How long is the schooling and how much $$$??

admin

Im going to go on to some kind of school for welding with in probably a year. How many months or years will the schooling take? After it I want to be good enough to be able to build custom tube chasiss for cars and so I can build sand rails.
Reply:The problem with welding, it's easy in flat positions. But when you want to weld something as cool as sand rails, you have to be able to weld vertical and overhead. Then it becomes 'science fiction'. Two years ago, I took a basic mig sheet metal class. Last year, I took an O/A class. This year, I'm in TIG 101. Out of position is really, really hard: (vert and ovhd).PS: please resize your pics to 800 x 600. Larger, won't fit on the screen; and your text gets clipped.9-11-2001......We Will Never ForgetRetired desk jockey. Hobby weldor with a little training. Craftsman O/A---Flat, Vert, Ovhd, Horz. Miller Syncrowave 250
Reply:welding is the easy part,  learning to fabricate complicate things like tube chassis and sand rails is what will take time to learn.Once you learn how to weld (once you get out of school you think you will know everything) get a job at a fab shop, listen to what the oldtimers have to say, most of them know some really cool tricks.Dont be the guy who thinks he knows everything, NO ONE DOES.  you will meet people who will tell you they have done it all, they are full of s**t.  No one knows everything there is to know about welding and metalworking, just learn as much as you can and follow your dream.If you want to build cars, starting reading books, going to car shows, examine other peoples work.  Learning this stuff takes time, dont make a time schedule for it.  You need to have a full understanding of everything your building and exactly how it worksgood luck
Reply:What type of schooling do I need?
Reply:Really not sure if there a school for that stuff.   I learned about building tube chassis from hands on and reading alot of Pirate4x4.com and even then I'm a complete newb compared to most of the guys on there.Dam tube bending A thread on what I did for a exo cage for my truck.http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=672299Would link a picture but work blocks my website now so I can't see what the picture is of.
Reply:Any welding training you can get would be a great start. I started with a basic arc welding, Torch cutting & air arc gouging class at the local community college. 175 bucks, 3 nights a week for several months. The classroom and a good experienced teacher is the best way to start, learn it right you'll know it's right when you begin to create on your own.   With the direction you want to go you can't know to much. I work with a guy who went to some Hot Rod U type school out west for several years. They taught Mig and Tig and that was it. They told him he would never need to stick weld anything on a car. Personally I have seen plenty of freshly broken 4 X 4's get fixed with good Stick welding and plenty more get built that way. I thought about what my friend told me and figured some folks think there are only certain ways to do things, maybe some folks get a little snobby. Arc, Mig and Tig all have their respective places in the building of specialty vehicles. What matters most is getting proper instruction, mentoring and applying the respective process correctly so that your welding is a strong as it possibly can be.  Don't buy into a school of thought you only need be a great mig welder or only a great stick welder to build vehicles.  Getting a good hand on either will help you understand the other and any other process along the way. It's the management of liquid steel or aluminum and simply put there's more than one way to do it in alot of cases.
Reply:Originally Posted by 5starWhat type of schooling do I need?
Reply:try this link.  I have'nt  gone to that school but sounds like what you want. plus they have suspension geometry classes.http://thefabschool.com/
Reply:I would take some welding classes at a junior college.Then go to a school like the one mentioned by STONE ELVIS. Very good path.You want to fab sand rails try to go to a school that teaches sand rail building.Type sand rail building school into google. see what you get.AWS certified welding inspectorAWS certified welder
Reply:I guess the cost of schooling is different for different places and the type and length of schooling you are doing. I am in my 2nd year of schooling and in May will finish a2 year program in which I attend daily 5 days a week for about 4 hours daily in which I will have obtained my State Certification. My cost was just the gas to get there and the time I give it. I enrolled with the High Schoo Kids as an adult and that and a scholarship they gave me paid for it all. If you will check, there are grants, scholarships and other means of financial assistance that will help you defray the cost. Its worth it. Go for it, you can do it. Now, I just hope all my help stays available till the end. GoodluckI forgot to tell you that most training centers have adult only classes offered in the evening hours and the ones here finish 6 months ahead of the program Im taking with the high school guys. I just couldn't trade that for the extra money I would have to have paid. So your looking basically at about 3 semesters or  a year and a half.Schooling is great, but can never take the place of hands on training. So coupled with your schooling you will have on hand training. As an old saying goes, " you can learn more about a road by travelling it, than searching through all the maps in the world.l " WhiteyLast edited by Whiteymin; 09-25-2008 at 09:05 AM.Reason: added informationWhitey____________________________Lincoln Pro Mig 180Clarke Mig 125Clarke Mig 95Hobart Stickmate 205*looking for a chop saw*
Reply:Originally Posted by 5starWhat type of schooling do I need?
