MIG welding 'moonlighting jobs'

[MarkG]

I'd be interested to hear of any guys who are making a buck here or there with a very minimal welding set-up. I'm talking about guys with just a small MIG welder, grinder, chop saw and a few basic hand and power tools.

I sold my Hobart Handler years ago after making a couple nice projects that just never sold for what I was asking, and I'm too stubborn to just GIVE my work away!

I don't work in the trade anymore, but I did get a cert from a local college and did work briefly at Elgin Sweeper (street sweepers) and Knaack (job boxes) welding, so I'd consider my skills 'average' at least.

Unfortunately, my skin (on my hands) couldn't handle the sweat mixed with whatever is in MIG welding glove leather and I developed a very nasty persistent, uncomfortable, unsightly rash and finally got out of the field ('contact dermatitis'). I'd still do it if I could just do it in limited amounts, though. I miss running beads. I did enjoy all but the rash.

Thanks.

 

[great white tj]

If you are still working and just would like a little more money try Art work with your welder... Try Horse Shoe Art... Google Horse Shoe Art, and get started.

 

[rsanter]

How about wearing your own thin protective gloves under the standard welding gloves?

I do welding side work, little here and a little there.
I also cut and narrow rear ends for local racers and got rodders

Bob

 

[Gamble]

I never get any welding side work. But if you need a mig I'm selling one and I'm local to you

 

[sberry]

I got to wonder,,,, why would a talented sign painter want to farg with fartstick welding projects when there is 10x the money and 1/10th the work in signs for extra money?

 

[BD1]

If you are still working and just would like a little more money try Art work with your welder... Try Horse Shoe Art... Google Horse Shoe Art, and get started.

I agree with GREAT WHITE. Horseshoe , yard art, and recycled art can be profitable and you can save scrap from the recycle centers.

Maybe checkout the WELDINGWEB site.

http://weldingweb.com/forum.php

 

[lilredex]

I got to wonder,,,, why would a talented sign painter want to farg with fartstick welding projects when there is 10x the money and 1/10th the work in signs for extra money?

Just WOW X 10!! If you haven't looked yet at his work (FB), you are in for a treat.

Have a look here for similar work at a local landmark that just closed after sixty+ years in business.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=hone...ved=0ahUKEwiXn6qx_dvRAhUk0YMKHd9YDKcQ_AUIBigB

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...st-shot-at-honest-eds-hand-painted-signs.html

 

[MarkG]

I got to wonder,,,, why would a talented sign painter want to farg with fartstick welding projects when there is 10x the money and 1/10th the work in signs for extra money?

Thanks sberry, but I always come back to the logic that there are big companies out there that hire welders and pay them pretty well. NO ONE hires sign painters anymore! We're all on our own. Also. it's a very small target audience who cares enough about it to pay for it. We are all (virtually) on our own, all competing for the same tiny segment of the population who even care a tiny bit about signs and even less about hand-painted signs! :S If I kept track of my time, I know I don't make anywhere near 10X what a welder makes, even on the best of sign jobs! Plus the proliferation of 'Martha Stewarts' out there who think they can watch a video and do it themselves is always growing.

If I didn't have such an aggravating skin problem with the welding gloves, I'd still be welding at Elgin Sweeper or Knaack possibly.

 

[Rory Bellows]

Might try different welding gloves. Maybe the brand or style you used previously had some dye or something that you are allergic to.

 

[koditten]

I've never used welding gloves. Always used my favorite type of leather gloves.

 

[MarkG]

Just WOW X 10!! If you haven't looked yet at his work (FB), you are in for a treat.

Have a look here for similar work at a local landmark that just closed after sixty+ years in business.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=hone...ved=0ahUKEwiXn6qx_dvRAhUk0YMKHd9YDKcQ_AUIBigB

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...st-shot-at-honest-eds-hand-painted-signs.html

Yeah, I've seen vids about him before! Signpainting is a pretty tight 'community' and as it gets less common, it probably gets a little tighter! Tonight I was doing some paint experiments with plain old house paint on a scrap of wood----bottom line is it just doesn't cover like sign paint, but with 2 coats, it probably outlasts it. At least the new versions of sign paint. This little test piece shows a typical old-school hot rod combo that works well on black. White lettering with red shade.

 

[sberry]

Mark is a great painter. That is what I meant. But it needs some marketing and a little diversity, I worked in that industry a while and seen some guys really got a knack for it but not only were they good painters but really knew art and outdoor advertising and signage in general.

 

[matt_i]

I'd say its hard to reel in a lot of customers who have to bring their work to you and are likely paying cash to fix something broken or rusty. In other words they aren't looking to pay a tradesman's hourly rate for welding a foot back on their chiminea.

Its another step up to be portable/mobile but a mig welder isn't the right tool then imo. And there is likely already established competition actively on the road.

The tactic of developing your ideas and manufacturing them in small volume is a better way, imo.

