Under Water Welding

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Anyone Do it? I was interested in it before , looked around and couldn't find one opening or position so i thought maybe the job was a myth. I know it can be pretty dangerous.
Reply:the job isn't a myth, look it up on youtube
Reply:Originally Posted by bullfrogg0the job isn't a myth, look it up on youtube
Reply:Not only do you have to be a certified welder, you must also be a certified diver.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720
Reply:Originally Posted by snoeproeNot only do you have to be a certified welder, you must also be a certified diver.
Reply:Originally Posted by KevinL90Yea. I saw a few schools. Im sure the welding practices under water have to be different then those above sea level.
Reply:Oil rigs come to mind first. I imagine most of that work is contracted, so you would be better off starting your own business. I was already two months into welding school before I saw an advertisement for the diving/welding school across town. Something I think I'll look into in the future.
Reply:I haven't welded underwater myself on a job, but I have worked with a commercial dive company that does it. It's done very seldom, and only when there are no other options due to the expense and difficulty of getting good welds. I think in the several years I worked with them we welded underwater just one time. We did do a fair amount of underwater cutting with exothermic torches however on some jobs to remove old or damaged material. Most welding was all done topside dry. Then we sent down the stuff and it got attached with bolts underwater. The one job where we welded underwater, we only did enough to be able to pump the area dry and do the rest of the welding "dry" with minimal water coming in the pumps could keep up with.You don't go to school to become an underwater welder. You go to school to become a commercial diver and they teach basic underwater welding as just a small part of the curriculum. You learn more about inspection, rigging, chamber control, ROV work etc.It's not a job for the faint of heart or if you are at all claustrophobic. It's almost always cold, dark and most stuff is all done by feel. If you have ever seen "Men of Honor" where Cuba Gooding Jr has to pass that test and he's hunting on the bottom for all the bits and pieces, that's almost always what it's like, only the visibility shown was positively perfect vs what I've had to often work in. I remember one job where the HID light the diver had disappeared completely in only 6" of water the water was so black with mud, oil etc..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:Welder mike are you 580 or 40 local?
Reply:Originally Posted by KevinL90Welder mike are you 580 or 40 local?
Reply:After high school I'm going down to Florida to go to school to be come a Commercial Diver/ Underwater welder.  There are other schools but I'm going to go here:https://www.commercialdivingacademy.com/index.da Originally Posted by zapsterYou wanted to be the welder....zap
Reply:Originally Posted by weldermikeLocal 5 boilermakers
Reply:Not so much lately Kevin, but still on occasion. But on a routine level high enough to still mess you up or kill you if your not careful.I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:Originally Posted by weldermikeNot so much lately Kevin, but still on occasion. But on a routine level high enough to still mess you up or kill you if your not careful.
Reply:Edit.Last edited by KevinL90; 07-25-2013 at 07:26 PM.Reason: Wrong Post
Reply:Hey Kev you should look into 638steamfitters, RIGHT NOW they are starting interviews for a massive hireing in September! They have massive amounts of work to get done after hurricane sandy. Dead serious bro, I know a few welders there. Look into it and go for it! I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:Originally Posted by weldermikeHey Kev you should look into 638steamfitters, RIGHT NOW they are starting interviews for a massive hireing in September! They have massive amounts of work to get done after hurricane sandy. Dead serious bro, I know a few welders there. Look into it and go for it!
Reply:Originally Posted by KevinL90Some of these people could care less about what there doing they just want the job.
Reply:Originally Posted by joshuabardwellCan't blame people for wanting to work, as much unemployment as there is.
Reply:I hear it's pretty rough.  You have to be a certified commercial diver as well as know underwater welding.  It's very dangerous; the death rate is about 15%. Hard as heck on your body; you go down 2 hours, come up and rapid decompress in a chamber for a hour, then do it again. Over and over, day after day. It messes up your bones and joints. The average UW last 3 to 7 years, then can't do it any more.  I would pass, myself.-RuarkLincoln 3200HDHobart Stickmate LX235TWECO Fabricator 211i
Reply:@ Ruark - True & False. Where's your citation for the 15% mortality rate? Long dive 2 hrs? True that 2 hours bottom time is the maximum bottom time for SSD w/ HeO2 (maximum table/schedule of 380fsw, 120min, 316min ascent time, 10% O2), but saturation diving lasts days.You never "rapidly decompress". As you proably know, decompression times are max depth and bottom time dependent.You decompress following proven defompression tables/schedules published in commercial/military manuals.  In water, SurD O2, or PTC/SRC (saturation) protocols.  You don't surface from the above HeO2 dive and descend again same day.  Ain't happening bro.    @ KevinL90. U/W Welding. SMAW. DCEN. 300-400A service. Knife switch. Coated electrodes. Not dangerous if properly trained and using proper techniques. No MIGn/ TIGn underwater. Used very infrequently offshore. More common is "dry chamber" welding, and that's mainly for emergency repairs. Exothermic (Broco, ArcAir) cutting way more common. Rule of Thumb: underwater works costs 10x and requires 4x in time over terrestrial.IRT to "dangerous"......commercial divers have on-site / nearby requiremt for having a decompression on hot standby.  Civilian divers, um, not so much. Consider that most diving accidents/incidents (AGE arterial gas embolism, "bends" decompression sickness) occur in the 2 to 5 ata due to SCUBA and Rebreather divers not following a dive plan and not having a decompression chamber nearby to treat the incident. The burnout rate offshore is high, and long-term exposure to saturation diving is proven to degenerate joints and increase calcification.I'll take a 170/40 SurD O2 SSD working dive over an up-n-down reef dive to 40fsw in BFE any day of the week. Commercial/military divers equals Team environment.  The NASA safety divers working at the NBL in Houston, who train the Space Shuttle Astronuats for EVAs, dive Nitrox to 40fsw day in and day out. That's a smoke fest!  Boyles Law is a beeyotch.Before deciding if you want to work offshore, pick up a copy of "Don't Tell Mum I Work the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player at a Whorehouse". Cool read. Something to consider, commercial divers frequently transition in underwater robotics/vehicles when they decide the man-in-the-water conept is a grind.Last edited by ManoKai; 07-26-2013 at 12:16 AM."Discovery is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Reply:Originally Posted by snoeproeNot only do you have to be a certified welder, you must also be a certified diver.
