What made you want to be a welder? I don't know if this has been covered before but I am just curious. And along with it what kind of welding do you do. Pipe, struct, pipeline, stainless, fab-shop, ect.
I just fell into it. I took a tour at the tech college when I was in high school and the welding instructor made sense. So here I am.
Can't remember why I wanted to be welder, but I do recall the moment. The first time I struck that arc and the rod just melted as I dragged it along leaving a shiny bead of metal. Its weird I know, but that's when the bug bit. And of course, I get to wear great welding hats.
I grew up around welding and the pipe trades. Dad's mom was a shipbuilder durin WW2, dad was a pipefitter, mom's dad was a structural welder and my cousin owned his own welding company. Plus growin up havin 10 pipefitters/welders drinkin beer an watchin friday night fights on HBO at the house helped a lil too. God I miss those days. lol
Forgot about the second part. I've been doing process piping in powerhouses and refineries. Just started pipelining in July of this year and love it!
I fell into welding as I got hired on as electrical/mech maintenance in a growing shop as a "temporary hand". After the new shop was complete (wired and set every machine myself), they offered me a job wire welding, I said I don't know how, they said try it for a few days.........well three months later I was the straw boss of their welding shop and the rest for me was history. I run a few factories as cheap production labor paying close attention as I went...learned to fab and fit and do code work......I am very glad I got that first opportunity, because I realized I love doing this and I got good at it and the other trades that fall around it. Typically there is a lot of mechanical things happening around welding, and usually there is some figuring out "how" (fitting/laying out) involved as well....I like both of those things.
It was just a slim twist of fate that led me into welding...that opened up a whole career in metal working in general. I am glad for it because it suits me greatly. Whether I am running a wildcat and throwing long arcs of burning metal, waiting for 308 flux to ping off and find a hole in my collar, running a fat jetrod, spray arcing some high pressure fittings, tig welding a piece of way too thin SS or TI, Tig welding fast as hell on a Al boat......heck I just like spending my day making a bead happen!! Even when I am doing work on a lathe or a mill or a CNC machine or a brake....I know I would not know how or be doing it at all if I had not fell in love with melting metal and making it stick together. Some guys love to work with wood and develop that deep love for the grain and the feel of it ect. I think I have that with metal....there is nothing I cannot make it do for me....maybe not as well as some others but I can still get to the same place with it. I am proud to say I am a welder because I know what that word really means.
Sorry I almost missed the second part of the original question: I am an aerospace welder currently, specifically with a private jet firm.
This is a good post and if you all give it a go I am sure it will be a good read.
Tommy
BTW I really want to see some of you long timers post your take on this!!!! you know who you are!!!
My dad had a small shop, when i was little i went every day. When i got in high school he went on the pipeline. When i got my first job (sweeping floors) guess where it was. I have been in a shop ever since. I have owned my own shop for over 30 years now. Wow where does time go??
Stupidity, I could have been a doctor or lawyer or hell even airplane pilot. But noooo I wanted to be in 110 degree heat burning rods in the summertime and getting frostbite in the winter. Da^^N I should have listen to my mommy. lol
I was in college and I took a welding class. It was enough to change my major to welding engineering technology. I liked it because it combined electrical, mechanical, and metallurgical engineering. Then too, the job placement had a lot to do with it. We had something like 97% placement of BSWT grads into engineering jobs at great salaries. It paid off. I got 5 job offers before graduation. I am specialized in automated welding systems. I am not sure I have the talent to weld 6GR pipe, but I don't know since I have never tried. My favorite process is orbital tube welding.
Please don't tell my family I'm a welder; they still think I play piano in the whore house!!!
fbrieden- And the better of the two is....? lol
Welding...hands down!!!! Have you ever tried to have a sing along in a whore house???
