I thought this might have been covered elsewhere but the search failed me.
I've basically got bored with desk work, I was adamant that I was going to be a welder or toolmaker when I was a teenager but I went to uni, then it just made sense to get an engineering job, and it gets more and more desk based as time goes on. I'd ideally like to take a break from 'engineering' for six months / a year or so and do fabrication work for a bit - I used to be able to blag machining time in the past under the pretense of 'learning' but I can't pull that one at the moment.
Professionally I've done sheet metal and machine tool design, and various 'almost' welding engineer roles in nuclear and power, so I'm not totally alien to it - just don't have any hours melting things together to show for it. I'm not totally without factory experience either, I've done assembly work in a car plant, assembled electronics and ran a CNC router at various points in my life.
Ideally I'd like to line myself up in some way, while doing my current job, so I can just drop it and take up a welding / fabrication contract(s) once I'd be considered competent enough.
I can't practically follow the 'correct route' and do a fabrication course at a college while still working a 40h week but I do have a BTEC National Diploma (which is a level 3), which was probably about 50/50 practical/classroom, and included plenty of metalwork and joining, so technically I've got a relevant qualification, it's just not the correct one.
Is it going to be a killer to have no professional welding experience and not have a welding and fab qualification or am I likely going to be able to (while being upfront about it) talk a fab shop into taking me on, on a contract basis, based on a collection of things I've welded at home - even if it's just a bunch of pipe and structural test pieces?
I've basically got bored with desk work, I was adamant that I was going to be a welder or toolmaker when I was a teenager but I went to uni, then it just made sense to get an engineering job, and it gets more and more desk based as time goes on. I'd ideally like to take a break from 'engineering' for six months / a year or so and do fabrication work for a bit - I used to be able to blag machining time in the past under the pretense of 'learning' but I can't pull that one at the moment.
Professionally I've done sheet metal and machine tool design, and various 'almost' welding engineer roles in nuclear and power, so I'm not totally alien to it - just don't have any hours melting things together to show for it. I'm not totally without factory experience either, I've done assembly work in a car plant, assembled electronics and ran a CNC router at various points in my life.
Ideally I'd like to line myself up in some way, while doing my current job, so I can just drop it and take up a welding / fabrication contract(s) once I'd be considered competent enough.
I can't practically follow the 'correct route' and do a fabrication course at a college while still working a 40h week but I do have a BTEC National Diploma (which is a level 3), which was probably about 50/50 practical/classroom, and included plenty of metalwork and joining, so technically I've got a relevant qualification, it's just not the correct one.
Is it going to be a killer to have no professional welding experience and not have a welding and fab qualification or am I likely going to be able to (while being upfront about it) talk a fab shop into taking me on, on a contract basis, based on a collection of things I've welded at home - even if it's just a bunch of pipe and structural test pieces?