly invited so I never went to the party. Kreng Jai. I am more Thai then farang these days. Because I speak the language and am a foreigner I get told all the stories true or false I have no idea. It is just the culture.

Did You really state 1,500,000 Baht ?? That is 30,000 man hours at 50 Baht an hour laborer rate.
To get this in to perspective building a custom, high-end home involves thousands of man-hours, often ranging from 2000 to 8000 hours.
Tell me you wrote that figure wrong 1.5M THB.

 

[Benson]

Thanks! Which airport?

Thanks, Croc, for the warning. So far, I’m OK. I have been hiring local workers to the tune of 1.5M THB a year, which builds good will. One issue is that in paying above typical rates for good workers, I’m causing inflation and my Thai wife says to never underestimate the motive of jealousy. I have always strived for humility and understanding by doing some of the manual labor I ask workers to do, so I really know how hard it is, and by giving rest breaks for particularly hard work and in very hot weather. In my experience here, the workers are not stupid, but often uneducated and used to doing things the local Thai way. I learned growing up in rural Washington State that not all smart people have the opportunity to become well-educated, and that not all well-educated people are smart. A friend taught me a principle, written by Lao Tzu: “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” So I try to treat my Thai workers with kindness and respect.

That be a bus terminal,. Nakonchair Bus terminal in Surin

 

[Benson]

Thanks! Which airport?

Thanks, Croc, for the warning. So far, I’m OK. I have been hiring local workers to the tune of 1.5M THB a year, which builds good will. One issue is that in paying above typical rates for good workers, I’m causing inflation and my Thai wife says to never underestimate the motive of jealousy. I have always strived for humility and understanding by doing some of the manual labor I ask workers to do, so I really know how hard it is, and by giving rest breaks for particularly hard work and in very hot weather. In my experience here, the workers are not stupid, but often uneducated and used to doing things the local Thai way. I learned growing up in rural Washington State that not all smart people have the opportunity to become well-educated, and that not all well-educated people are smart. A friend taught me a principle, written by Lao Tzu: “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” So I try to treat my Thai workers with kindness and respect.

 

[Benson]

They are just before that drop pin on the map, That is if the map shows up.

 

[FERRET]

I do love your sentiment and life philosophy but it is a hell of a fine line in Asian culture. You go over what is exceptable and you risk ridicule as a fool or worse.
An example was played out in my village a couple of years ago. A local lady came home with a foreign husband (German) she had met overseas. They had been married some time.
She built a modest house for her family on the outskirts of the village. He went overboard on the new house party. Live Morlum show and free flowing grog. It went 24 hours a day for 3 days !!!!. At first they were calling him a nice hearted bloke then it turned to scorn. Now they just refer to that German bloke as the F ing idiot.
I was not directly invited so I never went to the party. Kreng Jai. I am more Thai then farang these days. Because I speak the language and am a foreigner I get told all the stories true or false I have no idea. It is just the culture.

Did You really state 1,500,000 Baht ?? That is 30,000 man hours at 50 Baht an hour laborer rate.
To get this in to perspective building a custom, high-end home involves thousands of man-hours, often ranging from 2000 to 8000 hours.
Tell me you wrote that figure wrong 1.5M THB.

1.5 million, what a load of malarky.

 

[Stargazer]

1.5 million, what a load of malarky.

It’s true. I brought in 2.5 million THB last year. I don’t pay anyone just 50 THB an hour, on principle. There’s a lot of extended family support in there which for privacy reasons I won’t detail. It’s part of the reason I’m getting a 10 year visa next week so I’m exempt from Thai taxation once we’re here more than 180 days a year. Isaan (especially farming) is like the joke about a wooden boat: “A hole in the water into which you pour money” I just bought 160 truckloads of dirt to improve one of our rice paddy roads. PC130 excavator, 5 dump trucks, tractor leveling. About eight workers. Good value at 30,000 THB. I don’t throw extravagant parties, Rice, and live now in a two room cottage out in the rice fields (the kids get the big house in the village). I just do a lot of building and farm projects and pay well for good work. I shovel some of the manure myself to maintain humility.

