My SIL is a welder. A really good one and a conservative, country boy. His employer loves him but is requiring a lot more extended travel than he or my daughter and 3 kids can deal with. So he is looking for another job and they are willing to move for a great opportunity.

I'd like to see them stay west of the Mississippi (I know it isn't my call).

Any ideas?

Good luck to him. That’s the reason I never did want to work power plant outages. Some guys live for that stuff, but most of them are single.

Maybe get on with a mechanical contractor, weld AC pipe, be a pipefitter.

What part of the country do they like?

Petersen here locally builds all kinds of neat (BIG) stuff for the oil, nuclear and processing industries.

https://www.peterseninc.com/

Shipyard.

https://www.trusteddocks.com/shipyards/7127-nassco-san-diego

Big agriculture well drillers use more welders than you would imagine, they used to hire me, a heavy equipment mechanic with a shop truck, paying full hourly rate.
Many of them are full service, drill the hole to set the pump, to cut fit and weld the discharge manifold piping. He could ask around.

The weld inspector has a much better job than the welder. Ask me how I know.

Google "NDE Inspection".

First off
What kind of welder is he.
Structural , Pipe , Bridge , Boiler?

There are a lot of different areas that a welder have experience in.
Or lack of.

If he chooses an area that does not fit his Experience it may hurt him financially.

I'd think a pipefitter in a large town (localish travel) would do well. The average welder cmakes like 47k in WI so don't come here.

Try to get into a gas utility for welding, the company I work for here averages over 100 grand a year.

My buddy is a welder/fabricator and I know around here they can’t find any welders. He’d have no trouble around here finding work. If that’s something they’d consider send me a PM and I can try to get you guys in touch with one another.

Thanks all! Some great stuff that will pass along and I'll find out specifically what kind welding he does. I know he did some overhead stainless steal welding on a .gov contract he couldn't tell me much about. He mostly does big stuff.

Currently in living in Colorado Springs.

Please keep them coming.

Thanks
SH

Any chance that a move more towards the hub or center of the current company's sphere of work would help? If not, has he considered other fields of work, he could get into either the Ironworkers or Millwrights apprentice programs and with his experience start more towards the end with decent pay. Personally, while I like welding, I wouldn't want to do it 24/7 forever...



Phil

A young guy I know started out as a rig welder when he was 18, he grew up welding and said he would be a millionaire by the time he was thirty. well he's thirty now has a welding service and now has 4 rigs and 3 guys working for him. Pretty sure he's worth at least that million now.

Around here there’s plenty of work for a welder. BUT.

You can rig up a truck and charge $75 an hour and chase rigs or pipelines in the oilfield, IE travel all the time. OR you can go to work for one of the many fab shops catering to the oilfield or one of the trailer manufacturers and work close to home everyday and make $14-17 an hour.

I have a cousin who’s a bang up fitter and TIG hand. He does piece work for several pipe shops and will work an occasional shutdown at a power or water treatment plant. He makes a very good living and sleeps at home every night but his situation is the exception I’d say. He also happens to live 30 miles from a city with a large amount of shops that specialize in oilfield equipment manufacturing.

It’s a tough trade that a talented guy can make a fortune in. But it’s often very hard to be successful at and be successful at having a family.

Always REALLY liked this...

Yeah, George Jr said sleep was over rated.

We are always looking for welders, 95% mig and some tig. I think pay tops out around $24-28/hr depending on code. In a building with air and heat. Cost of living is low and the area is very conservative.

Steady work and paycheck every Friday.

Stainless is a Specialty and if he is Certified in it and welding on Gooberment projects. I would assume that he is.
He could look at food Processing Contractors.
Some Pay real well if he can find the right one.

If he is highly skilled, like you mentioned, there will be opportunities. He has probably already done this, but checking in with his welding buddies and former co-workers is the great way to cut to the chase for finding good jobs. Especially if he can pass the qualification tests. Like all trades, welding is about having connections in the industry when finding the best jobs. I don't think I've ever found a welding job that wasn't from inside knowledge.

Inspection, mid-management, sales, education are all places he can make decent living and not be away from home all the time.

I have a couple buddies in welding sales, that were full-time welders, but now work for the local chain welding suppliers and they do just fine. They get a vehicle, fuel, and get to set up and sell welding machines and all the consumables that go with the trade. The guys that have actually done welding always understand the products and issues their customers face better than somebody that can't walk the walk. All the above jobs are great for the aging welder. Still can be involved with the industry, but not rolling in the ditch or climbing scaffolding at someplace far from home.

for those who asked: Maybe i misunderstood about the stainless steel

WELDING
• Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW)
• Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW)
• Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW)
• Pipe Welding
• Machining for Welders
• Flood Welding
• Gas Welding


CERITIFICATIONS/CLEARANCES
AWS D1.1
AWS D1.3
AWS D9.1
Active TS Clearance

OSHA 10
Scissor Lift Certified
Forklift Certified
Fall Protection Certified
Overhead Crane Certified

I doubt you misunderstood. All those processes can be used to weld SS.

He has a Lot of good stuff he should not have any problems finding work
He will have to search for the good paying jobs,
There are a lot of company's that low ball and take advantage of good workers.

