PMT0134C – Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) is a clock-hour welding course in Florida's PSAV welding technology programs covering gas metal arc welding — the process commonly called MIG welding — along with its flux-cored variant in many programs. It carries clock hours rather than college credit, and is listed at 50 clock hours in the Northwest Florida State PSAV program, with hour values differing across institutions.
GMAW is a continuous wire process shielded by gas. It is faster than stick welding, produces little slag, is comparatively easy to learn, and is the dominant process in manufacturing, fabrication shops, automotive, and sheet metal work. Its limitation is the shielding gas, which is disturbed by wind — which is why structural field welding still uses stick and flux-cored processes.
Content covers safety — arc radiation, fume (with particular attention to coated metals), fire, and gas cylinder handling; GMAW equipment — power source, wire feeder, gun, liner, contact tip, and drive rolls; equipment setup and maintenance — consumable replacement and feed problems; shielding gases — argon, CO₂, and mixtures, and their effects on penetration and spatter; filler wire — classification, diameter selection, and storage; transfer modes — short circuit, globular, spray, and pulsed spray, and when each is appropriate; parameter setting — voltage, wire feed speed, and their interaction; gun angle and technique — push versus pull, travel speed, and stickout; welding positions — flat, horizontal, vertical, and overhead; joint types — fillet and groove welds, fit-up, and preparation; welding sheet metal — burn-through control and tack sequencing; welding aluminum — spool gun or push-pull systems and their requirements; flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) — self-shielded and gas-shielded variants; discontinuities — porosity, lack of fusion, whiskers, and their causes; inspection and acceptance criteria; 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.
The most important technical warning attached to this process, and the reason experienced welders are wary of it in inexperienced hands. GMAW is genuinely easier to pick up than stick welding: the wire feeds automatically, there is no slag to chip, and a beginner can produce a bead that looks excellent within hours.
The danger is precisely that. In short circuit transfer — the mode beginners use — heat input is low, and it is entirely possible to lay down a smooth, uniform, attractive bead that has barely fused to the base metal at all. This is called cold lap or lack of fusion, it cannot be seen from the outside, and the joint will fail under load. Stick welding is more forgiving in this respect because a bad weld usually looks bad.
Guard against it deliberately: cut and etch your practice coupons to see actual penetration rather than judging by appearance; run bend tests where your program provides them; make sure heat input is adequate for the thickness and do not weld heavy material in short circuit mode just because it is comfortable; and pay attention to joint preparation and fit-up, since GMAW's low tolerance for gaps and contamination is another reason it fails. A student who learns to distrust a pretty bead has learned the most valuable lesson in this course.
The practical setup skill. GMAW quality depends on the relationship between voltage (which governs arc length and bead width) and wire feed speed (which governs current and therefore penetration). They are set together, and a chart gives you a starting point rather than an answer — material thickness, joint, position, gas, and wire diameter all shift it.
The fastest feedback available is sound. A correctly set short-circuit arc has a steady, even crackle, frequently described as frying bacon. A popping, stuttering, spattery arc usually means the voltage and wire speed are mismatched; wire that stubs into the work and pushes the gun back means too much wire speed or too little voltage; an arc that burns back to the tip means the opposite. Experienced welders tune by ear before they look at the bead, and it is a skill worth building deliberately in the booth.
Also learn the housekeeping that prevents most GMAW problems: worn contact tips, a dirty or kinked liner, incorrect drive roll tension or the wrong groove for the wire, and a gas flow rate set too high (which causes turbulence and draws in air, producing porosity — more gas is not better). A large share of "the machine is broken" turns out to be one of these.
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.
Useful career framing at the point where students have learned more than one process. The processes are not interchangeable in the labor market:
For Florida specifically, the higher-paying niches are aerospace and space-launch work on the Space Coast (precision GTAW), marine and yacht fabrication in South Florida (aluminum), shipyard work in Jacksonville and Tampa, and pipe across industrial and utility work. The practical advice is to become genuinely good at one process and competent in the others, then pursue GTAW and pipe certifications deliberately — that is where the earnings separation happens, and it will not happen by accident.
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