So I recently finished a welding degree at a local community college as a second career and I am looking to get started in the trade. I have 7018 and FCAW 3G certs, unfortunately the school closed for covid before I was able to get a 6G cert. I really enjoy TIG welding and would like to pursue a career in custom chassis, body, or performance fabrication and I’m really not sure where to start. Anyways I was hoping that some fellow welders/fabricators here might have some advice to share.
I'm neither a welder nor a fabricator but have some experience in industries that you'll be looking at.
I've always heard that the best way to get a job is to start doing it. When I was about to graduate college and learned there was a TransAm race team in my town I just started showing up on a regular basis and asking them to give me a task. I tried to make it clear my goal was to be employed by them and I wanted to show them I was worthy. Within a month I had a job offer for my dream job.
If I were in your shoes, I'd be studying up on everything pertaining to motorsports in your area. Find out who's doing what. If you start showing up in person to shops and showing that you want to work and prove that you can do good work...you WILL be offered jobs.
I will also caution you. You want to be selective. Find out what's important to you and make sure you're getting into a GOOD situation. If, when dealing with an owner or hiring manager your BS meter pegs out...kindly thank them for their time and move on to the next opportunity.
After I got my tech school certs I spread my resume everywhere. Around here much of the custom/performance fab work is in the racing industry. It is easy to get a foot in the door when race shops are covered up, but they shed people like crazy when things get slow.
I don't know what fab shops in PA look like, or how tight the scene is there, but don't be discouraged if you get very little response in your searches. Keep kicking in doors and get your name out there. Don't be afraid to take a entry level position cutting material and cleaning machines in a top level shop, and be prepared to move from shop to shop until you find a good fit.
*edit, I stepped away while ClemSparks was replying but yeah, what he said!
Buy yourself a diesel stick welder and a one ton pickup and start advertising. I have two friends who did just that and have done very well.
Thanks for the responses I think that both Clem and Gumby’s advice is spot on. I’m just getting kind of discouraged with the lack of work in the area with all that’s going on. I’m really not sure how many race fab shops are around here. I know for certain of one bigger one for imports PRL is like 15 minutes from my apartment. Bearmtnmartin I’d love to be able to do that but I don’t have that kind of cash laying around and doubt I could get a loan though, I do love some 6010/7018 welding.
We are always looking for production welders to fab up stainless steel hoses. Eriks has a big shop in Pittsburgh.
It might be a start to get your resume experience also I am not affiliated but I know these type shops need good workers.
https://eriksna.com/en/latest-eriks-north-america-news/lewis-goetz-celebrates-80-years/
I own a welding/fab shop. I've been at it for over 10 years and have 4 employees now.
I'm pretty negative on custom auto and race fabrication in general. (As a way to make $$$).
We dabble in some cool automotive projects and I'm lucky to have my shop and type of work we do.
But the money in welding and fab is made by welding and fabbing...a lot.
My advice is to get into a welding shop that has a good mix of interesting work and is small enough that you'll be doing and learning different things.
In reply to OneSickGNX :
A good friend of mine started as you did then started his own race car shop. .
His welds are art work. His engineering absolutely brilliant. He's brilliant at solving problems or seeing past the obvious, resulting in an original solution to a unsolvable problem.
Race cars tend to be seasonal business up here in the attic tundra so he got into snowmobiles for when the white stuff covers everything.. There too he got magazine covers and etc.
His cars have made the cover of many magazines. I l know no-one who's not thrilled with his work. He works a steady 6 day week usually 12-14 hours a day on occasion around the clockers. His hourly rate is fair and if he charged you for an hour you know you got 60 minutes or more of honest work.
Good person, like able, and no bad vices.
He's about my age and he's still putting in those hours. His home is modest, his wife provides him benefits. ( and helps meet the bills) He stretches a nickel as far as possible but he has absolutely no chance for retirement.
Is that what you want?
frenchyd said:In reply to OneSickGNX :
.....his wife provides him benefits......
Yeah, my mind went right into the gutter.
