The smoke is no joke! A good one inhale could give you "Metal Fever". Metal Fever - Just like having a sinus flu VENTILATION / HOLD YOUR BREATH(Highly NOT Recommended) / USE A FAN
Hmmmm,--Never was a smoker, but burned my share of stick rod from 1951 to 1984 as a certified pipe welder from power houses to hi rise to refinery jobs, now at 80 I have never had the problems your grand dad suffered,---Guess I'm just fortunate! After reading all these posts & teaching others to weld, I will say that there are welders---& then there are "Welders", but once you have certifications, you have the self earned pride that you can do the job. When my son (now 54), was younger I would show him some beginning tips on gas welding & cutting while building my '32 roadster, then later when he was in hi school, we built his '29 hiboy roadster, & he gained more knowledge which he in turn passed on to his son proudly. Welding & fabrication go hand in hand for any metal project. After retiring from the pipe trades in 1984, we moved here to Bend,Oregon & I bought a trailer mfg. & repair business & then retired again after another 20 years of trailer mfg. & all kinds of repairs related. During that time I had the opportunity to teach both grandsons about welding (stick & wire), cutting torch, plasma, layout of trailer design, sheet metal cutting & forming & etc. while they were in hi school. This is something that you can never take away from someone that has learned a skill. Today, one is a firefighter/para medic, & the other is becoming a Veternarian,---& they can still perform welding as I taught them!---Don
Welding as a career blows. I would consider myself a decent fabricator with an emphasis in welding. The reason I earn a decent wage lies in the fact that I can hop on solid works or a Cnc mill if need be at work to pick up the slack in other departments. I have had to do production welding for the last 2 months. It's monotonous and it takes a toll on you. It's a good trade to know but I wouldn't reccomend dmaking a career out of it.
Thanks you guys for all your help and advice. I will most definitely be looking and or taking a looking at more fabrication/ machine work after this class is done. As far as my wiring goes...I use to do a lot of wiring, for cars to store alarms/smoke systems to elevator controls. The jobs are drying up because no one is building new houses and stores. My dream is to have a shop big enough to work on cars doing wiring and welding and fab stuff. I just need the income to find that place. The welding i see myself doing is mostly TIG. Don't get me wrong though I will work anything for the right price. Your advise is greatly appreciated and is really helping me make some decisions. Are any of you guys doing machine work? How is that? Thanks again
[/QUOTE]I did it off and on all my life and can't reccomend it.Too much smoke, too hot in the summer, hard on your eyes, dirty work for the most part, sore back. The list goes on and on. There are better jobs. Tom[/QUOTE] I agree with these 2 guys, If you are willing to travel and work 10 to 12 hour days 5 or 7 days a week, you can make some decent money. From my personal experience and all the well seasoned guys I meet, there are better things to do. There are lots of other websites besides the HAMB where you can pick the brains of many jaded welders. Most will agree with the 2 comments above. I am currently stuck doing structural, and spend my days behind the hood, dreaming of going back to automotive electrical work.
been both union and brown and root as well as other companies welding for a living can be a means to an end( earning a living ). fabricating can become a way of life I will not discourage you from learning to weld I had to return to welding at the age you are now when something else did not work out (another story). what I will encourage you to do is learn to design, fab fit and then weld up wha t started our as just an idea.beginning as a weldor Ihad to learn to fit inn self defense all these guys that have welded out on the job for a living can fill you in on the horror stories (you want me to tack what) learning evry thing you can about the other crafts the weldor supports is what makes a great fabricator but also opens employment offers that others may not get. It can also lead to promotions and advancement that just arent there for some others will be passed over for out of hand. many times before I retired I was called for jobs because I could bend some tubing hang and rig,fit pipe, fit structure,do a little millwrite work, I was by no means big cheese of any of these crafts but could do craftsman level work when needed to fill in till pipe fitting and weldiing were needed. because I had made a point find out what the other crafts were doing one day I found myself sitting in an office in Houston doing planning scheduling and estimating. yes a lot of time you are not at home and working long hoursbut then money will buy lots of toys. and then nobody has mentioned Orbital welding which is computerised and you can do this wearing your wedding and funeral clothes and in 2001 the package my co. was offering was $4o plus per hour Figure that out at 112 hour equivatents for an 84 hour week on top of travel and re location pay. If you want to just burn sparklers or squeez a trigger its a hard life if you want to make a life it can be done its up to you
I went to welding school 2 years ago here in Portland. I really enjoyed it...until I destroyed my arms. I guess from holding the stinger so tightly as I was first learning (death grip), I developed tendonitis or something. My forearms ache quite frequently still (even when typing this, they ache). If you go for it, take care of your self. I have a neighbor who is a welder/mechanic at a steel company here in Portland. His back is always sore, missing the tip of his finger, constant aches and pains. Good money but the payoff...? Learn how and do it on the side like some of the post suggest. Dont wreck yourself for it though. Good luck with whatever you decide.
welding is a good skill to have but it sux to do it for a living. you get burned, destroy your eyes and can cause breathing problems. if you go to learn to weld, please learn to weld with a stick first, then move to wire and tig. we have had people come to our shop saying they can weld, when i give them a stick they don't stay because they can't do it.