Check with the Feds Office of Personal Management for openings as a pipe fitter or welder get through the paperwork and apply for an area no one wants to go then transfer to where you want to live.

Springfield, MO area has tons of stainless shops servicing the food industry. Pay likely isn’t Colorado Springs level, but cost of living is next to nothing comparatively.

I’ve got some buddies that own a stainless fab/sanitary piping shop. Some of their crew stays in the shop/local while others are traveling full time and some are a mix. Pay is dependent on workers flexibility to travel.

I've never met a welder, especially a TiG welder that didn't think they were the "best of the best".

Well, until I get them in my shop and have them do some gun/part welding with tiny welds on thin sheet. That's when I find out the 20 year experienced TiG man, isn't worth a [bleep].

Tony Rumore
Tromix

Edited to add: The test that will wash them all out, is to stand a firing pin on end, with the tip up, and have them make it a 1/2" longer using a vertical tower weld extending the tip straight upward.

Great tips for the OP.

The Texas Gulf Coast has many opportunities for a certified pipe welder that wants to stay in one place.

ASME section 1, 3 and section 8 PV certs are valuable and in general supersede everything you listed. Thing is, most welders don't own their certs. The organization that tests you is the certifying authority. Certs are not generally portable.

Ya wanna go somewhere else and weld it pays to be ready to certify on demand

Here and there, tests are given for which multiple proctors, each representing a different organization, will examine your test at all stages. Each proctor will judge your test for himself and either certify you, or decline for his organization
I once gained certs for 23 different contractors with one test.

Some contractors will issue a certification, but still require a welder to test or shoot on starting a new job.

300 series stainless flows like mercury when welded with a TIG.

For most ASME Certs you can either weld with TIG and 300 series (generally ER308/9L), or Lo-Hy ER70-110S2 or S6 filler, and qualify for either/or with one test

Some prefer to test with ER70S6, claiming that the puddle flows better. Some guys spend too much time playing in a shop...

I second the gulf coast, get in with a good GC or mechanical shop and he’ll get more work then he can stand.

I watched a Guy that teaches the Pipe Fitter Union Boys here in Commyfornia.
He welded (2) 4" sch 40 Stainless Steel socket welded Connections.
(2) passes TIG Welded
His elbow was flapin so much I could not be-leave what i was watching.

when he was done (2) full all the way around passes on (2) Pipe Connections it took him 15 minutes
And the prettiest snake skin patterned Rainbow colors you ave ever seen.

I can TIG weld OK at best it will be Structurally sound and look like stacking dimes
But when I finish my welds are Black and I have to wire brush them to shine them up.

There are some True artist out there with TIG.

Cmon east and mingle with the negroes.

Put hair on his chest

Some of my friends from high school do pretty well pipefiitting and doing fab for all the cheese plants and chobanni yogurt in Southern Idaho.


Bb

Get out of that welding be a damn plumber😎

This^^^^^^ and not just pipe welders.

I don't know about the "best of the best", but the TIG welders here are by far the better welders I've worked with. They seem to take more pride in their work.

A good welder, with a good handle on repairing hard to fix broken stuff, can make a good money in East Arkansas. It would be fixing broken farm equipment, mostly in the field. It would require a truck, and welding equipment, along with carrying some basic steel stuff on on the truck. Only problem to making a good living is knowing who to, and who not to give credit to. The only ones that I know of that has had trouble was giving credit to big farmers. Seem they think they are exempt 0f paying bills. Had an electrician friend that had the same problem. miles

A lot of you are clueless about welding. The certifications listed are not pipe or tubing certs. D1.1, D1.3 are structural welding codes, D9.1 is sheet metal. None of these are high demand nor high paying jobs. Structural welding be it ship yard, bridge work or building trailers or some such junk in a shop are 20-25$ hourly jobs most anywhere. No body gives a [bleep] about a scissor lift, fork lift or over head crane cert that’s a helper job lol.

You want money to weld? Boiler tube welding, pipeline welding or refinery turnaround work period. This involves a lot of travel but a good welder will make 50$ hourly plus Perdieum. The job I’m on right now we paying tube welders $50 and double, that means after 8 hours these guys making $100 hour. Plus Perdieum.

Of all the alloys stainless steel is the most common and least skill required to weld.

As for the guy saying look up inspection and NDE? NDE is non destructive testing PT, X-ray or RT etc. and the techs that do the testing make maybe 30-40 tops. How do I know ? Cause I’m the guy that calls them and wakes them up out of the X-ray truck to come shoot the welds I’ve inspected lol. I welded for 15 years and am a certified welding Inspector not a part time trailer hitch dirt dobber wanna be welder .
If those certs listed are all he’s got he needs to go back to welding school an learn to weld the big boy stuff or live with sub 30$ pay in a dark sweat shop lol.

There ain’t no trade offs you travel you make money you wanna be sitting on your couch a 5 pm everyday your wife’s gonna work at Wallmart lol.

Real certifications that make money, I know cause I got them.
Aws CWI
API 510,570, 1169

We’ll I guess that settles that….
OP will be along shortly to thank you.

South Dakota is full of them. Mitchell, Aberdeen, Watertown

Journeyman pipefitters make good money, benefits, and retirement. My nephew works out of Hanford, and brings in well over a hundred k. Five year apprenticeship. Worth every minute in the long run. Plus he goes home every night.

