Hit 1,000 hours of welding on my own rig... never thought I'd make it here

I've been running my own mobile welding truck for about three years now, mostly doing repairs on grain bins and farm equipment out here in central Nebraska. Last week I hit 1,000 hours of actual arc time on my machines, which is something I never really tracked until my dad pointed it out. He's been a boilermaker for 40 years and said most guys don't even log that many hours in their first five years. It surprised me because I still feel like a greenhorn sometimes, especially when I'm setting up a tricky repair on an old pressure vessel. But seeing that number made me realize how much I've learned just by showing up and burning rod every day. Has anyone else here kept track of their total weld hours? What milestone caught you off guard?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor2201mo ago

1,000 hours of arc time in three years is solid work, no argument there. But from my corner of the trades, I've seen guys log that kind of time in two years on pipeline or structural jobs running dual shield. Your dad's a boilermaker and he's right about the average guy, but the average guy is also spending half his day grinding and setting up, not burning rod. Milestones are what you make of them, just don't let it get in your head too much. You're still a greenhorn at 10,000 hours in my book.

the_laura1mo ago

I read somewhere that the average welder only actually burns rod about 20-25% of their shift, the rest is prep and cleanup. So 1,000 hours arc time is more like 4,000-5,000 clocked hours in reality. Makes the whole "greenhorn" thing feel a little less harsh when you think of it that way.