Welding Tips and Tricks

G'day everyone,

Ive been thinking about possible “money making” opportunities with welding from home. Do you make money from working from home on weekends/after hours etc by welding?

I know I have a long ways to go before being confident enough to charge someone for welding (I havent welded for over 15 years)

Ultimately my interest in welding lies with automotive applications. Exhausts, roll cages, tubs, rust repair etc.

What are some of the projects etc you do? Just throwing ideas out there...

Cheers, Mick

I'm pretty new to Tig welding but I like my practise to have an end use, rather than just making scrap and using up argon as I learn.

So for myself I fabricate things like race stands for motorcycles, wheel balancers, and I also make repairs.

I'm always repairing things for mates, but I won't weld anything critical and don't make money from my welding. I tend to just score a bit of cash towards argon and consumables, or of course I'm given that other great Australian currency, beer.

An eye-opener has been making some metal flowers for my wife. I just did it for fun and practise but judging by the reactions they prompted, I could sell as many as I could make. Maybe there's money to be made in metal art?


Kym

For example :
I welded a exhaust bracket back together for someone that took 10 minutes of wire-wheel and 2 minutes of gasless wire. Something as simple as that can bring you 40 bucks or so.

I would like to make some money myself. Apprehensive though. Figure the word will get out at some time. Problem is I live in a farm community, and everyone has a minimum buzz box tombstone style welder in their barn and would never pay to weld a piece of equipment. I don't have an artistic interest at all. Functional projects motivate me. I would be foolish to think I would recover my investment in equipment. Certainly enjoy helping a friend out, your only a stranger once right. Many people have no clue about TIG so that may be a selling point for me.

MosquitoMoto wrote:I'm pretty new to Tig welding but I like my practise to have an end use, rather than just making scrap and using up argon as I learn.

So for myself I fabricate things like race stands for motorcycles, wheel balancers, and I also make repairs.

I'm always repairing things for mates, but I won't weld anything critical and don't make money from my welding. I tend to just score a bit of cash towards argon and consumables, or of course I'm given that other great Australian currency, beer.

An eye-opener has been making some metal flowers for my wife. I just did it for fun and practise but judging by the reactions they prompted, I could sell as many as I could make. Maybe there's money to be made in metal art?


Kym

Sounds like what I have in mind. Once good enough make my own stuff and repairs etc.

I wont have a crack at anything structural ie Roll cage, Car ramps etc but making things like work benches, oil catch can and even metal art would be my first projects.

My main interest is automotive I guess.

[/quote]

Sounds like what I have in mind. Once good enough make my own stuff and repairs etc.

I wont have a crack at anything structural ie Roll cage, Car ramps etc but making things like work benches, oil catch can and even metal art would be my first projects.

My main interest is automotive I guess.[/quote]

I move in a very active motorcycle/car group...where no-one seems to weld. So the moment I bought my welder, I had people asking if I could help them. Little jobs, but mean a lot to people who are stuck with no other option I guess.

Seems there will be some panel work in the near future...that oughta be fun!

I can't imagine ever making big coin out of welding, but I can certainly see a future where odd jobs I take on, as well as a bit of weld art (which I just see as 'practise'!) starts to pay for gas and consumables.

Can I suggest you search 'steel roses' and have a go at welding a few of these up? Good fabbing and welding practise, and people seem to love 'em.


Kym

MosquitoMoto wrote:I move in a very active motorcycle/car group...where no-one seems to weld. So the moment I bought my welder, I had people asking if I could help them. Little jobs, but mean a lot to people who are stuck with no other option I guess.

Seems there will be some panel work in the near future...that oughta be fun!

I can't imagine ever making big coin out of welding, but I can certainly see a future where odd jobs I take on, as well as a bit of weld art (which I just see as 'practise'!) starts to pay for gas and consumables.

Can I suggest you search 'steel roses' and have a go at welding a few of these up? Good fabbing and welding practise, and people seem to love 'em.