 

[sberry]

I seen stuff that was really slick. I worked with a couple guys that knew everything there is to know about a sign. I wish i would have taken some pics. some i seen for beer money were good enuf for national, some real schemes. I watched people go by on the boardwalk and every other one says the store name and points to it. I seen the colors wrong and why. We built signs for Subway on my porch, one of my buds expertise as well as lettering was plastic faces, really knew color and difference between day and night, just knew little spins made it different.
Wish I had the talent. I can do some and can letter a bit but not good enough to lean on it. My bud used to say, I make more with this little brush with less than you fab guys, was correct. Letter 4 trucks, 4 Sunday afternoons traded for whole set of custom kitchen cabs. At that time 3500 or 4k.

 

[JJThrasher]

I do a touch of side welding here and there. I just have an old $100 CL MIG welder. It gets the job done. I can't say I make much money doing it, but hey $20 for a sub 30 minute job ain't too bad.

 

[sberry]

Paint anything, gun, roller or brush, the face hid the fact everything behind it was a cobble job but the thing said what it was sposed to. Pitiful business man.

 

[MarkG]

Thanks guys. I'll just keep blabbing and posting everywhere I can that I think could use lettering or may be interested in my 'art signs'. (the RR stuff, etc.)

 

[Thumper68]

Thanks guys. I'll just keep blabbing and posting everywhere I can that I think could use lettering or may be interested in my 'art signs'. (the RR stuff, etc.)

Have you tired Esty?

If not you could probably sell a few things there.

 

[yaidunno]

Mark, welding will also allow you to take your signs to the third dimension. While flat signs make for fantastic wall decoration, signs that are 3D always have a noticeable presence.

I'll try to shoot you a PM tomorrow evening on a sign project that's been bouncing around in my head for some time.

-Bryan

 

[KM223]

I prototype fitness equipment for a living. Design, fabricate and weld. I have my own welding equipment at home and thought because I make fitness equipment for a living I could do it on the side as well. I could not have been more wrong! The profit margins weren't much compared to just buying from the store. I then went into welding art pieces (mostly lighted art) and have made a ton of money. People will buy what others can't have.

 

[b-dog]

This is funny because I have a side business and I'm NOT artsy. All the art posts would be lost on me.

I just use leather gloves, nothing welding specific.

 

[sberry]

Thanks guys. I'll just keep blabbing and posting everywhere I can that I think could use lettering or may be interested in my 'art signs'. (the RR stuff, etc.)

This is a hard way,,,, the ones that pay are business where it drives customers. I got no idea what you are like but the ability to work off a ladder to fresh up a building sign is the type of thing that pays well and some store owner thinks its a big deal when its a couple hours of brush work to get some color back on a faded sign or add to a logo etc.
Every store in your neighborhood should know what you do and you would be right that they don't want to pay for some fussy gold leaf for a C store.
I traded a repair for some work on a truck, young guy had talent but I told him, you got to go where they do this work professionally and learn to do it fast, need to learn to spray paint and clear, we used a dinky comp for a lot of it. I traded a fender repair on his truck and had to work harder to make it look like more than an hour or 2 work while he take all day to do 2 hour job.
I know Mark is a whiz but like the welding biz there is so much more to it than running a mig, same for sign work.
SWign companies now don't have so many artists, they can pattern with computers, they send the drawing to a face plant vs doing it in house the way they used to.
I worked at a place where when a customer may call the sales guy would make apt for next day or 2 and give the artist a few bucks to stop in the parking lot and make a sketch with set of colored pencils, when he went to the sales call had something ready in hand, even used to say,,, let me go look at this for a few minutes, come back with a sketch. Sold a lot of work simply due to knowing how to service lamps in a sign or change a ballast, how to fix damaged paint on plastic faces.
Get a job in a sign co for a bit. My cousin was the same way, works as a draftsman and tried sign art but couldn't get past that part of the art was speed and no one wanted to pay days for fussing over something know one cared about and that it wasn't fine portrait work.

 

[sberry]

Find someone can fix a neon tube for you, learn a bit how it works, form a channel letter by hand or fix the plastic on it. When I worked in it my cut/weld was way ahead of most sign guys as was my crane and erection experience where so many learned hand to mouth.

 

[sberry]

Target business change, paint the box a different color and change a face is super easy and a talented guy can really leave impression. With the advent of die cuts so much lettering has gone away, it needs a greater skill set. So many signs are sold during the day that don't look right at night, have sold new faces the next week where the salesman didn't really know enough to give a value added approach and understand color at night.
The welding would be value added thru installation, brackets, mounting etc rather than as a stand alone idea. Some artistic application may apply but there are hundreds of arts farts hobby welders today making horseshoe **** for nothing.
I have patterns, gang make the arrows. Bought some white plastic board at less than a dollar so we can whip it up without having to fab or white out boards.

 

[sberry]

They finished the truck with logo's on it after this pic.

 

[Fyrme]

Mark, welding will also allow you to take your signs to the third dimension. While flat signs make for fantastic wall decoration, signs that are 3D always have a noticeable presence.

I'll try to shoot you a PM tomorrow evening on a sign project that's been bouncing around in my head for some time.

-Bryan

^^^^THIS!

Exactly what came to mind when I heard sign painting, welding for side money and, small MIG welder. Start thinking dimensional with your signs!