any welders out there ?, bit of advice needed

shazza71_2

thanx patman,
he has left school with an NVQ level 2, he has his own welder which he loves to play with. Whats a MMA ?.
oooo thanx DCFC79, i`ll get my son to have a good look @ that.

thanx lads,
sharon

shazza71_2

lol Phil, we live "up north" as well so thats not very encouraging BUT he is determined he is gonna be a welder, all he wants to do is do what he loves.

donnajunkie

shazza71 wrote: »

thanx patman,
he has left school with an NVQ level 2, he has his own welder which he loves to play with. Whats a MMA ?.
oooo thanx DCFC79, i`ll get my son to have a good look @ that.

thanx lads,
sharon

mma stands for manual metal arc, also known as stick welding. it is the welding process were you put an electrode(rod) into a holder. mig(mags) welding is were wire feeds through the holder along with argon gas that protects the arc. tig(tags) welding is were the holder has a tungsten point. again gas feeds through to protect the arc. in your other hand you have metal wire that you manually feed into the arc as that wire becomes the actual weld on the metal. if you can master tig welding you will be in demand.
there are other process's like gas welding for example but i have no experience of them.

donnajunkie

Phils_debt wrote: »

i did my qualifications at my local council as an apprentice got nvq 2 and got a placement with a company then went on to college with work and got my nvq 3 and marine engineering certificate ,did it for a year then chucked it ,i got fed up of working 6am-8pm 6 days aweek for not alot of money ,the pay isnt very good around here (up north)
i wanted to go on rigs but i have more chance of being a premiership footballer and im crap at football :rotfl:

the money isnt too bad compared to most jobs in the north. you can expect a minimum of £9 an hour which is decent enough if you live in the north. the main problem is finding work. if you have plenty of the experience employers are looking for it can be a bit easier to find work. i agree the hours are often cr*p.

claire16c

My brother in-law is a welder up north. He is always getting laid off, this year they all got told to home for 6 weeks because there was no work.

So he is apparently now making his own stuff like gates etc in the local area as hes got fed up of 'working' for other people - and he does mention often that the jobs are often being taken by eastern europeans working for less - although I do take that with a pinch of salt.

shazza71_2

thanx Donna, he has done them all but prefers MIG welding, its just so hard for a school leaver to find someone to give him a chance. Theres a few Advanced Apprenticeships but with his schooling we dont think the he`s gonna get the C in Maths that he needs

Hammyman

shazza71 wrote: »

ohh sorry, he is only 16, just left school.
he has got a NVQ level 2 passed with 5 A stars in Performing Engineering Operations,

Thats nice however its completely irrelevant and about as much use as a chocolate fireguard for anything except getting him an apprenticeship.

He needs to learn TIG, arc and gas welding. You cannot be employable as a welder just with MIG - pretty much every single vehicle mechanic does MIG welding as part of their City & Guilds. With more things being built from aluminiumm TIG welding is a must and on anything thicker than a few mm, MIG welding doesn't do the job - you need to learn ARC welding.

As for where to look, depends where you live. I know in Hull there is HETA which offer engineering apprenticeships and training.

donnajunkie

shazza71 wrote: »

thanx Donna, he has done them all but prefers MIG welding, its just so hard for a school leaver to find someone to give him a chance. Theres a few Advanced Apprenticeships but with his schooling we dont think the he`s gonna get the C in Maths that he needs

it maybe possible to get an apprenticeship were he is employed directly by a company. not all companies require good exam results. to be a welder he would definitely be expected to be competent at stick and mig welding by the end of his training at least. this includes things like overhead, vertical and pipe welding. of course anything else that the company does regularly they would want him to be competent at by the end of his training.
edit. as it is hard to get into you should also be encouraging him to think of a second choice incase he cant get into it.

donnajunkie

Hammyman wrote: »

Thats nice however its completely irrelevant and about as much use as a chocolate fireguard for anything except getting him an apprenticeship.

He needs to learn TIG, arc and gas welding. You cannot be employable as a welder just with MIG - pretty much every single vehicle mechanic does MIG welding as part of their City & Guilds. With more things being built from aluminiumm TIG welding is a must and on anything thicker than a few mm, MIG welding doesn't do the job - you need to learn ARC welding.

As for where to look, depends where you live. I know in Hull there is HETA which offer engineering apprenticeships and training.

of all the places i have worked i have rarely seen anything needing to be welded useing tig or gas welding. gas welding is more what mechanics use isnt it? that is a very different industry to steel fabrication. i agree there is a demand for tig out there as it is a more specialised thing really. however you can call yourself a qualified welder without having ever done tig. mig welding is no good for anything more than a few mm? i'm not so sure about that. caterpillar do the majority of their welding useing mig in their factories.

Hammyman

There's a company near me that does virtually nothing else but TIG welding. Then again, they do specialise in ally frame construction.....

And yes, Caterpillar do use MIG - bloody great big jobs done by robot because it is too big to be done by hand - the wire alone weighs a ton.