Is welding a good profession and how lucrative

[mtt.tr]

I am going to disagree. There are opportunities but nobody is going to walk straight into a well paid pipe welding job. They will need to have cut their teeth within a mechanical services company that's into industrial pipe installations and spent a good few years with pipe fitter/welders. Prepping and fitting up for welders on industrial pipework is gutty/heavy/dirty work and definitley not for the snowflakes, Just getting the kit out and packing it away every day would kill off most of todays nippers, its where I started and I watched so many of the other lads drop like flies.

Bob

I will have to disagree, jobs are far a few between even at low wages!

 

[premmington]

I am going to disagree. There are opportunities but nobody is going to walk straight into a well paid pipe welding job. They will need to have cut their teeth within a mechanical services company that's into industrial pipe installations and spent a good few years with pipe fitter/welders. Prepping and fitting up for welders on industrial pipework is gutty/heavy/dirty work and definitley not for the snowflakes, Just getting the kit out and packing it away every day would kill off most of todays nippers, its where I started and I watched so many of the other lads drop like flies.

Bob

Yeah - agree remote "green field" big bore pipe welding would be too much for me!

It also looks a bit repetitive to me as well - mile after mile of joint after joint - with only an inpection hatch as a break from the norm.

I would state thou - it needs to be well paid for anybody to stick at it.

 

[Brad93]

Murphy do a lot of pipeline works. They've got some real hotshot lads but it's not like the 80s where these guys are buying Porsches.

Nowadays it's an open root with Miller RMT? or Lincoln STT, then over to top with dual shield on a scorpion pipe bug.
I think they still 6010 some pipes.

 

[premmington]

Murphy do a lot of pipeline works. They've got some real hotshot lads but it's not like the 80s where these guys are buying Porsches.

Nowadays it's an open root with Miller RMT? or Lincoln STT, then over to top with dual shield on a scorpion pipe bug.
I think they still 6010 some pipes.

So mostly its MIG auto stuff now on tracks.

Must be some stuff it would be quicker to do it manually than set up a machine auto feed.

I know very little about this - it is "big boys welding"...

 

[Brad93]

So mostly its MIG auto stuff now on tracks.

Must be some stuff it would be quicker to do it manually than set up a machine auto feed.

I know very little about this - it is "big boys welding"...

I don't know, you literally tack the pipe up, swing a cage on and away you go with 0% chance of failure. I'd say 80% of new pipeline work in Europe is automatic if not more

 

[tom2207]

I don't know, you literally tack the pipe up, swing a cage on and away you go with 0% chance of failure. I'd say 80% of new pipeline work in Europe is automatic if not more

you can see why it makes sense though ,, however a fault in manual welding when found is usually a spot repair , when an automated process goes wrong its all wrong and the whole lot has to come out , granted on a pipeline its just a slice off the end and away you go again , but sometimes its not just that handy.

 

[Sean]

Asda pays better than metal work

Costa paying well and looking for Baris...Barrist....people to make coffee!

 

[tom2207]

Costa paying well and looking for Baris...Barrist....people to make coffee!

we used to call them apprentices ,,, now they are barristers , , we used to call them lawyers

gods Im behind the times , no wonder people laugh at my sneakers ,,, and I thought I was trendy as Id stopped calling them plimsole's.
And I wouldnt dare ask for a Fag anymore either.

 

[Robbie260]

Kfc in Fort William can’t get staff or keep them. They are paying £15 an hour as much as for a time served welder at the local firm I worked at just about. Job market is all squewiff these days. Lorry drivers getting payed as much/more than mechanics the list of oddities goes on.

 

[premmington]

Kfc in Fort William can’t get staff or keep them. They are paying £15 an hour as much as for a time served welder at the local firm I worked at just about. Job market is all squewiff these days. Lorry drivers getting payed as much/more than mechanics the list of oddities goes on.

A lot of local lorry fitters with truck licences have gone lorry driving now (plus a lot of ex taxi drivers have passed tests).

 

[Revs1972]

, no wonder people laugh at my sneakers ,,, and I thought I was trendy as Id stopped calling them plimsole's.

Them’s me daps

 

[Revs1972]

A lot of folk say to
Me “ohh just draw it out and then you know your right” 45ft wide and 30 to the eves no problem!

Saying that grandad was a apprentice draughtsman at vickers (when it was vickers and not BAE in barrow) and they done nearly ever thing at one point in scale on the floor still in chalk then transferred to paper

Spent 6 weeks in the template shop when I was an apprentice. All the trusses were drawn out on the floor and templates made to cut the steels.
Used to make cardboard templates for each and every end plate on the job too ( you soon learnt as a drafty to standardise your end plates).
Now it’s all done in 3d model space, you buy the steel in cut and drilled and the plates are all bought in profiles. For most things it’s just sticking it together. If plates are coming off at funny angles I’ll make a sacrificial plate to tack on so they can be set at the right angle , No guess work involved .