I liked to play with fire and taking a vocational class for the last 2 hours of the day in highschool was great. Then I found out about the welding competitions and then it was all uphill from there, but now I'm on the downhill slide. All the hard work payed off in $$$$$$$. ;-)
Well bit of a funny story actualy
In high school I was more of a mechanic but wanted to learn welding, opertunity never came up. Graduated and joined the army as a tank mechanic. Did my hitch and got out in 1982, economy sucked only jobs available was minumum wage,$3 an hour. Lucked out and landed a job at a dairy because of my mechanical abilities 1k a month + house and utilities, I thought I was in hog heaven. Anyway about 3 weeks in the job the boss tells the other mantinance guy teach tom to weld, the guy looks at me and ask have you welded before and I say nope, he said I cant teach him and the boss says teach him anyway. So we go to the back of shop and he fires up the little buss box and runs a bead on flat plate hands me the stinger and says do that, I did . We did 3 welds that way in about 5 minutes and the owner walks in and says class over start building gates, Had about 75 gates to build out of 1-1/2" sch 40. Got about 10 minutes more training on how the gates go together and everyone left. heck of a way to learn but I managed, couple months latter we starting building a new dairy and by the time that was done I had gotten a lot better at it. couple years later I started up my portable welding and repair buisness working for a bunch of dairies. It was probably about 5 years latter I couldnt keep up with everything so I gave up the mechanics part and did pretty much just welding, liked it better anyway. Still going at it even working for some of the second generation of the ones I started with and watching the 3rd growing up. I have branched off a bit from the dairies and do subin and stuff for other buisnesses but I still do quite a bit of dairy stuff but its slowed some the last 5 years or so.
Tom
Filled a piece of Angle Iron in 8th or 9th grade shop in Springfield Mo. been hooked since. Like to watch the fire and molten metal. Take something that was fluid and turn it to solid. Its quiet under the hood. Just me and a puddle.
Welded on structural, ships nuc and non, boilers, pressure vessels, tubular heat exchangers blah blah.
I work now as a part time welding instructor an love it. No day job other than random consulting and inspection work so my welding now consists of just going out in the back yard when I need to relax and running a few beads. Get to weld some while teaching too. FCAW, GTAW, SMAW.
That's it for me also "quiet under the hood. Just me and a puddle" It's like the Jeep sign. Its A Jeep Thing You Wouldn't Understand.
I was in ag class my freshaman year in high school. The ag teacher told us 1 day today we weld it was flat on 1/2 plate with 6011 rod nothing fancy just played with it but i was hooked i chased that dream for 15 years and finally said heck with it i'm going out on my own started doing repairs on feed lots and farm equipment got lucky 1 day and got a phone call from a customer who had gone to work as a pusher on a drilling rig had no idea what i was doing or where it would take me but 10 years later and i'm still running in the il field prolly not the best career choice but i like what iam doing and it's always something different and always a challenge and i like a good challenge
Hello OBrien, I originally had aspirations to become an automotive mechanic like my dad. At 13 one of my best friends lost his dad, prior to his loss we had always hung out in his shop and tinkered with farm equipment and the breakages that came with that particular form of living. When his dad passed I took a more active interest in welding because I had a bit of a knack for it and got plenty of practice on their farm. High school came along and so did ag mechanics and welding. I spent as much time in classes as I could manage during that time, I still planned on pursuing a mechanics career. It was during this time that I really came to appreciate the welding trade and it's importance alongside my mechanical abilities. Long story, somewhat short, completed a 2 year welding degree and went to work initially as an Ag mechanic/shop welder for 4 1/2 years. Then moved to the "big city" and pursued welding in a full-time capacity as a heavy equipment fabricator/welder, also worked structural, sheetmetal, aerospace(indirectly, built production machinery for Boeing), did a little shipyard stint. Finally ended up in a teaching position, it was somewhat of a natural transition for me since I had somewhat done a fair amount of "teaching" while I was working at various places along the employment path. Have been at this for 18 years now and continue to get out and work in industry as the opportunities present themselves, gotta stay sharp you know! Enjoy the stories of others starts, they are really an inspiration to many and an example of how one's dreams can become a reality. Also, fine examples of how well the trades can serve to provide for our families. Best regards, Allan
I've always loved art and thought about art school, but I also knew I wanted a job and IMO art school doesn't make a good artist. I was heavily into ceramics though and I was sculpting some rather large things and needed to start making fixtures. On a whim, I took a welding class at the local college so I could make a fixture for a ceramics piece i was working on. I was soo nervous that first day of college, me as a pipsqueak highschool kid who didn't know the first lick about welding. My family is all academics and my dad couldn't turn a screw driver to save his life.
