A question I was asked at dinner- Shipbuilding-Welders

I train guys for the shipyards in Seattle.

The steel boats are stick and dual-shield welded.

The aluminum boats are pulsed spray MIG welded.

There is a lot to learn about print reading, layout, and fabrication.

It is tough work, but pays well in union shops. The Boilermakers union cover the shipyards in Seattle.

I spent slightly over two years fitting on aluminum ferries. It was nice clean work and paid well. Quality production welders made good dollars. On the negative side I did not see anyone who didn"t have bad knees if they had spent all their career in the yards. After my two plus years I had spurs starting on one knee. They are gone now. The guys in the adjacent lockers to me had before shift rituals of taping and bracing up their knees. Hull repair is dirty, wet and cold work. Guys who don't flinch at working at minus ten or twenty in a dry climate do nothing but complain when they end up by the ocean at freezing temperatures. If your friend's son has the brain cells for math he can make good dollars in a yard. I ran into several welders in that yard who had over twenty years experience and didn't know what I was doing when I layed out a 3,4,5 . Last year I got a phone call asking me if I was interested in coming back for a crane boom job.... Lots of math :'))) I declined. There are so many industries that need good welders. It is foolish to think one will live his/her whole life in a shipyard welding. Train for multiple opportunities rather than just shipbuilding. Randy

I can't help you much on the shipbuilding part (that was so many years back I don't want to talk about it!), but I can tell you about production welding shops. Our shop did a lot of exhaust manifolds and headers, small pressure vessels, ATV parts, etc. Air conditioned shop, most of the small parts were welded on a table with the operator sitting on a stool. We pretty much had two kinds of operators: those that showed up every day (sober), knew their welding, knew their prints, could do their own setups, and maybe run the robot welders. And the other guys. Guess who got paid more and didn't have to worry about getting laid off?

I'd sec> Hey me again,

I am not a real welder but I worked for a technical company and also did a stint in HR. I'll give you some general comments. It is good the boy has an interest, so many don't at that age, and it is good he gets good marks in shop classes. It is also good that he has an interest in welding which can be used in many other industries than just shipbuilding. What I see as a weak point is his narrow focus on one field. I don't criticize him for this since this is not uncommon for people his age who know what they want to do. The world in general is changing very fast and manufacturing is part of the change. Jobs that are plentiful now may be totally automated or lost so this means that a young person's educational foundation has to be sufficiently broad to let him/her grow to meet the needs of the future. Unfortunately, there are no working crystal balls which means a good grounding in subjects other than just the core interest are necessary to provide flexibility and the ability to readily learn new skills. Mathematics for sure, materials science, and even things like English. In the old days people started at a job and died at the job, not true anymore.

Before signing up for any course it would be a good idea to try and canvas employers of interest and find out what they want as qualifications.

bill

Well Guys here is the scoop to clear things up- He's 17 and being at that age he knows everything on the planet and you can't jackhammer anything into his head- period. I was the same way, as were some of you too.... He helps me with fit-up and tacking of complex bent headers for the race engines I produce and turbo-charger flanges but I think it may be a phallic thing for wanting to build ships at his age (bigger is better theory) His math is not that strong and I keep telling him 90% of what I do with building an engine is math and when I turn on the torch the math has been checked twice- once on paper and once on the calculator as I keep pounding into him geometry, trig, calculus and basic algebra and taking a college shop math class is paramount before even thinking about slinging a torch, cutoff saw or beveling a root pass on a flange that's gonna expand and contract under extreme temps. -Just like talking to a wall- you know it..... I got out some conversation out of him- he likes heavy industry for the testosterone and some History channel thing on building ships clinched it for him. Since then it's all the talk. When he reads your posts in print I hope and thank you for your insight, experience and bump,bruises, and things you pass on.

Thanks again, Rob

Roy, I hear you on the hard to get at stuff- That's my battleground and I'm an engine builder who is stubborn enough to take time away from the NFL TV time and hit the shop with scrap and practice,practice,practice, with the GTAW gear and better my skills. It just took 35 years to do...Not bad for a banker who also refuses to give up being a gear head. Randy and Ernie nailed it too. I just don't want to see the kid take a bad turn. I even mentioned joining the Navy and his mom flipped out. So much for that arena......

I don't have any first hand knowledge about making a living welding ships, but way-way back when I was in the Navy, my old ship went into Todd Shipyards in Seattle for a overhaul. My ship (LSD-27) was nothing but tanks. The had fuel and water tanks interspersed through out the ship. Most of them leaked so we had fuel in the water and water in the fuel. Most tanks had to be welded each time we were in the yards. I started talking to a welder and before you knew it I was in the tank with him and doing the welding. He was pretty content to set back and supervise. I sure liked it and he didn't seem to mind giving up all that enjoyment. At the time I had no idea if my welds leaked or not. Later experience makes me think they did.

I don't want to say how long ago that was, but I got to see the World's Fair while in Seattle.

John

If you can handle the risk I guess it is a choice... I had an instructor who was starving and couldn't feed his family in the Dirty Thirties. He signed up in 1939 and was sent to basic training in the air force. He had just finished when the CO called him in and told him he was discharged and he was to immediately appear at a shipyard in Vancouver. The guy was much too valuable to be cannon fodder. They desperately needed journeyman ship fitters. All through the war it was six days a week and seven if he could handle it. I worked with a guy who was in the airborne in Veitnam. He had qualified with the Los Angeles welding certifications when he was a teenager. I asked him why he hadn't gone to Veitnam as a welder rather than one of the guys at the front. "Well Randy" he says " I got in a little trouble and the judge suggested I join up. Being a smart ass I joined the Airborne." He told me it would have been a lot easier welding for the army than being in the jungle but when you are young.....

Well, if he is intent on shipyard work, I would push him to get in at one of the major yards. There, he can strat with stick and flux cored and still have plenty of opportunities to advance to subarc (heavy panels). MIG (robotics) or tig (pipe). The larger yards also have more opportunities for welding things other than low carbon steel - things like S/S, Monel, Inconel, Aluminum, etc.

That way, he will be able to develop a well-rounded welding skill set and still be "in a shipyard". If he starts off in a yard building barges, there isn't much other than stick/flux cored.

Wouldn't hurt if he tried to get some training and experience with CNC shape cutters. Big demand for this in the shipbuilding industry these days.

Bert Newfoundland