Metalworking Career?

[rocketron]

Never done any apprenticeship, though did work through college block release in instrument shop, which was brilliant, gas welding, silver soldering, some tig and arc welding, ended up teaching other apprentices. Did night class in welding, where I rebuilt 3 Morgan 3-wheeler axles, including bronze welding of a cracked bevel box on one.
Started doing a lot of welding, picking up tips from several pro welders over the years including a close friend who taught at the BOC training centre, who's way way above me.
Own garage for 16 yrs, specialising in Landies and Rangeys and all the welding associated!!! There was a lot of rusty 4x4's in them days, and can safely say we did more rust repairs than other guys.
Now a marine engineer, making steel beds for re-engining, to launching trailers up to 10m long and 6ton capacity, storage cradles, gates and a fancy 20'x12' skylight for the boss's new house. (His wife would not buy a ready made one- too common for her! Just had to be bespoke)
Now when yard is busy I help out a close friend who makes ornamental gates and railings, which is really good fun, especially hot-iron work

 

[oddball90]

Had to be in the Land Rover part, but most of my welding is for modifying them(thankfully). Day job is now a chaufer for a few thousand chickens.

 

[roofman]

my username explains how i pay the bills....join metal and play with machines for sanity

 

[weldingscotty803]

i'm classed as a MRO Welder(multi role operative). this means everything from maintainance welding to plastic welding and everything in between. custom fabrication for 4x4's, mot welding. these days i'm mostly a plastics fabricator working with polyethylene, ive made everything from rescue boats to manifolds for landfill sites

 

[F.J.]

I spent the first 10 years of my working life completing an apprenticeship in commercial vehicle repair, repairing and building truck bodies and plant machinery. Loved welding from the moment I had a go. Spent 4 years teaching vehicle repair but did that foreigners in the evening/ weekends it seemed the right choice to go self employed. Got coded to BS EN 287 for both mild and stainless steel and now have contracts repairing plant machinery and stainless pressure vessel waste tankers. I also build/convert trucks and well, basically anything that needs welding. Not just for the money but for the love of it too! I own a really old 180amp butters MIG, a Lincoln Electric 350 Compact and a diesel genny/arc welder for site work. Just awaiting delivery of my first TIG set too as I think it's long over due that I give it a go

 

[stew]

I went for maintenance engineer, as im actually a agricultural engineer and fabricator. Use mig, tig and stick daily and tig more in my free time (whatever that is!).

 

[wrinx]

I've gone for "retired or no longer in the industry"....sadly the latter and nowhere near retirement age!

I spent six years fabricating ornamental/architectural lighting, stained glass ceiling frames and balustrading for pubs/restaurants etc. We also made most of the tools required for old fashioned presses and hand bending etc.

This job involved a HUGE amount of silver soldering with Oxy-Acet for the mainly brass lighting but then I taught myself how to MIG weld for the ceiling frames and balustrading. Also dabbled with braising and TIG welding brass....lots of nasty fumes and sniffles there! The firm later bought a sheet metal firm so did a bit of that too...including O-A welding thin panels.

Left them around eighteen years ago to follow a completely different path so now only weld for fun, I play about with Italian cars so you could say welding is still a required skill :lol:

wrinx

 

[Frosty]

Pipeliner, steel or plastic. Fabricator of any metal for almost any industry. Want to learn machining.......something new to learn.

 

[ChrisJohnsSculpture]

My day job is working for the family business which specialises in conversions and accessories for vans. It involves a bit of everything, woodwork (mostly plywood), electrics, fitting all kinds of stuff from lights to VHF tracking systems. Now I spend most of my time doing metalwork and fabrication which tend to be a fairly mixed bag of frames, racking brackets and general bits and pieces. Most of it tends to be custom made and designed on the fly from a (roughly) dimensioned sketch and a spec sheet. Mostly mild steel with the odd bit of stainless and aluminium.

We occasionally do random jobs on classic cars, last year I made an aluminium body for a motorcycle sidecar which was a new and interesting experience.

I'm also working to build up a metal sculpture practice. I specialise in steel fabrication, mostly built up from plate and a few times a year work on projects in cast iron. Most of it is medium to large outdoor sculpture. I've also done a fairly bit of forging in the past and it's something I'm keen to get back into when I can get set up for it.

 

[stuvy]

Any pics in the sidecar body please, might be worth a new thread if you have as im planning my outfit at the moment

 

[pob30]

Mainly MIG/MMA anything from structual to mezzanine floors,pipe work.Also back at college for level3 GNVQ in TIG,OXY and fabrication engineering.

 

[ouchmyfinger]

Retired now became a quality engineer for the M.O.D, working on polaris missles and other hush stuff, it all now seems a waste of time now, ah well back to my bgt project.

 

[pondman]

I put general professional but think I am probably in the middle, mixing structural metalwork with art/sculpture.

 

[Feet 'n Inches]

No longer in the industry (ex-fabricator/welder)- been out of it for around 25 years. Retirement's only a few years way and I'm slowly building up a bit of a workshop to keep me amused in my dotage.

 

[toddy]

well i am a welder fabricator.
trained to asme ix 6g in stainless and mild steel. on nearly all welding processess
and i am now waiting for my clearance for my new permant job with the MoD
and there i will be using laser welding, electron beam welding. and if i can find use for it
fricton stur welding
i will be a happy bunny when i get there

 

[MrFluffy]

Just a hobbyist. Although I do own a landrover 90, surprisingly I've never had to weld anything on it so far.

 

[sparkysy]

lol I had to go for other not landy owner though. I did a mixed apprenticeship of metalwork and electrical mechanical so 15 years on I now do mainly agricultural electrical installs grain dryers and the like so end up using most skills most days!!

 

[Bede]

Pro fabricator / welder of 18 yrs for my family business. Also a Defender owner.

Engineering geek in general, hence my membership here despite it being my profession.

I'd like to build a narrowboat from scratch when time and money allows, alongside a million and one other projects!

 

[oddbob]

I'm an 'Other', being a sculptor whose work involves metal about 50% of the time. I was a 'Machine operator/ machinist' for six or seven years or so as a young fella ...just about long enough to get trained ...then give it up!

 

[Park_monkey]

I learned how to weld when I started building stainless exhausts at work (demon tweeks at the time) and turned out it was the only thing i enjoyed doing there. I just weld at home now when I can on my own little projecte, I have always wanted to learn properly but it's not a priority at the moment.