Language warning,


but some of this discussion reminded me of the “typical welder video”.

Go ahead and laugh because you know the stereotype is true..

[video:youtube] [/video]

Gotta Love
I deal with that stuff every day when I go out to Inspect welds
the 433 Union boys think that they are badder than this guy.

I as well am a CWI Inspector since 1/95 and a Welder since 74.
I make more welding with my own Rig than I do Inspecting 1 1/2 times more and i am not a Pipeliner.
Just a Crappy Structural D1.1 6GR TKY Counter Clockwise Qualified Welder. Counter Clockwise because I am Backwards
Can I weld Pipe Yeser but I am no Artist like some of them are.

TIG Welders if they are good can make good money.

Dip [bleep] like him make me laugh! Always one somewhere! Wonder if he stands in, on King of the Hill, on his non welding days.

This. I made my mark building large food processing plants and I paid very good money to the guys I had on who could tig weld stainless. One of my best sources finding these guys was two companies just south of St.Paul MN where they made tanker trucks. The guys were inside/outside welding those tank backs up. That may be an Avenue as well.

Osky

I love this post so much. The only thing I would add to your list of jobs that you make great money as a welder would be at power plants, working on casings and turbines.

Not in my opinion or experience, I've done both and much prefer being a pipeline welder.
The best paying welding jobs is being a pipeline welder in my opinion and experience. Yes you have to travel, but this specialized type of welding is easier on your body and the pay is at the top of the profession.

Shipyard welding is much lower pay and worse conditions

Anchorage and Fairbanks are going to have a lot of work this year, including a sealift to Prudhoe Bay. Lots of bridge work also.

True, made $74.94 per hour straight time, time and a half after 8 and $18 per hour for my truck.

Often brought home $5,00.00 per week, worked 6 months and made $100,000.00 plus thousand dollars

Forgot to add almost $27.00 per hour in benefits that pays our health insurance and life insurance.

That video is joking but it’s pretty close to the attitude of a lot of pipeline welders. “Nothing finer than a pipeliner” lol.
Thing is the code they weld to on pipelines is 1104 and about as easy as it gets. Other than ark marks on the pipe they can get away with some of the ugliest [bleep] on a weld you ever seen. I’ve seen it a 100 times and I’ve welded both pipelines and refineries. A good refinery welder will weld circle around a pipeliner. Take even a decent refinery welder and he’ll do fine on a pipeline take the biggest mouthed pipeliner you know and most won’t make it past the first production shot in a refinery, the welding codes and acceptance criteria is that much more strict in refineries.

Also if your making less money inspecting welds than the guy doing the welding you hired in wrong lol. No way Ima make less than a welder I DGAF what they welding

Working in a shop, structural in particular is a good place to gain that experience and work towards those certifications you don't have because you don't need the certifications while working under the shop's certification, especially if you can get in one of the union shops that have a paid apprenticeship program.

Phil

Thanks again for all the great information!

My SIL is still relatively early in his career and I said he is really good, not that he is the greatest, most experienced welder ever to strike up an arc. He continues to learn and get all the training and certs that are available to him. He will succeed and I am proud of him. He and my daughter will do what it takes. Colorado Springs has gotten incredibly expensive in the last couple of years so the cost of living delta may work in their favor in some of the places mentioned. (I am pushing for locations with good hunting and/or fishing so I have something to do with the grandkids when I visit.)

Some great leads & ideas, especially around pipefitting, utility companies and food processing equip, and some sobering perspectives.
I'll provide it all to SIL.

Good luck to him, I’ve never seen a welding thread yet that didn’t turn into a pissing match!

JWP,

I always worked non union when I was in the field and made a decent living, especially working offshore back in the Cooper Brother's day.

Around 2009 I setup a large diameter double joint rack. We used all union labor through the UA. Welders were mostly 798 and the rate was around $55.00 an hour plus all the extras you mentioned even though they used our equipment. I will say this, we always got really good welders from 798. The mechanic was union and was great. We made some serious money with that rack. Three welding stations would average over two hundred 30" welds in a 10 hour day. We got up to 300 welds per day on an 18" job once, that is a completed 18" diameter weld every two minutes. All that with very few repairs.

Both Clarence and AL Cooper were 798 welders before starting Cooper Brothers Welding. They had the best welders there were at that time.

I thought Mr. John hung the moon, he was a great man, very honest and straight forward

Just curious - did SIL ask for any input?

You can’t learn to weld boiler tubes or pipe in a structural shop period. You learn to weld them by welding them, with instruction from a good welder. You can weld plate in a structural shop until your 80yo and that’s all you’ll ever be. You also won’t learn how to weld the exotic alloys by welding anything else period. Each alloy has different properties and techniques of welding.

Fab shops don’t have welding certificates to weld under lol. A welder takes the test for the job , that welder is then certified on that process to that WPS. The fab shop cannot be certified because fab shops can’t weld lol. It’s a building g not a welder for [bleep] sake

When your SIL come up on a guy that tells him that he can teach him everything he needs to know about Welding.
He needs to get away from that guy ASAP.
This Trade welding is so large that i have been involved in it for over 45 years and I know about an inch of it and there are Miles app-on Miles of learning for me to do and the Industry is constantly Growing so I am falling behind trying to learn everything there is to know.

