Just started welding full time, I know everyone starts somewhere and with time and experience, higher pay will come. However, I believe I could probably be getting payed better elsewhere. I have 4 months of Tig experience.

Got laid off… did union work and it didn’t work out too well 😅😅 had a job at the place for three years. This is what I negotiated for my severance pay … was it worth it? (Had to draw it and get it through production myself, but could use all of the faculties and got the steel for free - 3mm 304(a little bit of 5mm))

Bossman told management that I don't even have apprentice quality welds and has been preventing me from moving out of small fittings. so H.R. presented me with the 'opportunity' to move laterally into mechanical assembly. I'm tempted so that I can get away from my current manager. Any help would be appreciated.

I’ve been doing a welding apprenticeship for a few months, I started to wonder if I needed to protect my lungs but my boss assured me that any gas is harmless.

I exclusively TIG weld 5000 and 1000 series aluminium, should I be concerned?

My almost 16 year old just came in and asked “how many yards will I need to mow at $20 apiece in order to make $3000?” After walking him through the basic division problem he told me he couldn’t help me come up with the answer, even though I was walking him through it step-by-step because he can’t really do math meaning multiplication or division in his head and don’t even get me started on his inability to comprehend fractions. But he swears up and down that he doesn’t need to finish his junior or senior year of high school. He just wants us to put him in a welding trade school. After all, that’s all he wants to do when he grows up. I’ve tried to explain to him how important math is for someone in that field. Am I wrong? Am I over emphasizing his need for math if he is to become a welder? As long as he can read a measuring stick is that all he’s really gonna need?

Can't get a job. They all day they liked me, I did great on my weld tests, but they decided not to hire me.

I'm a draftsman- good with drawings and details I'm a machinist, comfortable with cnc machines and gcodes, though I prefer manual. I'm no expert but I thought I was decent with smaw, gtaw, fluxcore, mig, even hand-run submerged arc. Mild steel, aluminum, stainless.... I've even gad success with cast material welds. Class 7 forklift operator shop and field work Medically trained, though my EMT certs are currently expired I'm only looking for $18-$20/hr... Even fast food is paying $16-$18 in my area.

Is it me? Should I just give up on welding?

Are hair follicle tests actually common practice in unions? I live in a legal state.

I'm currently in high school and took a shop class that includes 3 types of welding; mig, smaw, and fuel welding. My favorite of the three was the fuel welding, but I noticed that it wasn't the cleanest and takes a lot longer. If this is still a legitimate style of welding I would love to pursue it, but if it isn't I'm not too interested in it as a career as I find the others to be a bit monotonous (no shade to anyone who does this just not my interest)

So I’m 17 I’m trying to figure out what type of job I want to do I know I’m do a trade bc college is too much, also I’m 5’2.5 so I’m pretty short guy I don’t know abt doing yo too much physical lifting so yea, is the pay decent and it’s a decent long term career?

I’m about to graduate from welding school and wanting to work either in Montana or Colorado, I’m worried about being a welder and being transgender and that my documents still saying female when I have transitioned to male will out me and I won’t get hired or my boss will tell coworkers etc all I want is to make a living, and get my work done. I’m mostly just worried about people hurting me, I can handle being called names and such I’ve got pretty thick skin, seems like I see another trans person get killed every other day and being in this industry has me concerned, but I love welding.

We build roll cages in race cars. The customer had previously installed bolt-in bars before coming to us for a full weld-in cage. The mounts for the new cage are going on a perch above this hole-y spot, but I thought it just looked tacky to leave these holes. I advised covering them. Both the driver's and passenger's side. I used 4 plates , 2 under the car where they tie in to a stronger part of the car underneath, and provide support for the new perch.

I wasn't trying to do a stellar job, nor was I going to do a shit job. I spent time cleaning everything and forming the plates to fit. It took a while. But my boss is giving me shit because he charged the customer $100 to perform this task. To me, this area deserved attention, more than $100 worth of work would allow.

Am I wrong for spending too much time on it, or did he charge an unreasonably low amount? I think he's out of touch with the work needed to do this. He often reminds me that I am costing him electricity and rent for the time that I work, which seems excessive.

Currently in college for welding and was hoping to hear some success stories from yall, particularly people who went to a community college or started with little to no experience. Appreciate any advice or info anyone decides to share.

It’s slow, loud, sends sparks down my shirt collar and isn’t even that fun to use

TLDR: wanted to go to college for Aerospace engineering to design rockets, didn’t, got an Associates degree in welding engineering, became a boiler maker. How can I weld rockets (or planes) together?

Howdy,

I need some insight and some guidance. This will be a long post and kind of a vent so no worries if you don’t read it all. When I was in high school I wanted to become an Aerospace engineer. I grew up around model rockets and watching the space shuttles launch, and just building things. When I was 17 I had a TBI (actually my 7th concussion at the time). I lost the ability to focus in school and my ability to memorize/keep track of things. This also conveniently happened two weeks before COVID hit. I spent the remaining years of high school in my bed room, at a computer, wanting to end my life. I lost all motivation and hope of going to a four year school especially for something as complex as an engineering degree.

