What do you guys make a year. I am wondering because I have completed a year of welding and had a welding job for 7 months now. Im starting to think that this is not the career for me. I make $10.50 a hour. I don't know if it's thje place that I work at it's a ****** mess with bad management.
I know how to:
MIG
Flux
ARC weld
I can't tig only because it takes time to learn tig welding properly.

 

I make 15.25 an hour (10 years exp) at a local machine shop.
and know how to weld and thinkg you know are way different. but you gotta learn to TIG

 

I know what you mean about welding and knowing how to weld. I have had alot of experienced welders tell me that my welds look dam good.I know I need to learn Tig but I don't have any where to keep learning because that was the last thing my instructor started teaching me. I Mig all day long. I work at a plant but there is some small fabrication involved.

 

my teacher told me under water welder make great money because it pretty dangerous

 

welding should be a hobby, not a job.

 

my dads friend owns a pipe welding buisness and some of his tig welders make 60-80k/yr and they get to travel around the country for any where from a couple days to a couple weeks for jobs

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2000psi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">welding should be a hobby, not a job.</TD></TR></TABLE>

No offense to any one who does it for a profession, instead a thank you for doing dirty work that we need performed.....but I agree.

 

Straight welding as a salary or metal fabrication/welding?

 

Straight welding with a little fabrication. I have no problem getting dirty or stuff like that cause belive me the place I work at it doesn't get worse than that. That what I think it is the place I work at is nasty as hell has bad mangement. I guess I am just going to try a get aleast a 1yr of experince(sp). Plus I stay in MS so theres not a great bemand for welders soI might decide to mov some where else.

 

Your hourly pay will be subject to how well you negotiate and what you bring to the table. For example, the welder at the company I work for is pulling in high teens, maybe even low 20's per hour, with about 10-15 hours of overtime per week = ~60k per year
The thing is, he can tig well (just look at the parts on my car..)heh..

The main thing is to be as versatile as possible and to align your skills with the type of business you want to work for. For example, our company does fluid fill machines for the OEMs, so having the ability to weld up tanks that don't leak is very important.

I agree that without being able to tig, you really are limiting yourself.

BTW, I'm not a welder, nor do I ever want to weld for a living. Try sitting in a welding booth in 95 degree weather while wearing welding gear before considering it as a way to make a living.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2000psi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">welding should be a hobby, not a job.</TD></TR></TABLE>
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Just Checking In &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">No offense to any one who does it for a profession, instead a thank you for doing dirty work that we need performed.....but I agree.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok, so the cars you drive must be welded. The food you eat is processed using pipes that must be welded. Your clothes are made in plants that have welded equipment. ALL your goods you buy are shipped in trucks or railroad cars that require welding. Are you seeing my point here? EVERYTHING you need or buy can be traced back to the need for welding. Surely you don't think that all these guys that did the welding should have done it free.

I make more money than 75% of the office people that work at the same company I do. I hope they don't all leave to push papers around as a hobby.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cjames235 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my dads friend owns a pipe welding buisness and some of his tig welders make 60-80k/yr and they get to travel around the country for any where from a couple days to a couple weeks for jobs </TD></TR></TABLE>

That's not much money for traveling as a pipe welder. For the truly skilled welders, $100-120k a year is more like what they want. Even still, I wouldn't mind occasional short traveling jobs. Can you get me some info about this company that I can follow up on?


As others have said, tig is the way to go. Maybe you should go back to school and pick it up. The biggest advantage of mig welding is speed, not presicision. In other words, it will usually be done in places that speed is more important than quality. Any place that does ONLY mig work will not pay well because it's easier to find somebody to crack a whip on than it is to find somebody that's skilled enough to do good tig work.

Along with more money when you get to be a skilled tig welder, comes better jobs. I sit in a chair all day long and weld 20ga boxes together (for a few more days). I go home with clean clothes, although I may get sweaty at times. There's only so much fan air you can stand on you while tig welding. My boss doesn't crack a whip, talk to me badly, or treat me badly at all. They understand that I am a professional and they respect me for it and treat me accordingly.

As for bad management....get used to it. Also, as you learn more and more, you will have to get used to working for guys that are less qualified for their jobs than they are. In this business, you move up the ladder by sucking ***, not by being a good welder. Therefore, when your boss says he used to be a welder, you're reasonably safe to assume that he wasn't all that good at it, but was good at sucking up.

In my area, there's a couple government plants that pay about $22-27/hr. Other than that, in the nonunion world, $18-20 is tops. However, cost of living here is cheap. I paid $66k for a house that is 1900 sq ft, fenced in yard, garage, etc. (No, it wasn't new.) My property tax runs about $600 a year. In many other areas, pay isn't any better, or a little better...but taxes and expenses are 2-4 times what they are here.