Send him a few hundred miles south to Hobbs or West Texas. Oilfield welding can be hard work, dangerous and cyclical but I would think would pay much better than what some are quoting here.

You sir, DON'T KNOW YOUR ASS FROM A HOLE IN THE GROUND....


Phil

Maybe it's different in the US than in Canada. A typical radiographer makes very good money and spends far less time in the field than the we!ders. It's a better trade. The visual inspectors also well paid. Many of those are ex welders who upgraded.

Yes they are paid well for what they do, but they make a fraction of the money a pipeline welder makes and has a lot more BS to put up with. That is why I welded pipelines until I was 69 years old because it is a great job if you're good enough

NDE with X-ray exposed isn't my idea of a healthy occupation

Most welds are shot with gamma not x-ray.

Done properly, an RT tech gets very little radiation and that far less harmful to your health than sucking burnt rods.

Are you sure they weld that cheap today?
We are traditionally wage depressed. A few years ago we had a bicycle builder here.
They employed dozens of welder welding aluminum and titanium bike frames.
High production. TIG feeding rod through a wire spool. 2 hands running controls, and the pedal. All certified, building $5000 plus bikes. Right in your $14-16 range.

Fab shops are now offering tack welders $20 to start, qualified welders are pushing $30.

15 year old Daughter works part time at a c-store. $14 to start. 4 years ago it would have been $7.50-8

I welded for 50 years and I'm healthy as a horse. I've been around several NDE hands that were over exposed multiple times

We now have real time on pipe lines if they are not over 30". They clamp a band on the pipe and the machine travels around the band and the tech sits in a truck read it on a computer screen. Very accurate interpretation

Oh yes, he does...

Newmont’s Cripple Creek & Victor Mine along with Freeport’s Climax mine near Leadville would snap him up. Both were hiring a couple months back when I was over that way last. Big shortages of those skills in the mining industry and they pay reasonably well. 12K feet at Leadville slows me down a bit tho. I’m just under half that here. Another might be the Trapper mine near Craig. They’re owned by tri-state generation and transmission. They have a second mine in the area too that I can’t recall right now. There’s an underground coal mine West of there too. Craig is a nice area.

I know DSS Cat out of Gillette, WY was short 54 welders last I spoke with them. Field service is a rough go and a young single guy’s game though. Sounds like a good choice for your son to get away from.

I was an Inspector in a Fab Shop with 15 other Inspectors when they were Fabricating Arrowhead Medical in Southern Commyfornia 20+ years ago

The old timer Inspectors were telling their story's of jobs that they had been on.
Everyone of them came from the Welding trades unlike the New Inspectors we have now.

They started talking about a Radiograph Tech. that had switched Isotopes and was walking out holding the wand with the pill in it and when he thought he was exposing the film the pill was back in the box.
He was so good at what he did that he did not wear the exposure badge that they require.

The old guys were talking about a case study made from this guys screw up.They were talking in depth about what the guy went threw.

They said the Study ended when the guys arm rotted off of him.
They all speculated that that must of been when the guy died from the Exposure.

This was well before the Internet where we can just google anything we want.
It took real studying to find stuff.

I was in my 30s at the time and I have never wanted to be around that crap at all.
As a CWI I have had to monitor what the Techs do and when I had had to do it i have the Techs string up a second Safety tape line 15 to 20 ft from were there's is.

Radiography makes me very nervous to be around.

You have to closely follow the procedures when it comes to radiation. I was building an earthen dam 25 years ago. The core of the dam was clay constructed in 12” lifts and compacted with vibratory rollers. We had third-party verification of compaction with a nuclear density probe. The dumb ass tech took it apart and put the Cesium 137 capsule in his shirt pocket! It burned a hole right through him. Took a month for him to die. Terrible way to go!

Yep, seen it happen more than once.

I have been around 100s of those machines as well.
I stay way back and I always ask the Techs if they are happy knowing that their nuts may fall off when they get older.

They also make me very nervous to be around.

Any shop facility can get certified in any phase or type of welding needed or as many.... at that point all welding done in the shop falls under the facility certification and the individual welders don't need to be certified themselves. They aren't allowed to weld out in the field, but in the shop, everyone falls under the facility certification. It's been that way for ever, or at least ever since I've been welding since '66.

Link: Facility Certification...


Phil

Radiograph Techs are not the smartest at times.

Working in the Tunnels of Loma Linda Hospital the welders were welding on Live 350 deg High pressure Steam Pipe Lines

The Radiographer comes down to shoot the Saddle that were welded on to the live lines before we moved out of the area.

The guy constantly complained of the heat.
It was around 90+ deg. and 805+ humidity.

He shoots the welded sections , develops the film and fails all of the welds.
He said that there water trapped in the weld connections.

I was the one Monitoring him as the CWI
I said to him
Say What say that again.
He said that the welds failed because there was water inside of the connections when they welded the saddles on.
My welders just looked at me.
I told the Tech. to get the right film for the high temp. Pipe.
We got into an heated discussion so i told him that I wanted to talk to his boss on the phone.

