new guy lookin for advice

By Kix

Date 02-05-2008 15:13

You can start where ever you want man. Try it out around the house for a bit first. Look at fabrication shops to start out at. I wouldn't recomend starting out on an assembly line trigger pullin, but everyone has there own thing ya know.

By Plasma-Brain (**)

Date 02-05-2008 16:24

Hello,
I don't know where you are or what's around you, but if you have any museums that have a restoration department that might be a place to start. I volunteer at my local air museum in their restoration area helping to bring old war birds back to life, its experience that you're not going to find every day. I'm also the youngest person there by a good 20-30 years and the guys I work with have forgotten more than ill probably ever know, but there very happy to have a young buck around to show all the tricks too. If your respectful and you listen, the old timers you encounter are the best source of information.
Look around your area, you'd be surprised how many places need things welded.

Good luck and welcome to the wondrous world of welding :)
-Clif

By iwannaweld (*)

Date 02-05-2008 17:19

ya sorry about that i am from wisconsin. we do have the EAA museum but i havent ever haeard of anything like that. thanx alot for ur guys input.

By dbigkahunna (****)

Date 02-05-2008 18:29 Edited 02-05-2008 18:33

THere is a difference in union pipelining and non-union pipelining. To hire out on a non union job all you wil need to be is drug free, able to show up on time and have dependable transportation. YOu find a pipeline office walk in the door ans ask who you need to talk to to get hired on. Maybe they are hiring maybe they are not. If they are not ask them if they know in the area who is. Most guys in this business will turn you on to a job out of th ekindness of their heart. Get their name and always remember it. You may start off throwing skids and cleaning ditches. Let them know you want to become a helper and break out as a welder someday. If you have the chance, hook up with the best welder you can find. Someguys will teach you others wont. If you get a jerk, find anothere on. Just be sure the guy is a good welder. Grind , hold rods and have you hood in the ditch all the time. I had some basic welding skills and this is how I broke out many years ago. IN less than 18 months I had butt and branch qualified. You can do the same.
Union pipeline jobs are diferent. You can see from the responses 798 puts on this board, they really dont care about developing new talent outside of the 798 gene pool. If you know someone or have kinfolk who are related to someone holding a book you stand a good chance to getting hired out. But if you are one of those guys who calls them and expects them to send you an application and put you on a apprentice list, you are out of luck. I know a lot of 798 guys and they are whining about how hard it is to get people??? And dont get em wrong. THere are some first class welders who carry a 798 book and will work their butt off. Just seems to me they pretty much all look the same. ANd they dont seem to like new blood.
In your area there are boilermaker unions who have first class apprentice programs taught by great instructors. Sometimes they recrut from State Job Bank Pools so you may want to talk to WI state job people. BUt boilermaking is not pipelining.
But do not wait for a job to come to you. Ask to be hired out have your lunch box, steel toes, gloves and be drug free. Someone will hire you out.
BABRT's

By iwannaweld (*)

Date 02-05-2008 21:56

are non-unions also on the road and who gets more of the jobs. i have little knowledge of either union or non. what do u recomend for someone like me.

By Kix

Date 02-05-2008 19:30

What part of wisconsin are you from? I live around Appleton.

By iwannaweld (*)

Date 02-05-2008 21:47

im from berlin

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 02-05-2008 22:58

You are surrounded literally by hundreds of welding jobs.

All processes all materials all wages... from 10-25 per hour to start depending on your skills.

If you want to travel... The big K gave you good advice.

If you want to stay in Wisconsin and learn. There is plenty of work.. Many employers will also pay for upgrading your skills once you get in the door...

Tell us a bit about the skills you have right now... This will help others provide you with good advice.

By iwannaweld (*)

Date 02-05-2008 23:53

Well I picked my first gun when i was in 8 grade it was just a little 110 flux core and i went from there. During high school I took every metal shop clas where they had alot better machines so mostly i have only been around wire. I dont have much experience with stick but i really want to learn. I have seen people welding pipe in ethanol plants and they make it look like an art. That intrigued me to want to learn the trade. I do not know if i should get certified before i look any further or if they look past that so they can teach me the way they want to. Yet im still looking an open for any more advice. thanx for all the info

By rig welder6 (**)

Date 02-06-2008 04:40

i'm from n-WI born and raised, had lots of work for my rig once i got started, but then skreached to a halt, so i am in co. now chasing rigs, and making $$$$$, SUCKS i had to leave but had to pay the bills. depends on what you want to get into. get as much hands on as possible with all the processes with as many different materials as possible. Then figure out what u like to do. But remember sometime somebody will tell you that you are the "best" welder ever but remember that some where somebody is better, and knows more, and those are the people that you will learn a ton from even if at that time you are not really trying to learn, it will sink in and you will use the info someday. trust me i learn new stuff every day, and use the "little" things every day. Keep your ears and eyes open, and remember to ask ?'s all the time. hope this helps. Also look into a tech, I went 2 NTC in wausau it was great.

By Tommyjoking (****)

Date 02-06-2008 10:17

this may be a bit odd sounding but if you have some experience with wire....

Maybe you might want to center your search around fabrication shops (often referred to as job shops)...these types of business will often have to have people adept at many processes. "Yea we can build this with flux core on these beams but they require lo-hy welds on the support clips and the the steam tubes gotta be TIG" that kinda thing......being able to lay down a bead running wire might get your foot in the door....but the shop itself/workers may offer the opportunity for you to learn other skill sets.

You are unlikely to gain much knowledge in any factory, just maybe enough experience to get tried out somewhere else. Boiler/pressure vessel shops will teach you more in depth and technical welding skills however this will likely be limited to gmaw, smaw and submerged arc, but you will burn on a ton of material in short time. I would shy away from portable work until you get some experience under your belt....that type of work requires a broad skill set to do well. If you are interested in pipe specifically then try to work your way into it as an apprentice/welders helper and learn, learn, learn.

Best Regards and good luck
Tommy

By iwannaweld (*)

Date 02-06-2008 17:01

i have been looking into a job where they make heat exchangers were they would teach me to tig but yet im still not for sure. i also looked into a tech school were they have a course directly related to stick welding i thought that would help me so im not goin in blind.

By Kix

Date 02-06-2008 18:08

Ask if they will let you work part time so you can go to school a few times a week. Or take night welding classes.

By welderdude (**)

Date 02-06-2008 23:24

the best thing is to go to a school for welding. that way all you're doing is practicing. it wouldn't be so much of a "practice in your free time" kinda thing. usually if you hire in as a helper, or slightly experienced welder you'll get stuck doing lots of other things that don't have much to do with what you really wanna learn. i mean, yeah, it's all related...but when it comes down to it, the only way to learn to weld is to swing your hood down, and you can't do that when you're sweeping the floor!

if you decide to go to school first, don't worry about where you wanna work or what kinda welding you wanna do. as you learn more about the different processes and work with different materials you'll find out what you like.

By vagabond (***)

Date 02-07-2008 04:55

Or if you don't want to pay for school look into an apprenticeship that will give you training. The Pipefitters, Boilermakers, and Ironworkers Unions will all teach you to weld as part of your apprenticeship. IMHO you will get better bennies, and a pension by learning a trade through the Unions. . .some folks like to give them a bad rap, and sadly that's mostly motivated by jealousy. If you want to make the better money and in most cases get treated better go union. The down side is there is lots of politics, kinfolk etc. but sooner or later they need people to do the work. I'm getting ready to head back east for a job that pays over 50 per hour working time for about 18 months, singlehand. . .you ain't gonna find that in the non-union sector no way, no how. Just my .02.