Kym

Cheers for the advice. I searched "Steel roses" and my wife would love them as a gift. She is a veteran Leadlight Artist and works with glass, lead and solder all the time. She is sick of flowers dying when I buy them for her so a bouquet of steel roses would be awesome

MickStephens wrote:

MosquitoMoto wrote:I move in a very active motorcycle/car group...where no-one seems to weld. So the moment I bought my welder, I had people asking if I could help them. Little jobs, but mean a lot to people who are stuck with no other option I guess.

Seems there will be some panel work in the near future...that oughta be fun!

I can't imagine ever making big coin out of welding, but I can certainly see a future where odd jobs I take on, as well as a bit of weld art (which I just see as 'practise'!) starts to pay for gas and consumables.

Can I suggest you search 'steel roses' and have a go at welding a few of these up? Good fabbing and welding practise, and people seem to love 'em.


Kym

Cheers for the advice. I searched "Steel roses" and my wife would love them as a gift. She is a veteran Leadlight Artist and works with glass, lead and solder all the time. She is sick of flowers dying when I buy them for her so a bouquet of steel roses would be awesome

My wife is crazy about hers, to the point of keeping them on her bedside table. What's more, all of her friends want them too!



Kym

MosquitoMoto wrote:

MickStephens wrote:

MosquitoMoto wrote:I move in a very active motorcycle/car group...where no-one seems to weld. So the moment I bought my welder, I had people asking if I could help them. Little jobs, but mean a lot to people who are stuck with no other option I guess.

Seems there will be some panel work in the near future...that oughta be fun!

I can't imagine ever making big coin out of welding, but I can certainly see a future where odd jobs I take on, as well as a bit of weld art (which I just see as 'practise'!) starts to pay for gas and consumables.

Can I suggest you search 'steel roses' and have a go at welding a few of these up? Good fabbing and welding practise, and people seem to love 'em.


Kym

Cheers for the advice. I searched "Steel roses" and my wife would love them as a gift. She is a veteran Leadlight Artist and works with glass, lead and solder all the time. She is sick of flowers dying when I buy them for her so a bouquet of steel roses would be awesome

My wife is crazy about hers, to the point of keeping them on her bedside table. What's more, all of her friends want them too!



Kym

Should make more of them as practice and offer them to her friends along with "Just pay me what you think they are worth. They took me X amount of hours to make".... I have done som epart time photography portraits for friends and family and just ask them pay me what they think they are worth, I usually always get a fair price paid and its win win.

All I'm gonna say is it takes more skill and experience to run a welding business from home, then to go work at a local welding shop.

You want to buy and manage thousands of dollars of equipment, insurance and permits, or just buy a lunch box?

AKweldshop wrote:All I'm gonna say is it takes more skill and experience to run a welding business from home, then to go work at a local welding shop.

You want to buy and manage thousands of dollars of equipment, insurance and permits, or just buy a lunch box?

Also, we live in a throw away society where people would rather pitch something that is repairable than pay a few bucks to get it fixed. You need to find people like farmers who value their equipment and see the wisdom of repairing it. Having a home shop is a hard road uphill sometimes. The few months after the Holidays is always slow and when the first warm days hit, people are in a rush to get their yard equipment repaired. The plow jockeys tear their stuff up all winter but almost never bother to fix anything until the following fall, 4 hours before the first snowfall. I am fortunate that I am in with a few guys who fix up equipment and golf carts so I get a decent amount of work from that. You will never get rich welding from home but being your own boss is worth not having to deal with a bosshole every day.

I like that train of thought..

I would like to add by saying having the confidence to do even simple tasks can be a challenge some times. i.e. something that is easy-peasy in your normal working fab-shop.. when asked by a customer to perform minute basic tasks, one can almost begin to question own ability and so on.. (I know because of experience) I almost gave the customer a sense of regret by letting me perform the work.. (due to brain fart and nervousesness) ...that is until the anxiety wore off and I got the job completed! Self confidence boost are sometimes needed no matter what skill level a metal fabricator considers themselves!

