Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mobile welding

Well, my research thus far is showing that farm equipment repair is probably going to be my main source of side work for breakdowns and such, which is fine. I don't mind getting muddy.

I have a couple of good machines so far, and a nice portable generac GP9200E, so I'm good on power. I've also got pretty much any hand tool I would ever need, from my previous career. All I actually need to buy is a trailer.

What I am working on now is a job pricing model to see if this is worth doing. I haven't bought anything or made any investment yet aside from time to do research, so I am still in the planning phase. However, as described above, the start-up cost would be minimal.

Oh I've definitely done some bad welding!

One time I was having such an off day and struggling with porosity on a GTAW job that my boss just looked at me and said "go home man, I'll give it to the next shift to fix."

Not a great feeling, but a valuable learning experience nonetheless.

If you are willing and able to respond, get there, get crap done, I think the demand and opportunity would be good if your area is like most.

So many guys are either overbooked. Or selective and picky about what they will do, that there are people needing help that can't get it.

Thing is to let people know who can help you such as tow truck drivers, sheriffs dept, general repair shops, tire shops, eqt dealers, the welding supply house.

And you came out to help the OP exactly how? With all your smart-ass BS remarks about welders?

Sorry "Jimbo", really I am.

It's just that the only image I can conjure up is a doddering old fool.

Ya know, like the guy on TV that claims to be the President.

A drunk version.

You won't meet a welder out in the real world that will cow down to y'all's brand of bullshit here. Course I've never worked for an outfit that would let dogshit welds stand so there's that.

What brand is that?

I got a funny anecdote on a call I got years ago. Interstate 5 slipped 35 feet down the mountain south of Ashland Oregon. Major panic, all hands on deck. The prime contractor had to build up to the original grade and de-water the cause of the slip out. I got a call, get here as fast as you can, we will pay your speeding tickets, we got our only water truck with a slipping clutch,bad, it will barely get moving...the nearest rental is 5 hours away. I was still talking about how it couldn't be fixed when the super hung up. I showed up, dove under the truck, nothing to be done...super says...can you weld it solid? Uh, maybe, but...Super says, shut up and weld it solid. So I drove old bolts, bits and pieces of scrap, gobbed huge stalactites and stalagmites of stainless stick rod (cast flywheel) through the 4 inch inspection hole welding the clutch plates to the flywheel. The skilled driver kept it going for 5 more hours until the rental arrived. The super kept me there on the clock until it got there. They paid me a full 8 hours, I said, no, that's too much...the super says, look kid, I had a loader, three 35 ton haul trucks, two dozers, and a blade and two vibratories, four engineer techs, a compaction guy...I would be shut down without water on the fill compaction...your time was the best bargain of the day.

Taking EVERYONE in a trade and lumping them all into one misguided opinion.


That brand.

When I was on the inspection deck here for about a year I got to see some dogshit welds from some of the new hires. When supervision climbed squarely up their ass for it, those guys got better or got down the road.

When I was doing boiler code work it was all 100% xray. You don't get away with dogshit welds when everything is xray'd. In that facility you kept a 98% passing rate for the year or you went back into their school for two weeks. There was never a next time after that, you got walked to the gate.

There are absolutely great welders out there, and I've worked with a bunch of them. The ones who couldn't hack the job didn't last very long.

That's how it should be.

Much respect there. I'm 3rd generation. 4th generation steel worker. Mainly shipyards.

I'm wondering how well rounded the OP is? How much experience he actually has? Structural? Steel buildings, boiler worker, ornamental, repair work? There are so many different jobs that could be expected, and every bit of experience helps a mobile welder. How good is he at thinking outside the box? Working by himself to get a job done? I've done a lot of mobile repair work, in my last job. I've also built a lot of handrail and fences (ornamental art type stuff that you may be asked to build). When working for different contractors, you'll be working around other tradesmen. You may be welding on steel beams in a wooden structure one day, and then working on hardened plate on a piece of equipment in a landfill the next day. Or welding on a rusty piece of crap tank, because the guy paying you doesn't want to replace the tank, but keep it going for another year. You have to be good at thinking things, and the job out. Also good at determining what welding process will get the job done the best. It's not always about making perfect welds, that are 100% x-ray guaranteed. We always strive to do the best job possible, but when the wind is howling, and things are not going well with your dual shield, you may have to switch to stick or inner shield. The environment is always going to seem like it's attacking you, but you make due. Those are the only types that make it in that business.. You get in and get the job done, as safely as humanly possible, no matter how hard or dirty it gets.

Is the OP good at math? A great welder/fabricator is going to accel at trig. Know how to use a transit? Are not afraid of heights, and good at running different types of equipment? Welding in a shop is nothing like doing mobile welding repair work. Not directing this at you, but at the OP. I've also seen a lot of guys that say they can weld, but can't weld to save their lives. Most places I've worked, they would test you upfront, send those test plates off to be x-rayed. If you pass, you get the job. Then you have to pass all the work requirements, or you get sent down the road.

I have a love/hate relationship with welding.

It's paid my bills for decades, but when my one son leaves for the whole spring to go do papermill shutdowns down deep South, as a welder for the crew, I cringe. I should never have taught him a damn thing about it. I know the kind of crap he's going to crawl into, and breath. He's tired of wrenching on foreign cars though, and wants more bank. He'll draw some nice checks, but damn, he's gonna pay for it when he's my age.

I'm dog tired of getting up at 4am to get a shower, tend to the dogs, eat breakfast, drive to work, and be on the clock by 0554 just to sit in a shower of sparks all day burning up my gloves and leathers, britches and shirts. Maybe I'm just dog tired of punching a clock every day and the welding part doesn't matter, I dunno. When I'm done though, my retirement plan WON'T include any welding for pay. When they show up here with their broke shi-t I'll send em Boot's way. I think going semi-fulltime building flintlocks and accouterments, and a few sharp things, is a better plan.

1,732 inches total today, ALL of it overhead.

Slow day.........

The hood shows it all. A schidt ton of overhead work. Make sure you tell your boy to wear a fu cking respirator!!! Numero uno right there buddy. That doesn't protect you 100%, but it sure helps. My dad DID NOT want me to follow in his foot steps, but my grandfather loved it. Welding was his second love. My dad wanted me to be a Navy Seal, as he was Navy, but I followed in my grandpa's footsteps and also my dad's. There's a lot we endure, that our wives will never be told about or understand. That is the men we are.

He knows.

Right out of highschool he got in where I am, doing what I do, and was required to wear the filtered air breather hoods that I do. I beat it in his head about protecting his lungs. It's actually an OSHA requirement for me and my crew due to the galvanized on the sheet metal we work with. It's not the heavy coating everyone thinks of, but it's there enough to make you sick with it.

Often thought about being on the road, making more money, but I would have missed a lot of ball games if I had done that. Having been close to home and making good money burning wire has been priceless to me. The layoffs in the early years, and moving the tribe around was all the hassle I ever wanted to deal with doing this stuff.

You’ll work for banker steel?

Nope. Independent rig.

CSE?

Nah man, just farms and [bleep] out here. I'm not signing away my day job, this is just afternoons and weekends.

👍

Hook up with a few construction companies (think dirt or concrete) smaller = better.
Always need repairs on buckets, trailers, fab work. etc

Thats the easy ones to cover.. Minimum X material and X hours at X per hour. Flushes those gone instantly.