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O*NET detailed work activityOperate welding equipment
Stays humanHands-on work
24 jobs34 tasks
This is physical, in-person work with real objects, tools, equipment and places that change from day to day. AI can't do it for you.
Part of Join parts using soldering, welding, or brazing techniques, under the O*NET work activity group Handling and Moving Objects. Individual tasks below can carry a different label when their own wording calls for it (0 AI-ready, 1 AI-assist, 33 stays human).
Tasks built on this activity
- Position, align, fit, and weld parts to form complete units or subunits, following blueprints and layout specifications, and using jigs, welding torches, and hand tools.
- Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
- Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
- Tack-weld fitted parts together.
- Fit and weld replacement parts into place, using wrenches and welding equipment, and grind down welds to smooth them, using power grinders and other tools.
- Set up, operate, or tend welding machines that join or bond components to fabricate metal products or assemblies.
- Assemble pattern sections, using hand tools, bolts, screws, rivets, glue, or welding equipment.
- Correct problems by adjusting controls or by stopping machines and opening holding devices.
- Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys.
- Tend auxiliary equipment used in welding processes.
- Perform skilled repair or maintenance operations, using equipment such as hand or power tools, hydraulic presses or shears, or welding equipment.
- Cut and weld steel, using underwater welding equipment, jigs, and supports.
- Set up or operate metalworking, brazing, heat-treating, welding, or cutting equipment.
- Cut and weld metal to repair broken metal parts, fabricate new parts, or assemble new equipment.
- Repair shop equipment, metal furniture, or hospital equipment, including welding broken parts or replacing missing parts, or bring item into local shop for major repairs.
- Guide and direct flames or electrodes on or across workpieces to straighten, bend, melt, or build up metal.
- Start, monitor, and adjust robotic welding production lines.
- Attach workpieces to grinding machines and form specified sections and repair cracks, using welding or brazing equipment.
- Operate cutting torches or welding equipment to cut or join metal parts.
- Weld piping, such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) piping, using techniques such as butt, socket, side-wall, and electro-fusion welding.
Tasks where it is part of the work
- Assemble electrical or electronic systems or support structures and install components, units, subassemblies, wiring, or assembly casings, using rivets, bolts, soldering or micro-welding equipment.
- Assemble machines, and bolt, weld, rivet, or otherwise fasten them to foundation or other structures, using hand tools and power tools.
- Fit and assemble parts to make, repair, or modify dies, jigs, gauges, and tools, using machine tools, hand tools, or welders.
- Drill and tap holes for rivets, and glue, weld, bolt, or rivet parts together to form prosthetic or orthotic devices.
- Weld, repair, and fabricate equipment or machinery.
- Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
- Weld or solder broken parts and structural members, using electric or gas welders and soldering tools.
- Ignite torches or start power supplies and strike arcs by touching electrodes to metals being welded, completing electrical circuits.
- Connect metal parts or components in hydroelectric plants by welding, soldering, riveting, tapping, bolting, bonding, or screwing.
- Cut or weld metal.
- Design, weld, and fabricate parts, using blueprints or other mechanical plans.
- Use equipment designed to join sheet metal, such as spot welders.
- Hammer out dents and bends in frames and weld tears and breaks.
- Weld broken or cracked frames together, using oxyacetylene torches and welding rods.