Any welders on here?

EaZ8

EaZ8

Well-known member
debating on a career change in the next year or so, im sick of having a desk job, sure it pays the bills but... ugh...

always been interested in welding, just curious what steps i would need to take to get into welding and fabrication.
ideally ide eventually like to be making custom bikes, either on the side or at a shop, doesnt matter.
i may ride a sport bike but im a big fan of hard tails and ground up built customs.
 
I hear ya about the desk job. I did it for a year & started to hate it. I started to gain weight & my eyesight was getting worse.

It was in my field of study & invaluable experience. They contacted me last week to come back to work for them but had second thoughts.

Oh yeah about welding, I've heard that it's bad on the eyes. You can't have a long welding career
 
go get a job at kreator as shop ***** and work your way up otherwise that is a hard dream to achieve. Its a really niche market up here and there are a lot of shops doing it so jobs for that are scarce.

I wanted to be jesse james when i was 18(12 yrs ago) and went to school for motorcycle + powersports repair and went to school for welding (stick,mig and tig). Even after all that i couldnt get a job in the motorcycle field...

before you quit your job id suggest you take night school for welding and motorcycle repair so you at least have something to put on your resume other than "desk jockey"
 
The problem with welding as a trade is certification/license is not required in most circumstances. So the barrier to entry is very low, and so is the pay. There are some guys making good coin (highly skilled fabricators) and lots of guys making well below $20 per hour, closer to 15. Many companies will “certify” you in house which holds little value outside of said house. Production welding can be more lucrative if you don’t mind doing the exact same weld over and over, I was a production welder in a Japanese auto plant at one time… problem is this is done by robots more and more.

If you can get some pipeline/oil work that may also be a good gig, as long as you don’t mind the travel and time away from home. Do not expect to take a course at the college and land one of these gigs..

If you want to get into fabrication and custom bikes or cars best bet is to start sweeping floors at one of the places, bust your *** and move up the food chain—I bet most of the well paid fabricators started out this way—more or less.
 
corpse said:
go get a job at kreator as shop ***** and work your way up otherwise that is a hard dream to achieve. Its a really niche market up here and there are a lot of shops doing it so jobs for that are scarce.

I wanted to be jesse james when i was 18(12 yrs ago) and went to school for motorcycle + powersports repair and went to school for welding (stick,mig and tig). Even after all that i couldnt get a job in the motorcycle field...

before you quit your job id suggest you take night school for welding and motorcycle repair so you at least have something to put on your resume other than "desk jockey"
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ide love to work on and build some custom bikes one day, even just on the side, but right now i just want out of my desk job... i go to work clock in, clock out same **** every day.

backmarkerducati said:
The problem with welding as a trade is certification/license is not required in most circumstances. So the barrier to entry is very low, and so is the pay. There are some guys making good coin (highly skilled fabricators) and lots of guys making well below $20 per hour, closer to 15. Many companies will “certify” you in house which holds little value outside of said house. Production welding can be more lucrative if you don’t mind doing the exact same weld over and over, I was a production welder in a Japanese auto plant at one time… problem is this is done by robots more and more.

If you can get some pipeline/oil work that may also be a good gig, as long as you don’t mind the travel and time away from home. Do not expect to take a course at the college and land one of these gigs..

If you want to get into fabrication and custom bikes or cars best bet is to start sweeping floors at one of the places, bust your *** and move up the food chain—I bet most of the well paid fabricators started out this way—more or less.
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its really not about the money at this point... i know ill be taking a massive pay cut. i can live with that.
 
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If you are seriously interested in getting into any trade, pre-apprenticeship training will go a long way. In the motorcycle world, the Motorcycle and Powersports Repair Techniques program at Centennial College is what most of us started out doing. As you have mentioned, the pay will not be great, and it is hard to find an in at a shop... but one step at a time. If you want to stop by for coffee and a chat I will happily help with any advice at my disposal.
 
I was a welder for many years and as stated above its hard to get anywhere. You can get your tssa tickets like your 6g and or your four position cwb testing done etc. but unless you get in with the pipefitters Union or iron workers or you won't be making much. And with that being said, chances are your laid off more then you are working.
If it's something you think you would enjoy, by all means pm me and I cAn try and send you down the rite path to speed you through.


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I wonder if any top notch guys in any field ever got on a forum and asked: hey guys I'm thinking about maybe.......A certain type of person just gets on with it. The rest is just theory. Sorry.
 