Look into a A&P program, there may be one fairly close to where you're at. Not only will you learn to weld but also fabrication and technical skills that will serve you lifelong. I have an uncle that was an instructor for many years in north central California and he was always telling me how much there was for certain Aircraft mechanics. I know that in my area helicopter techs are in high demand. Just a thought.
Oh man, don't start that again. It goes around in a circle about 90 mph and that's it. Well that's it until somebody starts it again. Back when I was a young man I went to the bar after work with the guys. Bar maid says to me " honey we don't serve minors here" My reply was " I don't blame you, but honey I'm not a minor I'm a welder"
Thats like saying Vermont is not a state...... A welder (also weldor, which term distinguishes the tradesman from the equipment used to make welds) is a tradesman who specializes in welding materials together. The materials to be joined can be metals (such as steel, aluminum, brass, stainless steel etc.) or varieties of plastic or polymer. Welders typically have to have good dexterity and attention to detail, as well as some technical knowledge about the materials being joined and best practices in the field. To clerify, a weldor uses a welder.
I was told close to the same thing from a bartender once, my reply was "good, I don't want a minor, I want a beer"
you may want to stay away from welding on construction equipment or materials with a high manganese content. a friend that does that for a living has heavy metal poisoning.problems with lungs,joints and mind. look up manganese madness. also be very careful around chemicals. brakeclean is one. when chemicals are heat, burned and or combined with other chemicals and gasses they can become things that are much worse than the originals. don't get me wrong i love to design fabricate, build and then put it all together with the hot glue gun but running beads all day long for the sake of a pay check is just boring. good luck and be careful and safe.
HARRY O: What cancers did your friends die from? Just curious because i am 29 and have been welding since 16 and i was recently diagnosed with cancer and am going through treatment.I asked my doctor if it could be related to work at all and she couldnt say yes or no.
I read through these three pages and after reading them I have to ask myself if there are any happy welders left on earth. Judging from the response, one would think not.
Welding is a young man's (or woman's) occupation. Not something that most will do until retirement. Here in Minnesota there are more opening than can be filled, but that is also the case with other occupations like machinist. The manufacturing occupations are coming back to the states and many of the schools closed those classes long ago due to no interest. I purchased a robotic welding system to keep the welders that work for me healthy. Worth it just to put off the otherwise inevitable workers comp claims.
Yep, here's one. Under the hood 24 years,CWI welding inspector 8 years, Now a construction manager for Chevron Pipeline. I'm happy-happy I'm not welding anymore.
If they got hood down 40 hrs or more, I'd guess no also. Plenty of guys who know how to weld and be happy.
You may want to take up your complaint with Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/welder As well as the authors of the modern welding handbook "Welding Essentials". http://books.google.com/books?id=jN...ed=0CCgQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=aws welder&f=false As well as with countless weldors I've met.
Really bad example as the phrase; "Welders typically have to have good dexterity and attention to detail, as well as some technical knowledge about the materials being joined and best practices in the field" has to be describing a person not the equipment.
Not trying to start anything. Just stating a fact. My college professor is the one who told me that I was a "weldor". He was probably the best weldor I have ever witnessed. I could tell stories about him for a good long time. The guy was a hell of a teacher, and a damn good friend. He has since died of esophageal cancer (go figure), and for that reason I will call anyone who operates a welder a weldor until I'm dead.
That makes it pretty clear that both welder and weldor can be used to describe the operator, while the word weldor can be used to distinguish the operator from the machine. Basically: Operator of machine: Welder OR weldor Machine being operated: Welder or welding machine or any other number of names BUT NEVER a weldor
Winding out second gear now. Power shift to third soon and that will be just about 90 mph . Circular progression is imminent.
You're right, this always turns in to a shit show. Who'da thought discussing terminology amongst a bunch of stubborn steel workers would always end this way?!?!?
"All day long - its wine, woman and song". That's what my first boss used to say. That means on the job all anybody wants to talk about how drunk they got, what broad or who's pussy they are banging and singing to the crap on the radio. But when the evening comes, they want to talk shop all night. "Turn the music down, go put some clothes on honey, and bring me another beer 'cuz I'm talking 'bout work" Then he'd say " don't be surprised if you get divorced and fired"
They have better equipment these days including powered respirators, auto darkening helmets and cooling equipment. Like everything else these days, companies don't want to pay much. Union welders get good pay but non-union companies get all of the work. One of my friends sons is an underwater welder but couldn't get a job doing it. Oil companies want welders to be rig hands at rig pay so they are available when needed. He would only get a few hours of welding pay in a two week shift then off for two weeks. My job involves welding from time to time. When we had a large repair project I could be welding 16 hours a day for two weeks at a time. My knees have been replaced and my thumbs are bad. We laid down a lot of 1/4 manganese rod with the thick black smoke that goes with it. We used fans to blow it away if possible. I also do electrical diagnosis and do much more of that now than welding. If you're good at diagnosing automotive electrical problems, you could likely start your own business going to car lots in the area.
A health hazard I haven't seen mentioned is TIG welding with thoriated tungsten. For decades that has been pretty much the standard for welding steel. Now more and more welders are using alternatives.
The Jalopy Journal
