Well, I went to a local fabrication/welding shop, to buy some scrap plate to stack beads on. I want to start practicing uphill 7018. I know 7018 is going to be a lot harder than 6011. He let me go through their scrap metal dumpster and gave me a bunch of angle iron and plate steel. Just to get his opinion I showed him some beads I had ran and, he said it looked like I was running a little bit hot but, he shortly after that offered me a job and said I could learn on site. He said they do a lot of in the field welding with welding trucks building all kinds of buildings and fabricating. Of course, I can't take on another job right now but, I talked with him for a bit. He said I'm welcome to come back and get metal to practice on anytime I need and if I ever decide I want a full-time job welding to come back. Pretty cool!

 

That’s awesome!

 

Wow that is awesome! If I was your age I would take him up on that in a heartbeat. Not only could you learn welding from pros you can make money doing it!

 

That's bad *** vato, take him up on his offer, welding is one of those things not many people teach for free, much less pay for someone with no experience or a certificate.

 

I really need to consider it! I'm getting 18/hr working for my cousin. He is kind of planning on me working with him for this summer at least. really hard to turn down this welding job though! Also, as y'all know my wrists are messed up and the lawn care/landscaping with my cousin isn't helping at all. I think welding would be Alot easier on my hands.

He said he would hire me sort of as a helper at a somewhat reduced wage until I got better.

I did tell the guy that I have no diploma or GED. He said this is the welding industry, it doesn't matter. That was something I was worried would hold me back.

In other news, I ran some 7018 beads on a plate for a while this afternoon playing with settings and I got my first slag peel! I actually ended up getting a few! I think These are old 7018 rods that I got in that deal I mentioned earlier in this thread, and I think these rods are old. The flux coating is a bit brittle and was chipping and falling off when I was trying to weld but, good for practice anyway!

 

Look back at your first post in this thread. You’ve come a long way!

 

I think it may be worth pursuing talking to the owner of the company more. Welding is in demand and can pay really well. It sounds like a opportunity that is a has viable potential and should be seriously considered, not just as another job, but more as in long term career potentials. Now is a good time as it isn't into the summer landscape season yet, so your cousin would have time to adjust summer help plans if needed.

 

I'm going to go back and talk with the guy some more. He's not the owner of the business but he is the manager and the one that runs the place. Here is their website if anybody wants to check it out. Seems like a pretty legit place. https://www.fluidmotionfab.com/

 

Buckle up, this is a little bit of a long one. Not as long or helpful as some of Sous's or Y2K's very informative, interesting, well sources posts that I love sitting down to read but, here we go.

I stopped by that welding shop yesterday to talk about the job a bit and see what I'd be walking into and how much I'd get to walk into it.

He said I'd start with 13 to 14 dollars an hour and I would not be doing any welding whatsoever until I can prove to him that I can work full days without losing motivation or, just slacking in general. He said I will be doing the assembly of their projects. So they would be building custom handrails and staircases and the like, and I would be the guy running the bolts down, cleaning up the welds, so on so forth.

He also said that sometimes they work out of state and on those days, I will be getting paid extra to drive, I will have a paid hotel room, food, fuel, and the like.

I also asked him if I would be driving my own truck to jobs, and he said they have company trucks for that. All I have to do is drive to the shop and, I didn't ask but I reckon I'll have to drive to these out of state jobs in my own truck.

He also said that I'm welcome to use their welders after hours to practice with. They work 10 hour days with optional 30 minutes for lunch meaning I'm perfectly allowed to just work through lunch and get paid for 10 full hours instead of being docked 30 minutes. It is being paid above the table which is something I was worried about because I would like to pay into social security and taxes (like I am now) so that I can have some income when I get older. I don't want to work under the table so, no issues there. Of course, this is a bottom of the barrel job to start, obviously I could work my way up the ladder and make way more money but he said for now I would be having to weld on my own time which, is no problem for me at the moment. He also said that if I can't work for him at the moment that I'm welcome to just come hang out and be around welding on Friday afternoons. He said this because I kind of explained to him that I kind of already have a job, and that I have trips planned and kind of too much going on to switch jobs at this exact moment but that I was very interested in learning to weld. He said that's fine and he gave me his number and said when I get all my ducks in a row, to give him a call.

