Anything welding

lol, basically answered your question already. I'm good with $30k+ with the chance to advance. I am damned willing for whatever it takes. Got to start somewhere.

That's why I'm here asking for advice. I already stated that I would love to do fab work on my own shit, start somewhere and work my way up. Y'all giving me ideas right now, that's what I'm looking for. A possible direction. I do feel the desire to go to school for this to obtain the knowledge of the craft first, have y'all gone to school or just dove right in, practiced, and got a job without a degree/certificate and shit?

My boss's sister actually welds for NASA's SLS system and I find that fuckin' awesome. He's asking her for good programs to get me into here.

 

I wouldn’t do school if you just wanna build your own shit. Big waste IMO

I learned to weld. Went to school to relearn cause I was taught wrong. Been working since. Haven’t made under $27/hr in a long time. Trying to learn a new process of welding now to make $40-$50/hr and learning “on the job” while I can. If I could afford it, I’d just goto school and knock it out. Practicing an hour or two a day after a 12 hour shift gets really tiring.

I always support school as long as you don’t leave the school being a know it all.

School just teaches you basics. Real world fine tunes you and shows you the real beast


Wanna make $30k? Find a local company hiring mig and flux welders. They make $17-$24 on average starting out. Usually stay clean and go home every night

 

Good fuckin' shit, thanks for the fuckin' advice, my fuckin' taco bro.

Another fuck for extra measure to make you proud.

 

Idk. There’s people in here who have made more than me for sure but I’m in Texas. The average income in my city is $30k. I’m 25. And haven’t made under $70k in 4 years. No college college. Just a year of tech school for welding.

 

But some fab shops teach you to learn. A place called Valmont used to be open about an hour from me. They would literally pay you $10/hr to learn to weld if you would work for them after. They started you off around $17.25/hr.

 

My take home pay job has nothing to do with welding fabrication.

Anyone ever asks what I do, I tell them I own a private welding /fabrication business.

I've never considered my 8/5 job my career. I do absolutely no welding or fabrication in this "job".

My fabrication pays for ALL my vacations and play time.

Learn to weld at a basic level, do something else that pays well but does not kick your ass physically and use the welding skills as your side gig. You will never be short of walking around money.

I will not advertise my fabrication skills beyond this goofing around on the forums. I would be over run with work.

I routinely wonder if I was a career welder if all the enjoyment would be gone.
I'm pretty sure all the excitement would be gone.

 

Yeah, I got in touch with a centrifuge repair company that I need to go and physically apply at. They would teach me welding from what I understand, just have no openings right now.

 

There’s a couple people out there who feel like this guy does. I love welding. I wish I was better at it. But I wouldn’t change it for the world

 

The Federal Shipyards are pretty much the same. Obviously pay is different in different areas but starting is ~$16 an hour right now. After 6 months you get a raise. After another 6 months its another raise. Then it usually takes a few years for the next raise and after that depends if you get pipe quals or not. Tops out at like 33ish an hour. But also get 104 hours of sick leave and 104 hours of annual leave per year. Plus the 13 holidays. And good healthcare options

All for people who have never even seen a welding machine before. You hire in and spend like 6 months non stop in a welding school getting the basics. If you show promise youll be spending a lot more time in the school learning different stuff (bi-metal, aluminum, ect)

To an extent. I know alot of the welders who weld for fun (off-road stuff) but know probably more who want nothing to do with it outside of work.

 

After a week of too many things to do, I finished up this thing they are calling a photo op for the pool area at the Venetion. It's off
to powder coating tomorrow. Moving on to my 9 other undone projects.

 

Burning the sliders on. Doing half one side and moving locations to allow for cool down.

@koditten how I'm doing? My plan is to just weld down the sides and call it good, not going to completely weld top or bottom at this point

 

I like it a lot. It looks exactly like my style of welding. Those are not going anywhere!

 

What's a good starting point for welding side work?
I took a night class at the local tech school, picked up a used welder from a friend and been getting some practice with little projects for the house.
I don't plan to make this a full time job, but more of a source of walking around/hobby money.

 

Thanks, other side is clamped up and headed to burn them on, then rotate and finish up the rest of the welds. I will post up once all finished.

 

If you can do sanitary stainless welding, hit your local homebrewers up. They'll pay you to weld fittings on kegs and kettles.

 

You gotta get your name out there.

Is there a market where you are?

Just what processes are you able to do??

You need to have material on hand to use


Just where pray tell is Metro West MA Pittsfield??Some places in Ma can be real picky about what you can do out of your house

 

Tough question.

I suggest starting simple with things .

Repairing fenders, light brackets or similar. Anything that if it fails won't kill someone. People are always fucking up their trailers. A simple CL add might get you more work than you want. Be careful and not leave the add up very long.

Attaching a pair if new fenders on a trailer should get you an easy $75. Add some wiring for marker lights and $100 is not far from accurate.

 

I put this hi-lift mount together that works with my relentless quickfist mounts. Very secure and fits under the trifold tonneau.

 

And.... Done!

 

I got to work on my "hybrid" rear bumper tubes so I can have something to run the rear fender tubes to.