This may probably be one of the dumbest questions ever, but being a fabricator to me sounds like you are a born natural
or something in which requires no technical schooling in order to attain such a skill.

Something where the human eye and hand is trained or just equipped with talent to fuse metals together and it's
not like turning a wrench, designing various different shapes of metal, and you fabricators of course get the idea about my ranting.

My question here is ... How do you actually become one ? What exact or close to "fabricator" classes would I take
besides Welding and Auto cad that would benefit this kind of profession ?

 

I'm sure others will chime in but my road to Fabrication consists of going to school. I will be graduating here shortly with an A.S Degree in Welding Technology and I'm going to continue and finish up 2 more Degrees. Engineering Software and Drafting.

 

find a shop that does any kind of metal fabrication, get hired, and show initiative to learn. I have never been through any schooling for welding or fabrication but Id be willing to bet you could learn more by working instead of paying for schooling. Invest in basic metalworking equipment and a welder and start researching online too.

 

start doing it...

im self taught, slower way to do it prolly and you have to learn a lot of lesson teh hard way but hard learned lessons stick the best.

years and years ago i just started tinkering with my car making this or that and over time you develop your skills pretty good. buying good equipment the first time is more expensive up front but will deff save you lots of time and tears in the long run.

 

Thanks for the input guys, I just started doing a little bit of mig welding myself here at home when I get the time. I guess in general not to even lie about it, I'm getting way more pissed off each and everyday turning wrenches and figuring out cars.

I'd rather fabricate one thing and get it over with instead of spending long amounts of time attempting to figure out why grannys' 98 lesabre has a TPS DTC or something, you get the drill.

I will be posting pictures later on when I get a little better at welding, and when I get a good quality camera. Lolol.

 

Fabricating, and supporting yourself by being a fabricator is two different worlds. I run a fab business on the side, primarily making bmw parts, but I'm still in school and plan to get a good day job. Its hard to find a secure place to work as a fabricator making good money, especially if you are just starting out. Anything can be accomplished with enough drive though.

 

But wouldn't you still be able to work for let's say example like a company that specifically focuses on "Tig Welding" and you would just be a Welder and start from there.

After you get some classes done at a community college and show them the type of work you do, wouldn't you have a better chance of getting into it or do they look more based on your "work history" experience ?

If you get the hang of it on the daily, your skill I'm pretty sure would definitely go to a higher level.

 

I've seen a bunch of guys go the tech school route that I've hired in the past, and personally I'm not convinced. Especially when you're talking Wyotech type schools. That's little more than a basis to learn from for 30-50k in loans. On top of it, few ever come out with skill that is anything more than "green" at best. Then you have to listen to them tell you how to weld because "their instructor said this", "their instructor said that"......no thanks.

 

"Character and failure is what builds success, not grades"

Wyotechish kids are a joke, most of the automotive industry understands this.

It tells business owners that their direction is limited, they have zero real world experience, and that they were never that bright in the first place buying into that business.

They would have been much better off investing 1/4 of that money into tools, materials, consumables, time and google.

I know some of you think we are wrong, but we are the guys your going to be looking too for employment.

 

Work history > Schooling

Work history, guys that have done it
Schooling, guys that think they can do it

 

We take on apprenticeship positions straight out of the high-school welding department for fabricators. The big difference we've seen in the past from people with a lot of job history is many have had poor training, bad habits and expect wages that are not in direct correlation to our assessment of their skill levels. So experience is both good and bad. We prefer to start with a blank slate. Many of ours guys have been here 6+ years now.

 

I totally second this. I've never gone to school for anything aside from my Millwright apprenticeship, I've worked in a steel fab/machine shop for about 5 years and everything I know about fabrication is from watching the tradesmen do their thing and asking them a lot of questions. I picked it up quite easily and now I can do all the fabrication that takes place in the shop.

 

48% natural ability, 50% learn by doing, 2% schooling.

 

Out of curiosity, and for those of you that own/run fab. shops. What do you pay your fabricators? I'm sure the range is going to depend on skill level and time served, but I'm just looking for a general number.

 

Just from the two shops I've worked at it, depending on your skill level and the amount of hours you have it ranges from 18 to 38 bucks an hour for a good fab guy.

 

I would think that would also greatly depend on location as well.

 

Pay varies A LOT. Here in Quebec, they want you to weld stuff for air craft, and have all kinds of credentials and practically a degree in metallurgy, and offer $13/h.

Welders do not make good money in Quebec.

 

$13/hr? **** my kids nanny makes more then that.

 

- truth!

Look bro, I'm just speaking from my own experiences.
Save the school money, and spend it on a welder and a LOT of material lol
Find some guys who fab and start at the bottom to learn everything you can, such as technique, tips and tricks etc. The most import thing is seat time and practice.

Good luck brutha!

 

Hey thanks a lot for your input guys, I did go to welding school here last year
but only got up to Tig. I mean yeah I was taught a lot in school because I had
no idea how to weld at all.

I do have a Mig welder, I just wanted to know if Mig Welding techniques are
almost as close to as Tig, is it all the same motions such as circles, rosette welds,
rainbows ? I've heard a lot of people saying Tig is so much harder than Mig. Isn't Tig
sort of like drawing ?

 

Tig welding, torch wise, is only like 'backwards c's' or rainbows when your trying to fill gaps.

With the filler, you just dab it in the pool your making with the torch, like how you would a paint brush dabbing a series of dots on a page.

When you add filler to the pool that the torch created, you can move the pool around with the torch. The farther you move it, the less filler it takes with it, so the filler thins out and you have to add more.

I welded with a small miller 90, flux core wire feed for years, I actually got pretty decent with it I guess, good enough to hold pressure and sell it atleast. I feel like the years of struggle with sub par tools made it alot easier once I actually got nice tools. TIG is alot more relaxing, cleaner and slower pace than MIG. It is more difficult and requires more technique. Even after my fluxcore setup has been converted to mig, it still has its place in the shop, I use it to get my broke customers out of a bind. I also use it to weld old metal that will never be seen.

 

Sad to say but welders in my area is about the same. I was hired on at 14hr to start for a local defense company TIG'n. One year of schooling finished with 5 certs got one thru them so far, so 6 total. To be honest the certs is what gets you the job ,your work ethic and willing to learn is what keeps you in a job.

 

It is a lot harder to master, a monkey can mig weld. Its not like drawing, it is like tig welding. I employ none of my mig welding techniques in tig. I don't move the torch anywhere but following the joint. Filling gaps is hoopty and for lazy people who don't take the time with fit up. There are cases where moving the torch in a pattern is necessary but for someone who hasn't even tig'd you don't have to concern yourself with them

 

Wat? I got offered over 100k/yr to weld in Ft McMurray!

 

But that's Fort Mac for ya its got a booming petrochemical and manufacturing industry, everything is pretty much doubled out there, cost of living too unfortunately. Buddy that I work with that goes out to FM for work brought back a house trader magazine, a small size house can run you over $500,000. If I wanted to move out to Alberta I guarantee I could get a job starting at $30/hr within 24 hours of getting off the plane. One thing they desperately need out there is skilled tradesmen, last month the premier of Alberta came to Toronto basically telling people; we need more guys out here, take these applications and move out there we'll put you to work.