How about an artisan welder? One who does work like custom home railings and gates? I enjoy doing bits of welding but can't see myself working in a trade environment. Too many redneck hoser knuckeldraggers, pardon the stereotype.
 
RetroGrouch said:
Too many redneck hoser knuckeldraggers, pardon the stereotype.
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lol, stereotypes exist for a reason, they even have comic strips and TV shows dedicated to office workers.
 
inreb said:
lol, stereotypes exist for a reason, they even have comic strips and TV shows dedicated to office workers.
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Those stereotypes exists for a reason though. I don't put on my good face & manners in this kind of environment. Almost like a form of weakness
 
RockerGuy said:
Those stereotypes exists for a reason though. I don't put on my good face & manners in this kind of environment. Almost like a form of weakness
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Which environment is "this kind", trade, office, romper room or comic strip?
 
I've worked blue collar jobs making money for school. The work itself is fine but the people and environment made me realize I'd never want to be there permanently. I once assembled bicycles at a Canadian Tire warehouse and the collective IQ of the full timers must've been below 100.
 
RetroGrouch said:
I've worked blue collar jobs making money for school. The work itself is fine but the people and environment made me realize I'd never want to be there permanently. I once assembled bicycles at a Canadian Tire warehouse and the collective IQ of the full timers must've been below 100.
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Thats how I feel about the general public in every building I work in. I can't believe that all these people have a better education than I do but can't read instructions (giant poster in the lobby before the elevators) or operate a bloody elevator. When you walk up to the button in the hallway and see this,



what would you do?

After figuring out how to select where your going and you then see this



the only logical answer would be to get into which ever elevator you wanted to......morons.

Not all blue collar jobs/trades are filled with "knuckle draggers" but yes, large construction sites do have their fair share of stereotypical construction workers.
 
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inreb said:
I wonder if any top notch guys in any field ever got on a forum and asked: hey guys I'm thinking about maybe.......A certain type of person just gets on with it. The rest is just theory. Sorry.
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probably true, but also probably because they have 10 to 20 yrs experience in the field now, and the guys they would have asked 10 to 20 yrs ago generally didnt go on the internet... youve got to think the guys who trained the current "top notch guys" probably had another 20 yrs on them, so you are looking at someone who is currently probably in their 70s...and lets call it 20 yrs ago in 1995 internet was barely used, forums didnt exist, and much music was still releasing cd's annually.
 
EaZ8 said:
probably true, but also probably because they have 10 to 20 yrs experience in the field now, and the guys they would have asked 10 to 20 yrs ago generally didnt go on the internet... youve got to think the guys who trained the current "top notch guys" probably had another 20 yrs on them, so you are looking at someone who is currently probably in their 70s...and lets call it 20 yrs ago in 1995 internet was barely used, forums didnt exist, and much music was still releasing cd's annually.
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Sorry I didn't mean to be rude. Just seems I know a lot of people who verbalize but never seem to actionize. That's not you and, again, I'm sorry it got away from me. Won't happen again.
 
inreb said:
Sorry I didn't mean to be rude. Just seems I know a lot of people who verbalize but never seem to actionize. That's not you and, again, I'm sorry it got away from me. Won't happen again.
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i didnt take that as rude... ive got thicker skin than that, no worries.

im not looking to do a complete career change till im out of debt and have some other financial plans sorted out (which will be 1 year or maybe 2 topps), at that point i wont care about the massive loss in pay. this is more to enjoy what im going to be doing, my main source of income will be coming in from other investments.
right now ive got a handful of toys and im not going to be giving them up anytime soon, i like my boats.

ill probably look at taking some night school classes in a few different fields over the next year.
 
EaZ8 said:
ill probably look at taking some night school classes in a few different fields over the next year.
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Excellent. When I was much younger and floundering around I went on a technical night school jag. Had to lie to get into some of them but they didn't check to close if you know what I mean. Every technical skill relates to others one way or another, you can't go wrong. Of course at some point you'll have enough base knowledge/skill that you can work thru most problems without resorting to full courses. Good luck.
 
Jesse James got involved on a thread or two on ADV, there he said something about welding two beer cans together being a mark of a skilled welder. Not lip to lip but cutting them in half and then welding them together so that you had a beer can made from two different beer cans. some one sent him one in the mail and he hired them to work in his shop.
 
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