blubyu02

iTrader: (17)

I got my certificate in welding and am thinking about buying an welder sa250 or something of that sort and going out on my own. The instructors at school say its money to be made out there however ive been looking via internet and it isnt really much for welders without experience out there and all the jobs are in south texas and houston. What are yalls opinions on what to do?

Also what welding machine would yall go with, ive learned, stick,tig,flux,mig,o/a, layout and fit and such in my 1 year at skewl i found a nice sa250 on craigslist for 2500 bucks.

Any info ie jobs, equipment for sale, knowledge would be helpful thanks alot

s-10ls1

iTrader: (4)

i am a welder south of houston. but i weld in a fab shop. i can tig weld any metal out there. i plan on getting a rig truck and rig out. it you go to the plants you really need to know your tig. you will get put in some tight spots to weld and alot of welds are 100% xray

blubyu02

iTrader: (17)

thanks man, that just confirmed what my instructors told me, i seriously hate tig lol, i can stick like it aint nobodys business but tig????? im willing to learn tho and get better at it. What are some jobs and what kind of money are you looking at if you run your own rig?

s-10ls1

iTrader: (4)

if you go to plants you have to know your tig and know it on alot of metals. plants dont really like to sick rod that much because of all the sparks and bunch of buck shot it put off. money wise if you rig out is 24-27 for you and your truck 12 i think. if your in a plant you get safty thats sometime 2. its really good money but you need to know your ****. i have been welding in shop for about 4 years now. i got my tig down, just need to work on my stick

carlos sauceda

iTrader: (3)

i highly reccomend you dont do it. that will be money lost on your end especialy without experience im highly doubtful you will find a job. i mean what type of steel can you weld on? pipe or structural? 6G certified? i have friends who are rig welders and make over 47$ n hour but they have some experience. i recomend you first get a job in a plant that way you kno what u have to do and i hope ur good at doing tig on root pass and 7018 for the hot filler and cap passes

s-10ls1

iTrader: (4)

i think a shop would be the best till you get your tig down good. here two pics of my tig welds

this is one of my stainless steel welds


here is one of my titanium welds. titanium is pretty hard to weld

blubyu02

iTrader: (17)

carlos: i didnt take the advaned pipe class they had, i am going for electrical lineman and only got 104 weeks to complete both, i can go back and take the pipe which i plan too later, i aint going to lie i hated walking the cup blah blah blah i have no rythm what so ever and im black lol, Tig is my biggest shortcoming as far as welding,

s10: man why you have to post those pics, i saved em on my cpu, i want to get there so bad but i just aint got the patience tig is such a slow process it irks the **** out of me sometimes and i get anxiety lol, those are beautiful welds man

i figure if i buy the machine now and throw it on back of my truck or even on a trailer i will always have it in the future, before i went to tstc i had never welded before so i only have this past year of experience welding i latched on good with 60/10 and 70/18 smaw, gmaw,fcaw and everything but gtaw lol

Pitbull329

iTrader: (3)

What carlos said.

You can first start off working at a plant first, once you feel youre truly ready for whatever gets tossed your way. Get your own machine and start raking $$$ in.

carlos sauceda

iTrader: (3)

dude ima tell you right now if you arent certified as a combo welder you aint gonna find smack. its hard for structural welders right now and if so all they want is gayass fluxcore welders. im a stick welder but i can do some mig and fcaw but i hate em. ive been wanting to learn tig for the longest. and right now im gonna tell you if you dont kno a supervisor or something your not getting a job lol. i got classes at a huge company named zachry industrial and got certified on all positions for structural welding on carbon steel 100% penetration open root with 6010 anf filler n cap with 7018. its so hard now i still cant find a job. zachry has been looking for work for me like crazy cause they spent like 12 grand on me but work at plants is real slow right now.

XtremeBBQ

iTrader: (6)

sick.
do you work in the aerospace industry?

carlos sauceda

iTrader: (3)

^^^ agree those welds look sick. i hope i can weld that good one day...

blubyu02

iTrader: (17)

Damn I have been looking at welding jobs and there is nothing NO where for certified rookies like me, everyone wants experience, there were a few jobs but they only paid like ten bucks an hour and I can't work for that. I really want to get some ojt in everything and I really want to get my tig down. Fluor daniel and zachary are the companies that we cert with, I'm in the electrical lineman program now and the job market looks a lot more promising than welding;+(

Sluggish

iTrader: (10)

This isn't true, most of the welding in refinery's and plants is SMAW. Being a combo welder does make you more valuable. You need too practice welding in awkward positions. Off your back and close to your face is going to be a common position. This is if your working in the field and not shop. A stick hand makes around $32 an hour with my company, a combo doesn't make much more. We are one of the higher paying in the area right now.

Be prepared to take a welding test or two before hiring in. Once your on the job site your first four welds would be shot (for us). The first two are your qualifiers, if you bust one or both of them its game over. The next two are your percentage shots, 5% generally so you could go 40 welds with being required to pass another x-ray. Most lines are 5 or 10% x-ray, I happen to be covering a SS line that is 100% right now.

carlos sauceda

iTrader: (3)

^^^ damn what company do you work for?

orangeapeel

iTrader: (18)

Someone define "x-ray"?

XtremeBBQ

iTrader: (6)

^ many critical welds are xrayed for structural integrity. just because a weld is pretty doesnt mean it is structurally sound.

orangeapeel

iTrader: (18)

I was thinking that was what it was for. Almost like a literal x-ray. Probably shows penetration...etc.

Sluggish

iTrader: (10)

Conex international out of Beaumont. Xray is just the same as you would get if broke something. I have had an X-Ray tech shoot his foot (which was stupid) but it came out perfect, you could see all the bones in his foot, the steel toe and the lugs on the bottom as his boot.

94fixerTA

iTrader: (5)

That was stupid! Isn't that like getting 20 x-rays at the same time.

xfactor_pitbulls

iTrader: (16)

I would imagine that you guys are saturated with people trying to get a piece of the pie there. And a guy fresh out of school is going to be way down the list.

OP, I own a fabrication and structural steel business and can tell you that just going to school matters very little. You need to go get your API 1104 and AWS D1.1. At the very least it shows you took the initiative to qualify for each. If a guy has either I usually give them a working interview, basically hired until proven otherwise, and go from there. VS, running them through with questions and shop tests. I doubt if you tell companies doing critical work you are fresh out of school they will bring you on this early in your career. You need to go get on with a pipeline outfit, plant crew etc, but like said before the work is thin nowadays and you may need to settle for less money than you like for the experience. Cut coupons and weld the **** out of them, best thing you can do for yourself. Post some pics of your work if you have them.