PMT0121C – Shielded Metal Arc Welding Principles is a clock-hour welding course in Florida's PSAV welding technology programs, covering shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) — the process universally known as stick welding. It carries clock hours rather than college credit; Northwest Florida State lists it at 75 clock hours as "Introductory Shielded Metal Arc Welding," and other institutions carry the same number at different hour values and under different titles (Seminole State titles it "Welding 8").
SMAW is the foundation process in most welding programs and remains one of the most widely used in the field. Its virtues are its tolerances: it works outdoors and in wind, on dirty or rusted material, in any position, on thick sections, and with equipment that is simple, portable, and inexpensive. Those properties make it the standard process for structural steel erection, pipeline work, maintenance, and repair.
Content covers safety — arc radiation, fume, fire, electric shock, and PPE; SMAW equipment — power sources, polarity, cables, holders, and ground connections; welding current — AC and DC, straight and reverse polarity, and their effects; electrode classification — reading the AWS designation system and what each digit means; electrode selection — E6010, E6011, E6013, E7018 and their applications, plus low hydrogen handling and storage; machine setup — amperage selection and its relationship to electrode size; arc initiation and control — striking, arc length, and restarts; the five essential variables — current, arc length, travel speed, electrode angle, and electrode manipulation; bead types — stringer and weave, and when each is appropriate; joint design and preparation — fit-up, cleaning, bevels, and root openings; welding positions — flat, horizontal, vertical up and down, and overhead; multi-pass welding — root, fill, and cap, with interpass cleaning; weld discontinuities — porosity, undercut, slag inclusion, lack of fusion, cracking, and their causes; visual inspection and acceptance criteria; base metal and distortion control; and blueprint reading and welding symbols.
Florida demand is strong and geographically spread: shipbuilding and marine repair in Jacksonville, Tampa, and along both coasts; aerospace and space-launch work on the Space Coast; construction and structural steel statewide, with additional demand after storms; manufacturing along the I-4 corridor; and a very large marine and yacht industry in South Florida. Welding is also one of the trades most consistently reported as short of qualified applicants, and it cannot be outsourced or performed remotely.
Take this seriously from the first day, because the hazards are immediate and some are cumulative:
OSHA 10 construction or general industry training is inexpensive and frequently required for site access.
Specific technical content worth emphasizing, because E7018 is the low hydrogen electrode used for most structural and code work, and it behaves differently from the electrodes students learn first.
What makes it demanding: it requires a tight arc — essentially dragging the flux cup along the work — where 6010 tolerates a long, whipping arc; it is run mostly uphill in the vertical position; and above all it is hygroscopic, meaning the flux absorbs moisture from the air. Moisture becomes hydrogen in the weld, and hydrogen causes delayed cracking that can appear hours after the weld is complete and passes visual inspection.
That is why 7018 is stored in a rod oven, why there are limits on how long it may be out in ambient air, and why in humid climates — Florida very much included — the rules are enforced seriously. A student who treats rod handling as bureaucratic will fail code work. Learn the discipline now; it distinguishes people who can weld structurally from people who can lay a pretty bead.
The core skill of arc welding and the hardest to convey in text. Everything that determines weld quality — penetration, fusion, profile — is visible in the weld puddle, and skilled welders adjust travel speed and angle continuously in response to what they see, rather than holding fixed parameters.
What to learn to see: the puddle should be a consistent size and shape; if it is growing and threatening to sag you are too slow or too hot; if it is narrow and ropey and sitting on top of the base metal you are too fast or too cold, and the result is lack of fusion, which is the most dangerous defect because the weld can look acceptable and carry no load. Watch the leading edge where the base metal melts, not the solidified bead behind it — beginners watch the wrong place. Use the machine settings from the electrode chart as a starting point, then adjust to what the puddle tells you.
The professional structure students most often misunderstand. A welding certification is not a general qualification. It is a welder performance qualification against a specific welding procedure specification, and it is bounded by process (SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, FCAW), position (flat, horizontal, vertical, overhead, and pipe positions such as 6G), material and thickness, and sometimes joint type.
Practical consequences. Being certified in one process does not certify you in another. Certifying in the harder positions covers the easier ones, which is why vertical and overhead — and, for pipe, 6G — are the ones worth pursuing: a 6G pipe certification is among the most employable credentials in the trade. Certifications also lapse if you do not weld with that process within a defined period, and they are commonly employer-specific — a new employer may require you to re-test on their procedure regardless of what you hold.
So keep your own documentation of every test you pass, and treat certification as an ongoing professional activity rather than a graduation event.
The most important study advice, and it differs from academic coursework. Welding cannot be learned by reading or watching; it is a physical skill built through repetition with feedback. The difference between students who certify and those who do not is almost entirely time in the booth.
Practice deliberately rather than passively. Keep a log of amperage, voltage, wire speed or rod size, travel speed, angle, and position for every coupon, with a note on how the result looked — this converts trial and error into a reproducible process, and it is exactly what you will do professionally when qualifying a procedure. Cut and etch your practice welds to see the penetration and fusion you cannot see from outside; a bead that looks beautiful can be cold-lapped and structurally worthless. And ask your instructor to watch you weld rather than only to grade the result — most problems are in technique (angle, travel speed, arc length, hand steadiness), and they are visible in the doing but not in the finished bead.
Book every open-lab hour available. Students who weld only during scheduled class time progress at a fraction of the rate.
Honest occupational content. Welding pays well, is in demand, and cannot be outsourced. It is also physically demanding in ways that accumulate: overhead and confined-position work is hard on the neck, shoulders, and knees; fume exposure is cumulative; hearing damage from grinding is permanent; and Florida adds real heat stress for outdoor and shipyard work, where hydration and pacing are genuine safety issues rather than comfort ones.
The welders who work into their fifties and sixties are the ones who protected themselves early — ventilation and respirators used consistently rather than when convenient, hearing protection every time, attention to positioning and ergonomics — and the ones who added a credential before their body forced the issue. Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), welding supervision, instruction, and robotic welding programming are the common routes, and they pay well. It is worth deciding early that you are building toward one of them.
The PMT prefix is among the most fragmented in Florida's numbering system, and understanding its structure prevents a registration error:
The practical consequences. Compare programs by total clock hours, not course by course — a full Florida PSAV welding technology program runs on the order of 1050 hours however it is divided up, and the same instruction appears as seven large courses at one college and fifteen smaller ones at another. And because this is clock-hour career and technical instruction rather than credit coursework, transfer works through articulation agreements and industry certification rather than through SCNS course equivalency — ask specifically if you may later want an A.S. in a manufacturing or welding technology field.
Generated September 1, 2026 · Updated September 1, 2026