Working on little repair jobs at home also forces you to face something you'd never face just welding for yourself - differing perceptions of what the job at hand really is.

Was handed a unique repair job recently. A 50 year old, very 'hipster' set of lawn ornaments. They look like flowers, with thick metal stakes topped with very thin steel 'tulips'. The idea is that they are lawn ornaments that are also drink holders - the tulip part holds a scotch tumbler nicely. Like I said...hipsters.

The thin metal flowers had broken off the thick steel 'stems'.

I told the guy (a friend) that the paint work would be ruined by the welding, and he was okay with that. The hard part was convincing him that this was actually a precision job - welding thick to thin, unknown, old metal, and just one shot to get it right, as these things are antiques.

From his point of view it was simple. 'Just weld the flower part to the stem part!'

All turned out well, but it was immediately obvious to me that had I messed it up, my mate wouldn't have thought "Well, that's okay, it was a pretty challenging job", instead no doubt he would probably have thought "Wow, turns out this guy is a pretty shitty welder!"


Kym

AKweldshop wrote:All I'm gonna say is it takes more skill and experience to run a welding business from home, then to go work at a local welding shop.

You want to buy and manage thousands of dollars of equipment, insurance and permits, or just buy a lunch box?

Unsure how far it may go. I intend to keep my day job with is being a salesman at a car dealership. I attend a lot of cars shows and get asked a lot who does the work to my car. At the moment I have other people work on it, but if/when I start making stuff for my car, if someone asks who made it I can inform it was me and welcome any small business.

I know there is a lot more to it than that. Not focusing on making money, just having fun and seeing how good I can get starting at my age and doing it from home.

MosquitoMoto wrote:Working on little repair jobs at home also forces you to face something you'd never face just welding for yourself - differing perceptions of what the job at hand really is.

Was handed a unique repair job recently. A 50 year old, very 'hipster' set of lawn ornaments. They look like flowers, with thick metal stakes topped with very thin steel 'tulips'. The idea is that they are lawn ornaments that are also drink holders - the tulip part holds a scotch tumbler nicely. Like I said...hipsters.

The thin metal flowers had broken off the thick steel 'stems'.

I told the guy (a friend) that the paint work would be ruined by the welding, and he was okay with that. The hard part was convincing him that this was actually a precision job - welding thick to thin, unknown, old metal, and just one shot to get it right, as these things are antiques.

From his point of view it was simple. 'Just weld the flower part to the stem part!'

All turned out well, but it was immediately obvious to me that had I messed it up, my mate wouldn't have thought "Well, that's okay, it was a pretty challenging job", instead no doubt he would probably have thought "Wow, turns out this guy is a pretty shitty welder!"


Kym

I like this story. As I said earlier, at times like these myself personally, id offer to help and not worry about charging or discussing price. If it comes out well, put it down to experience and ask them to pay what ever they feel is fair. If I bugger it up and ruin it, I apologize and refer them to a more experienced welder I guess haha

I did this technuiqe when doing wedding portraits. I was a novice and made it well aware to my client I was inexperienced. Id do the wedding and show them the end result. If it turned out spectacular they would be happy and pay me a fair sum, if they came out shit house by my standards, (Probably happened 2 - 3 times), id photoshop the photos the best I could and offer extra prints. They would still be wrapped with the result but id offer a discount to compensate any obvious faults.

MickStephens wrote:

AKweldshop wrote:All I'm gonna say is it takes more skill and experience to run a welding business from home, then to go work at a local welding shop.

You want to buy and manage thousands of dollars of equipment, insurance and permits, or just buy a lunch box?