 

Once again I have no problem with heat, dirt and anything else. I just basicly wanted to know what other people where making in other parts of the world. I would like to improve my tig welding but the college I attended closed the program. Hell I don't even have a problem with relocating. ENGLOID how long have you been welding.

 

I just started to work at a fabrication company after school. Seems to me that if you're a good welder with a fabricator's mind, you can get places.

From what I've seen, the best way to make money is to specialize in a certian product or field. There are tons of welders out there, but that many who can make pressurized tanks like Engloid said.

 

Pressure tanks in the US must be build to ASME Section IV standards...and must also be inspected and stamped accordingly. Typically, places that do this type of work will pay more than some other shops because it has to be done right to pass the inspection criteria.

I used to hop jobs a lot in the past. I think it helped me to see what all was out there in the world, and to gain experience in many different things. I consider myself to be a pretty versatile welder at this point. I've welded anything from .006" stainless to copper-nickel that's 1"+ thick. At this point, I rarely find challenges and I'm bored with it...but can't get the same money doing anything else.

In referring to heat and stuff, my point was that typically, the dirtier and hotter jobs in welding are the worst ones and will pay worst also. the better jobs will usually be cleaner and work a slower pace that allows you to do quality work, not just fast work.

I have been welding for 19 years, 17 of that professionally (2 was in high school).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Engloid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I paid $66k for a house that is 1900 sq ft, fenced in yard, garage, etc. (No, it wasn't new.) My property tax runs about $600 a year. In many other areas, pay isn't any better, or a little better...but taxes and expenses are 2-4 times what they are here.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wow, TN is a cheap place to live. Just for contrast, I paid 157K for my current house 6 years ago, it's 2000sq feet with a barn in the back and my property taxes are $3800 per year.

I think this makes a good point when you are searching for welding work, here in Detroit almost everything hinges on the auto OEMs, when they're slow, we're slow. But I think the relative pay for non union welders is about the same everywhere, so perhaps a place like TN would be a better place to make a go of it...plus the weather is nicer

 

Engloid, If you start making headers real soon .You will have lived the working part of my life.I worked at Hooker Headers in 1976 for about a year.And the only person that made money there was Gary Hooker.Then I worked at A place building sand buggies.Then I tried the big stuff.Repairing (welding) Heavy Equip.And rebuilding Batch plants.That got me enough time in to apply at Kiaser Fab.Now we are talking.I was making $27 an hour in 1979 or 80.I had a brand new 4x4 chevy.And so much money ,I didn't know buy next.Then the Union ran them out of buisness.So I went over to Kiaser Plate as A boiler maker.Making pressure vessals.Everything was cool ,Then Poof .No more Kiaser plate.I also worked at Freight Liner cab over .Untill they closed the gates there TOO!
After that I must have worked at every welding shop in So Cal. I lived in Costa Mesa for a few years working for Betty Cook. Doing turbo stuff for her off shore race boats.Oh yeah And this whole time ,I have building headers on the side.
Anyway this kind of **** went on for 30 years.Untill I settled on making headers.
Anyway What I'm trying to say is.By the time your good enough or figure out what you want to do ,Your 47 ******* years old. Bottom line welding sucks.If you don't own the company.Your just killing your self.From skin cancer or lung cancer.
Go to school and use your brain.Like that other guy said.Do it as a hobby.

 

i was making 32.50/hr as a welder welding steam pipe for a construction company.

lots and lots of stick welding., the key to that is being able to mirror weld.

pretty tricky.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RMF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Go to school and use your brain.Like that other guy said.Do it as a hobby. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I did. I have a BS in Business Organizational Management. I'm also an AWS Certified Welding Inspector.... but I make more welding than I can find in either of the other two. It kinda sucks to work so long at something, thinking it will get you somewhere better.... and then it only makes it harder to keep doing what you were already doing.

My welding alone makes me overqualified for 19 of 20 welding jobs....and if I put my college degree on my resume, I don't even get phone calls from companies when I apply for welding jobs. As you know, most shop supervisors have no college behind them, so they are intimidated when they see it on my resume, and scared that I'd wind up taking their job.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ccfab &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i was making 32.50/hr as a welder welding steam pipe for a construction company.

lots and lots of stick welding., the key to that is being able to mirror weld.

