Anything welding

If I ever have occasion to post a picture of my shop, I'll make sure to put it in the spoiler tag so you don't have to look at it. Might give you a heart attack

 

What do you want to know?

 

Just the lowdown on your experience/knowledge:

Job outlook?
Variety of work?
Do you need a lot of other certs to do most CWI jobs (as in passing the test isn’t useful until you also do A, B, C)?
Some of the better avenues to look into for good work/life/family balance, advancement, etc.
Jobs to avoid. Things one should know. Any insights on if pursuing is worth it, alternatives to consider, lessons learned, etc.


EDIT: also wondering if anyone knows if you can double dip on time in degree and years of welding experience. My first year of welding work experience also counted as a second year of school (and Associates Degree). AWS website states with an associates you need minimum 2 years work experience. So I should only need one more (enough time to study) to qualify for the exam. I think…

 

Mine does too. Unfortunately, you can't see that little light flashing when the lid it tipped up.

Nod your head, lid flips down and you commence to weld. Too late to see that light before you are flashed...and not in the good way.

No one is faster than the speed of light.

 

Job outlook: Like everything else, depends on the person, location, and specific field or industry.

Variety: Tons. You can go strictly NDT / DT and work on the inspection side, or go QC / procedure and work on the personnel side. It can be a good buff for management track, or you can go training.

Other Certs: Again, it depends on the specific sector. If you are going the hands-on inspection route, yes, you will need other certs mainly along the ASNT route. If you are using it as a buff for management or training, they can help, but not usually required.

Just about anything out of the field will yield a better work / life balance, education and training is probably the best work / life balance, and on the lower side of pay. With that being said, welding is probably one of the worst career paths for work / life balance.

Whether or not it is worth it will be entirely dependent on the specific persons path, so I cant answer that. It was worth it for me (and I footed the whole bill, close to $5k when I did it including training, books, and exam costs). CWI is not really a career path, since it can be supplementary, either useful or not, to many different jobs. My suggestion is to identify the path you want to go down, and then make a decision from there. I wanted a management / training path, and it was extremely beneficial, especially as a young manager (28 when I first stepped into the management role, many years ago). It helped, if nothing else, show that I was serious about it.

If at all possible, find the path and get into it, and then have the company pay for the training, testing, and upkeep .... yes there is certification maintenance required, and it can be both a time and financial burden, so push that off your employer.

You cannot double dip your time, if you have an A.A.S. / A.S. degree, that is worth 2 years, you still 2 years of welding and inspection experience, but the applicable experience is worded fairly broad IIRC: something like "inspection or conformance to a quality control system" ... which honestly, can be just about anything.

The other route is to go for the CAWI now, and then CWI once you have completed your last year of work experience.

What code are you going to test to ... there is a plethora.

 

I appreciate the feedback. All about as I figured. I’m heavily injured from Marine Corps days and it’s started to get harder to work physical labor. That’s the primary reason I was looking into getting my CWI. While I have a plethora of work experiences from teaching to building homes to cooking to photography to three different consulting businesses to welding, and so on, I see the CWI / trainer / instructor / management / GC route as the best balance between three main factors: what has consistent pay, what I enjoy, and what my body can actually continue to do. I either have to decide to work up the ladder or go back to old career choices that are less consistent. I miss being self-employed and would love to be again in the future, but right now a steady good income and a side business (and investments) are the safest option while we save to build or buy a home in this market… thank you again for the thorough reply. I will take it all into stringent consideration as we make future decisions for our family. Thank you!

 

My observation from a plant operations perspective:

The welding inspectors were just decently skilled at being welders.

They all seemed to have some sort of associates degree, but not necessarily in the welding field. They all had computer skills, since documentation is paramount.

My personal opinion:

The truly skilled welders did not have the computer skills since they were always in the field doing the welds. I think this is by design to keep the truly skilled in the field and bring the mediocre back to the office.

The inspectors were okay welders, but with good computer skills.

As an observer, I was able to view the welds before they were judged. Many times the inspector was "chicken shit" judging the welder because they had issues with each other. This annoyed me. The only one truly being punished was the apprentice. He/she had to grind out the weld and prep for the new weld.

I can easy recognize quality welds, some inspectors want to be pricks. If welds were x rayed, there was no room for debate. Most of my experience was with visual inspectors.

I hope my observations were the rarity.

 

It even more frustrates me if you're in the middle of something and that happens to find out you don't have the right damn batteries! My main helmet at work is a Miller that uses those CR batteries, but do you think we keep those? Yea nope. My hand me down Lincoln (more basic helment, doesn't have all that fancy crap the Miller does) that I got when I first started there uses AAA batteries and we keep a metric shittonne of those. My home helmet is also a Lincoln that uses AAA's.

 

I've given this serious thought as well.

My 1st harbor freight lid needed no batteries, and worked just fine. Gave it to a nephew. Am regretting that.

 

Just keep extra batteries in your work bag/cart

I have extra CR2032s still in my bag, even though my work hood uses AAA.



HF hood is my friend's, but leaves it at my house case I need a back-up to my back-up.

 

Cousin Adam why he would not have his own spare batteries is beyond me..

Did Work buy the Miller Hood then I can see his point .

Then the extra batteries and cover plates not being in stock was a OOPS.

 

I love when hoods come with extra covers, and I'm talking like 4-5 not just 1.

 

My Arc One Hoods use a unique size When I was working I got consumables at super discount.

I bought 50 cover plates about the only thing I might need is shielding gas.

 

Yea my place of employment buys all that stuff. Guess I need to throw one of those batteries on my order list... Still annoying to not use a "regular" (to me) battery. I have my back up helmet so I'm not too worried about it. I don't weld all the time, so it isn't that big of a deal.

 

That's awesome!

What's funny is that when I first started welding, I kept my hood too damn close to my welds but as I got more time behind the gun, I sat much farther.

Now my lenses last me even longer than they used to.

 

Some jobs the outer cover plate was changed every morning.

remember they degrade over time so slow you never notice change the cover plate Wow you can see again.

The same with contact tips.

 

They have me fixing the seams that had to be cut out and started over by the people who’ve been welding here for 5-10 years. I don’t know how they still have a job. It’s pretty bad. I’ve never had a single ding on one of my welds here. They get flagged and sent to your supervisor daily. There’s only three of us I know of who have yet to have one pop. We’re all waiting to see who the last man standing will be haha.

 

Thanks for reminding me, my order of plasma cutter consumables should be here soon.

I added drag tips to my order; never used a drag tip before.

 

I will admit after many many years with a Oxy-fuel torch I have a habit of holding the torch from muscle memory off the work piece .

With the plasma drag Consumables I would lift the torch and lose the cut and get a little upset to this day I will avoid the plasma if possible.

 

It's all I use.

The CNC table doesn't care either.

I still need to take care and program the correct cut height. After a bit it's not hard to factor in.