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is there a future for proffesional welding

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by DamnYankeesKustoms, Dec 20, 2010.

  1. TP
    Joined: Dec 13, 2001
    Posts: 2,023

    TP
    Member
    from conroe tx

    I was a self taught welder myself. Self taught as in ,hired out as a helper and ask as many questions as possible. Got with a good welder that showed me right from wrong. I am not trying to tell you to be union or non -union either. I was a non-union welder when I was on the firing line and non-union inspector now. Had I bought a book many years ago I would have had a tremendous retirement. On the jobs that I inspect on they are about equal as of now. Up north there are more union jobs than in the south.
     
  2. floydjer
    Joined: Feb 4, 2010
    Posts: 212

    floydjer
    BANNED

    And look what it does to your grammar/punctuation.;)
     
  3. young'n'poor
    Joined: Jan 26, 2006
    Posts: 1,281

    young'n'poor
    Member
    from Anoka. MN

    I second the boilermaker's! My friends that do it love it and make big bucks when they work. 8f you got a family or don't wanna travel, welding jobs can still be had. I bring home only about 45k a year after taxes but I see my wife and kids every night.

    Go back to school and don't fuck around! If your one of the best in your class it will be easy to find work.
     
  4. 19Fordy
    Joined: May 17, 2003
    Posts: 8,025

    19Fordy
    Member

    Would it be possible to become a certified welding inspector?
     
  5. SOLID9
    Joined: Dec 7, 2010
    Posts: 144

    SOLID9
    Member
    from EuroTrip!

    Yeah but it takes years of experience, back to school, and then some... Nothing is impossible dude.


    I'm glad this topic came since I had a question about it myself...

    How's the job market lookin in either southern Wisconsin or northern Colorado?
    I'm really lookin into a come back to the states (wont be for another year at least) but worried about finding a job in my field with the "low experience" level. And I sure as hell dont wanna go back to working a TIG welding job that should have paid around 22 and only made 12 an hour... that was just simply degrading.
     
  6. telecaster_6
    Joined: Dec 8, 2001
    Posts: 617

    telecaster_6
    Member

  7. Bert Kollar
    Joined: Jan 10, 2007
    Posts: 1,232

    Bert Kollar
    Member

    A friend of mine learned welding at Lincoln Electric and now he programs robots to do the production welding at another company. Very good paying job. Robots are the future
     
  8. Dchaz
    Joined: Sep 6, 2009
    Posts: 478

    Dchaz
    Member

    The AWS CWI course that work sent me for was only 7 days with the test on the last day. You dont have to have any welding experience but it helps, the test is a pain ( i passed it the second time , alot of people where there for the fourth and fifth time)
    I don't know about where your at but down here its hard to find a well paying welding job. I am aws cert for tig, mig and arc on alum , mild steel and stainless, been welding for 20 + years and the job i have now is the best paying yet. I have my CWI for almost 2 years now and have not een able to do anything with it.
     
  9. Dchaz
    Joined: Sep 6, 2009
    Posts: 478

    Dchaz
    Member

    forgot to add I am tig welding stainless and alum plumbing on firetrucks right now at between 45-55 k a year
     
  10. notebooms
    Joined: Dec 14, 2005
    Posts: 2,077

    notebooms
    Alliance Member

    at quantity, good welders are a dying breed.

    America will someday soon recognize it's mistake in de-industrialization and realize a demand for more physical industry & manufacturing to return within its borders. All it takes is pending drama across the Pacific to heat up a bit...... then all of a sudden welders (and other people who learned or haven't forgot to work with their hands) are worth gold.

    I think that career choice makes good sense. Go to school. Be the best at it. Be proud.

    -scott noteboom
     
  11. notebooms
    Joined: Dec 14, 2005
    Posts: 2,077

    notebooms
    Alliance Member

    by the way..... my dad works in aerospace, and describes the problem you can help fix: all the good welders are getting old-- shaky hands and bad eyes.

    -scott noteboom
     
  12. If you're meaning the recent development in the automotive sector, I'd clearly say no. I did a lot of communication for German brands, mostly Mercedes-Benz and a little Audi. The future, if it isn't Bionics inspired, complex bodies no one can even tack together, it is glue which will rule the industry soon. Not a single handmade weld spot. Mercedes starts with it already.

    Just my two cents from Frannkfurt.
    Have a nice Christmas holiday.
     