 

[FERRET]

It’s true. I brought in 2.5 million THB last year. I don’t pay anyone just 50 THB an hour, on principle. There’s a lot of extended family support in there which for privacy reasons I won’t detail. It’s part of the reason I’m getting a 10 year visa next week so I’m exempt from Thai taxation once we’re here more than 180 days a year. Isaan (especially farming) is like the joke about a wooden boat: “A hole in the water into which you pour money” I just bought 160 truckloads of dirt to improve one of our rice paddy roads. PC130 excavator, 5 dump trucks, tractor leveling. About eight workers. Good value at 30,000 THB. I don’t throw extravagant parties, Rice, and live now in a two room cottage out in the rice fields (the kids get the big house in the village). I just do a lot of building and farm projects and pay well for good work. I shovel some of the manure myself to maintain humility.

You are aware that your " generosity " will undoubtly drive labour costs up locally for all, not only farang, you will be
as popular as a t*rd in a fruit salad.

 

[Stargazer]

You are aware that your " generosity " will undoubtly drive labour costs up locally for all, not only farang, you will be
as popular as a t*rd in a fruit salad.

You may be right. But the fact that workers get paid better working for me will be just a drop in the Isaan bucket and not have a broad effect. They’ll just be happy to get a better living when I’ve got projects going, and hopefully do better work for me because of it. It reminds me of when I first came to Thailand 45 years ago (45THB/USD). The travel guides I read said that you always had to bargain hard to not pay farang prices. Offer half at best. One day, as I was grinding a pedicab driver down from $1USD to fifty cents for a ride, it occurred to me that this was a guy who was living in a cardboard shack and barely making enough money for food, And fifty cents to me meant little. So I quit grinding. Later, one of my favorite business customers, an Israeli developer, told me this story: he had a Hispanic guy working full time for him. Strong young guy, worked out, was a great worker. Avi said “I can get Mexican laborers for $6-8 an hour. They’re desperate, will take anything. But I pay my guy twice that. Why? It makes a big difference in his life, and has little effect on my lifestyle. Because I pay him well, he’s loyal and works hard. Win, win.” I like that attitude. Think of it what you wish.

 

[Pat]

There's a big difference between paying a highly trusted person a good amount, compared to throwing too much money on the simple Somchai...

 

[Stargazer]

There's a big difference between paying a highly trusted person a good amount, compared to throwing too much money on the simple Somchai...

We all want to earn high wages for our work, and have cheap services. Somchai, included. As a student on work-study scholarship that required 15-20 hours of work per week, I would work for low wages if I had to, but appreciated it when a job paid better. One job was tutoring math and physics to the unhappy, not too smart son of a retired famous NFL quarterback. He paid well, and I ignored the disfunctional home atmosphere. I suppose the people hiring me saw it your way, and felt no need to pay above the going minimum rate for a somchai like me, and felt good about having my cheap services that kept their lifestyle high. Now that I have switched places, I try to balance my benefit with my workers benefit. I have a dilemma today: I have some simple labor (wheelbarrow transfer of dirt where trucks cannot go), need two workers. Medium hard work, no skill required). My wife says that the highly skilled guy, contractor level, who I hire to run a crew on construction and pay very well, has no work right now and is willing to do it. So I suppose I’ll diplomatically say “I have such and such work at 100 THB per hour for two guys” and if he or his relatives choose, they can sign on. That way, I can avoid insulting him. When he runs a crew and uses his high skills, I’ll pay much more for that. What I do in that case is pay a total amount I consider fair for x number of workers including him, and he decides how to allocate it among the workers he brings of various skills. I hope he’s kind and fair. I’m not saying doing it this way is right for everyone, but it feels right to me. I don’t think it will disrupt the Isaan job market. I just don’t see how paying unskilled workers a little better harms society.