Making cash income from welding?

I was talking to my friend today about TIG welding and stuff. I told him that if he was very good at TIG welding, then he could have a nice cash income doing stainless welding for food industry, welding on guns etc.

I recalled paying big bucks to weld a Mosin-Nagant bent bolt many years ago, etc.

And then I started doubting myself. So, leaving a typical question of how to start such a business, I want to ask, is that possible to make a decent living like this, having good clientele and welding in a garage shop?

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Reply to
Ignoramus30945
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Many years ago I visited a bloke to see about buying some engine parts that he had and there was a loud buzzing noise coming from his garage. It turned out to be a guy welding auto header pipes with a MIG system (the first I ever saw). When I asked the bloke I was seeing about it he told me that he had a contract with a company to weld the headers together. They furnished the tubes, bent to shape and the mounting plate and he, or more accurately the fellow he hired, just welded them together.

It might be that there is work of that nature to be had.

Reply to
J.B.Slocomb

"Ignoramus30945" wrote in message

A friend of mine does, or at least stays very busy. He had to become certified for some reason, possibly insurance.

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Some of the projects he does could easily injure or kill people if a weld failed, fire escape ladders for example. I got the impression that larger shops had declined them for for liability concerns.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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Thanks Jim. I would not, personally, see what is so particularyl risky about fire escape ladders, since they are usually far stronger than they need to be, but on the other hand, I am sure that the larger shops are not stupid.

Reply to
Ignoramus27831

Ignoramus30945 wrote in news:N5mdnSO7qqR2657MnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I worked for a fellow who started out advertising in the Trading Times. Repairing anything, but mostly a lot of garbage car frames. He had a welder on a trailer and did the same mobile work for 7 years.

In some of the less appetizing neighborhoods he got paid up front. He hooked up with a small trucking outfit for a couple of years and they went their seperate ways.

But marketing is needed. I worked for him for a couple of years, actually there were two of us in the shop. He was selling quite a lot. He's still going strong 20- some years later. Owns his own building and several more. Probably has 10-15 guys working for him. Might even still have a chick there too.

Reply to
Sano

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