Reply:Im in Canada, Community college. Im in a two year program, Tuition is about 3000 a year, 500 for books. First year is Metal Fab, Second year is welding, we have very, very reputable instructors. Our instructor took a student from last year to the provincial welding competion and he won, and placed 5th? in nations. Considering the competitions are open to any apprentice or student, i think that one year of welding training shows alot on the instructor when the student is competeing against a third year apprentice.the fitting course is very nice, and the welding is great toowe cover : oxy/acetylene welding                oxy/fuel brazing                silver soldering                stick - all position                solid wire all postion                flux core                 tigAlso, where as there is no machine shop in the local community, we do most of the welding work for the community. Last week i made a 12" by 12" stainless meat smoker, and welded a cast iron exhuast manifold for a semi
Reply:Originally Posted by 5starWhat type of schooling do I need?
Reply:x2. 9-11-2001......We Will Never ForgetRetired desk jockey. Hobby weldor with a little training. Craftsman O/A---Flat, Vert, Ovhd, Horz. Miller Syncrowave 250
Reply:Wow, guess I killed this thread.    It sucks how a dose of reality is all it takes to completely unravel some people's enthusiasm.  I didn't mean to make this guy feel bad, but just wanted to NOT see him spin his wheels for a couple years learning a skill and then find that it's not as easy to market in his intended fashion as he had hoped.  Been there.Done that.Got a closet full of the T-shirts.BK
Reply:BK, the truth hurts, but jumping into a lousy work situation often hurts worse!! This is why I only build trucks and stuff as pet projects, and I don't do entire chassis jobs. I can't have a project sit for 6 months with no money in  it, and invest dozens of hours of heavy thinking on it. OP- there are a TON of FUN projects for you to do, and you can learn and make a few bucks and friends along the way. Don't be discouraged, just take all this as some good solid advice from guys who have already dumped a lifetime of sweat and money into bottomless pit projects up the wazoo....And then, after so much work...... you have it in your hand, and you look over to your side...... and the runner has run off. Leaving you holding the prize, wondering when the runner will return.
Reply:BK:I'm retired now because I didn't delude myself into thinking that I could do something fun, for my career. Desk work sucks, but it's an easy life. And now I really enjoy welding. I'm in my third welding class, started early 2007.The stock market dropped 777 points today. That murdered a lot of disposable income (TOYS), for people across America. Last edited by Craig in Denver; 09-30-2008 at 12:24 AM.9-11-2001......We Will Never ForgetRetired desk jockey. Hobby weldor with a little training. Craftsman O/A---Flat, Vert, Ovhd, Horz. Miller Syncrowave 250
Reply:There is always work for a good all around welder and metal fab guy.Something always breaks. Stuff always needs to get built.I hire welders who have a 2 year AA degree in welding from a community college- and not just any community college, but one of the ones that has a good rep for having a comprehensive metals program.If you get a 2 year AA in welding, I know you will be able to oxy-fuel weld and cut, stick weld, mig and tig weld, and use a plasma torch. The grads know basic metals properties and identification, can measure, cut, and read prints, and use most basic shop tools.I consider these skills a minimum for BEGINNING to learn how to work with metals.Three schools I believe in, that I know you come out of with enough skills to be employable are LA Trade Tech, in downtown Los Angeles, Bellingham Technical College, in Bellingham Wa., and Austin Community College, in Austin Tx. I know the teachers at those schools, and I know that if I call up any of em and ask for a grad to hire, they will send me somebody who can sit down and weld, first day on the job.But that is if you want to be an allround welder, and spend your career doing metal.If all you are interested in is automotive stuff, I would recommend WyoTech- I have heard good things about the grads- and they have exactly the kinds of courses you need.http://www.wyotech.edu/However, the three community colleges I mentioned (and I am sure there are lots of other good ones around the country) are state supported, and pretty cheap.Wyotech is private, and pricey- I think it runs $12k to $30k a year- just like a real college.  But if you really want to learn chassis fab, its worth checking into.I would guess there are also shorter workshops you could take on chassis fab- I know that for metalshaping (high end body work, with sheet metal) the top three guys in the industry, Ron Fournier, Ron Covell, and Kent White, all teach workshops. I would bet there are similar chassis fab workshops as well, a few days to a week long.
Reply:Total $19,964.00 that is how much I'm paying for just this year. I'm have one year left after this so if you go for like a welding engineering technology degree it'll be about 60-80K --Gol'
Reply:Ries, who all do you know at ACC?  More importantly, I'm suprised that someone in Washington would know anything about ACC. . . . .  do tell?BK
Reply:I know the blacksmithing guys in Austin, as I am a blacksmith, and I have been meeting very skilled blacksmiths who studied and taught in the ACC welding program for a good ten years now.Just this weekend, I was in Carbondale, Il, speaking at the Southern Illinois Metalsmiths conference, and William Bastas, who pretty much developed the blacksmithing program at ACC, and has taught there for 15 years, drove up and attended. He has been responsible for training some very good smiths, and he does it from inside the 2 year AA in welding program there. So his smiths can not only forge, but weld too.He feels its really important for the two skills to be interrelated, and the blacksmithing program is part of the welding program, not in the art department.