I have no experience in the welding field as a job but I think this would be a good motto:
Focus your welding efforts on welding things that make people money rather than welding things that cost people money.
Expanding on that, race cars, as a hobby, is a money costing venture such as, "the easiest way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a large fortune."
However, as mentioned above, "we need people to weld stainless steel hose" sound like these hoses go into machines and these machine are part of making someone money. I'll bet when a machine is down and needs a hose welded, the customer's goal is less about what it will cost for the weld and more about "lets get it done so we can get back to making money with the machine."
Production welding pays less but it's guaranteed 40-50 hours inside a welding shop.
We have a shop in Houston and before COVID welders would leave us to make way more money at the refineries and then come back. Why? Some can't take welding outside during the summer or the odd shifts.
Chemical plants, steel mills, and refineries change these hoses out all the time during turn arounds (maintenance). Many other applications but in our hose shop these are more towards the higher profit.
Lewis & Goetz, now Eriks cranked out a lot of hoses for the Pittsburgh steel mills. Today still a big welding facility.
This will help you understand production welding and if it's your gig or will you lean towards race car fab. Hose Master in Cleveland might have 75+ welders.
Like I stated our welders complain about their pay as they hear about the under water welders making $55/hour. We had a long stretch they were working 55 hours x 6 day weeks and they complained then. LOL.
John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:
Focus your welding efforts on welding things that make people money rather than welding things that cost people money.
I like this advice. If an item breaks that makes people money, They will pay to get it fixed no matter what..
Any chance you can keep your first job and start welding on the side? It might be the best way to test the waters.
My "go to" local TIG welder is a young man running his own one man business. I suppose his wife's job covers the health insurance. He got his certs and hung out a shingle. Down here he started specializing on custom work on boats. Tuna towers, T-tops and the like. Yet he does all sorts of jobs. He seems to stay real busy. Works out of a totally mobile rig, an enclosed trailer behind a pickup.
Not sure he'll ever be a billionaire, but seems happy being his own boss and controlling his schedule. He's a real artist with serious work discipline. He has learned not to give away his services.
John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:... but I think this would be a good motto:
Focus your welding efforts on welding things that make people money rather than welding things that cost people money.
frenchyd said:
Good person, like able, and no bad vices.
He's about my age and he's still putting in those hours. His home is modest, his wife provides him benefits. ( and helps meet the bills) He stretches a nickel as far as possible but he has absolutely no chance for retirement.
Is that what you want?
Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) said:Not sure he'll ever be a billionaire, but seems happy being his own boss and controlling his schedule. He's a real artist with serious work discipline. He has learned not to give away his services.
My God, I love this forum.
Seriously, this is the last 15yrs of my life in quotes. Listen close. If you don't, you won't be fully prepared for the things which are in store. If these are the things you prepare for and are ready for the failures along the way, you will be happy with the outcome.
I am not self-employed, but I found my niche with a business owner who treats me as an equal. It took several shops and various styles of business ownership for me to find my comfort zone, but in the end it is totally worth it! Find your comfort level, and ride that E36 M3 out.
Honestly, Its not that I don’t think I would enjoy other welding specialties. Medical, food grade, pressure vessel, and power plant work is appealing too, as a lot of it is TIG and also requires a very developed skill set. My biggest concerns are I have a fear of heights, heavy lifting (100+ lbs) as my back isn’t in the greatest of shape and I kind of hate production work. Also I’m not a huge fan of shops that leave their work areas a constant mess. (ie. tripping hazards, disorganized tools, unmaintained equipment, etc. as it wastes time and also creates safety hazards.)
