IGX

Here are a couple of cool instagrams. If you know of some cool welding blogs, tumblrs or whatever go ahead and post them.

http://instagram.com/ink_fabrication

http://instagram.com/the_fabricator

I know it will never happen but for 6 or so years now it has been nagging at me to go through a welding course and become a certified welder and start a new, much more lucrative, career. If I do anything it will be to switch to Mechanical Drafting and Design, which is what my degree is in but I need to relearn all of the mechanical/machining CAD programs. Welding just seems so cool. I do have some experience with it spending time on my uncle's farm and welding stuff with him as well as with my brother at his shop.

Especially since it doesn't look like I am going to be a pro mountain biker.

I had to go through a welding course, and other manufacturing processes, for mechanical engineering.

I was fucking terrible at it. I couldn't see shit, would weld my work piece to my table, and then see the entire stick glow white through my visor.

Basically I became a pro at making my table, work metal and stick one piece of fused magma.

EDIT: the first link you posted is from a town I grew up in.

Testiclaw wrote:I had to go through a welding course, and other manufacturing processes, for mechanical engineering.

I was fucking terrible at it. I couldn't see shit, would weld my work piece to my table, and then see the entire stick glow white through my visor.

Basically I became a pro at making my table, work metal and stick one piece of fused magma.

EDIT: the first link you posted is from a town I grew up in.

Sounds like we had the same curriculum. My dad was an ironworker and welded a lot of the important structural parts of the Three Mile Island reactor. He used to have to test his weld quality by xray every six weeks. I have one of his test plates from those tests with his name stamped on it, had my name engraved on the other side for a desk nameplate since I'm a Jr. It's one of my most prized possessions as he's gone now.
Mick, if you make the career change and take a basic welding course, then follow it up with learning to program PLC's that control the robot welders used in lots of industry today. You don't have to be an expert welder to make that career move. Nothing wrong with being a welder either, like being a top electrician, it's almost recession proof.

DikTracy6000 wrote:

Testiclaw wrote:I had to go through a welding course, and other manufacturing processes, for mechanical engineering.

I was fucking terrible at it. I couldn't see shit, would weld my work piece to my table, and then see the entire stick glow white through my visor.

Basically I became a pro at making my table, work metal and stick one piece of fused magma.

EDIT: the first link you posted is from a town I grew up in.

Sounds like we had the same curriculum. My dad was an ironworker and welded a lot of the important structural parts of the Three Mile Island reactor. He used to have to test his weld quality by xray every six weeks. I have one of his test plates from those tests with his name stamped on it, had my name engraved on the other side for a desk nameplate since I'm a Jr. It's one of my most prized possessions as he's gone now.
Mick, if you make the career change and take a basic welding course, then follow it up with learning to program PLC's that control the robot welders used in lots of industry today. You don't have to be an expert welder to make that career move. Nothing wrong with being a welder either, like being a top electrician, it's almost recession proof.

Exactly.

That is very cool about your dad, Dik! I'll look into what you mentioned. Thanks!

Father-in-Law has been a boilermaker/welder for over 30 years.

He has never been out of work, and even now (within the last 5-8 years or so) has been able to pick-and-choose which jobs he wants because of the need for quality welders.

Granted, he has worked his fucking tail off, but as Dik mentioned, there are some trades that are always in demand.

I used to work as a field engineer in the construction of assorted nuclear power plants. One of them was Diablo Canyon in Avila Beach, Ca. After the plant was about 95% complete, they discovered a fault off the coast that required an essential rebuild of every structural part. The iron workers and pipe fitters were not just construction workers, they were craftsmen of the highest order.

Another job where I was a draftsmen had welders welding an obscenely expensive alloy pipe to and even more expensive flange. The individual sections were to be used in a nuclear facility and had to be assembled by robot so the tolerances had to be in the range of 1/100". As they welded the pipe to the flange, the heat would cause the pipe to slightly move. No jig on earth could hold everything perfectly in place. These guys had to do perfect welds with perfect tolerance essentially by feel. Really amazing.

Artist welders I've encountered are another story all together.

High end welding is craft + science + artistry + magic.

I don't know about y'all's area but if you want to make good money around here as a welder you gotta travel.

Ed Zachary wrote:I don't know about y'all's area but if you want to make good money around here as a welder you gotta travel.

Shipyards, baby.

Testiclaw wrote:

Ed Zachary wrote:I don't know about y'all's area but if you want to make good money around here as a welder you gotta travel.

Shipyards, baby.

LOL

None of those around these parts.

Oil rigs. Oil wells.

Know a guy who runs a mill on a ship that services oil rigs over in Asia and India. Makes a fuck ton of money. When he was single, he'd be on an 8 week on, 2 week off schedule and would bring in about 15k a month.

Now he's married and has a kid, he'd quit that job and worked at a millwright in a chemical plant, but got fed up with the low pay and asinine cunts who supervised him. Went back to the ships, got on the one month on one month off rotation and he says it's perfect.

Ed Zachary wrote:I don't know about y'all's area but if you want to make good money around here as a welder you gotta travel.

Here, if you want to live in town you can make good money as a welder. If you want to make obscene money, be willing to drive to the oilsands and back on the regular.

Step Dad welded as a civilian employee of the USAF in the Civil Engineering Squadron at Griffis AFB, Rome ,NY.

He had more overtime than you could count. Christmas of 1979? Kind of slim the same in 1982 HUGE!

He welded on live fuel lines and steam lines, lot's of dangerous shit, at one time one of only a handfull of fully certified high pressure welders in the DOD. He was flown out to several other facilities to work, a few he could not say what he worked on.

He also built Harley's and did a lot of his own frames. He welded all kinds of neat stuff for his own use, like a deercart for hunting season, made our entire heating system. ect.

He told me he never wanted to see me do it or even near it though, said it was bad for your health.

I really wished he taught me some, as I did some welding on steel framing and was the only asshole willing to try it, did it for 3 months until the project was finished.

We had a few graduates who made good money up in Alaska inspecting the welds on a pipeline.

They would setup a little tent camp-thingy over a section of the pipeline, and as they slowly inspected every weld they would gradually inch the tent farther along, etc.

Good money, but, it takes a ton of time and they were out in the middle of nowhereeeeeee for the entire time.