Welding side job

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Hey, I am a Senior in High School and am planning on going through a program to become a electrician at my local technical school. Anyway, I took welding every year in High school and love it and am good at it but don't want to have to travel to work all thr time. Anyway, what are some side jobs I could do with welding while working full-time as a electrician. I am trying to plan so any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Reply:I hate to tell you this, but in this economy every Joe and his brother who has a welder thinks he can do this and make money. Honestly it doesn't work that way.There's a lot of legit welders out there who are out of work, scrounging to try and make ends meet. Most construction companies around me are either putting off work until they have more money or they are trying to do repairs in house to save even if it has to be done over because it wasn't done right.Also think about what will happen if you do a job and don't have the proper insurance coverage. In today's sue happy society any "critical" welds that you do that fail is an open invitation to get sued. I'd avoid anything structural, that travels over the road like trailers, hand rails and so on.Also I know a lot of municipalities are cracking down on guys working on the side without proper permits, licenses, insurance and so on. They are losing money big time with so many businesses going under and they want to collect on the "underground" economy if they can. While it's been a while since this happened, you might want to take a minute and read what happened to Dabar39 here when he got caught up in a CL sting operation. He was legit so he didn't have any issues, but stings like that are fairly common now days as municipalities try and catch people running under the radar doing jobs, especially guys doing repairs and contracting. Usually it costs them nothing to run a sting, and they can tout that they are working to keep the public "safe" from unscrupulous contractors, basking in the publicity they can gain when these stings catch people showing the public that their tax dollars are hard at work protecting them, while at the same time raking in fines to fill their coffers.www.weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=35394Best bet would be to stick with small projects you can sell at flea markets. Coat racks, candle holders, fire place tools, fire pits, plant hangers and so on if you want to try and make some spare cash welding. That or find a legit job helping out PT at a shop..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:^^^^^^what he said.Weld like a "WELDOR", not a wel-"DERR" MillerDynasty700DX,Dynasty350DX4ea,Dynasty200DX,Li  ncolnSW200-2ea.,MillerMatic350P,MillerMatic200w/spoolgun,MKCobraMig260,Lincoln SP-170T,PlasmaCam/Hypertherm1250,HFProTig2ea,MigMax1ea.
Reply:Thanks for the advise, guys. I've done most of the work building 3 or 4 trailers at my high school but never had thought on the legal side of things. We've just always had a really great welding program at our school and I can make good welds with stick, mig , and tig. Welding is what I really wanted to do but as you all said in this economy electrician jobs are more common. Thanks again for helping me out.