He also told me that after I've been working with him for a couple months, if I decide to, I can cash out some of the money on one of my checks and get a full, Carhartt company welding uniform. Sounds badazz!

So, the way I'm looking at it, I will be taking a little bit of a pay cut from what I'm making right now (18/hr) down to 14/hr to start, but I won't be running weed eaters and lawn equipment all day everyday and digging holes/raking with shovels and rakes all day everyday when doing landscaping and lawn Care, so it will be better on my wrists, and I'll be getting into something that I can potentially write my own ticket at if I can get good and enjoy it it and work my way up the ladder. It has also come to be something I enjoy. I definitely enjoy it a lot more than landscaping and lawn Care for sure.

So, what do y'all think? I think it sounds like a pretty decent deal at least to start. I can definitely work my up the ladder which I feel would happen anywhere else anyway. I need some adult input on this! Thanks in advance!


In other news, my cheap Amazon welder has been doing terrible lately. No matter how many amps you set it at, it was sticking really bad. As soon as you think about striking an ark it was over with. Like you have to remove the clamp and get pliers to break the rod off. It also seemed to almost always be set cold. I used an amp clamp to verify how far off the amp meter is not long after I got it. Well, the electrode clamp had broke the other day anyway so, I decided to buy a new electrode clamp and get a new ground clamp. The ground clamp was actually off a jumper cable but, it worked nice after I drilled out the rivet and installed a bolt and crimped a new terminal on the end of the lead. Nice tight spring on it to. And the ground clamp was melting itself onto my projects even though it was nowhere near the arc. It was just cheap crap.

Here's where it gets good, when I went to remove both the electrode clamp and the ground clamp, the wires were barely hanging on. Maybe a quarter of the strands were actually in the crimps. It was terrible. After I replaced both ends, it is now working great. No issues. Amp meter is still off by around 15 amps but, no other issues. Just a crappy amp meter. Anyway, here are some before and after pictures of my clamps.




After

After


Now, on to the next bit of fun I had after work today. (Got off a little early)

I decided I finally needed to start trying some uphill 7018. So, I started with 1/8 inch and tacked a already used plate that I had been running beads on onto a big piece of angle I got from the welding shop I was talking about above, just so I could get it raised up a little bit and held on place. I do not have a good place to practice welding at yet. I do not have a big extension cord to run out to the shed to have 220. I'm currently running directly off the side of the house. Also speaking of which, here is the extension cord I was thinking of buying. I may look a little more and try to find one a little bigger but, it says it's ready for 50 amps.

VEVOR Extension Cord, 50ft 250 Volt, 10 Gauge Heavy Duty Outdoor Welder Extension Cord with 10 Awg 3 Prong, 50 Amp Power Extension for Welding Machines, NEMA 6-50 Plug, ETL Approved, Black https://a.co/d/dpiXePc

Anywho, here's a picture of my welding setup on the side of the house. And yes, that is a crappy blue chair with a broken arm that I'm using to sit on. I've just been propping on my knee or, free handing it. And yes, that is a 7 and 1/2 gallon bucket with a piece of plywood on top of it for my welding table. It has caught on fire but, I don't have any metal to put down at the moment and it works, just might have to change out my plywood every now and again




So now that you see how I'm situated, these were my first few uphill 7018 beads. Progress moves from left to right.


Watching welding tips and tricks on YouTube helped a lot. I've been watching all of his stick welding videos along with Tim Welds videos pretty much since I started getting into welding. And I would even rewatch their videos to refresh my memory some nights. These were my first 7018 vertical uphill beads and I think there's definitely progress from left side to right side although, I know they're still plenty of work to do.

All in all, I had a great afternoon!