Unsure how far it may go. I intend to keep my day job with is being a salesman at a car dealership. I attend a lot of cars shows and get asked a lot who does the work to my car. At the moment I have other people work on it, but if/when I start making stuff for my car, if someone asks who made it I can inform it was me and welcome any small business.

I know there is a lot more to it than that. Not focusing on making money, just having fun and seeing how good I can get starting at my age and doing it from home.

First thing you need is to get good at welding.
Once you get that down the business part will work itself out.

AKweldshop wrote:

MickStephens wrote:

AKweldshop wrote:All I'm gonna say is it takes more skill and experience to run a welding business from home, then to go work at a local welding shop.

You want to buy and manage thousands of dollars of equipment, insurance and permits, or just buy a lunch box?

Unsure how far it may go. I intend to keep my day job with is being a salesman at a car dealership. I attend a lot of cars shows and get asked a lot who does the work to my car. At the moment I have other people work on it, but if/when I start making stuff for my car, if someone asks who made it I can inform it was me and welcome any small business.

I know there is a lot more to it than that. Not focusing on making money, just having fun and seeing how good I can get starting at my age and doing it from home.

First thing you need is to get good at welding.
Once you get that down the business part will work itself out.

Well in that case I'm REALLY in trouble!

Seriously, that last job, like most jobs I do for mates, I didn't ask a cent for, although it worked out very well. I don't really see a future making significant cash from welding...I generally just like to be useful when friends are stuck with something they can't fix or fabricate themselves.

And yes, I would want to get bloody good at welding before I started to ask proper money for it.



Kym

I've been running my side business for almost four years now. When I decided to start the business, I went to our state university and took a few welding courses to have some paperwork to back me up. It started off slow, just doing word of mouth jobs for friends and I landed a couple small fab jobs from Craigslist. I charged a reasonable price ($40/hr plus materials) and started to build clientele. Now, four years later, I have more work than I really want and I'm up to $80/hr in my shop and $100/hr for field work. Print up some nice business cards, post them on the neighborhood bulletin boards and hand them out often. I typically do more aluminum work than anything. Lots of people can weld steel and have a buzz box to get many of their repairs done, but when they have aluminum projects, they have to farm them out. I started hobby welding about 20 years ago with a little Lincoln Weld pac 100 using only flux core. Since I started the business, I have been able to keep upgrading my equipment and now have enough gear to do just about any job. I still try to stay away from any high liability jobs just for my own protection. Don't be afraid to say "no" occasionally, some jobs aren't worth it.

AKmud wrote:I've been running my side business for almost four years now. When I decided to start the business, I went to our state university and took a few welding courses to have some paperwork to back me up. It started off slow, just doing word of mouth jobs for friends and I landed a couple small fab jobs from Craigslist. I charged a reasonable price ($40/hr plus materials) and started to build clientele. Now, four years later, I have more work than I really want and I'm up to $80/hr in my shop and $100/hr for field work. Print up some nice business cards, post them on the neighborhood bulletin boards and hand them out often. I typically do more aluminum work than anything. Lots of people can weld steel and have a buzz box to get many of their repairs done, but when they have aluminum projects, they have to farm them out. I started hobby welding about 20 years ago with a little Lincoln Weld pac 100 using only flux core. Since I started the business, I have been able to keep upgrading my equipment and now have enough gear to do just about any job. I still try to stay away from any high liability jobs just for my own protection. Don't be afraid to say "no" occasionally, some jobs aren't worth it.

Well done AKmud, it does take time and integrity.

And some customers aren't worth it!!

MosquitoMoto wrote: Well in that case I'm REALLY in trouble!

Seriously, that last job, like most jobs I do for mates, I didn't ask a cent for, although it worked out very well. I don't really see a future making significant cash from welding...I generally just like to be useful when friends are stuck with something they can't fix or fabricate themselves.

And yes, I would want to get bloody good at welding before I started to ask proper money for it.

Kym

Don't worry Kym, you're learning a lot more then you may realize.

