Anyone Else A Welder?

[Bigchunk]

Anyone else laying beads?

[tipptruck1]

Yes I can weld. Could I get paid to do it? Chances are I could. Would I do it for a living? No chance in hell. I saw welding destroy my old mans body and health. I knew I didn't want that to be me in the future.

[ww2farmer]

I can weld. Good enough to make a living at it? No. Good enough to get things back together and usable on the farm again? Yes. I am self taught, and learned the "easy" way. We have always had mig welders, and auto darkening helmets at work. But put a stick welder in my hand and things get pretty interesting pretty quick.

[96ecss]

I have done many types of welding/fabrication in jobs and various hobbies I've had. I've done mig, tig, arc and even oxy acetylene welding.

 

Could I do it for a living? Probably.

 

Would I? Nope.

 

Dave

[Bigchunk]

What do you mean you dont like to get burnt and dirty all the time??? Haha

[96ecss]

What do you mean you dont like to get burnt and dirty all the time??? Haha

 

And breathing the welding fumes.

 

I actualy had alot of fun welding as a hobby when building a race car or restoring old muscle cars.

 

I learned how to arc weld and oxy acetylene weld from some old timers at work. Taught myself how to mig weld and learned tig welding from a friend who has a fabrication business.

 

Dave

[slonezp]

Kinda sorta. In a previous life i was a pipefitter

[gardnerjigman]

Went to school for welding. Was on the road for a while and met my wife and had kids. Gave up the traveling. Number one job to me is Dad, so I work as a Facility Maintenance Manager at a big non profit. 

 

Still weld a lot, building derby cars (demolition derby), fixing farm equipment for dad. I'll build things every now and again for a charity auction such as picnic tables, trailers, decorative gates and such. 

 

Tig was by far my favorite, especially stainless. Fun stuff. 

[F14A-B]

I did it.. At Jeff boat, fabrication of Barges for ACBL in the very early 80's.. 1st class, wanted to learn underwater welding via the U.S.Navy.. But the 2 year wait was more than I wanted. Arc, Mig, Tig, Plasma, Oxy/Acetylene cutting & brazing.. Geez, that was awhile ago.. I can still do it though. I don't miss it at all, flash burns, vision impairment, smoke inhalation, 2nd degree burns, yea, been there and done it! Pays well, especially in a good union environment.

[Master Bait'r]

I have been known to lay a dime or two.  

 

 

 

 

Stainless micro mesh welding, two dissimilar thicknesses and no burn-through allowed.  Ugh.  I can't wait for more heavy Code work, this little stuff is killing me.  

[*Hootie]

I'm 8 yrs. retired from welding. 45 years on the job.I spent the last 32 of those years building fire trucks.

Great job, interesting work, but I am SO glad to be retired.

So,...been there, done that, don't want to do it again.

Hootie

[Raider Nation Fisher]

Yes I can.

Good enough to make a living at it? Yep

Would I make a living at it? Yes. Depending on the call I take.

Do I enjoy it? Hell yeah.

[Bigchunk]

So who wants to build a boat?

[*Hootie]

So who wants to build a boat?

I hear Noah's pretty good at building boats.

Hootie

[Hi Salenity]

I'd make a good grinder.

[slonezp]

I'd make a good grinder.

I enjoy a good grinder. Seems to be more of an east coast thing.

[Bigchunk]

I hear Noah's pretty good at building boats.

Hootie

Lol noah's beard would get caught in the old angle grinder

[tipptruck1]

Lol noah's beard would get caught in the old angle grinder,

If he would have a beard left. One spark from welding and it would go up in flames. Heck I am a machinist, and almost set my goatee on fire.

[Master Bait'r]

So who wants to build a boat?

 

 

Nope!  Too much like work lol-  I would like to locate a nice small project 12' semi-v aluminum boat though.  I've got a whole sheet of diamond plate and some rhino lining just waiting for a custom interior project...  Now if I could just get my brother to sell me his little yard ornament I'd be well on my way down said project road.  

[Jtrout]

Yup I'm a collision technician at an auto body shop I'm steel and aluminum certifed.

[bigbill]

Besides being a class A machine tool builder I spent my last 20 years working for one of the top ten engineering groups in the country as a lead tech in the r&d test lab plus being a welder fabricator. I did it all. I was a blue collar worker in a white collar world with there benefits. I was under the world corporate headquarters payroll. Awesome 401k. I was given full control in picking out what welding machines I wanted. I purchased mostly 500amp welding machines with 100% duty cycle. This way I could run 24/7 on a rush job. I did take all the AWS (American welding society) courses that were paid by the company. They invested money in my education. I earned my keep. I purchased two 5' x 9' acorn welding tables. I did small TIG WELDING up to large structural steel weldments. I build test frames to test there new product designs.

It was like running my own company. I'm retired now.

I was using 1/4" to 5/16" arc welding rod. My vendor told me no one else uses this big stuff. I told him time is money. I asked him to get me 3/8" rod.