Welding for a living?

[hatidua]

Hey try welding at 300+' underwater,,, then you ascend to a little bomb shelter where you hang for 6+ hours, then finally get to top if you and your helper's blood test is OK. Talk about a bullshit day.

I very seriously considered that route. I personally knew a lot of commercial divers, went down and talked to the folks at some of the best schools for it on the West Coast at the time (1985), decided it wasn't for me: many years recreationally breathing air underwater in SE Asia didn't, for me, equal wanting what commercial diving entails.

[Mtn.man]

Hey, don't get me wrong. It was a life experience. I learned and found out that it was a high paying job, but wasn't something I wanted to persue, as it was stressful as all for me.
Ther was NO fun in decompression, etc.
I am glad I did it, did alot of other underwater stuff, and learned, expereinced the job. But I would not want to be an underwater welder for a lving. It is mostly BORING

[Great-Kazoo]

Hey, don't get me wrong. It was a life experience. I learned and found out that it was a high paying job, but wasn't something I wanted to persue, as it was stressful as all for me.
Ther was NO fun in decompression, etc.
I am glad I did it, did alot of other underwater stuff, and learned, expereinced the job. But I would not want to be an underwater welder for a lving. It is mostly BORING

It also gives you a different perspective of lobsters, shrimp and crabs.

[TFOGGER]

I can stick metal together with heat if necessary, and even make pretty joints, but I'm not really a welder. Anything beyond fairly basic stuff, I farm it out to those that have the Talent...

[gnihcraes]

My brother is a diesel mechanic and welder. Most jobs he's landed, were because he can weld. It appears most diesel shops lack anyone who can weld stuff.

At his current job, they purchased a new $60k truck of some sorts, but nobody could weld to make the new bed for it. So the truck sat unused for many months. They hired my brother and he spent a lot of time welding up the custom bed for this truck. It wasn't much about his experience or skills doing mechanic work.

Note: my brother finally has figured out why there are no OLD Diesel mechanics and welders. Everyone is wore out before 50. Bad knees, backs etc.

[def90]

I worked part time a couple years back for a company that was developing stirling engines for recovering waste heat and converting it to electricity. They had some type of microscopic welding done to some of their parts where the work was literally done under a microscope. That guy was making about $125/hr as a contractor. They use some of this same stuff in the aerospace industry.

I think there is plenty of opportunity for making big money in welding but like anything else you have to specialize and find a niche market.. you will not make big money as a run of the mill stick welder.

sent from a soup can and some string..

[MarkCO]

I took every welding class offered in High School, and a few at Warren Tech. My shop teacher kept trying to get me to go get certified, at 17, but it was more $ than I could afford and I wanted to race. Unfortunately, "shop" is no longer taught in High schools unless you are on a trades track and almost impossible if you are on a college track. Anyway, I ended up welding race car sub-frames, rear assemblies and front clips after a while, that was indoors and good money. One of the guys that I worked under was an ex-Navy and then 12 year commercial deep sea welder. He had some physical problems and was missing the tips of some fingers, but considered himself lucky as he had 12 co-workers that were killed or worse...but in his mid-30s, he still had a GI bill, disability pay and $800K in the bank. Learned a lot between him and my HS shop teacher, but I also learned that the really good welding jobs in defense, racing and other high paid "cool" fields were largely awarded by nepotism, not skill. The other high paid ones were skill and danger or backbreaking work.

I've done a lot of weld certifications, mostly for structural, as well as field inspections of welds. I'd say that field structural welding positions are available and the skill level is not difficult to attain if you get a decent instructor. Oil patch is a whole different story and I don't know many of those chapters at all.

[hurley842002]

My whole senior year of high school consisted of welding class. Fabbed up some pretty cool stuff for my pickup at the time.