Anyways 5 years later and I'm graduating in May with my degree in welding engineering technology. I love the field and I love the work, while I'm not sure if I'll ever work as a welder again for a job I can't wait until I can afford to buy a welder and start building myself a shop. I'm also thinking about going on for my masters in welding engineering.
P.S: The job market sucks for a graduate right now, No bites for welding engineeirng positions.
Work is hard to find for everyone rate now. Im getting 2 weeked to death rate now.
When you strike that arc, the rest of the world just fades away, very peaceful. I have been welding pipe, going on fifteen years and just can't see myself doing anything else.
well as a 10 yr old my DAD was a welder at a vessel shop and had access to breaks etc.. and in the evenings he would come home and put me and my two older brothers to work building trailers and toolboxes for pickups in 79 -82 and became yardforman of a rigyard in Wichita Falls Tx. he took me out to a bar for my first beer after his promotion (that i will always remember) . Me and my brothers did not take classes to weld, but was told that it was a way of LIFE but like many in the early eighties the oilboom crashed and he went from making 24.00 hr. to 6.00 to sweep floors. Then he started his own steel erecting business 27 yrs. ago so i guess i just i kind of grew up welding and having to pass tests, first one at 16 . So really it is and can be a life long profession in one way or another. (NO PROBLEM BOSS)
First, I agree with Tim105 100%, nothing else matters when I'm under the hood, mind completely at ease except for watching the weld pool. Strange how my mind wanders all day even while watching the idiot box, but under the hood, single train of thought.
I guess I was about 10 and had an Uncle that was a welder. Went out in his barn one day and he asked if I wanted to weld. Don't know how long I welded but it was the greatest. At 16 was into cars, 18, still into cars. Joined the Marines straight out of high school to be a mechanic, said I had a good mind for mechanical stuff according to my tests. Got out, went to tech school for a mechanic(should have shot myself then). After nearly 18 years of getting the shaft and doing my part to save GM with rediculous warranty labor times, supporting the tool companies with $5000 a year over the last 14 years, I got laid off. Best thing that could have happened to me!! Laughed at them when they told me they were letting me go!!
I welded for two years for an equipment company, they footed the bill for welding school. Got my MIG done and started on stick but then left that company. Bought my own ac/dc miller back in 98' and built, repaired and done all sorts of stuff with it. All the places I turned wrenches at since 98' I was the only one that felt confident about welding so I was always the go to guy. Always had a love for it, building, making something out of nothing and I guess it was from that little bug bite way back in 1980 somethin'.
Now, got my own first year business...poor as h_ll but never been happier. Been doing mostly light structural stuff, some stairs, handrail, gates, my secret in the closet...dumpster enclosures. Equipment repair....but that reminds me of being a mechanic so don't chase after it but it is money. During the slow times, like now I mess around with my amatuer forge and pound out decorative plant hangers and other ornamental stuff. Another thing I can really get lost in doing.
So that's my life story....well at least part of it.
I could have been a doctor or lawyer or hell even airplane pilot. But noooo
I will go with that, if I listened to mommy I could be slaving away under a hot secretary right now.
To be honest, I do like that I have chosen welding as my main profession! In fact, EVERYBODY I meet tells me I'm a MUCH better welder than Stevie Wonder!
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