School or Practice???

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Is it really worth going to school to learn how to weld or can I just buy some machines and learn and ask questions to an experienced certified welder? Is it worth the 10,000+ thousand dollars to get that piece of paper from school or spend the money on machines, books, and the help of a certified welder?I'd rather spend the money on the machines and still have them after I'm done trainning on them rather than spend 10,000+ dollars and be left on the corner with a piece of paper. But is that diploma worth that much?? I dont want to end up in a redundant fab shop because I dont have a piece of paper to give them. What to do..... what to do.....Thanks for you help....
Reply:Originally Posted by josh930Is it really worth going to school to learn how to weld or can I just buy some machines and learn and ask questions to an experienced certified welder? Is it worth the 10,000+ thousand dollars to get that piece of paper from school or spend the money on machines, books, and the help of a certified welder?I'd rather spend the money on the machines and still have them after I'm done trainning on them rather than spend 10,000+ dollars and be left on the corner with a piece of paper. But is that diploma worth that much?? I dont want to end up in a redundant fab shop because I dont have a piece of paper to give them. What to do..... what to do.....Thanks for you help....
Reply:I bought a book and a oxy/acet setup.  Total cost with bottles about $325 you  can do it cheaper now.  I taught myself to weld.  If you can weld with gas you will not have trouble with mig or tig.  I teach myself everything that I am interested in.  I have found that for me it is more efficient than sitting through classes where I am actually learning something about 5% of the time.  I bought a bridgeport mill and learned on my own how it works.  I guess it was worth it, thats what I do now for a living.  I do it better than many of them that went to school for it.  It is all a matter of desire.  If you desire to learn a thing, no one can really stop you.  Just follow what you desire and focus it into a lazer beam.  I wanted to take a course on welding at the local community college, they told me it would be more than 6 months before I would actually do any welding!  That seemed to me to be about 5 months and 29 days too long.  Everyone has a little different way of learning something.  Why not get a book and read it and go from there.  If you have someone that knows how to weld and can show you the basics you will get it quicker.  I did not.  Books have been the most efficient for knowledge gained for amount of $ expended (for me).  This forum is an incredible recource too.Thermal Arc 185 TigHTP 200 MigCraftsman O/A1942 Bridgeport Mill12 Ton Hyd PressConsew Walking Foot
Reply:Too bad that there PROBABLY is no apprenticeships in welding  anymore. I learned to weld at Mare Island Naval Shipyard (R I P ) . And got paid doing it, along with about 50 units of Jr. College in it. And the schooling was on the job, got paid for that time also. Navy paid all expenses.[SIZE="5"Yardbird"
Reply:It also depends on what you are looking for, and what it takes to get into a certain job. I know nothing of the welding industry, but had I not gotten an engineering degree I couldn't have gotten into my field, plain and simple. If getting the 'right' welding job needs that certificate that ONLY school can give you, then consider it. But if you can get into the field without it, or just want to become a good welder, then go for real life experience and practice any day over schooling. School is by and large just a test to see if you "have what it takes" - you really don't learn much of any practical use, in my opinion.My 2 cents, from a non-welder - John
Reply:All well spoken here.  I agree about the schooling.   I may end up in the community school just to learn about metalurgy and safety issues that I havent come up with from common sense and the one book I have.  I do have a how to book that has given me a good start.  The o/a is the way to go.  Hell, I just did a successful butt joint vertical with it and was tickled.  Its not the prettiest weld, but Im damn proud of it and on 1/4' no less, with good penetration.Youll find that different welders are good at different stuff.  I luv the mig for tacking things together for fit, and then going over the joints I can with the tig.  oops, blah blah blah.  I fix copiers for a living, I weld for the challenge.
Reply:Originally Posted by josh930Is it really worth going to school to learn how to weld or can I just buy some machines and learn and ask questions to an experienced certified welder? Is it worth the 10,000+ thousand dollars to get that piece of paper from school or spend the money on machines, books, and the help of a certified welder?I'd rather spend the money on the machines and still have them after I'm done trainning on them rather than spend 10,000+ dollars and be left on the corner with a piece of paper. But is that diploma worth that much?? I dont want to end up in a redundant fab shop because I dont have a piece of paper to give them. What to do..... what to do.....Thanks for you help....
Reply:ok first off i went to school and got a fancy welder-fitter diploma and some tickets i spent 8 grand and felt ripped off! I found a job and still started at the bottom. I also learned just because you can pass a test plate dosen't make you a good welder just good at 6 inch welds!If i could do it all again i would find a job as a labour in a welding shop and alot of places will let you practise on your own time!
Reply:I agree with zapster, find a job and learn as you go I did this also and it's nice to make $$$ while learning rather than spend to learn.
Reply:Can't speak for the welding industry but,I kinda like the combo path. I took machine shop in HS, found a coop job as SR, stayed with it as I took more CC courses at night and it really worked out well. Great start to career! Only took me 12yrs to get the BS!I'd have to say though - the OTJ training is priceless. If you could only do one? I'd say grab the job and see if you like doing it!My$.01
Reply:There's some good stuff here!  Just today I was looking into a course to take so that I can get some structure to what I'm doing.  There are so many little questions I have that I think may be answered in a small course like this.  It's not that the parts I'm working with don't stick together; I would just like to know if I'm approaching things properly.  Considering the hazards that go along with welding, I think there is a place for at least some formal instruction.  Before I bought a welder, I bought a book and read it almost all of the way through to get an idea about things.  I needed to know what type of machine to get, the basic safety stuff and maybe some technique stuff.  It helped, but in practice things are way different.  Also, I'm NOT a welder by trade, but instead just a car guy with a fierce desire to make parts that never came out of a factory.  I probably don't have enough woodshedding time under my belt to have made all the mistakes that we learn from and call 'experience', and I think I might be able to skip over a little of that with a course.  For me, it's a quicker way to get to where I want to be.  My uncle told me to get a gas setup first to learn with.  I knew what he was saying, but I really just wanted to get to making parts, and modern MIG machines let you do that.  Now that I'm learning to TIG, a gas setup makes more sense, yeah.  This course is 15 weeks I think, 2 nights a week from 6 to 9 and costs $250.  Suites me very well!
Reply:Community college courses do give one benefit.Most local machine shops now won't give out an application unless you have either a lot of experience or some technical courses, but they line up at community college graduations to give out applications, even hosting all-day seminars to recuit welders.