Welding a Job or a Career
Is welding a job or a career? Lets ponder this. I firmly believe that welding is a career. With the right training, welding is a well paying career with many benefits. Most welders make more than your average high school teacher. Now, I did say, with the right training it is a good career. The right training is a must in this profession. The right training can be acquired at the local welding school, junior college or vocational education center. I have to say though, the best welding training one can receive is in the military, specifically the Navy. As a welder, trained in the Navy, I am most likely biased. However, knowing my training level, it is very hard for me not to be.
The average welder starts out learning how to weld in small shops, usually with older equipment and a rush to get the training done. While this is usually acceptable for the shop they are trained in, however, this small amount of training does not transfer out to other shops. The only way to get a decent paying job in the welding world, is to be trained in all processes of welding. There are a few processes that are commonly used in most shops. A person trained in most, if not all, of these processes has a better chance of getting hired.
Lets quickly cover the most common processes. First, the most commonly used one is MIG. MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas. This is normally a wire fed, electrically controlled process using Argon gas. The wire is fed via a drive motor through a long welding lead using Argon to shield the metal as the welding is done. The welder holds a "gun" in his dominant hand and moves it along the weld "bead" to achieve the desired look. The weld "bead" is the area of one piece of metal that is attached to another piece of metal. Argon being non-flammable and inert (meaning it forms no chemical compounds)is great for shielding welding processes. MIG welding can be used on steel, aluminum and stainless steel. There are different mixes of gases that can be used to shield the welding, but Argon is the base gas for these mixes.
The second process is called TIG, Tungsten Inert Gas. The gas is still Argon, but the welding is completely different. Tungsten is a non-consumable metal, meaning, while the welding is done, the main metal is not used up. TIG welding requires the adding of metal via a slender rod made up of the base metal being welded. The welding rod is added to the weld as the Tungsten is used to heat up the base metal and create the "puddle". The "puddle" is the area of the weld where the metal is liquid. The "puddle" is constant in all forms of welding. While TIG welding, the welder holds a "torch" which contains a small, slender rod of Tungsten in one hand and a small, slender rod of base metal in the other. The power is controlled using either a foot pedal (which looks like the gas pedal in a car) or a thumb wheel which is attached to the "torch". Either one will control the Voltage (the amount of the electricity which is used) that the welding machine puts out. The "torch" is moved slowly over the "bead" of the weld while the welding rod is slowing but steadily fed into the weld "puddle" creating the desired effect. The only thing that will change is the shape of the tip of the Tungsten. If welding stainless steel or steel, the tip of the Tungsten will be ground down to a fine, pencil point. Steel and stainless steel is welded using normal polarity, which means that the "torch" is Positively charged while the base metal is Negatively charged. While welding Aluminum, the tip of the Tungsten is similar to a ball. This creates a better looking weld because Aluminum has a low melting point. Also, the polarity is reversed, meaning that the "torch" is Negatively charged while the base metal is Positively charged. This is the only thing in common with MIG welding and TIG welding Aluminum.
The third process is called "stick" welding. This process uses a welding rod that looks like a slender stick wrapped in a soft coating. No shielding gas is used. The coating on the welding rod supplies the shielding needed to protect the weld. If this welding process is used, the rods must be kept in an oven that keeps them at a constant temperature until they are used. This is the biggest reason that this form of welding is no longer widely used in manufacturing plants. Rod ovens can be costly and very large if a lot of rod is used. Finding welders who are proficient in this process is rare, however, they are still out there.
Welding is a great career in my book. Some welders make as much as One Hundred Dollars an hour and some make as little as Ten Dollars an hour. The amount of pay is Dependant on location, process used, application of the welding and concentration of well trained welders. Some areas of the country have a lot of welders and some areas have only a few. Welders on the oil pipeline in Alaska make very high wages while welders in manufacturing plants in Colorado make low wages. If you have the training and the ability to weld in all processes you will be just fine. Training is key in this career, the more training you have, the better off you will be. The more experience you have, the better off you will be.
I still honestly feel that welding is a career and not just a job.
