Possibilities of part time work in welding repair/fabrication

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Hello I'm curious in the possibility of part time work in welding with out much experience.  Welding is a hobby of mine and I practice when I get the chance.  Imalso going to school for industrial maintenance.  It's a two year degree and I'm doing a welding certificate and would like to do a machining certificate also.  The welding certificate though is no where near the depth of what a diploma would be. It's 16 credits and involves book work and about two or three hours of welding a week no fabricating although I will be taking a machining blue prints class.  I currently work on a dairy full time and when I complete my degree would maybe want to stick around and find some part time work on the side to build experience.  What are the chances of me finding work without much experience with a desire to learn and build skill the factor more so then the pay I will make. Thanks
Reply:Find a local welder and try to get a job as a helper. The problem with the repair business is it's more about how to do the job than it is about good welding, so a good many great welders are crappy fixers. Also schools rarely teach how to work in that industry, theybare more focussed on pipelining and bridge building type stuff. The best scorce of knowlege for this field is someone who's doing it in your area and is familiar with what the needs of the locals is. Good luck in your search!Yeah, I know, but it'll be ok!Lincoln Square wave 255Miller Vintage mig30a spoolgunThermal Dynamics Pacmaster 100xl plasmaSmith mc torchEllis 1600 band saw
Reply:OP -Put in your location, there might be someone nearby that is looking for part time help.Having worked on a small time dairy farm I'm sure there are numerous opportunities to weld things back together and add stuff to equipment.  But a lot of that may be out in the open which is better with stick and flux-core.
Reply:Thx for the input I updating my location and when the time comes ill have to do some calling around for possible work as a helper.
Reply:Sometimes you can find a local fab shop that would hire you for some extra help. There's a good chance you would get stuck doing the "boring" stuff. Or even possibly just cutting, grinding, and drilling holes. When I hire people, they start at the bottom. I don't care how much experience they have. There's a lot of reasons to it...John 3:16(2) Miller Pheonix 456(2) Millermertic 252Dynasty 210DXHobart 210MVPDoringer D350 SA Cold SawScotchman 350LT Cold SawWebb 10x50 MillWebb 15x40 LatheGeka Bendicrop Ironworker
Reply:newbury had a good idea, that way you can learn by watching it break, the dairy would be a good crash course
Reply:I do do some repair at the dairy buckets where the corners of the cutting edge has separated and doing some build up on the corners that are worn down but a lot of the time they just have they're guy do it.  I guess I was just wondering what the likely hood of me finding something with the experience I have.
Reply:well you have good enough work ethics to hack working on a dairy, and your already welding.  If you can measure and follow directions, I cant imagine whats standing in your way.   Take some pics of weld things youv'e done, and slap them down in front of the the shop you go to, and tell them you want to work w/ steel, not cows.   Do it w/ confidence
Reply:Originally Posted by EcondronSometimes you can find a local fab shop that would hire you for some extra help. There's a good chance you would get stuck doing the "boring" stuff. Or even possibly just cutting, grinding, and drilling holes. When I hire people, they start at the bottom. I don't care how much experience they have. There's a lot of reasons to it...
Reply:There are small gigs out there which you can make a few bucks on---and very few people go after them because they don't think out of the box and the jobs are often too small for a true welding shop to take.  For a few years, I was doing welding jobs every month or so for a very large bio lab--oddball stuff like re-welding stainless dishwasher racks for the lab dishwashers, re-welding broken table and chair legs, adding casters to tables etc.  Not big money but enough to make it worth the hassle.  The problem is, you have to do some marketing/sales to unearth the work and few people want to do that.  You will also need to be able to do other fabrication because, sure as heck, they'll ask once you get to be their standard go-to repair guy.Network with friends who might work in big office situations or small "factories" that don't have their own maintenance crews.  Most likely the place hasn't even considered that some of the broken stuff can be repaired rather than junked.I have also seen crews with revolving contracts to repair shopping carts.  A lot of that is wheel replacement but there is some welding.  A bit of door knocking might dig up work like that with some of the non-mega-cart users who aren't already locked in with others.
Reply:Never thought about the shopping cart idea may have to look into it in the future.  As far as welding and fab skill if the joint is flat I can do a pretty good job horizontal I'm ok at still working on vertical. Having problems with my stringers and undercut and consistency on weaves.  I've build a few thing like a welding cart welding by table and they turned out alright but I they're not on the level of someone that does it for a living. I'd like to look for something this summer but will probably wait another year. Last summer I got a part time gig for an older gentlemen that made his living fencing.  Usually worked 3 or 4 hours In the afternoon for 10 to 20 hours a week  He pays very well 20 dollars an hour and is real easy to work for so I'll probably end up doing that again this summer.  Welding and fabricating is something I enjoy and want to become more skilled at and I figure the best way to do it is to get a job working for someone who does it for a living and is willing to take the time to teach it to me.  Once I become skill enough the idea of picking up odd jobs on the side is apealing.Last edited by jarrs05; 03-13-2015 at 07:32 AM.Reason: Mistakes