 

Just my personal opinion but if I was in your shoes and liked welding as much as it sounds like you do then I would take that job in a heartbeat. If you look at the big picture you will be learning from pros on how to weld correctly in all kinds of different situations. Pretty much anywhere you go you are going to have to start out doing grunt work unless you already know how to weld really good. Running weed eaters and lawn mowers for a living may be okay to you now but you have to think about the future, trust me you will not be wanting to run weed eaters and lawn mowers when you get older. I am an arborist and started my own company just over 20 years ago, I enjoyed doing technical tree removals when I was younger but now that I am in my mid 40s I wish that I would have learned a trade that I could enjoy doing as I get older. I can still do my job and do it well but damn it's a lot harder now than it was when I was in my twenties. The way I look at it is if you learn welding from the pros now you can always go out on your own and start your own business once you get comfortable with it. You're young and have plenty of time to learn. Taking a $4 an hour pay cut may be a little tough now but think about how much more money you can make in the future and hopefully enjoy doing it ! You can make decent money in the lawn business but in my opinion you need to run at least three or four different crews, at least that's how it is down here in Florida and these guys cut grass year around. With all that said I would go with whatever you enjoy doing, You can make all the money in the world and still not be happy if you're not doing what you like to do. You know yourself better than anyone so go with your gut. My 2 cents

 

Just know your worth. Don't take his first offer. He can pay more he's just trying to get you cheap as possible. Find out how long it will take you to move up the ladder time wise to get a idea. Tell him you definitely want to do it and move up the ladder fast to a actual welder and are going to put in the work but can't take thay big of a pay cut so tell him you will be willing to do it for x amount a hour.

 

Ima second jstihl. I learned trees at 18. Learned lawns at 12. Still do that stuff, part time. But im also doing a lot of farm work, and learned framing and carpentry from my dad, and others.... ive got that "master of none" thing going on, pretty heavy. At your age, you like welding... man, clock in to that job, learn everything they can teach you. And, i would point out, being allowed to weld there, after hours, thats not nothing. Thats machines, electric, benches, etc that you get access to. Maybe even rods. Means you get to learn while theh pay you, and practice, real world what you watched, where you watched it. Get payed, learn, get good... then go test for your cert. Every cert you can.
theres an old farmer lives about 5 miles from me. Has a full leather shop, because thats his hobby. He retired from the oklahoma d.o.t. several years ago... but guess what. They still call him, and pay him, well.... why? He barely farms anymore. Hes slow, and grey. (I like him a lot, nobody get your boxers in a twist) hes also one of less than 12 people. IN THE ENTIRE STATE that has the right welding cert for welding the under structure on bridges..... he learned to weld, got good, got certs in everything he could... and now, retired, and tired, hes still in demand. All that to say, i wish i had chased down a trade certificate of some kind, when i was younger. I think if you pass this up... you might regret it.
you also might not. Just dont louse yourself up by second guessing all the things.
To what tpayne said... he is right, know your worth, but i would add, know your market... here, in western oklahoma...a green hand in a gopher/training position... 14$ is good money. You should ask him what his expectations, or requirements are/would be to move up. Either timeline, or goalposts. Just dont overshoot your position and lose the chance altogether.

 

My dad is an arborist as well! He's been climbing trees for 36 years and is said by many to be the best in Baldwin county. I swear he could race a squirrel up a tree. But he is 56 now, it's getting rough on him. Now that he has a job with a bucket truck it makes life so much easier for him.

My dad taught me a bit and I climbed trees for a couple years on and off and really enjoyed it but, it just hasn't worked out for me to follow that path at this current moment. I do some tree work on the side on the weekends though along with my lawn care landscape business.

I'm right around the corner from you! We cut grass year round here too in fairhope!

I'm thinking about taking him up on his offer but, I'm going to wait until after this current GTG. I don't want to take a pay cut with a trip coming up! After the trip I won't have anything planned and can save for the next trip and not have to worry about the pay cut as much.

Thanks for your advice!

 

I don't mind starting at 14/hr. As he was saying, it was just a starting number to see what I could do. He said he'd try me out for a couple weeks and see if I was up to the task. Hopefully wouldn't take long at all to bump up over 14. I will definitely get some more details from him. Thanks for your advice!

 

I definitely know what you mean about the master of none. Started out doing tree work/removal, laying sod, then started splitting firewood, then doing Small engine mechanics, then diesel mechanics, then lawn care and landscape, now I'm starting to weld, and I have been learning a little bit about carpentry here and there from my brother who is a finish Carpenter who used to build houses. He has also taught me a lot about electrical. You can give him a pile of parts and he'll come back with a Bluetooth speaker and he's also very good at house wiring as well. You know the old saying, a jack of all trades is a master of none, but still always better than a master of one

Thank you very much for your advice, I'm really excited about potentially moving forward with this!