Well his boss showed up the next day.
My Welders had moved to another location.
The Boss asked where the welds were to be shot.
I took him down to the area and he complained about the heat F'ing Boobs always working in an air conditioned office.

He brought down the wrong film and had to leave to get the right film.
when he got back I asked him that if we cook welding rod at 225 deg. to remove any moisture that is absorbed by that rod.
How is a 350 deg Live pipe going to have any moisture in the connection when they weld it.
He just gave me a stupid look.

Well wy welders welds were perfect they were as clean as any other welds and they were welding in nasty positions in nasty conditions.

If you are fabing pipe for the oil and gas industry in a fab shop each welder has to tested and certified

Isn't the big plant that builds towers for wind farms located in Pueblo?
I'd think they use all kinds of welders.

I started my career as a welder in the 80s working power plants I couldn’t handle the slow ass pass
I moved onto the oil sector big change
I did a ton of travel at first I put 100k on an 85 Chevy impala the first year drug my family along. Then got a travel trailer. Made foreman in 3 years and took extra care of the customers and worked hard for them. Eventually I landed in a place in Washington state spent 17 years there and bought a house. I was only one of 3 people in the whole company who actually owned a house other than office people. So it can be done. Last few years I worked alaska and ND Utah all big money jobs
To bank cash for future plans to start farming
And here I am.

Radiography can be a dangerous trade if not done according to proper safety procedures, but this same thing can be said about any of the trades including welding. Very serious RT incidents are very rare here in Canada. I've not seen one in over 23yrs and we run over 20 RT techs in our shop.

I'm not speaking to Ben L or JWP here, but there is a lot of ignorance about the trade out there, mostly from those who haven't got a clue about it and the stories you hear are the worst case scenarios that have been embellished over time. Done properly, it is a very safe trade and is done in a lot of different settings other than pipe line.

My entry into this thread was to comment to the OP that the NDE trade is a very good one. I know SEVERAL NDE techs that work here in the local refinery and make well over $100K per year topped with another $20K in pension contributions. Radiography is only one of the tickets I use on a day to day basis and is not the bulk of what I do. I use that ticket along with Mag, Dye and Ultrasonics to do a large variety of tasks here. I've gone entire weeks without doing RT so my overall exposure is minimal. I would not trade places with a welder's spot here and in fact many of them see what we do and go our direction either on the tools doing NDE or into QC/QA.

Welders tend to make the best NDE techs given their past experience.

Given some of the stories I've read in this thread, there sounds to me that there is a high level of incompetence in the trade in the US. I do know that the SNT level of training done there is mostly in house and not near the level of excellence (CGSB) that we have to adhere to here in Canada.

Maybe that would explain that high amount of serious exposures you folks see there.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard that or similar.

I used to wear a grey helmet which was about the same colour as lead. Whenever I heard something like you say, I'd hold my helmet over my groin and tell them it was made of lead for a reason.

It just occurred to me that I've recently seen ads looking for welders in the aircraft industry in Albuquerque.
Maybe he could get a foot in the door down there.

It may be due to population and infrastructure as well. Canada has a much smaller population than the US, therefore there are far fewer examples of that particular type of stupidity.

Damn you are one stupid MF. The link you posted is about a facility being an AWS(American Welding Society) accredited testing lab. That means you stupid fu-ck they test welders.

For some reason there’s a bunch of dumbasses that like to parrot stupid [bleep] they hear from other stupid MF about welding. Well here’s something you can memorize and then parrot that is fact.

A welder is tested to a certain WPS (welding procedure specification) that welder is then certified to that process tig ,mig stick etc. to that procedure and to that specific plate,pipe or tube etc. ie he takes a carbon steel plate test with SMAW (stick welding) he is certified to weld that thickness range of plate with stick period. A facility cannot be certified to weld that is stupid on another level.

When a fab shop sells a welded product the welding procedures have to be followed the welders have to be certified, everything they weld has their stencil which is like their signature that they, a certified welder welded the product. Along with the required testing of the product with specific NDE. And a certified welding Inspector overseas the welding. All this is documented and a copy of all this goes with the product to the client proving what they bought was welded correctly by certified welders and tested accordingly. On top of that most clients send one of their inspectors to the shop to verify compliance.

When your welding pipe spools that end up in a refinery or power house it is a legal requirement to follow these procedures. You cannot sell welded products welded by uncertified idiots. Even a shipyard which is the lowest form of welding besides the trailer hitch dirt dobbers require a certified welder.

The only kind of welding that wouldn’t require a certification is the trailer hitch dirt dobber slobber welding on junk iron. And guess what they making 10$ and hour and probably half the people working there don’t have a drivers license let alone the shop having a welding certificate.


Ps let me know where this shop is that’s turning out uncertified welded products and I’ll show you what a AWS CWI can do for them lol. Shut that MF down.

🤣🤣🤣 Love it!


"Half the people working there don't have a driver's license"= Carry-On Trailer company

That very well may be true, but I do know there is a higher level of testing to be accredited in Canada than in the US for doing NDE. This may have more to do with it. While we do have a smaller population, dangerous incidents are well published across the board notifying those in the trade of past events to prevent ongoing safety issues happening again. We just don't seem to get a lot and we have 1000s of radiographers up here working in Oil & Gas.

