Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers

• Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
• Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
• Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
• Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
• 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.
• Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
• Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.
• Mark or tag material with proper job number, piece marks, and other identifying marks as required.
• Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter.
• Align and clamp workpieces together, using rules, squares, or hand tools, or position items in fixtures, jigs, or vises.
• Connect and turn regulator valves to activate and adjust gas flow and pressure so that desired flames are obtained.
• Monitor the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion, or expansion of material.
• Position and secure workpieces, using hoists, cranes, wire, and banding machines or hand tools.
• Melt and apply solder along adjoining edges of workpieces to solder joints, using soldering irons, gas torches, or electric-ultrasonic equipment.
• Grind, cut, buff, or bend edges of workpieces to be joined to ensure snug fit, using power grinders and hand tools.
• Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys.
• Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.
• Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information.
• Repair products by dismantling, straightening, reshaping, and reassembling parts, using cutting torches, straightening presses, and hand tools.
• Clean or degrease parts, using wire brushes, portable grinders, or chemical baths.
• Hammer out bulges or bends in metal workpieces.

Hard skills are specific, learnable, measurable, often industry- or occupation-specific abilities related to a position.

Soft skills can be self-taught and usually do not necessitate a certain completed level of education. They are essential in many industries and occupations.