Reply:Originally Posted by ManoKai@ Ruark - True & False. Where's your citation for the 15% mortality rate? Long dive 2 hrs? True that 2 hours bottom time is the maximum bottom time for SSD w/ HeO2 (maximum table/schedule of 380fsw, 120min, 316min ascent time, 10% O2), but saturation diving lasts days.You never "rapidly decompress". As you proably know, decompression times are max depth and bottom time dependent.You decompress following proven defompression tables/schedules published in commercial/military manuals.  In water, SurD O2, or PTC/SRC (saturation) protocols.  You don't surface from the above HeO2 dive and descend again same day.  Ain't happening bro.    @ KevinL90. U/W Welding. SMAW. DCEN. 300-400A service. Knife switch. Coated electrodes. Not dangerous if properly trained and using proper techniques. No MIGn/ TIGn underwater. Used very infrequently offshore. More common is "dry chamber" welding, and that's mainly for emergency repairs. Exothermic (Broco, ArcAir) cutting way more common. Rule of Thumb: underwater works costs 10x and requires 4x in time over terrestrial.IRT to "dangerous"......commercial divers have on-site / nearby requiremt for having a decompression on hot standby.  Civilian divers, um, not so much. Consider that most diving accidents/incidents (AGE arterial gas embolism, "bends" decompression sickness) occur in the 2 to 5 ata due to SCUBA and Rebreather divers not following a dive plan and not having a decompression chamber nearby to treat the incident. The burnout rate offshore is high, and long-term exposure to saturation diving is proven to degenerate joints and increase calcification.I'll take a 170/40 SurD O2 SSD working dive over an up-n-down reef dive to 40fsw in BFE any day of the week. Commercial/military divers equals Team environment.  The NASA safety divers working at the NBL in Houston, who train the Space Shuttle Astronuats for EVAs, dive Nitrox to 40fsw day in and day out. That's a smoke fest!  Boyles Law is a beeyotch.Before deciding if you want to work offshore, pick up a copy of "Don't Tell Mum I Work the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player at a Whorehouse". Cool read. Something to consider, commercial divers frequently transition in underwater robotics/vehicles when they decide the man-in-the-water conept is a grind.
Reply:A buddy went the commercial dive route.  He worked wet for 9 years.  A lot of shallow port and salvage work.  He worked from job to job, Great Lakes, Gulf, East Coast, West Coast, etc.  He never got into the high dollar saturation work. He knew how to weld, but only did cutting as far as I know.  Definitely a gypsy lifestyle.  His career ended when tweakers stole his gear and tools here in California.  About $30K that he was still making payments on without adequate insurance.
Reply:Overheard a conversation on a ferry to a job.  Young guy is quizzing a diver about his experiences and saying how he wanted to be one.  Diver's helper pipes up and talks of how when diver does sewer outfall inspection, he comes up covered in the stuff and they hose him off and the boat and still ruin the day.  Enough said.The "Sewer Outfall" inspection was worse when I heard it in Philadelphia in the mid-80's, then in Houston in the late 90's.All good reasons to keep your head above the water!
Reply:Actually the diver is the one person on that crew who is usually the most protected and the most "comfortable".Being fully suited and breathing filtered air, as long as the suit is intact, he's good to go. Those standing by or acting as tenders have to deal with all the smells and watch themselves carefully. As soon as he came out we washed him down fully with soap and clean water along with all the lines and umbilical.I worked a couple of days on a sewage treatment plant job. I've been on worse jobs however. One of the worst for a diver was diving the tanks at the block plants. They'd turn the heat down on the water to 95 deg roughly. Diver had to dive in a wet suit with cold water pumped into it to keep him from overheating. Water was black with accumulated oil and grease. Diver would come up and basically strip but naked in the plant and soap up to get the oil and grease off his body that made it thru the wet suit. In the summer it wasn't that bad, but in February it wasn't the most pleasant thing to do since there was no real heat in the plant and temps regularly hovered around 40 near the tank..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