Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.
Salary distribution (US)
Real salary data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The p10–p90 spread tells you more than the median alone.
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Mechanical
- Mathematics
- Design
- Production and Processing
- Engineering and Technology
- English Language
- Building and Construction
- Public Safety and Security
A day in the life
You start the morning by reviewing welding procedure specifications and blueprints, then gear up in a heavy leather jacket, gloves, and a welding helmet before striking your first arc. Throughout the day you lay down MIG, TIG, or stick welds on steel, aluminum, or stainless components—maybe joining beams for a bridge, fabricating a custom staircase railing, or repairing a cracked piece of heavy equipment. Between welds you grind and inspect your bead profiles, ensuring they pass visual and sometimes X-ray inspection. The work is physically demanding and intensely focused—when the arc is lit, everything else disappears—and there is deep satisfaction in joining metal so cleanly that the weld is stronger than the base material itself.
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