Welding/fabrication is hard work, the hours are long, realistic pay for skilled welders is anywhere from $15-35/hr so you aren’t going to become a millionaire or even likely a hundred thousandaire (regardless of what pipeliners, structural workers, and AWS might say.) All that being said it’s something I do very much enjoy and I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Also as someone who has worked a lot of M3 E36 jobs I know that enjoying what you do for a living can have a huge effect on how much you enjoy your life. I’m a firm believer in the love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life philosophy.
to the OP: your profile says Pittsburgh PA. This year isn't the greatest for this suggestion so far, but you've got the road course formerly known as BeaverRun plus maybe some others nearby. go to a track day, look for the nicest transporter, and let them know you can make E36 M3. ;-)
Beyond that, John Welsh's motto is on the money. if you can drive out into a field and repair a piece of equipment that makes someone money, you will get paid.
OneSickGNX said:Welding/fabrication is hard work, the hours are long, realistic pay for skilled welders is anywhere from $15-35/hr so you aren’t going to become a millionaire or even likely a hundred thousandaire (regardless of what pipeliners, structural workers, and AWS might say.)
I know a couple of welders that spent their entire careers with a pharma company. They're mighty comfortable these days. One took an early retirement buyout and is now doing mobile welding on everything from boats to stair railings in fancy homes. He takes the jobs he wants, leaves the rest, and makes nice money for a side-hustle/post retirement job. The other travels the world doing testing and repairs on pharma production facilities.
Overall point being that there are really nice livings out there for welders if you're willing to consider some places that don't immediately jump to mind. From what I can tell, this particular employer did a lot of internal promotion, almost like an apprenticeship program too which might let a beginner get their foot in the door and then gain skills/certifications on the company dime.
You're in Pittsburgh, right? Even though the oil and gas industry has taken a hit, there are still opportunities for welders. Might be a problem with your back issues though.
A few years ago I sold an air compressor to some locals who have a welding shop in Bridgeville, doing regular welding repairs. I asked them why they didn't get into the oil and gas. They said something along the lines of their competitors all went that route and now they have all of their work. Business was good apparently. Guy gave two crisp $100 bills for an air compressor that was barely worth that.
Edit: welcome to the forum. I'm in Pittsburgh, too. I live in Upper St. Clair with the better people.
In reply to OneSickGNX :
This seems relevant to the discussion at hand:
Seriously consider getting your foot in the door in any industry that has high dollar, constant work.
Pharma is a great option.
Nice thing about plant work is that you're doing something different every day and you go to where the job is.
I work in utilities and our welders make about $30/hr and go all over the place in the state.
Read at your own risk. No Life Guard on Duty!
I don't know what the point of this is, I think I had one when I started writing it, but I'm not sure where it went. I kind of got to reminiscing, and rambling more than anything, so read at your own risk. I'm not sure there are any pearls of wisdom to glean from this, and it kind of turned into a novel. Maybe just call it an anecdote of that one time Lee worked in a fab shop. Sorry it turned into a novel.
There's all kinds of variables and all kinds of personalities, not to mention regional differences. Grandma would just say, "it takes all kinds." I'm not a professional weldor or fabricator, but a little over a decade ago I worked with several of them, and there were indeed "all kinds."
I got hired as the designer, CAD/CAM/CNC operator, general IT, inventory manager, purchaser, bid-quoter, "all other duties as assigned," person, affectionately (I think) called, "college boy," at a boutique trailer fab shop, right out of grad school. We called ourselves a specialty trailer manufacturer, but we made all kinds of stuff, '07-'08 were lean years, and we bid on just about every contract under the sun.
I went to school for environmental science, but spent an ill-fated 3 semesters in undergrad as an engineering major, before I decided that calculus didn't agree with me, and changed majors. While I was on the engineering track, I took a drafting class, and the lab for that class was AutoCAD. I hated having to go to the computer lab to do homework, and discovered that a student license, at that time, for AutoCAD wasn't any more expensive than one of my science class' books, so I bought my own copy of AutoCAD.
Like a lot of us GRMers, I enjoy tinkering, and designing stuff, so I continued using my AutoCAD skills long after I exited the engineering track. That, and being good friends with the shop's Air Gas sales rep, is what got me the job at the fab shop.
That shop had some truly talented weldors, yeah I spelled it with an "o," a weldor is a person, a welder is a machine.
