Underwater Welding School

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I am looking for more information about underwater welding.  The best summary and source I've seen for underwater welding schools near me is http://www.weldingu.com/underwater-w...hools-near-me/  but wondering if anyone can tell me about their experience.  It looks cool and sounds profitable, but wondering what it's really like and what type of jobs are typical and locations.
Reply:I belonged to the same union as the divers in the Puget Sound area. Most divers sell their dive gear within a few years of graduating dive school. I can only think of one or two divers who actually make a living at diving. Most of the time they work as Pile Drivers. The ones that go to work for the few dive companies in the area, it takes years before they ever get wet. They work as grunts, and dive tenders. I understand most of the underwater welding in done in a hyperbaric chamber.Don’t pay any attention to meI’m just a hobbyist!

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Reply:Related threadControl your destiny wisely."Discovery is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Reply:Hello,I am a retired hyperbaric welder. yep, that is UNDERWATER welding.  I went to dicve school, tended for what seems like forever. Kept up with my welding skills by welding during the slow winter months. I did a lot of wet welding working for a salvage company, but it was just putting some patches over holes until other methods used to make the holes water proof. The drying of the weld HAZ by the water makes it very brittle. There have been huge leaps on the type of rod used in wet welding but the brittle end product is a problem.  In hyperbaric welding we install a enviroment that we pump free of water. Just like putting a glass of water upside down in the bath tub. Then we enter the "POT" change out of our diving duds and put on welding gear. We then fit, weld (TIG root, Hot, then 70XX fill & cap) . In the last four welds I did, we use a pipeline welding bug and it was great. Depends on what the WPS calls for.The money was fantastic, base day rate plus depth pay and hazard bonus. I was 25yrs old, working 6mnths in diving/welding $125k per year. Then took off 6mnths and did OTHER STUFF. (Girls & Golf).  I loved it.Here is the bad news...  when I was 34 and on a saturation weld at 660 ft,   We had a bad day at work.  I got a embolism and suffered a CNS bend. That is a central Nervous system bends. I was paralyzed from the nipples down and could only move my left arm. I was treated att JoEllen SMith Hospital in New Orleans and was hospilitized for 5 months and then went to rehab hospital for 8 months learning to walk, and take care of my self. I am now 60 yrs old.  I have two PhD's in engineering and have worked all over the world.  Would have never down what I have done if I had not been injured. I owe a large debt of thanks to Dr Joe Serio and Dr Keith VanMeter who treated me and saved my life. I would go back and do the same work tomorrow, if I could.  If you want to do it, have at it.  One of the best advices was printed over the door at Taylor Diving and Salvage in Harvey LA (before the entire oildfield died in the late 80's)  said this: "Diving is just method to get to the job, not a panacea for skills required"  meaing that you have to have a lot more thatn just diving.  So go and get skilled in welding, specially in pipe and keep your certs up. Get to a school that has a reputable training and learn that. Then be prepared to "TEND" for a few years and when the chance comes, go for it.I wish you the best of luck.Mike ([email protected])
Reply:Be prepared to pay your dive school loans just like people coming out of college who start out for years with an entry level job...I know quite a few "underwater welders" that are broke. Don't believe all the fancy brochures and think you're going to be making $100K+ per year. You are a commercial diver who might do some welding, you are not an "underwater welder" and you make peanuts when you are a tender, and even less when you are shoveling $hit. Many leave the profession after 2-3 years. Learn to weld, you can always learn to dive later, use air tools and feel around in the mud.RyanMiller Multimatic 200 tig/spool gun/wireless remoteMillermatic 350P, Bernard/XR Python gunsMiller Dynasty 350, Coolmate 3.5 & wireless remoteCK WF1 TIG wire feederMiller Spectrum 375 XtremeOptrel e684Miller Digital EliteMiller Weld-Mask
Reply:From what I've heard and what I see here, I'm pretty glad I didn't bother with it. I was a rescue swimmer in the Navy, so I'm no stranger to being in the water, but just for the reason of being a grunt for awhile before getting into the actual work doesn't appeal to me at all. Going to a regular welding school and being good enough to pass some pipe tests puts you in big money right away if you get on the road. I'm sure WWOW's pay of $125k a year was quite a bit ago guessing by what he's done since then, so today's wages are most likely much higher. But just doing shutdowns and outages, pipe welders average about $3000 a week take home. The long term new construction projects usually pay a little less, but still looking at $2000-$3000 a week after taxes. I'm not trying to discourage you from doing commercial diving, but just wanted to throw that out there. Full time welding schools cost about half the price of commercial dive schools from when I checked it out a few years ago.
Reply:Access Episode 28 of Jody's WTT Podcast to learn the current state of affairs in underwater welding. Nate does a good job laying out the brutal facts on wet and dry habitat work in industry. AWS D3.6 testing reqt's ate discussed in depth.Last edited by ManoKai; 01-31-2017 at 09:45 AM.Reason: AWS"Discovery is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi