When most people hear the word "welding," they picture someone in a fabrication shop laying beads on an unidentifiable metal workpiece. And while that’s definitely what plenty of welders are doing in their day to day, it's only a fraction of what the welding industry encompasses.

Modern welding and metal fabrication careers stretch into aerospace, underwater construction, robotics, artistry, inspection, education, and high-tech manufacturing.

The truth is, many students never consider welding simply because they’ve never seen the full range of opportunities available. You can’t train for a career you didn’t know existed!
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That’s one of the reasons we created the Earlbeck Future Fabricators Initiative: to help students experience these careers firsthand through shop visits, demonstrations, and career exploration opportunities. Because sometimes all it takes is seeing the work in real life for a student to realize, “I could actually do this.”

Welding is an incredibly multifaceted field. Some people love working outdoors. Others prefer precision work in a clean manufacturing environment. Some enjoy being behind the control panel, programming or operating welding tech or robotics, while others thrive in creative or artistic settings.

The industry is broad enough that people can often find a niche that fits both their personality and interests, creating a career path that’s not only financially rewarding, but mentally too.

So, let’s take a look at a far-from-complete list of welding-related careers that may have never crossed your career or workforce development counselor’s desk!

Some companies measure success in quarterly reports. We measure it in generations, welder  certifications, customer relationships, and probably a few thousand cups of breakroom coffee over the last 119 years.

We’re proud to share that Earlbeck Gases & Technologies has been recognized by the Baltimore Business Journal as a recipient of their 2026 Family-Owned Business Award.
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For our team, this recognition reflects some guiding principles that Earlbeck has held since the beginning: staying committed to our community, supporting skilled trades, and building real relationships that last.

Earlbeck’s story began in 1919 as the T.A. Canty Company. In 1952, Al Earlbeck purchased the business while balancing work at the company and his studies at Baltimore's Polytechnic Institute. Since then, three generations of the Earlbeck family have helped grow the company into a trusted resource for welding equipment, industrial gases, automation solutions, and welding education throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Over the decades, we’ve expanded with new showrooms, an in-house gas filling operation, technical training programs, and hands-on support for manufacturers and fabricators across the region. But through all the changes in the industry, one thing has stayed the same: our belief that skilled trades matter.

And yes..... sometimes that belief starts with making your teenager take a welding class they absolutely do not want to attend.

We’re incredibly grateful to the Baltimore Business Journal for this recognition, and even more grateful to our employees, customers, students, instructors, and community partners who have been part of Earlbeck’s story over the years.
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119 years later, we’re still doing what we’ve always done:
Supporting skilled trades, serving our community, and occasionally convincing people that taking a welding class is actually pretty cool.

Getting started in welding is exciting, but choosing your first machine can be a real challenge. With so many options on the market, varying price points and capabilities, narrowing down your choices can be overwhelming. MIG, TIG, Stick, multiprocess? 120V or 240V? So many brands, so many options!

At Earlbeck, we’ve worked with everyone from first-time welders to seasoned fabricators. The biggest thing we’ve learned? The “best” welding machine isn’t about having the most features, it’s about having the right machine for what you’re trying to do today, with room to grow tomorrow. You might not need the most advanced or expensive machine, but one that’s easy to master, fits your projects, and allows you future possibilities.
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We're here to help you figure it out. The guide below will walk you through how to choose your machine and highlights some proven machines we love from brands we trust like Lincoln Electric, Miller, and Fronius.

Before comparing machines, it helps to answer a couple of simple questions that will narrow your options fast by pointing you towards the correct process for your work. And to keep you from buying more machine than you actually need, we'll go over a few extra considerations.

Since not every welding machine is built with beginners in mind, it’s important to focus on the practical features you need and what actually makes starting out easier.

There are a lot of machines out there, but these are models we consistently recommend here at Earlbeck because they hit the right balance of performance, reliability, and value.

If you already have brand loyalty, we'll suggest machines from Miller, Lincoln, and Fronius, broken down by process capability to help you narrow your options!

April is coming to a close which means we're wrapping up on 2026's National Welding Month! That makes this the perfect time to take a look back on the history of welding and specifically how it helped to shape the great city of Baltimore, our founding location!

​By the mid-1940s, Baltimore had become a critical hub for wartime production. Shipyards like Bethlehem-Fairfield were churning out Liberty ships, while nearby in Middle River, facilities were building aircraft to support the war effort. 

To meet this demand, thousands of workers were needed. At the same time, the industry itself was undergoing a major shift. Traditional shipbuilding relied heavily on riveting. But welding offered speed, efficiency,  and scalability... and during wartime, those advantages mattered!

The result? A massive transition towards welding over riveting meant that of those thousands of workers, many were going to need to be rapidly trained as welders. But like any rapid evolution, it came with challenges. The first Liberty ships experienced brittle fractures in cold water and this cracking exposed gaps in understanding around weld quality, metallurgy, and structural stress.

If you’ve ever dialed in your settings perfectly, followed your WPS to the letter, and still ended up with inconsistent welds…it might not be your welder. It might not even be your process.

It might be your machine.

One of the most overlooked factors is whether your machines are actually performing the way you think they are. Voltage set to 20 doesn’t always mean you’re getting 20 volts at the arc. Wire feed speed can drift. Amperage can fluctuate. And over time, even the best machines fall out of alignment.

That’s where validation and calibration come in. Today we're gonna break down the difference between the two terms, go over common compliance requirements for our industry, and help you get your machines in perfect working order.

Every welder knows that even small inaccuracies in your welding parameters can lead to inconsistent weld quality, failed inspections, rework and wasted material, and increased production costs. It's important to get your machine validated so when dialing in, you know the parameters you've set are what your machine is actually putting out.