Thread: Boilermaking/welding profession

Hi,
As an ex boilermaker,myself I can only offer you a biased opinion.
However should you wish to become a gentleman craftsman ie "carpenter in steel " it is a great trade with potential to learn and earn a lot .

How well you will do is very dependent on apprenticing with the "right" employer.One who will help you develop your skills if you show the correct attitude and potential.

I would would be looking a some work trials with likely employers before doing anything.

Also learn as much as you can about Cad drawing as you possibly can, as this can help you greatly.

If there s anything specific ,ask away as there are a few
"arc angels" here.

Grahame

Hey

Yea i love welding and metalwork and all the rest of it. What about Marine boilermaker, underwater welding and offshore fabrication ? Just wondering.

thanks

Yea i love welding and metalwork and all the rest of it. What about Marine boilermaker, underwater welding and offshore fabrication ? Just wondering

You might need to walk before you run, I've been a boiler maker for 25 years and from my experience, you would need to find an empoyer that does a little of everything, it might mean that you will have to go to a smallish town to find that type of employment, that way you will get a good grounding in the industry before you specialize. It could take a few years to get the relevant qualifications. One thing that I would stress, TAKE GRAPHICS, without it, you will be behind the eight ball when it comes to understanding what is required in a job. Cad is a good thing, but not really necessary.

Just my thoughts

Robert

Gidday

Im much like yourself and decided to become a Welder.........................

Although left it a lot later then you have I agree that it would be of great advantage to find a good employer if you can. For me I choose to work in a Fab shop that does a bit of everything............

From picking up our stock in the yard (With a tractor crane) Interpret drawings Fab n Welding........................

Its a great way to give yourself a wide range of foundation skills. U can specialize down the track into these areas:

"What about Marine boilermaker, underwater welding and offshore fabrication ? Just wondering"

As suggested is a good idea to do Tech Drawing so u start getting familiar with the kind of drawings you'll need to read down the track..................

Good luck with it!

Regards Lou

What would it be like?

From what I've seen, and not just with welding jobs, you will find that whatever you do the first time will be totally cool and awesome.

Then depending on how dedicated and determined you are will be the thing
that either keeps you doing the same thing or wanting to change to do something else.

So if you want to weld full-time you have pretty much two choices.

Choice number one. Learn how to weld yourself at home in the shed, maybe get a bit of work experience and once you are proficient
you would have a pretty good chance of getting a welding job as a second-class welder.
That is you don't need any formal qualifications or certificates to say that you can weld.

Many sheds have second-class welders that can weld very well.

Choice number two. Is that you go and do an apprenticeship, which will take about four years (I think) and then at least you have a bit of paper.
From there you can train how to be a welder for pressure vessel welding, underwater welding, specialise welding of exotic metals.

Once you have that piece of paper your qualified. My advice would be to nut it out and do the apprenticeship.



There really are so many areas that you can work in with welding. You could specialise in TIG welding, pipe welding, pressure vessel welding, robotic welding,
general fabrication shop welding where you get to use many welding processes.

The one thing I do know for sure is that if your only 15, chances are your interest may sway between now and when you do finally decide what you want to do.


I know that when I left high school I had no clue, no idea what I wanted to do.

One little tip I can give you though it is that you probably don't want to end up working in a factory where you're just welding at the same part day after day. This will quickly become dead boring.

You want to find something that has some variety. I personally think that welding up box trailers for a living would be a very monotonous task.

You probably want to get some work with a company that does general welding and fabrication, that way you can be stick welding one day, mig welding the next day, using the oxy torch or plasma cutter, etc. doing a whole lot of different jobs and using different equipment will make the days go so much faster.

That is my opinion.

Peter

as a boilermaker for the past 34 yrs i love it welders just weld can become boring but a boilermaker has to be able to make sometinng from an engineering drawing or a customers sketch /dimensions taken from site you have to cut,shapewhatever into a finished product including the welding of it in my eyes boilermaking is the way to go