 

[highseas]

Murphy do a lot of pipeline works. They've got some real hotshot lads but it's not like the 80s where these guys are buying Porsches.

Nowadays it's an open root with Miller RMT? or Lincoln STT, then over to top with dual shield on a scorpion pipe bug.
I think they still 6010 some pipes.

This section of Pipe for the thirlmeare pipe was waiting’s and they were putting a mig root down hand and 6010 cover passes, a waiting’s done most and I think murphys done a bit?

 

[Brad93]

This section of Pipe for the thirlmeare pipe was waiting’s and they were putting a mig root down hand and 6010 cover passes, a waiting’s done most and I think murphys done a bit?

Yep that would of been a STT root but it wouldn't of been 6010 cap. Would of been an 8018G cap v down basic electrode I reckon.

 

[argongon]

Old post ... at least I know about some of it.

I work as a software engineer and its a great job from a financial / career perspective. Like any job, I went into it as I loved it.. but no longer totally love it. I do still enjoy it though.

The Old adage goes, that you should do something you enjoy. I call that bad advice as the enjoyment will largely go out of it once you do it as a day job.

Right on all parts of this, although you can also find software jobs that don't pay so well - ask me!

However it's like any skill: some simply can't do it. I tried to help a lad whose relative asked me to help him with his computing homework. His brain just... didn't compute. I couldn't tell whether he was trying hard or not and because I did it for free I didn't feel guilty that he had no homework to hand in.

(First time I did one of those I was paid, and he had no idea how his homework worked... I did feel guilty about that. Weird?)

I'm sure he'll be good for something but I didn't stay to find out what. Probably the most helpful thing I did for him was the conversation with his mum, like
"well I've seen that software is a good career so I tried to encourage him"
"I don't see any sign that he's interested in it, or has any understanding" ... well I hope I put it more gently than that.

However the tools for starting software are very cheap. If you don't already have a laptop you can get a Raspberry Pi plugged into your telly (if you can find one in the shops - get at least 2 gig of RAM, the smaller ones will try your patience pdq). Go try some basic courses & see if you like it for under £50, only major dangers are RSI and losing your social life

Going to work is just industrial prostitution, selling your time for money, if its not big money youll best enjoy it.

It's easier to choose how much time you sell if you don't have somebody else spending out of your wallet!

Why wasn't I taught that? I suppose it is bluffy obvious to most people.

Ha now, this reminds me of the relevant joke Dad told me when I was a teen -
The business man is giving his son a first lesson in the rules of business.
"Climb that ladder onto the roof son, and then jump off. I'll catch you."
He's up that ladder. "Are you sure you can catch me safely?" "Yes, now jump"
He jumps and lands on the floor with broken bones.
"First rule of business son, don't trust anyone".

I would suggest its going completely the other way and its very hard to get anyone who wants to work. And trades men can set the price at whatever they want coz its nearly impossible to get one. And contractors are saying all the trades men that work for them are getting older and no young ones coming through.
To speak to any welding firms around here, they can't get welders and if they don't pay them top prices they move on to another firm that will.
Nobody wants to work anymore.

There are rumbles in software too. Some employers saying nobody wants to work and they can't fill posts (programmers finding that the post-COVID lifestyle is one of leisure?). Others say sure you can work from anywhere, but we'll pay you by where you live not what you're doing. Gitlab is a notable example. Or the straight-out offshoring, your old job done by cheaper people elsewhere.

However as more stuff is automated people are again wondering "what is the role of people in this world?",
and after this the conversation seems to get gloomy and belongs on a different forum.

Bottom line is, if you get a chance to show an employer that you can deal well with the person who is setting your work - things will probably be fine.

 

[Easywelder]

I have gotten very busy and could do with someone to do a day or two a week, mainly cutting prepping and possibly welding, but I know it’s going to be very difficult to find some one. I have a chap one day a week, pay him £14/hr, he’s pretty good but doesn’t want to do anything too technical even though he is capable. Muttering about putting his wages up, I said you better learn to weld then. ‘What do I want that hassle for’. Enough said

 

[steve t]

It's a hard game for a one man band to get right. Often to busy for one person but not enough work for 2 fulltime. If you get enough repetitive work might be able to get a labourer to do cutting etc .

 

[Munkul]

I have gotten very busy and could do with someone to do a day or two a week, mainly cutting prepping and possibly welding, but I know it’s going to be very difficult to find some one. I have a chap one day a week, pay him £14/hr, he’s pretty good but doesn’t want to do anything too technical even though he is capable. Muttering about putting his wages up, I said you better learn to weld then. ‘What do I want that hassle for’. Enough said

I can't stand that sort of attitude, it's totally backward.

 

[addjunkie]

I can't stand that sort of attitude, it's totally backward.

But not uncommon…..some folk just dont want to put any effort or thought what so ever into what they do to earn a living!

 

[Revs1972]

But not uncommon…..some folk just dont want to put any effort or thought what so ever into what they do to earn a living!

And they are usually the ones who get swayed with talk of go on strike and demand more money