Is the Hobart School Worth the Price?

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Is the 1200 hour course worth 15000 dollars? I've only heard good things about the school but I'm wondering if just joining a pipe welding apprenticeship would be better. Anyone know about this school in the Philippines(http://heatsschoolofweldingtechnolog...ss.com/home/)? Thinking about going here since it's really cheap.
Reply:Talk to Lanse, he just graduated from that program.  I am sure he can tell you all you want to know...  Sent from my SCH-I545 using TapatalkTiger Sales:  AHP Distributor    www.tigersalesco.comAHP200x; AHP 160ST; MM350P,  Spoolmatic 30A; Everlast PowerTig 185; Thermal Dynamics 60i plasma.  For Sale:  Cobra Mig 250 w/ Push-pull gun.  Lincoln Wirematic 250
Reply:Who is Lanse? Are you referring to Chucke2009 by any chance?
Reply:I have worked for & with a few of their graduates over the years.I'd say it is money very well spent, all of those dudes's knew their ****!Buy American, or don't whine when you end up on the bread line.
Reply:Originally Posted by ChadWardenI'm wondering if just joining a pipe welding apprenticeship would be better.
Reply:By my math that breaks down to about $12.50 an hour. How much cheaper do you think you can get  and still get a quality education? I'm also guessing that right now things in the Philippines are a bit messed up and you might want to rethink things about going there and taking classes until they get things straightened out..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:money well spent
Reply:No. It's not. Hobart School: $15,000. Lincoln School of Technology: $23,000. Community College: $5000. Apprenticeship: You get paid AND you learn.Big F**king HammerJumper cables & 2 marine batteriesJaws of life
Reply:I would have to think about that very seriously, it would depend if I had any colleges around me that had a good program and instructor.. Remember you'll have to find a place to stay, so that price will go up substantially when you include food and rent for the duration of the program.  It would be nice if you could find some kind of sponsor, that would probably be pretty tough though..I think it would suck to go in that much debt before you even start your career, especially if there are other options near you, such as a community college program or union apprenticeship program..tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/
Reply:Problem around here is no one is taking on apprentices. It used to be that all the locals used to come to the tech school and try and convince the best of the students to come join and be come apprentices. Since 08 or 09 none of them even bother to show up. They simply aren't taking new guys, and those that they do take, there's a waiting list of people with "ins" to fill the spots..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:And here in Denver nobody is taking apprentices and nobody is hiring straight out of school grads. Even if you have your certs. When I started school that was the big thing the teachers talked about. "We work with a CWI and you can leave school with 3G, 4G, and 6G SMAW certs and 3G and 4G GMAW certs. That will help you get a job right out of school because those certs show the employee that you can weld.". Yup and then they look at your resume and see ZERO job experience. On to the next guy. Well unless you want to get a production job MIG welding galvanized all day. So as any frustrated guy would do, I said screw it and started my own business building furniture. Yay me. I'd rather be doing something and starving than nothing and starving.Big F**king HammerJumper cables & 2 marine batteriesJaws of life
Reply:Originally Posted by rschreckNo. It's not. Hobart School: $15,000. Lincoln School of Technology: $23,000. Community College: $5000. Apprenticeship: You get paid AND you learn.
Reply:Originally Posted by brucerI would have to think about that very seriously, it would depend if I had any colleges around me that had a good program and instructor.. Remember you'll have to find a place to stay, so that price will go up substantially when you include food and rent for the duration of the program.  It would be nice if you could find some kind of sponsor, that would probably be pretty tough though..I think it would suck to go in that much debt before you even start your career, especially if there are other options near you, such as a community college program or union apprenticeship program..
Reply:Originally Posted by ChadWardenIsn't it hard to find a pipe welding apprenticeship? Especially for someone who's not even certified? I'm wary of getting into a community college since I don't want to risk getting subpar training. Of course I wouldn't want to go in debt for a welding program. I'm planning on saving like 30000 dollars before starting the Hobart school. It is a good school though, right? How did you upstart your welding career?
Reply:But you can get the same type of instruction (and possibly better, more one to one, more time in the booth) at a community college for a lot less money. I went to a community college and it consisted of 100% booth time, burning rods and wire and zero classroom time.Big F**king HammerJumper cables & 2 marine batteriesJaws of life
Reply:Today was my first day at Lincoln for their Gmaw course. One week, two instructors, seven students, unlimited material, 500$.  I took Smaw at the local vocational school, same price twice a week for a whole semester, 20 students so not much one on one time, I brought extra material and a grinder.
