Learning to Weld

[Young Gun]

ok so basically I want to learn to weld...im curious how everybody went about learning and i also guess where i could go to be taught...im not looking to get certified or anything, more just so i can do my own metal work and fab some stuff...any imput would help...

[6'9"Witha69]

Some adult education places have welding and mechanical courses. They are usually at High schools and such. My friends and I used to sign up for auto shop classes at the local HS cause they had lifts and tools and you could work on your own car. I know a few people who have taken autobody and paint classes and completely straightened and painted their own car during the duration of the course.

I learned in my Grandfathers garage with a oxy/acet setup when I was 10. I used it until I was 19, doing exhaust work for all my buddies. UI then learned MIG in my buddies garage after he got a killer deal on a Miller setup. There was much scrapmetal indiscriminately welded in the name of learning.

[wiedemab]

I think the classes would be a good idea to get the basics down. Sometimes Miller or Lincoln will do an evening seminar/class and let you try out equipment too.

The best way is to just find a fab shop and ask them for a bunch of scrap and practice, practice, practice.

My Dad taught me to stick weld when I was pretty young, but since we had a Mig, I haven't done much stick welding in my day. I bought a Tig and practiced to the point where I'm OK with it. By comparison to a professional fabricator/welder, I suck, but I get by.

You could also buy some educational books that will show some techniques and what a good weld looks like.

Another great way is to find someone that is a good welder and ask them to teach you. Most guys/gals, if they have the time are more than willing to help out someone that's trying to learn.

Hope that helps

[Mathius]

I agree, try going to a vocational school or something like that first, to get the basics down. You should first learn some structural welding, just so you know how to identify weld defects, and how to make a strong weld and get the basics.

Once you've got that stuff down, you can pretty much get your own welder and just practice on a bunch of scrap of different thicknesses until you get good at it.

Don't let anyone talk you into getting any certifications, even if you think you might want a job welding someday. Most places will send you out to get you certified on their own if you get a job.

Try to learn a little of all the weld processes, oxy-acetylene, arc, tig, mig, carbon arc removal, plasma cutting, and oxy-acetylene cutting while you're in class.

You may find you like one process more than another. I personally prefer TIG, and I freely admit I'm better at TIG than I am at MIG, because I don't like to MIG weld.

I got into welding because I wanted to get a better job and learn how to weld to help me working on cars and motorcycles.

I thought if I went out and got a bunch of certifications I'd be ok to get a job welding. Boy was I way off. Learn from my mistakes. A potential employer only really cares about how much experience you have.

Also, since I was working so hard on these certifications, it mean I was pretty much just working on one set of materials, say... for my 3G in TIG, I was constantly working with 3/16" material in a t-joint. Therefore I missed out on welding different material sizes.

This doesn't really hurt you if you want to go thicker, but you also need some experience in sheetmetal, or you'll constantly be burning through, or welding too slow, because you just aren't used to the thin material.

Hope this helps.

Mathius

[Young Gun]

im curious...if i have a TIG or MIG welder basically the best way to get good is to practice loads? would anybody have much faith in learning to weld based on a book?

[parsonsj]

I learned to weld from a book. Welder's Handbook by Ron Finch.

jp

[Mathius]

You can learn from a book. It's a lot harder, because you really don't have any way to tell if you're getting it right or not short of some pictures, or some destructive testing, and if you're doing something wrong, it's hard to figure out how to fix it without having someone next to you who knows.

Also, there's a lot of bad information about welding in a lot of the books out there.

I picked up a Ron Finch book to try some oxy-acetylene welding on aluminum, and it recommended oxy-hydrogen, with cobalt blue lenses.

Turns out I did some searching on the net, and the cobalt blue lenses weren't OSHA approved, because they were causing eye damage, and someone had come out with something else for welding aluminum. Also, a lot of the aircraft welding sites i looked at said oxy-acetylene is fine.

For main stream stuff like MIG, TIG, as long as you get a current book, you _should_ be ok.

But like I said, it's easier if you have someone there to point out what you're doing wrong.

Mathius