school project for choosing a job

[jesse]

Hi, i'm doing a school prject for choosing jobs and i wanto weld. We need to find out what you do at the job and what qualifications you need to get the job etc.
Can you write back with info.

Thanks heaps Jesse

[Blondie_486]

Jesse,

It all depends on the shop as to the qualifications and requirements. They range from if you can grab a MIG gun and run a bead you're in to highly sophisticated certifications and anything in between.

I got my break in High school when they discovered in metal shop class that I could weld better than the instructor. Since our school had no vocational programs I was placed in a program where I went to school for 1/2 day then spent a minimum of 4 hours a day working in a skilled trade. The shop I got into was a sheet metal fabricating shop. I could stick weld when I got there and soon was MIG welding on both steel and aluminum. Not only did I get experience welding but there I also learned to run a drop shear, press brake, duplicator and iron worker. I also learned how to metal finish and got to refine my painting skills as well. The job also allowed me to get experience operating a fork lift as well as an overhead crane. I held the job until graduation and decided I was going to move to a warmer climate. To this day that same company hires one student a year from the High school I graduated from.

My second job in welding required certifications and basically I was told what was expected and given a few hours to practice on scrap and get the machine set the way I wanted it then on to the tests, I took 11 tests by the time it was over and had certifications on steel, stainless steel, stainless to steel, monel, copper nickel and admiralty. That job was low pay, long hours and lots of travel and it ended when they demanded I went to Iran and I walked off the job. That was in the late 70's and about 3 weeks before the Iranians took a bunch of American citizens hostage.

From there I went to a company which was a production shop and manafactured the tapered steel light poles you see along interstate highways and some of the fancier fluted ones in cities as well as fluted foundation pilings. This was a non certification shop and as long as you could hold a stinger and run a few beads during their weld test and had a clean criminal record you could get in. It was a union shop and the company eventually bankrupted it's self to break the union but is back in business today making the same products but is no longer a union shop.

After that plant closed I went out and bought a Ford 1 ton cab and chassis and a Miller Big 40 welder and a set of torches and some Milwaukee grinders and made a bed for my truck and went into portable welding. My biggest customers were oil field production companies where I did all sorts of repair welding as well as fabricating equipment needed for the oil field business. I also welded pipeline for them as well. For some reason though and I still don't know why I didn't have to certify to weld their pipeline.

I've never been to welding school and started out oxy acetelyne welding when I was just a kid of 10 years old, I also learned to burn rods on an old red "buzz box" then progressed on to MIG welding and later picked up TIG welding as well as submerged arc welding. So you see it all depends on where you're at and what the companies in your area require as part of their employment criteria. So not only might you want to check the posts to this board but go to some of the companies in your area and ask to talk with the personnel manager and ask him what the criteria of their company is with regard to hiring welders. That would give you a more accurate idea of what's going to be expected as far as qualifications in your area.

You could get a different story from everyone here as to how we got our starts in welding and get just as many different answers because we're spread out all over the place.

Good luck with your project

Blondie_486

[ASKANDY]

Great history blondie!

Like he said, there are many many different job needs. Some require certs and others depend on inhouse inspection of weld quality. A good place to discover and develop your skill would be the Hobart Institute of Welding in Ohio. They are a premier welding college with a lot of hands on.
Check out www.welding.org for more info.

Good luck and welcome.

Andy

[Blondie_486]

Andy,

I only wish I had the opportunity to attend the Hobart welding school right out of high school but I had to go right into fulltime employment due to economic conditions and financial aid isn't then what it is today. I learned everything I know as I went, I'm sure I didn't learn everything "by the book" but it does get me by. However I would still entertain the idea of being able to take a few courses anyway especially where the exotic metals are concerned.

Blondie_486

[Grampa]

welding/fabricator qualifications

Jesse,

A little over 20 years ago I broke my back in scaffold collapse...Soo I retrained as an Engineer Tech and went into an engineering office for an oil company..As I was the only one in the office who had actual practical field experience I was given the job of re-writing our job descriptions and qualifications for our pipeline crew..As well as setting forth hiring guideline for future hires..

Of course you know this one made me real popular..Arrgh..

Any what I came up with was this..

1)Show me some effort to learn the trade..night classes at the local vo-tech count..

2)Any actual documented work experience helps..take pictures of your projects and make a scrapbook showing completed work..Stuff you make at home on your own time counts..

3)Of course any work experience that shows you have worked in a metal fab shop helps as well..even if you were there as a helper or labor guy you have been exposed to the work and have some idea..

4)On testing and certification..Each employer has their own deal..Sometimes Goverment agencies get into certifiaction as well..an example of a Goverment certification is if you are going for aviation/aerospace qualifications and pointing toward working in a FAA certified aircraft repair station then you woudl have to take the scho0ling a pass the test for that..

5)My hiring procedure was to select from the group of applicants those who has some schooling and had practical field experience..then I would have them weld some coupons which were tested destructivly..

The ones who passed that part then would get a written test..that covered things like weld symbols..blueprint reading..base metals..process..filler rod or wire selection..things like that..

Passing the written test then meant these guys got to weld some more coupons using GMAW, GTAW and such..these coupons went to our testing lab for x-ray and dye penetrant tests to see that the succesful applicant could consistently throw down good bead..

This was tough on some but then we were hiring for our pipeline crew who were sent off to where ever to do a job unsupervised..So they had to be good at this stuff..

We did hire helpers and laborers as well for the pipeline crew and some of these guys could tack weld and they did get the opportunity to work on things of a non-critical nature..when they showed they were ready they took the tests and advanced to a more senior position..

Hope this helps to some degree..

I know Grampa is a grinch and cranky about this stuff..but lets say you weld up a roll cage for a race car and your driver hits the wall and gets t-boned..Your welds better hold..failure is not acceptable..

Lets say you weld up and engine mount for an aircraft and it comes apart at 10,000 ft...failure is not acceptable..Maybe you wind up working somewhere that is making parts for the Space Shuttle..Failure is not an option there either..

Lets say you weld a picking eye on a piece of structural steel that the ironworkers are going to fly up 30 stories on the Whirly..Cannot have your weld breaking..

Lets say you are welding gas and petroleum lines..these cannot be allowed to leak..and create an explosive situation that can kill someone..

Lets say you make a really cool motorcycle frame and it cracks and breaks at 70 on the freeway..or the gas tank you made springs a crack and the gas falls out on a hot engine and blows up..

See just about everything a welder/fabricator does can affect someones life if we do not do it well..do it right and get it right the first time..there are no second chances in this business..

In my time I have seen every one of these failures happen and seen people get hurt becouse someone had a big ego..or did not take the time to do it right..

These are the things that folks around here work on..making it better..That is why Miller spends a ton on designing and building beter equipment..that is why we train and test and practice everyday..

Hope this helps
Grampa