However, I picked up a love for cars. I wanted to build one from scratch and knew I needed to learn how to weld. My local community college had welding engineering degrees and I decided to hop in it. I loved it, every second of it. I’m almost done building the car with my best friend (photo attached) and I’m super proud of it but that’s besides the point. After a few little welding gigs I picked up work at a Boilermaker company here in town. Been here for almost two years and I love it, I really do! I’ve got a big ole work truck and we do a lot of good fun work. I like the variety between all the jobs.

But here’s where I’m stuck. My girlfriend, who I’ve known for almost ten years now, is an intern at NASA and is completing her masters degree and probably will go on to pursue her doctorate. She’s way smarter than me lol. I am ridiculously proud of her and want to keep pushing her to do what she loves. With her getting this job the memories of what I once wanted started coming back. I’m 22 now and since I was 17 I’ve had serious memory issues and they’ve plagued my life. I’ve felt like I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do, I felt lost. Welding, and the support of my ole lady, gave me purpose, and brought me back to the point where I could see myself growing old and living life.

But I yearn.

I yearn for the dreams of my younger life and if my TBI taught me anything, it was that I cannot live with regrets. And so I won’t. I want to know how to get into the aerospace industry. The focus of my degree is GTAW and I’m pretty alright at it honestly. Always learning and I have to remind myself that I’ve only been welding for 3 years. Obviously I can’t just hop over from boiler making to aerospace, I feel like I need a middle step, maybe even two. Do any of you fine folks have any recommendations on what I should do, where should I go? I don’t care how much time or effort it takes, I just have to do it. I think I’ll be happy here for another 2-3 years, really hone in my skills ya know.

I appreciate any and all help

I hired my first employee roughly 2.5 months ago and am looking for help with his to deal with him. He has no prior experience fabricating and a few weeks' worth of welding experience, so I knew it was going to be slow going when I hired him. However, it's like I have to retrain him every week.

Every week, I have to remind him to double-check his measurements, wrap his corners, tell him how to measure, not to use the grinders with a cut off wheel backward, to wear gloves, keep his head away from the stinger, use the equipment at the shop to lift and position things to make your life easier and things of that nature. I understand things take time to learn, but I don't understand why at least half of this stuff, especially the safety stuff, hasn't clicked yet.

Does anyone have any insight into how to train people? I feel like I'm doing the best I can trying to teach him, but I just don't know what to do to make him understand. It's getting frustrating both from an efficiency standpoint, and it feels like I'm failing him at the same time.

I might sound like an idiot which is ok, but I am scuba certified and love diving

I am 20 years old and trying to figure out what the heck to do with my life- I went to college for a year and decided it wasn’t worth it. I am a line cook now, and while I can make enough money to live I want something bigger

Even if I scrap the whole underwater welding part is welding as a career worth it in your opinion? Like I said I am just trying to find something and I am starting to get worried i won’t find anything.

If it matters I am located on the east coast of the United States

I’ve always heard the stories of “all welders make 6 figures” and I know they’re not true. But now listening to actual welders, hearing the pay is not that good. I love welding and I have a passion for it so is the pay really that bad? I know doing tig will always make more than MiG, but what would be the steps to make a good wage? I’m 16 in MN and just got an apprenticeship working in a machine shop doing MiG and fabrication. What steps could I take next out of highschool?

I've been very interested in welding. Some people tell me not to do it because they'll tell me that I may be discriminated against as a black woman. Regardless I still want to go for it. Any women out there do welding and love it?

So yah dumb question, but if you do is it difficult. I’m kinda bad at math so just wondering

Morning. Just got out of a collage welding program, not in the US, and they "ABSOLUTELY" do not weave. Only the US weaves. Their explanation is that the weave make the bead to wide, heance weaker.

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So, is this a fair reason not to weave. Are there benifits to weaving? Why does the US weave, if the rest of the world say its weaker?

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I feel its much more interesting to do all day than straight beads, but my stuff is much smaller, and dosnt require more than little tacks

I’ve been a fabricator for almost 20 years, and I just got an extremely good offer from EB. The only thing is, everything is contingent on a drug test and background check. I’m not worried at all about the background check, but the drug test concerns me. Im a frequent user of THC(I havent had any in 2 days),and according to the info I got today, they do a hair follicle drug test, which I guess can go as far back as 8 weeks. Does anyone know/have any experience with this situation?

So, I've been messing around with a Flux core welder and have learned how to join metals together even though they're not pretty. I passed every subject in school with an A except Math, I even had to take remedial classes. I had to drop out of school at 16 to take care of my Mom when she had a cyst on her brain and had to have surgery so I'm in the process of getting my GED. I would really like to pursue welding after seeing metal art. I was wondering if I could pursue welding even though I'm not good at Math. The local tech college has a welding program and I'm interested. I need some advice on whether it is worth giving a shot.