Reply:Which would you say was the better experience? Lincoln or your community college?
Reply:ChadWarden,I went through the 9 month program at Hobart.  Dollar for dollar, the best value for my money of any school or training program I've ever attended.  BUT, it's up to you to make the most of the experience.  You can do like a lot of kids whose Mommy and Daddy paid the tuition...Get drunk or high every night, then sit in a welding booth on an up-side-down bucket and sleep off the hangover.  What a waste.  Or you can walk in each day determined to learn as much as you can and weld as much metal as you can.  $12.50 and hour for all the pipe, plate, and rod you can use, with the guidance of an experienced instructor, is a great deal.  You can skate out early on most Fridays if you pass your welding test on Thursday.  The school has a very reasonable attendance policy, which makes some allowances for students who are attending from far away and want to go home for the weekend occasionally.  But then you're throwing away $50 of someone's money every week you leave early.  Instead, you can take Friday to ask questions and learn more than just the bare minimum.  You can practice things outside the basic curriculum.  Wring every drop of knowledge and value from your time in school, like you're squeezing water from a dishrag.The school provides all the materials and welding equipment.  The base metal  is all new material, prepped and ready to weld.  This is good and bad.  Lots of time actually welding, with minimal time spent prepping.  No rust to clean up.  Fewer problems related to welding on scrap steel.  (Some of the lower cost programs function on donated steel, which may be painted, rusty, odd-shaped, etc.)  But it's not always representative of reality.  In the real world you have to work on dirty, rusty, wet material sometimes, and you need to learn how to deal with it.The school, any of the welding schools, will give you a basic set of skills that will enable you to find an entry level position.  When you graduate, you'll have some marketable skills that will get your foot in the door.  But you will still have years of learning to do on the job.  Welding is a very small part of the skillset you need to earn a good living as a skilled tradesman.  So keep that in mind as well.  Take your basic skills, find a job, find a mentor at that employer, and keep learning everything you can from your mentor and coworkers.  You can make good money if you take the time to learn more every day.Benson's Mobile Welding - Dayton, OH metro area - AWS Certified Welding Inspector
Reply:Originally Posted by A_DAB_will_doBUT, it's up to you to make the most of the experience.  You can do like a lot of kids whose Mommy and Daddy paid the tuition...Get drunk or high every night, then sit in a welding booth on an up-side-down bucket and sleep off the hangover.  What a waste.
Reply:@A DAB will doAll the plates and pipes you can use? Thank the **** christ... All right. It's story time. I am just about to finish a 1 year program at an Australian TAFE (vocation school) in Sydney to get an Australian certificate. I'm doing this because I thought it would increase my chances of getting permanent residency here (the wage is MUCH higher in Australia). Turned out the be a big waste of time and money. The first semester was wasted doing a lot of useless ****. Seriously. They weren't even teaching fabrication. I kept asking for more time to practice welding. The head teacher got REALLY pissed at me and said I complained too much. I asked the teachers for more opportunities for welding. Throughout the first semester, they kept saying that all the bull**** but mandatory units will be taken care of first and then we would just be welding for the second semester. Although the welding did pick up in the second semester, it really wasn't enough.Not only was the course totally ****, the teachers were practically human trash piles who made very little effort to teach us. Not that this mattered since they didn't know jack ****. The teacher teaching us how to weld did a demo of open root stick with 6011s on ****ing DC-... After he finished and to nobody's surprise, it looked terrible. His excuse was that he hasn't done one since 20 years when he went to school...They were very stingy with the materials. Every time we asked for more materials and consumables, they would give it to us like we just asked them to clean the toilet. There was ONE auto beveling machine and a lot of time was spent waiting in line. There were no grinders in the booth so we couldn't grind our stops and starts when stick welding. In fact, they didn't even teach us to use the grinder while welding. I could go on about how bad this school is but I think my post is getting too long.The base metal is already prepped? That means you don't have to spend time cutting/beveling the plates and pipes? Are you allowed to stay back a couple of hours for extra practice time? It's so frustrating with my current circumstances because I want to be busting my *** welding for 12 hours a day every day to increase my skill level but I don't have the opportunities to do so at the moment. Hell, I even bought my own little stick welder and a whole bunch of plates so I could practice 3G stick in the backyard but my neighbor put a stop to it...Welding will be a small part of my skill set? Well, I want to become a pipe welder so I think welding would be a very big part of my set of skills. What are you? A fabricator? Fitter? Anyways, I really appreciate your thorough reply. And what do you know, I'm from Ohio as well.
