Looking to become a pipe welder

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Im 24 and im looking to change careers. Ive had access to a hobart 140 mig welder for years and i really love it, i look for any opportunity to come up with a project so i can weld.. Im considering pipe welding in particular because as i understand it, it pays a little more than other kinds of welding and i have a bit of debt from college. But more importantly I want to move around the country and i want to work outside. I dont have kids or a wife so the family thing isnt an issue for me. I looked into welding schools and the closest one is 30 miles away. Given that they want to charge a premium fee and the distance, its unaffordable for me.The local community college has 3 welding classes, it looks like they just teach you the basics of TIG,stick and MIG. It's actually very vague. I am trying to contact the instructor to see if I can get more info from him. One of the classes does say it prepares you for AWS structural certificate but thats about it.Is all pipe welding done VIA stick? I've seen people lay the root down with TIG, but I've never seen MIG implemented in any part of pipe welding, is there a reason for this?Is the 6G cert all you need to weld pipes? If not, what else do you need? So i can figure out what kinds of skills i need to learn and polish. Do different pipe sizes have different certification requirements?I'm sorry if some of this has been asked before. I tried to search the forums but i couldnt find what i needed. maybe my wording was off. I have been trying to search via google as well, but the amount of info is over whelming and i find my self confused at times since everything in welding has its own standards.I'd appreciate any tips/advices as well.Thanks in advance.
Reply:Pipe welding is not something you just pick up. You have to learn from a seasoned guy with lots of experience. A lot of pipe weld procedures call for stick welds but some pipe is wire welded. More often though stick is the preferred process. Boiler tube roots are tig welded. Stainless pipe is usually tig welded.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720
Reply:A lot shop fab is mig welded, like meter skids, seperators parts of vessels. If you want to travel and weld you need to find a helper job somewhere you want to go and learn the downhill stick side or get into chemical and water plants where everything is tig welded or try em all out. Getting a helper job for a year or 2 is going to be more useful than most schooling plus you'll take home 1500$ a week for the right company. Save, learn, practice in your spare time. When your comfortable go find a test
Reply:If you can't afford school then your best bets are either to become a helper or get on with a union apprenticeship. While you see a lot of stick in pipe welding there is also tig and mig used, too. As far as certification goes, 6G is referring to the position of the pipe. Most any job you go on you will have to test on for whatever they want you to test on.Hobart Stickmate LX235AC/160DCRanger 305GVictor 315 O/A rigHope to acquire in the next couple of years: Hypertherm PM45 and Dynasty 200DX
Reply:Originally Posted by riflecoA lot shop fab is mig welded, like meter skids, seperators parts of vessels. If you want to travel and weld you need to find a helper job somewhere you want to go and learn the downhill stick side or get into chemical and water plants where everything is tig welded or try em all out. Getting a helper job for a year or 2 is going to be more useful than most schooling plus you'll take home 1500$ a week for the right company. Save, learn, practice in your spare time. When your comfortable go find a test
Reply:Colorado texas north Dakota Wyoming West Virginia Ohio Pennsylvania.  There are hundreds of contractors small big union non union. Look for sterling sunland michaels Barnard driver jomax the list goes on and on. Find welders at gas stations at 630 am ask them where they are working ask if they need any helpers. This takes persistence
Reply:Some of the bigger contractors have their own welding schools, JV Industrial and Fluor are two I know of. They'll teach you to weld and put you to work afterwards. Both are in the Houston area.MIG welding on pipe is mostly a fab shop thing. MIG roots work pretty sweet on a positioner. In Alaska they did a lot of DualShield fill and caps out in the shop and the field. Outside welds would be downhill root with 8010 and the indoor welds would be TIG root.I can't even remember the last time I did a stick root on pipe, been a while. Refineries and fab shops have mostly gone to TIG or MIG roots. Of course, pipelines still use stick rod.
Reply:Some of the bigger contractors have their own welding schools, JV Industrial and Fluor are two I know of.
Reply:Originally Posted by JD955SCTIC- The Industrial Company, too. They came recruiting from my tech college...they were looking for welders who were in their final semester of the full program vs. the short structural program.
Reply:First thing is you're in a dead area for pipe welding. Unless you go Union (UA, Boilermakers, Iron Workers)... and the Ironworkers hardly weld pipe. If you don't have the funds to move somewhere off the bat, I hope you have funds to commute. As in, hour to two hour drives to work.. and the balls to get up at 3-4am to make it on time. What you can do in town is grab the phone book and call/visit any place with "welding" or "fabrication" in the business name and ask if they need a shop hand. Let them know you're interested in welding and willing to sweep floors. This won't get you far in the ways of income but it's a start. Another thing is to find out what contractors/staffing companies are in town and visit/call them. Ameri-Force, CTR, CLP, Tradesmen, etc. I've worked for some of them and they have offices everywhere. CTR/CLP are two that I know of that place Helpers. Tell them the same thing. The good thing about them is if they decide to work with you, they will usually give you some good training (OSHA, RAPIDGATE, Security Clearances, etc.) to make you more appealing. If you can afford it, take some small or shorter classes at tech/community colleges. Some places have week long intro courses in GTAW/SMAW/Pipe welding. Things like that. Someone said it's not something you just decide to do. If you can get into somewhere as a structural welder, you can ask around for someone to show you how to weld pipe. But anyways. Contact your UA local and Boilermakers local first. Ask them when the apprenticeship starts and go pick up an application. That's probably your best bet if you can't afford to leave town.
Reply:I am a pipeline welder.  if you want to work outside that is going to be your best bet.  Yes the money is good but youve got to have the want and drive to learn the trade.  the guys who said finding a helper is the best way to get your foot in the door are 100% correct.  You will make good money and learn alot as a helper.  Check out rigwelder.com  that is a forum more specific to pipe welding and there are alot of jobs to be found on there and alot of good guys.