Heard a guy say "welding is easy" today and had to bite my tongue

Was picking up some filler rods at the supply house and this young guy tells his buddy welding is easy, anyone can do it. I just laughed to myself. I've been at this trade 12 years and still mess up a bead sometimes. Took me a solid 6 months of practice before I could lay down anything that wasn't a bird poop weld. Made me think about how much the old timers taught me that you just don't get from a YouTube video. Anybody else have a moment where someone made the trade sound simple and you wanted to hand them a stinger and see how they do?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake_martinez12d ago

Man I had a similar thing happen but it was with painting... this dude at the hardware store was bragging about how he could paint a whole room in like an hour no problem. I just stood there thinking about the time I spent three days prepping drywall and sanding trim before I even opened a can of paint. He probably slaps it on thick and leaves roller marks everywhere... but hey, whatever makes him feel good I guess.

robert27512d ago

Man look I get where you're coming from but is it really that deep? Some kid says something dumb and you're still thinking about it later? I've been welding for probably 8 years now and yeah it took time to get decent but it ain't brain surgery either. Plenty of guys pick it up faster than others and some never get it. That kid probably saw one TikTok of some guy running a perfect bead and thought that was it. Let him find out the hard way or not, doesn't really matter. If he's that confident maybe he'll stick around long enough to learn and actually be good or maybe he'll wash out and go do something else. Either way it ain't worth getting worked up over some stranger in a supply shop. You know what you can do, that's what counts.