Reply:ChadWarden, Ask DSW what school he teaches at, maybe he can get you some information as to what his school offers. DSW always offers up good knowledgeable advice, I'm pretty sure he would be a good instructor..tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/
Reply:Chad,Some of the other posters make a good point that there are good programs at community colleges here in the States.  UA, Ironworkers, Boilermakers, and the other trade unions all have good apprenticeship training programs.  They also teach a great deal more than just welding in those programs.  Some community colleges provide a similar quality educational experience that you can get from a private school like Hobart's program; for a lot less money.  I got my start at nights in Fresno community college, in Fresno, CA.  The instructor there was top notch and the cost was low.  A few years later the opportunity to go to the Hobart school came along, and I took the gamble.  It's paid off for me so far.  But you may have to look long and hard to find that quality program that also is a bargain.  Yes, the program at Hobart includes all the base metal you can weld.  That does not mean you can be wasteful.  Every rod gets burned down until it's less than 2" long. Nobody is stingy with plate or pipe coupons.  But they all get welded out before you can recycle them and get new material.  For example, the flat plates come beveled, and about 6 or 8" wide.  You'll weld and recut them until they're about 2" wide when you're practicing.  When the 6 or so pieces you start with are all too small, you can get a brand new set of beveled plates.  Pipe coupons come 6 at a time and only get used once, but they get welded all the way out before they get pitched.When I went through the school there were 75 weld booths and 8 instructors.  There were at least half a dozen track torches for re-beveling plate and cutting out straps for testing.  There were 6 massive dual-belt grinding stations for prepping bend test specimens and cleaning up bevels from OF cutting.  There were two stations for cutting bend straps from pipe for testing.  Yes, there was some waiting occasionally. but I never felt like I was jammed up for time.  I know that the Hobart school has expanded since I went through the program.  But I imagine the student to instructor ratio is still about 10 to 1.  That varied from course to course.  I took Basic TIG welding for 2 weeks with 3 other guys.  Some of the classes were larger, maybe 15 people.Each day started at 8am with about 30 minutes of classroom instruction.  1 hour for lunch, and 15 minutes of break time in the morning and afternoon.  15 minutes at the end of the day for cleanup.  The rest of the 6 hours is arc time for you to use or waste.  Out the door at 4pm.  Nobody started early or stayed late, so far as I know.  Liability reasons.  The program is very rigidly structured.  You learn to make fillet and open butt welds on plate and pipe.  3/8" and 3/4" thick plate.  The OA class was mostly 1/8" material.  The pipe classes were are all taught on 2" sched 80 and 6" sched 80 material.  Although I do remember welding at least one 2" monster coupon for a pipe test too.  TIG covers steel, aluminum, and a couple days with Titanium and stainless thin sheetmetal coupons.  No they didn't provide grinders in the booths,  Because knuckleheads will abuse them or steal them.  But you are welcome to purchase your own grinder and wheels.  You buy your own helmet, jacket, safety glasses, gloves, etc.  But the school has  a small store where they sell these items at a reasonable price.  They also sell the common hand tools you'll need.  Your tuition covered equipment, work space, raw materials, filler metals, and shielding gas.  You can see the whole program on the school's website.   But even what they cover just scratches the surface of welding.  You're making a huge mistake if you think you'll leave a welding program knowing everything.  Your first job out of school may have nothing in common with what you were taught.  Tell me what TIG welding a cracked stainless steel valve flange has in common with welding stainless steel sheet metal coupons?  Or what does sub arc welding rolled pipe in a fab shop have in common with TIG welding 2" pipe nipples?  How does stick welding 6" schedule 80 pipe compare to welding a TKY joint made from 2" thick 12" diameter high strength steel for an offshore drilling platform?  How about welding 1" thick natural gas transmission pipeline that's 42" in diameter?Yes, even as a pipe welder the welding is just part of the job.  If you want the big $$$ you need to know how to read prints, fit pipe, prep joints, handle some basic rigging tasks.  There's a whole host of safety procedures and regulations in most industries.  When do you need to wear a respirator?  What's a H2S monitor, and why might you need one?  