  13. TP
    Joined: Dec 13, 2001
    Posts: 2,023

    TP
    Member
    from conroe tx

    David, I assume your company paid the bill for you to get your aws cwi? It is about $3500 for the class right now. I have an AWS CWI and a CPWI[certified pipeline welding inspector]. I think you are required to have 5years welding experiance to take the test. I got my AWS in 92. Lots of pipeline work in your area now. Drop me a pm and I'll give you some names. Lots of work around Ft worth and north of there and around Carthage and Nacadoches. It's all pipeline work. Big gas field in south texas also. The other guy was right about alot of the good hands getting old ,blind and shakey. That mostly comes from the whiskey though. I quit the business for years to stay home and raise my kids. As soon as the last finished highschool I was gone again.TP
     
  14. Captain Chaos
    Joined: Oct 16, 2009
    Posts: 652

    Captain Chaos
    Member
    from Missery

    Right now, not much out there unless $13 hr is good pay to you . In STL area , they are always looking for welders and I guess will keep looking until they are willing to pay . Most of the iron workers I know make good money but dont work a lot .
    If your going to do it , be very versitile , learn all styles and get into the stainless and aluminum .
     
  15. Francisco Plumbero
    Joined: May 6, 2010
    Posts: 2,533

    Francisco Plumbero
    Member
    from il.

    The oil and gas exploration industry of Brazil has found the mother of all fields, the Brazilians have a serious shortage of qualified certified high end technical welders, they are hiring welders from the US and Canada. Not sure about the pay. Inquire with the UA of fitters, plumbers.
     
  16. El KaMiNo KiD
    Joined: Jun 15, 2009
    Posts: 509

    El KaMiNo KiD
    Member

    i went to a community college for my welder cert..D1.1..I had excellent teachers and they would always go on and on about how there is a great demand for welders..They would come out with all these statistics about how the welding industry is in need for welders..Well that was about 3 years when the economy wasn't as shitty...I've been looking for a welding job on and off for a while..but no one is hiring...luckily I still have my old job...go to school and get certified..there are jobs out there..i just need to find it..
     
  17. SOLID9
    Joined: Dec 7, 2010
    Posts: 144

    SOLID9
    Member
    from EuroTrip!


    Really? I was told by a few people that it requires a decent amount of college work? Sorry for my misleading post :/

    I take it your workin for a private company right? Sounds like a dam good job to me... How the hell do you find something like that? I'm really not a big fan of the union. I don't know but for the midwest being such a big manufacturing area it always seemed to be way too hard to find a job unless it involved........
    A) lathe B) box full of blanks C) green button...
     
  18. Gsnickets
    Joined: Mar 22, 2010
    Posts: 164

    Gsnickets
    Member

    join the pipefitters or boilermakers, get a few years experience and then head to a powerplant... starting pay at my plant is 38.60
     
  19. Dont get a gegree. Get a job. Welding si a great career. i know many even old ones. There are no welders working in a McDonalds but there are thousands working there with degrees. A skilled tradesman is in high demand. Even when things are bad my pals who are welders have trouble getting time off.
    I was a Mech and auto machinist. never once did I ever regret choosing that profession. My dad is an electronic engineer. He was devastated when i choose my path. Later on we discovered that we both made about the same gold at one point. He said he took back all the bad things he had said about my choice.
    Do what you have a passion for. Do your best and try to be the best. It is not about the $$$ even though it is good.
    Don
     
  20. Johnny99
    Joined: Nov 5, 2006
    Posts: 1,068

    Johnny99
    Member

    From a guy who has been involved in the fabrication business for almost thirty years learn to FIT and weld. I run a fairly large fab shop, started on the shop floor as a welder. Here is what I know. Guys who can pick up a blueprint and take on a project from start to finish are hard to find even in this crappy economy, welders I can find all day long, fitter/welders-not so much. If you are willing to travel you can make more money than a lot of college educated folks, but stay out the bars or you will piss all that money away. Try for a union apprenticeship, you will have better benefits in the long run, IE: continuing education, health care [for you AND your family], and retirement. Pay attention to and show some respect to the older guys, do this and they are more likely to teach you things you will not learn in school. Its a trade that can beat you up, my shoulders and knees will attest to that. I have a roof over my head, a full belly and a decent life from "welding" you probably can too. If you get to work on time and show up with a decent attitude chances are you can be successful.
    Good luck and have a Merry Christmas, John
     
  21. I want to become a welder ,but i dont want to relocate.Is there much of a demand for welders in south east oklahoma?My brother in law is a welder in port arthour texas at the new oil refinerie they are building.He said they boat in most of the welders there from countries.Cant alot of the lung problems be avoided by wearing a respirator?
     