MosquitoMoto wrote:

Sounds like what I have in mind. Once good enough make my own stuff and repairs etc.

I wont have a crack at anything structural ie Roll cage, Car ramps etc but making things like work benches, oil catch can and even metal art would be my first projects.

My main interest is automotive I guess.[/quote]

I move in a very active motorcycle/car group...where no-one seems to weld. So the moment I bought my welder, I had people asking if I could help them. Little jobs, but mean a lot to people who are stuck with no other option I guess.

Seems there will be some panel work in the near future...that oughta be fun!

I can't imagine ever making big coin out of welding, but I can certainly see a future where odd jobs I take on, as well as a bit of weld art (which I just see as 'practise'!) starts to pay for gas and consumables.

Can I suggest you search 'steel roses' and have a go at welding a few of these up? Good fabbing and welding practise, and people seem to love 'em.


Kym[/quote]

tig welding for body work is great due to less warpage
if you plan on doing a lot of panel work then a good spot welder is also handy to have.
structural welding can be a totally different animal as the issue with thermal stress comes into play
often requiring quite a bit of engineering calculations to be made to determine the correct alloys and fillers

while one does not have to study metallurgy to become a good welder. It is a good idea to at least gain some knowledge in it.

gnuuser,

I have to say, I'm amused by your "new user" name. It's original, at least to this forum.

I also like your signature line...

Steve S

When it comes to projects, I've got a few of them.
The first thing that comes to mind, is a bigger set of wheels.

MickStephens wrote:G'day everyone,

Ive been thinking about possible “money making” opportunities with welding from home. Do you make money from working from home on weekends/after hours etc by welding?

I know I have a long ways to go before being confident enough to charge someone for welding (I havent welded for over 15 years)

Ultimately my interest in welding lies with automotive applications. Exhausts, roll cages, tubs, rust repair etc.

What are some of the projects etc you do? Just throwing ideas out there...

Cheers, Mick

Saw that picture and all I could think was. Low Ride Er. Acompanying music playing in my mind.

AKmud wrote:I've been running my side business for almost four years now. When I decided to start the business, I went to our state university and took a few welding courses to have some paperwork to back me up. It started off slow, just doing word of mouth jobs for friends and I landed a couple small fab jobs from Craigslist. I charged a reasonable price ($40/hr plus materials) and started to build clientele. Now, four years later, I have more work than I really want and I'm up to $80/hr in my shop and $100/hr for field work. Print up some nice business cards, post them on the neighborhood bulletin boards and hand them out often. I typically do more aluminum work than anything. Lots of people can weld steel and have a buzz box to get many of their repairs done, but when they have aluminum projects, they have to farm them out. I started hobby welding about 20 years ago with a little Lincoln Weld pac 100 using only flux core. Since I started the business, I have been able to keep upgrading my equipment and now have enough gear to do just about any job. I still try to stay away from any high liability jobs just for my own protection. Don't be afraid to say "no" occasionally, some jobs aren't worth it.

I'm pretty sure I have seen your ads on Craigslist because I have a couple. I really like your reply here and your work pictures. on my ads I try to tell the customer right away there's two ways to approach aluminum TiG or MiG. I only have the buzz box and what I can do is limited. I want to work my way up just like you have done and learn to master welding aluminum with gtaw. I actually got a call from my local ads from. a gentleman and I explained to him to my best ability what my spool gun can do and what you could. he mentioned the "other" guy that advertises aluminum welding. he may have called you because I said what you can do would most definitely be a higher quality and visually better looking. he basically had a decision to make when our call ended... which was my intent. he said he appreciated my honesty. I only weld as a hobbiest bc my career involves building construction. I do well even tho I wish I could do as well with welding. I would like to meet up sometime on a weekend. I'm hoping to buy my first tig rig this summer and I feel like you could have some good advice. thanks again for your reply. it couldn't be more simply stated.