One of the best weldors had done federal time for cooking & selling meth, he kind of looked the part, it was obvious what group he allied himself with on the "inside," as his cover up tattoos didn't do that great of a job at hiding the swastika tattoos he got in prison. I guess stereotypes are based in truth right? He was mostly harmless, a hard worker, and super talented at stitching metal together. His younger brother, think of Dale Ernhardt Jr. but on meth, and sounds a little like Boomhauer, was equally talented at sticking stuff together, but had a head for fabricating, and I frequently bounced ideas off of him. Both of the brothers were self taught, no certifications, just got started welding as kids, and made a living at it, at least part time. We had another guy who came from the northeast, he claimed to have all kinds of certs, was in the Boilermaker's union, and was full of himself, he was indeed our best TIG weldor, but that didn't make up for his attitude. We had a guy named "Eric," we later found out he was undocumented, all of his papers were forgeries, and he'd already been deported at least once for forgery. "Eric" was about as good as anyone with a MIG torch, but spent most of his time doing layout and prep work. There were a handful of other regulars and part-timers that came and went depending on what contract work we were doing, and how big the jobs were, but those 4 for were the regulars.
I'm super proud of some of the stuff we made. I still occasionally spot my 4 & 6 yard dumpsters in use by a particular local landfill/recycler. No one else seems to get very excited when I say, "hey, that's one of my dumpsters."
Despite that colorful band of misfits, that shop really turned out some neat stuff.
What finally killed it was mostly management, the economy didn't help any for sure, but we could have weathered the recession had we done several things differently. The guy that ran the place was totally out of his element, he had made his living in a totally different business. He happened to design something specific to his line of work, and started having it built locally. It sold well, he got some name recognition, then through more or less blind-dumb-luck, became a millionaire overnight by selling some property, that thanks to some near-by development vastly inflated its value. With money burning a hole in his pocket he decided to quit paying other shops to make his product, he'd just start his own fab shop.
He was the stereotypical "salesman," he had some redeeming qualities, but most of them were overshadowed by vanity. The economy was in the crapper, we weren't paying our creditors, and eventually got put on a "cash only" list with most of our vendors. We started out in a rented space, but that didn't match his image, so we sunk millions into a brand new building. In the process the shop foreman got so fed up, he cussed the owner out in front of God and everyone, and left. Owner decided he didn't really need a foreman anyway. We had a sycophant, sales guy, that spent more time spying on the coworkers for the owner than actually trying to sell stuff. Toward the end we hired a machinist/traveling sales guy, because sycophant had too many DUIs to have a license, yeah hard to machine stuff when you're travailing, right? The place became toxic, the recession hurt, and brought out the worst in everyone.
The writing was on the wall, SWMBO got accepted to a PhD program 700 miles away, so I bailed and moved away with her. I actually did some remote work for them after I moved, maybe 2 jobs, but we slowly lost touch, and the bank foreclosed and auctioned everything in the shop off within the following year.
I learned so much in that job, about fabrication and business sure, but more about people and myself. I don't often look back on much of it fondly, but it was an education for sure.
I think, as many have stated working on things that are needed is better than working on things that are wanted, certainly in this economy. This year has definitely taken its toll on local shops and a lot of the bigger companies in the area have either been laying off or have hiring freezes. It went from employers coming to the school offering over $20/hr to a few shops on indeed all over a 50 mile radius for 15-17/hr. Thanks Scotty, I live southeast of Pittsburgh in Penn Township. If you want any help on future challenge projects let me know. Oil and gas work can be good money but is really unreliable.. (ask me how I know) lol
OneSickGNX said:Oil and gas work can be good money but is really unreliable.. (ask me how I know) lol
Yeah i was going to chime in with this. The pipeline welders near me are slower right now but in boom times it's big money if you can stand being in remote places for a while to make some cash and build your resume. Maybe a seasonal stint?
Go to USAJobs.gov and get a direct hire job at a government shipyard. Welders there make bank and the benefits are really good. Never run out of work either.
You'll need to log in to post.