  22. weldtoride
    Joined: Jun 14, 2008
    Posts: 260

    weldtoride
    Member

    As a retired vocational instructor, I agree 100%: get the paperwork. Get as much paper as you can. Like it or not, the reality of it is that paperwork opens doors for you. What keeps you inside those doors after you get in is up to you and your skills and attitudes.

    There are a lot of damn good tradespeople in this world without papers. And I mean really good. I know, I worked with some of them during my summers of teaching. The trouble is that the reality of it is that there are not enough employers willing to gamble on an employee who doesn't have a good paper trail...

    especially in the "new economy"
     
  23. I agree. Get your ticket. When i say no degree I mean DEGREE not Diploma. In other words a Degree in Geography when you want to be a welder is wasted time just like a diploma in Weldng is if you want to be a geographer. I taught trade school for several years. I met several studends, one in hs late forties who had been talked into university by well meaning parents but who had finally figured out after a 1/2 lifetime of living mommys and daddys dream that no, I need to do what I enjoy working at and then started over even that late in life. It confirmed to me what I had often thought. It is not about the $$$$$$. You need to have a career that feeds you where you live . If you dont have a passion for what you are doing you will be about useless no matter what it is. If you love it you will strive to improve, learn all you can and will enjoy going to work. Go for it.
    Had 3 uncles who were welders. Older guys who live in Midland will know of one of them Wally Daniells, Daniells Welding. He taught me how to weld cranks for stroking and how to gas weld properly with oxy acet. He could explain what to do in understandable terms that made perfect sense and even though he is long gone he lives on.
    Don
     
  24. rustyford40
    Joined: Nov 20, 2007
    Posts: 2,168

    rustyford40
    Member
    from Mass Bay

    My family ran a steel shop. My father always sayed the arc would enter the eyes and melt the brain, That is why welders were the way thy were.
     
  25. No question ...... go to school.
     
  26. rustyford40
    Joined: Nov 20, 2007
    Posts: 2,168

    rustyford40
    Member
    from Mass Bay

    Oh yea, he was real proud when I told him I was quiting school to be a welder
     
  27. Francisco Plumbero
    Joined: May 6, 2010
    Posts: 2,533

    Francisco Plumbero
    Member
    from il.

    Go get your certs, welders need papers. It does not matter what it looks like, you can stack dimes like the king of siam, no certs no job, want to see what exceptional welding looks like, take a brewery tour, take the Bud plant tour, if you know your welds you will be flush and dizzy. In industrial welding, where the cash is at, you need the documents that say you are the best, the skill to achieve the best and the ethic to perform. Consider that we are on the eve of an energy revolution, we are soon about to shift our demand towards electrical power in leiu of oil, we will need nuclear or fission power plants to produce that power. That employs a lot of skilled certified welders. We currently have fewer welders in this country that can produce by hand the quality of welds that you see at the Budweiser brewery than we have qualified engineers. If you do it be the best, the money will follow.
     
  28. allengator
    Joined: Sep 21, 2006
    Posts: 293

    allengator
    Member
    from Keller, TX

    not to split hairs...
    but isnt a WELDER a machine...
    and a WELDOR the person that welds with the machine??
     
  29. Francisco Plumbero
    Joined: May 6, 2010
    Posts: 2,533

    Francisco Plumbero
    Member
    from il.

    A Weldsperson. Technically. Or a Weld Craftsperson. A Weld Craft Technician. Usually the people who get all fartsy about their title don't lay much rod. A quiet guy with a quiet disposition usually puts down a mile a minute and they all pass certs.
     
  30. terryr
    Joined: Feb 8, 2007
    Posts: 285

    terryr
    Member
    from earth

    Oil rigs are going to be around for a while, and pipeline. A rig weldor/blacksmith on a refinery makes over a $100 an hour the last I heard, and his truck makes half of his wage. [so $50 an hour in this example] Even if the rig has all the equipment needed the truck just sits in the parking lot making big bucks.
    But you have to be able to fix and weld ANYTHING. The rig doesn't stop for parts.

    Every rig weldor I knew had a piece of a finger missing and thick glasses.
     

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