Welding Tips and Tricks

so i opened the mail today and there it was..... a nice new degree (stupid piece of paper) that says i am a welder. I have successfully passed basic SMAW,GMAW,GTAW. So what does the glutton do?...He signs up for 8 more weeks of torture .... yup advanced GTAW Stainless and Aluminum in all 4 positions.....one week on each position to do a scratch plate a padded plate a t joint a corner joint a lap joint and a butt joint then a box and move on to Aluminum and do it all again.....after 27 years in flat heavy glass (3/8-> 3/4) i can add "beginner welder to my resume now to find a job so i can put my savings back....school hurts the wallet

First off,Congratuations, and by no means is that "just a stupid piece of paper" and you shouldn't think of it as such. That piece of paper shows that you had the self discipline and attentiveness to aquire the knowledge that was offered to you. And something else, you should be really proud of your accomplishments, further on in your post you talked of how school hurts your wallet, no, if you would have failed the schooling that would have hurt your wallet, you could have thrown the money out the window and had the same results.But you didn't fail it so you got your reward and you can bet that it will replinish your saveings acct. ten fold. And here is another fact, and probably most of the seasoned welders on this site will agree with me, be a glutton all you can be when it comes to learning. I have yet to hear of anyone haveing their head blow off because they put too much knowledge in it. STAY IN SCHOOL as long as you are learning somthing to benefit your career. You have the rest of your life to earn a check but I can tell you from experence, it is way harder to learn it in the field than it is in school. The biggest reason being is the oppertunity, once you are in the labor trade and being new to the trade you can bet its gonna be hard to get the chance to partice, it'll be assholes and elbows. I know that for the most part all you learn in alot of the welding schools, trade schools and such is the basic skills to get you on your way. Now don't everyone jump up my ass for that statement, I didn't say all the schools, because I do know that if you go through a union trade school, you are a journeyman when you finish and other schools in the same rateing, I went to a tech school and got the basics, but that was all I needed because I had the drive to get the rest, but could have got to the top alot quicker if I'd stayed in the school and learned how to tig the root pass or mig the root pass instead of thinking, hell, I can 6010 a root and thats all I need. NOT!!! I don't want to come off sounding like a preacher, nothing against preachers either, just wanted to tell you to be proud of your accomplishments and learn all you can because it will never be a waste of time. Good luck in your future indevers and again, Congrats.

In your place, I think I'd buy a frame for that stupid piece of paper.

i guess my sarcasm isnt coming thru in printed words.....i am awefull proud of that stupid lil paper and the blood sweat and tears that went into it and a frame is in order for it as well....thanks yall

I got the sarcasm just fine, thank you, as I know what went in to it, thanks to your sharing here.

I was actually being "tongue in cheek" when I suggested the frame, as I figured you'd already planned that.

Congratulations!

Steve S

Congratulations. No where to look but up now.
Just about everyone I know that went through it, ended up glad that they did. Not to mention the cool new work shoes/boots and tools added to the wardrobe.
I went through 18 months of electronics school before welding. I wasn't nearly as thrilled with that piece of paper.

Again, hood's off to you for getting through.

i love to stalk yalls posts here on the forum and watch jodys vids and i like to think it gives me a leg up on the "kids" in school with me but now im the only one in class taking adv. TIG so im on my own so to speak...i pay close attention to a few of yall that seem to be around my age and then some knowing yall have been doing this for a long time and well like daddy told me when i was a boy ....you dont take your tore up truck to a doctor or a legal issue to an electrician....if ya wanna learn something get with someone who knows what their doing sit down shut up and watch...yall would be surprised just how much i have learned just watching yall interact with each other

Nice! We never really quit learning do we. And why do we do it --- because we can. God bless the USA.

Maybe we should add a facebook-like "like-button" emoticon to the smilies...