My grandpa always told me a good welder will always have a job. He was so right. Good luck to your SIL. I'm sure if he's "good", he will have absolutely no issues finding a good job with a great company, that will keep him a little closer to home. He will just have to go out and research his area and see what he comes up with. Even if that means joining a small company that builds handrail and does structural stuff near home. There's always options for a good welder.

Those wages suck brother. Here (Nevada) there are shops that pay $40/hour, but it seems like there are also a lot of guys with welders in the back of their trucks. The mines pay big bucks for contractors with welders. Me personally, I'd rather just work in a shop and stay close to home. I did the shipyard thing for near 30 years and that was a damn good experience, but that is definitely not the gig for everyone. You have to be bult for that type of work and I've seen many fail. Many. After that, I did local structural stuff and some of that paid pretty well. With prevailing and fringe approaching $70/hr in Oregon, when you were working a big contract. Like schools and other federal locations, like fish hatcheries. The most I made in one day was $1,600.00, so it was pretty good. I've seen a lot of guys all crippled up because of this trade, but as a 3rd generation welder I have no regrets. Always use a respirator, and your PPE and be safe and you will go home to your family every night.

AWS use to be very Respected now it is just another piece of paper.
You use to be required to come from the Welding trade to even be able to take the test.
Now any high School kid can make crap up and take the test AWS got Greedy and in order to make more money they started dividing the Certification up and now all you have are professional test takers or people using the Credentials as a stepping stone to move on to another carrier and they will accept low pay before they move out of Inspection.

AWS Diluted the field so much that the AWS CWI gets no respect from anyone anymore.
It is very Sad to watch what should be a very high level of knowledge and skills profession turn into a nothing job.
If you work foe a Lab as a CWI 90% of the jobs in Commyfornia pay $40 per hour if you are not a union Inspector Paying the Extortion fees back to the Union or are working on Prevailing wage jobs.
A no skilled laborer can make up around $50 per hour on the right projects.

Back when I was working as an Independent Inspector for the Labs. I was making $35 per hour and the Laborers on most of my projects were making $45 per hour.

i had 90% of the Contractors and State Inspectors that I worked with Request me on projects because they know that I brought a lot to my position as an Inspector.
The Labs never let me join in to the Good Old Boy Clubs to get the good paying gigs.

To many Politics in construction any more. Instead of just going to work and doing an honest days work for an honest days pay.

Everyone slitting each others throat for a dollar.

The fu-ck you talkin bout? The AWS CWI test still has an 80% fail rate. You may have a book worm or two pass the test but they can’t do the job. Wages have done nothing but increase since I got my CWI. I’m sitting in my office reading some of this Bull-[bleep] at over a hundred dollars an hour? Running a test lab was never a high paying gig, it’s also the least skilled part of being an inspector. There are low paying jobs in any field but that’s why you don’t work for mullet ass contractors lol. If you making $40 an hour as a CWI you either suck at your job or….never mind there is no other reason you making less than $60 an hour you suck. Period

I was the Lead Inspector on the Site Prep for the 18 Story Loma Linda hospital Made good money and Called my boss out for ripping me off for 10K he Fired me from the project and wanted me to go back to work for them on other projects for $35 an hour.

I went back a year or so later working for the Lab that was building the 18 story Building.
The IOR and the Lead inspector bumped me up above 35 other Inspectors on the List of approved Inspectors for the job when my name came up.

the lab was Pissed off at me because I was picked over their buddy kiss azz inspectors.

The IOR came out to talk to me on the job and told me to slow down because he did not want me to walk off the job for being over worked like I did with the other company.
I say What was that.
And he repeated him self.
I told him that i did not walk off the job.
i was fired for calling Branden Rose the piece of ripping me off for 10K and he fired me.
i had a witness and it was the Head IOR's right hand man and he confirmed what I had said.

When I was the Lead Inspector.there was 1 other CWI Inspector on the project other than me.
He was a Truck Driver before he became a CWI . he was a worthless piece of crap and the IOR would not allow to do welding inspections. i placed him documenting times for Tie Back Grouting and he could hardly do that.
I had maybe 5 Inspectors under my Control and each of them could only do one think while I was watching 4 contractors with multiple crews . I ran my butt off keeping the slacker inspectors doing their jobs and watching all the other work. Keeping the IOR happy.

All the Time in the Office my so called piece of crap boss Brandon Rose and our Dispatcher were telling everone in the Company that I was the Laziest piece of garbage the company employed.
I was told this by a Soils Tech that went in to the Lab to drop stuff off.
He jumped their Chit and was sent home for 2 weeks for doing so.

I have had Numerous IOR Inspectors call me direct and ask me where I was working because they wanted Me on their jobs.
The Labs tell them that I was on other projects.
When in fact i was sitting home being loyal to the Lab.

I am not some looser Inspector.
I do my job and do my job very well.
I am NOT a Kiss AZZ like so many other Inspectors.
i find ways to bring the people that I am Inspecting and the Contractors they are working for together.
I have been very successful in doing that and communicating with the Engineers and Architects with what they require and get all of it on the same page as the Contractors and Workers.

I am not one thing and I never will be and that is a Business Man. My Dad was a self employed Painting Contractor and he was not a Business Man , My brother is a Paint Contractor and is not a Business Man so it must Run in the family.

I love it when a Desk Jockey sits on his Arrs and calls people out when they do not know what Real workers have gone threw in their life.
It really shows the lack of intelligence's that they have.

I have personally seen how Real good Inspectors and Workers have been treated threw out my life time.
It makes me sick to watch good worker taken advantage of and then have bad rumor's spread around about them.

Desk Jockey's are the best at demeaning others to make them selves look good.

And what does ANY of that [bleep] have to do with AWS? Sounds like you got railroaded by your employer, that’s your problem to fix. There’s always plenty of work for good inspectors. Desk jockeys dont make $100 hour fyi you make that kinda money with both hard work and intelligence. You can be a mule and get worked to death but I’ve never met one of these mules that could do the whole job not just one part of it.

The AWS CWI certified welding Inspector, or API American Petroleum Institute certifications are just that proof you understand the job, the codes and where to find the answers to the problems that come up on a job. Every thing else is experience and hard work. You could probably starve to death with 5 certifications if your a moron or lazy. Your mileage may vary lol.

You are not talking to the right people
AWS CWI use to be very respected

Have you ever been on the AWS CWI forum and read what some of these so called CWI Inspectors post.

Engineers use to have Respect for the CWI and now not so much.

Local 12 Operating engineers are hiring 50 year old House Wives and 40ish ex hair dressers to do welding Inspections. And the Union signs off on their experience so they can get their CWI.

I know this as FACT
Because i was the 3rd Party inspector on several Cal-Trans projects before I walked away from the Labs.
And I literally had to take the house wife by the hand and comfort her walking threw the shop we were working in and I had to show her how to fill out her report.
The Lady was just about to Stroke out on me.

3 weeks later I met the Hair dresser in a different shop and had to help her out as well.

I have talked to other Seasoned Inspectors that have been in the same position.

AWS lets High School and College kids take the test.

AWS Support is a Joke. i have called over the years for clarification on codes and they can not answer my questions anymore and when they can't answer them they get all kinds of Attitude and start the I am Higher Qualified and Know more that you do ego .

There Support years back was as good as it could get. They had workers that actually knew things

The Back Ground checks that they are supposed to do are a joke.
AWS Reminds me of every other Failed Gooberment Agency even thou they are not a Gooberment Agency.
Money Money Money that is what AWS is all about these days.

At least ICBO back before ICC was up front and honest.
At there mandatory seminars for renewal they would come right out and tell everyone attending that they were all about selling publications and making Money.

Then ICC took over and tried to make the One World Order Code and screwed that up so bad that Commyfornia to this day will not accept it.
Commyfornia still has the ICBO Format to their Code and calls it the Commyfornia Building Code.

I get your the legend in you own mind. Why would anyone listen to you, with your superior attitude. GFY. Ever thought of putting where your from, so people can have comparisons, of wage areas. Go back to your desk, and earn your keep. They aren't paying you to blather nonsense on the Internet, loser!

Phil, Was that directed to me or someone else? Odd comment nevertheless. I spent a few years welding on drilling rigs and doing oilfield fabrication so know some about it.

Lol you broke ass bitches. Let me guess you got a hard luck story like the other clown you work so hard and make $30 an hour🤣

Nothing I posted is nonsense unless your a dumbass. You know that’s probably why you making chump change?

With 30 posts under your belt you sure are showing what you really are.

gotta love helping people expose whom they really are.

The real stupid ones do it them selves with no help from anyone.

It always amazed me how much black stuff would come out of my nose at the end of the day when I was welding full-time. I'm sure breathing smoke off welding rods isn't good but also always wondered about the effects of the dust from grinders and abrasion saws. Somewhere I've read that welding smoke has radioactive isotopes also but not sure if that's true.

I believe it's more the oil on the steel that would bother me than the rod of grinder dust.

that NR232 is the worst. It is like sucking in Alum and it will take every bit of air out of your lungs.

Some on the Cellulose fluxes get to me a bit
E7010 , 7016 and 7015 never really effected me much at the time of welding.

The Grinder dust destroys me

Caught pneumonia after I became an Inspector and was chafing up Black liquid coal.
Probably was the best thing that could of happened to me.
Got rid of all the crap building up in my lungs for a decade.

That's probably not good either, though I looked it up one time and rods put off some nasty stuff. I used to wear a respirator on days when doing shop work and unable to get away from the smoke. I was young and running a bunch of 5K and 10K races and also hunting hard and didn't want the smoke affecting my lungs. At that time, I was the only welder I knew of that ever wore a respirator.

Another dumb bitch lol. So post counts on a forum somehow equate in your tiny little mind to knowledge? No wonder you a broke ass bitch, get off your ass and the internet and get a real job you plug 🤣

I hope you're feeling better!

It's been couple of decades since I've welded for a living and I don't remember the rods you mentioned being around then. We used 6010, 6011, 7018, some type of hard wire, some type of flux core and some kind of high nickel wire that we'd use for build-up on cast iron pump modules for oilfield mud pumps that would then be machined back to spec. I can't remember one rod affecting me more than another back then but I was young and bullet proof.