pretty tricky. </TD></TR></TABLE> What benefits? that's good money IF it comes with decent benefits.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RMF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Engloid, If you start making headers real soon .You will have lived the working part of my life.I worked at Hooker Headers in 1976 for about a year.And the only person that made money there was Gary Hooker.Then I worked at A place building sand buggies.Then I tried the big stuff.Repairing (welding) Heavy Equip.And rebuilding Batch plants.That got me enough time in to apply at Kiaser Fab.Now we are talking.I was making $27 an hour in 1979 or 80.I had a brand new 4x4 chevy.And so much money ,I didn't know buy next.Then the Union ran them out of buisness.So I went over to Kiaser Plate as A boiler maker.Making pressure vessals.Everything was cool ,Then Poof .No more Kiaser plate.I also worked at Freight Liner cab over .Untill they closed the gates there TOO!
After that I must have worked at every welding shop in So Cal. I lived in Costa Mesa for a few years working for Betty Cook. Doing turbo stuff for her off shore race boats.Oh yeah And this whole time ,I have building headers on the side.
Anyway this kind of **** went on for 30 years.Untill I settled on making headers.
Anyway What I'm trying to say is.By the time your good enough or figure out what you want to do ,Your 47 ******* years old. Bottom line welding sucks.If you don't own the company.Your just killing your self.From skin cancer or lung cancer.
Go to school and use your brain.Like that other guy said.Do it as a hobby. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thank you, thats exactly what I meant, for the toll it takes on your body welding every day it's not worth it. The long term damage can be crippling everything from vision damage to Parkinson's disease. When you fuse metal bad stuff is released!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by h kid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my teacher told me under water welder make great money because it pretty dangerous</TD></TR></TABLE>

They make great money but there job expectency is low do to radiation and pressure that builds up in your brain. My professor said there Work expectency is about 6~7 years at most.

Also, I'm a Tig/Stick welder for the Pipe welders union. 6G in 6"mild steel, 6G 2" stainless steel, and etc. I make about $35(minimum) Hour depending upon what I have to weld. But I consider this my side job because I also do errands for theautomotive industry(few companys) on a average of $15/hour. And I'm a Part time tennis instructor at a club; $50~60/hour for lessons and $12/hour behind the counter.

 

I started out tig welding... I can tig weld better than anything. We make waterjet machines where i work, Romeo Engineering Inc, in Ft. Worth, TX. So the machine is 6ft. wide by 12ft. long by 4ft. high and has to hold water all the way to the top. My first tank was a no leaker and the welder before me had a minumum of 15 pinhole leaks around the seams. I hate mig welding but thats what i do all day. tig welding is what makes me happy, lol. I get $12.00 per hour starting out. I have been doing this for 4 months and have been with the company for 10 months. They are actually trying to hire another welder cause we are overwhelmed with work. I cant do everything by myself.. not doin bad for a 20yr old that has been welding for 4 months and practiced like 10 minutes a week for 6 months... Been working 50-60 hour weeks and will bring home about 25,000 this year.. thats also with my pay before... $8.50/hr running the machine.. I started out at this company for $7.50 an hour with my boss giving me a chance to do something and i suprised everyone at the company.. my yearly comes up in october and the supervisor said i will be getting $1.00 to $2.00 raise... Should be making $30,000/ yr next year.. Check out http://www.romeoeng.com to see what i build... they say im the best welder they've had in the past few years and the best tig welder in the past 10 years... well enough about what i do... I'm usually the last one out of the shop but it makes up for it when i have a nice paycheck... now with the money im making its time to build my TURBO B18 up and then start school next year unless i find a better welding job making more money... I just kind of stumbled across this job when i moved back to texas... now i get to build exhaust and whatever else i want thanks to my job or "hobby" that i get paid for. HAHA

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2000psi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> The long term damage can be crippling everything from vision damage to Parkinson's disease. When you fuse metal bad stuff is released!!! </TD></TR></TABLE>Out of my 15 closest relatives, they all wear contacts. I'm the only welder and the only one that doesn't wear glasses or contacts.


Modified by Engloid at 8:32 PM 8/29/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RMF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Anyway this kind of **** went on for 30 years.Untill I settled on making headers.
Anyway What I'm trying to say is.By the time your good enough or figure out what you want to do ,Your 47 ******* years old. Bottom line welding sucks.If you don't own the company.Your just killing your self.From skin cancer or lung cancer.
Go to school and use your brain.Like that other guy said.Do it as a hobby. </TD></TR></TABLE>

burnt out?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RMF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Go to school and use your brain. </TD></TR></TABLE>

welding actually helped me get through school. was the best schedule ever....went to school and hit the books till need be then welded afterwards to meet deadlines.

 

right now i'm making $25/hr + 100% medical/dental/etc for my entire family, building garbage cans. i'm a certified journeyman welder, i do my own thing with tig on the side but this pays the bills for now.
it's not the best job in the world, actually it's boring as **** most of the time, all downhand mig assemble garbage cans for 10 hours a day 4 days a week..


the company sends us for hearing & vision tests anually or bi-anually, i can't remember, either way i've been welding for 6 years now as a career and my eyesight is 20/20 , my hearing was bad to begin with and certanly hasn't got any better, that's my main concern, i will wake up one day needing a hearing aid.