Job Description Industrial welders or maintenance welders join metal components of products, such as automobiles, boilers, ships, aircraft and mobile homes. They accomplish this with specified layouts, blueprints, diagrams, work orders, welding procedures or oral instructions, using electric arc-welding equipment.
Welders connect cables from welding units to obtain amperage, voltage, slope and pulse.
They may clean or degrease weld joints or work pieces, repair broken or cracked parts, fill holes and operate other machine shop equipment to prepare components for welding. Working conditions may vary depending on whether the work is indoors or outdoors. Welders may have to work in cramped spaces. Wages Beginning apprentices start at about 75 percent of the journey-level wage. The apprenticeship lasts four years.