Welders Welding
Welders Welding
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| The Good Carpentry Blog |
In western Pennsylvania what is most needed, gas welders or arc welders, or is it mostly even?
I'm interested in getting a qualification in welding due to the rise in the demand for qualified welders here in Pennsylvania. I'm just curious about which course might be a better choice, and any information in general would be appreciated.
By "gas welding" I assume you mean "Oxy-Acetylene Welding." or OAW.
OAW is a completely obsolete process, but it does have some use as a teaching tool. I'm not aware that anybody uses it commercially any more, at least for welding.
Arc welding processes make welds both faster and of much better quality than OAW. Sometimes oxy-acetylene is used commercially for "brazing" and "soldering." these are not the same as true welding. Brazing is isn't very common but it does have some niche applications. If you're a welder it's helpful to know how to do it, but probably won't be a major job requirement
The three most common welding processes used in the US are, in order of importance:
-MIG Welding, (a.k.a. gas metal arc welding or GMAW)
-Flux-Core Arc Welding a.k.a. "Dual Shield"
-TIG Welding.
MIG welding is almost universal; it's fast, cheap, and effective. MIG welding is very easy to learn but IMO difficult to master. The key to truly mastering MIG welding is knowing how and where to set your voltage and wire feed speed, based on the thickness of the material you're welding, and that takes a few years of experience.
http://www.thefabricator.com/article/arcwelding/mig-welding-the-basics-and-then-some
Dual Shield is used a lot in heavy steel fabrication. It's very similar to MIG, and uses the same equipment, but the welding performance and techniques used when you're welding are a bit different.
TIG welding is the most difficult kind of welding, generally. If you have some good skills with TIG you can make some very decent money as a welder. Most welders learn to do TIG welding last, because it requires a certain amount of "welding instincts and reflexes" that you develop over time with other processes. It would be difficult to learn to TIG weld correctly without having some prior welding skills and experience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_tungsten_arc_welding
Less common than the former three is Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) which is a.k.a. "stick welding" by most welders. Old-timer welders also call it just "arc welding" but this is confusing because all the former three processes use an arc as well.
Stick welding is useful for welding and weld repairs in remote areas off-the-grid. Sometimes it used for on-site steel construction outdoors, but that's slowly being replaced by other processes. which are faster. Stick welding has no place in an indoor shop environment. it's slow and doesn't produce quite as good quality as the former three. If you see a company still using stick welding indoors, you probably shouldn't apply at that company, because it's a company that doesn't care about it's welds, IMO
If you want to spend your work days welding outdoors every day, then learn how to stick weld. Stick welding is also very useful as a teaching tool.
