Welding Tips and Tricks

I thought this job would never end but alas it is over. I built these for my uncle and installed them in the house I grew up in which was pretty cool. I cut, welded and ground each one of the little decorative frames and put a picture of the jig I made to build them. That was the worst part of this job. I learned a lot from this one!

Very nice!

+1 Great looking job there. Nice jig too.

Very nice work.

Very nice, may copy this.

Really nice job. It certainly increases the appeal of the house and may actually increase value too. Hang onto the jigs, My guess is you are going to get more orders from work of mouth.

He's got a friend that's already wanting some handrails too so that's cool. When I add up the cost of building those pieces in the jig with all the cutting, grinding, consumables, and blades I think it might have been just as cost effective to have them burnt out. I appreciate the compliments and feel free to copy Lt. That's what I did, sort of. Just a little tweaking.

Excellent job!

I believe you are correct about having the panels cut out. CNC plasma time from a guy local to me is only $75 per hour.

Nice job! Panels galore!

$75 an hour is pretty cheap! I heard the place I work charges somewhere in the vacinity of $200 an hour. That what I used as a guide but I would have definitely went with a $75 rate.

jroark wrote:$75 an hour is pretty cheap! I heard the place I work charges somewhere in the vacinity of $200 an hour. That what I used as a guide but I would have definitely went with a $75 rate.

Wow, that seems high. One of the more expensive places here is still at $100 per hour.

That's what our laser operator told me but he could be off. I'm in NC too but not sure if that means anything either.

jroark wrote:$75 an hour is pretty cheap! I heard the place I work charges somewhere in the vacinity of $200 an hour. That what I used as a guide but I would have definitely went with a $75 rate.

$200 sounds high to me as well. I'm in Central California and $90 to $100 is the going rate for an independent certified welder, big shops will get up to $120.
It can work to your benefit to come up with a price per linear foot for railing work, that way you don't give the customer sticker shock with a $/hr rate that they are not used to hearing, they don't have to know that you made $150/hour building their railing, they just know it cost $60/foot.

Ray that's a good point. I worked in a rail shop for a few years but never got to the pricing end of business. So far I haven't built a lot of rails independently but still a good idea.

Regardless of what you charge for it it's a hell of a nice job. Hats off

Thirty-some-odd years ago, I worked at a custom boatyard that built pontoon houseboats. Deck rail was an option. We had a price/foot. I don't remember what it was, but considering that we could build a 20' length of rail in less than 20 minutes, including cutting the pickets...it was definitely a moneymaker. And nobody ever grumbled about the cost.

I've got a friend that recently went out on his own just doing railing. He subs it from other companies that need to move on to other jobs and don't want to mess with it. He's really doing great and he only works for a couple companies right now. My area has a lot of rail shops but it seems like most times there's plenty of work for everybody. Thanks again for the compliments.

jroark wrote:That's what our laser operator told me but he could be off. I'm in NC too but not sure if that means anything either.

Yes, they do get $200/hour for laser work to pay for the machine and consumables, but for welders, no.

Yeah I figured that rate was for programming the design in and cutting consumables and everything else. At $200 an hour I still may have saved some. Or at least came out the same. Either way though I'm happy with the results and the customers were tickled to death.