What should you do if your H2S monitor goes off?  Could be confined space work, or working at high elevations.  If you're working with exotics like Inconel then some knowledge of basic metallurgy will help you avoid problems.  If you're doing repair work there's a great deal of knowledge needed to select the right filler for the equipment you're trying to fix.  Speaking of problems, most of the real welding isn't done at a bench with heat or air conditioning, perfectly machined bevels, and perfect fit-up.  Part of the job is learning how to weld when the fit up sucks, or when there's water dripping out of the pipe you're trying to weld on.  If you're working for someone else you might have to use the equipment that's available.  How do you setup a FCAW suitcase feed with no meters to show you the voltage, amperage, or even the wire feed speed?  When can you back purge stainless pipe with Nitrogen and when should you use Argon?  There's a million other things to learn if you want to be a craftsman in a skilled trade like welding (or carpentry, masonry, electrician, HVAC, mechanic, etc.).Hobart, or any welding program, is going to give you the basic skills to make a quality weld, under ideal circumstances.  They're going to teach you one way to get the job done.  But when you go out into the field, you're going to find out that there is usually more than one way to get most jobs done.  The more you know the more valuable you are to the market.  There's even more to learn if you want to run your own business someday....Since you're from Ohio, send me a PM when you're back in the states if you want to talk some more about this stuff.Benson's Mobile Welding - Dayton, OH metro area - AWS Certified Welding Inspector
Reply:My son took six welding classes at the local community college, starting with O/A.  Before he was even part-way through the TIG class, there was a job fair in between classes.  He stopped by with a couple weld tickets in his pocket and had a job welding Inconel generator turbine blades a couple weeks later.  Unusual, yes. But if you take advantage of the instruction and there is local industry that will support newbies, then there's a chance. Raw talent helps a lot, naturally. He went on in school for machining and should have an Associate's degree here soon."USMCPOP" First-born son: KIA  Iraq 1/26/05Syncrowave 250 w/ Coolmate 3Dialarc 250, Idealarc 250SP-175 +Firepower TIG 160S (gave the TA 161 STL to the son)Lincwelder AC180C (1952)Victor & Smith O/A torchesMiller spot welder
Reply:Brucer, the school I help out at is just a local votech highschool. True they do have 1/2 day programs adults can sign up for, but  guarantee there are better programs out there, especially for pipe. Sadly the program is hampered by the same issues most high schools have today. Most of the kids who attend are "rejects" who can't cut it in regular classes and get "dumped" in the tech school so they at least can graduate. With the change in the economy, I've seen a change in who attends the night classes. It used to be mostly hobby guys and a few guys who managed to get work to pay for them to attend. Now it's predominantly guys who either are looking to get hired, or guys who currently have a job and want to move up and get a better job..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:@A Dab will do,Again, thanks for the very thorough and informative reply. And man was that fast.Yeah, I'm fully aware that I still need to work for at least 2 years after some proper schooling before I can start telling people that I'm a decent welder. I really want to join a union pipe welding apprenticeship after graduating a proper welding school in America. Sounds like Hobart is a really good school. Is welding during lunch and break times allowed or is it strictly forbidden? It'll be a couple of years until I go back to Ohio. The wages are really high here and you can make a fair amount doing low skilled jobs (you can make $22/hour doing MIG and jig) so I plan on saving up a lot before going back so that I can attend Hobart without worrying about finances for those 8-9 months. But when I do go back, it'd be nice if we could meet up some time.Originally Posted by DSWSadly the program is hampered by the same issues most high schools have today. Most of the kids who attend are "rejects" who can't cut it in regular classes and get "dumped" in the tech school so they at least can graduate.
Reply:Oh I agree 100%. I'd love to go back and beat some sense into my own head when I was younger with a bat. I cruised thru high school, but crashed and burned the 1st 2 years of college. It wasn't until a few years later when I put myself back to school while working that I actually started to understand some things..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:Originally Posted by CEP...High school wasn't the place for me...