Building up the mud pumps was probably the hardest thing we did but not because of the smoke. We'd heat them overnight to 1,000 degrees F and then spend 6-7 hours welding with hands inside the cast-iron pump module. After six hours of that on a cool winter day, I'd feel worn out and like I had heat exhaustion. On a hot summer day, it was close to unbearable. Plus, the heat would pretty quickly blister the back of a person's hands, even through heavy asbestos gloves. So, every minute or so you had to stop welding and shake the gloves off to cool them down.

Most answering were working, before you were a gleem in your dad's eye. Lighten up Francis!

LMAO
I was supervising the installation of a pump and the two man welding crew had a feller that sounded just like that.

He ended up getting sent home. I rounded up some gear and did the welding along with the other welder.

At that time I was introduced to the saying: "The first clue that a guy can't weld is when he tells you how good he is".

6010 , 6011 and 6013 are the Cellulose coatings that I was talking about

In High school we found a combination of welding rods that would get you higher than pot.

Go into the welding booth with the ventilator fan off and start welding one rod then the other and another and start flyin.
Our Welding Instructor did not have a clue. He just told us to turn on the fan and get rid of the Smoke.

It did not smell like pot so he never got pissed off at us.

The best welder I ever met worked on the Alaskan pipe Line we ran into each other several times
The one shop I worked in they needed a welder to crawl up inside some kind of Stainless Steel Mixer and they gave the job to him.
He required then to give him a welding hood that they could pump in air so he could breath and a Helper to drag him out when he got to hot.

that was the first time I ever seen Leather burn like paper and he had burns all over him before he was finished with the thing.

I asked to weld it up but I did not have the experience back then

They had me go up 20+ on the side of the building to weld up an addition to the shop.
They put me up on the end of a fork with the forklift No safety stuff back then.
They would put me up and take the forklift away after I stepped off of the Fork.

They forgot about e several times and I was up on the Crane Rail for the start of the day until quitting time.
Ya didn't Complain in the shop.

Funshooter, Those are some crazy stories, especially the high from the welding rods. The guy climbing in the stainless apparatus sounds awful!

I was helping my dad on a drilling rig when I was 13 or 14 years old. He had me cut three 1/4" thickness 3"x3" pieces of angle iron to around 6' or 7' long (can't remember the exact length). He then threw the three pieces of angle iron over one shoulder, hooked his "stinger" on his belt and climbed all the way into the top of the derrick of a drilling rig to weld the angle into the crown of the rig. He had the three pieces of angle iron laying across his shoulder, a couple of hundred feet of welding lead hanging off his belt and did not use any safety equipment that day. I had to walk off location until he was back down because I couldn't watch.

He also was cutting a well head off one day and had some gas come up the hole while he was cutting with a torch. It blew him out of the cellar on the drilling rig (probably 5 feet deep and back then, framed with railroad ties) and blew his Victor torch about a hundred feet behind him. He got up, picked his torch up and finished the job. He occasionally mentioned a sore shoulder for a few years after that.

I worked around it until I was about 25 and had some close calls myself. From what I understand from my friends still doing it, the oilfield may have a higher priority regarding safety than it did back then. I think I started helping welders at 12, and we would work on drilling rigs with no steel toed boots and no hard hats. I even knew a few welders that wore leather soled cowboy boots, which seemed like a bad footwear choice for that job. They didn't seem to bother welders with safety requirements back then.

It's amazing how many welders still do not wear a respirator these days. I was in a bulk storage tank last week with six welders going at once. The air was blue even with air movers in place. Only one of those welders was wearing a respirator.

Again with you stupid MF? Nobody’s talking about welding dumbass. My posts were to the low rent plugs that were crying because they can’t make a living as an inspector. You no doubt another one of them dirt dobber retards lol. GFY you broke ass bitch

Tenant of mine welds for a company out here in MT. They are always needing help. Located in Montana

Neighbor welds for one of the trailer outfits.

3 refineries here in the valley. Couple semi trailer manufacturers etc.

Shoot me a pm and I can get you contact info.

The thread has veered off course a bit.

Wow! Threads don't usually get this sporty out side the Optics Forum. "SFP is inarguably better that FFP under all circumstances for everybody!" (I just made that up).

One very interesting question (and forgive me I am not caught up on 6+ pages) was "Do my SIL asked me to post this?" I had to think about it for a while.

First, I am not sure why it matters but its a harmless enough question.

(Short answer) No, he didn't. We talk semi-regularly and he has been concern for a while. He told me about all the places he has applied and if I could think of any others. He also said he heard there are lots of jobs in North Dakota (brrr even by Colorado standards)

(Long answer) I started working in factories (Kenworth), then the machine shops but have spent most of my working life in IT so I am not current with what is happening in the trades. In a lot of ways I wish I had stayed in the machine shop but lets not start another pissin' contest. I am an information gatherer by nature and profession. I have learned over the many wasted years on the internet that the 24hourCampfire is a great source of "information" from folks I don't cross paths with in my daily life otherwise. So posting it here and filtering the BS is a force multiplier.

I think there is likely a nugget or two in this information someplace and he is free to act on any or none of it and he knows that.

Again, thanks to all who answered without talking $hit about anyone's mom. ;^)