Welding for dummies

I'm a dummy. I don't weld. Is there anybody within a couple hours of me that might be willing to take a few hours out of their time to show me how to do sheet metal spot welding, and some basic structural welding (i.e. angle iron, bar stock, etc)? Would be willing to travel a couple hours from 22630.

The Vo Tech colleges around here offer night courses in welding. I took a course a long time ago and learned a lot and had fun. They are aimed at people with a crappy day job who want to move up to a welding job at a factory, but will teach you the basics.

Yeah Mike, you don't really want to learn someone's bad habbits, do you?

Maybe these photos will inspire you to learn How about a 5hr. roadtrip?

Gimps right. It is very easy to take on bad habits & practices from someone who might have good intentions.

I second the VO Tech approach. I did it and I am a pretty decent welder now. The instructor told me I could easily pass the certification test if I wanted to take it, but I just wanted to weld for my own projects. Might still get certified for the hell of it. I think the course I took cost just over $100. And to be perfectly honest, I probably burnt up about $300 in rods during the class, so it is well worth it just to burn up their steel and rods if nothing else.

I 3rd it........... I took Cad but we did Welding and Machining as well...... I wound up with a "Precision Metals" diploma for 2 yras of it in HS..................

Okay, I'll look into Vo Tech courses. But just to make the point - the Vo Tech teacher could have some bad habits as well!

This is true, but you have a better chance at getting the good info from them as you do from a guy off the street. I know for a fact I have developed a few bad welding habits over the years since I took the course. Oh, and I forgot, I took courses at the local VO Tech center and also at the local Community College also. The College was a little more expensive, but the equipment was much better and the instructor was a lot better also. Plus the course I took, you could do stick, then MIG, then TIG and you also got some good torch and plasma cutter training too. I'd look at all the options you have available locally.

Gee, a welding course is what I really need. I only have an old craftsman arc welder, and would like to learn all the different types, like plasma, tig, mig, stick, different ways to cut heavy stock, etc. I have been just getting by with the electric and a grinder to correct my bad beads. I need one for sheet metal , one for heavy stuff. Dont know what I need, but when I watch the professionals it makes me wish I could do it. I am a good engineer/fabricator, but assembling it by welding is my shortcoming.

Here's a few books that helped me greatly:

http://www.amazon.com/Welding-Basic...d_bbs_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196884517&sr=8-4
http://www.amazon.com/Welders-Handb...lene-Welding/dp/1557882649/ref=pd_sim_b_img_1

Wasn't allowed to TIG when I went......... I got in a Fight with a Tablesaw............ I was in a Thermoformed Plastic Cast........... It Didnt; stop me from doing the machining on our final project....LOL

http://www.caboces.org/applications/course/popCourse.asp?Action=ShowCourseDetails&CourseID=83 It's $195 right now.......

Mike:
I hope the welds we made that cold night are still hanging in there on the ambulance. The other posibility is go to the closest welding store and ask them about learning to weld.

I may not grind out my welds to make them Xray proof but I have never had them go bad on me.

If I was not in Korea I would come down or invite you up to weld at my shop. I learned to weld at about 13 because my Dad bought me an old CJ3B that needed a new body. Welded the entire thing up and have loved to weld ever since.

Welding like wood working is exotic because anything you think you can make. It reminds me that we are created in the image of God who created the heavens and the earth.

If you are going to weld anything that even looks like it is galvanized drink lots of milk before you weld. It is best to grind off the zinc first but the residual can still zap you.

I recommend the community college approach. VA community colleges all just got brand new machines that are top of the line. Wherever you take classes, you need to learn oxy acetylene torch welding (not just cutting) first. It really helps to make you understand whats going on. All the other processes are pretty simple to pick up once you are proficient with OA.

A billion years ago when I was a pup I thought I was a welder.. learned how to gas and stick weld from my friends... then the company I worked for sent me to their welding school to learn TIG... the instructor asked if I knew how to weld... I said 'oh hell yes'... he set up two 4" pieces of angle iron on end and made an X of them.. handed me the TIG stinger and said to come get him when they were welded together... he came back an hour later... I was properly humbled and ready to learn....

and for what it is worth... that was 1976.. and today, even though I have not had a TIG stinger in my hand since 1979, I have NO doubt that I could still get it right... but stick welding, that I was never properly trained on, even though I have done it off and on for (OMG) 35 years, and can do a gorilla weld that sticks, I am always left wondering, did I do it RIGHT....

Take the a real course... when you weld something that someones life may depend on some day, you will KNOW it was done right, not guess it may have been...

Hey Mike,

Go out an get a Mig welder and take some night courses and Just have Fun with it......That's what I did......

and Oh yea the 11 years in the body shop did help a little......Hahaha....just kind'n...

seya,

C'dub

There are great books out there that cover theory and settings. No matter where you learn to weld, hands on experiance is the only way you get better. I have never taken any courses and can weld to suit any of my needs including restoring many vehicles. Like Cdub said , go out and by a GOOD mig welder and get to it. I taught my 13 year son to lay a pretty darn good bead in few hours.

I agree with Tyler.

I helped build a couple of trucks for a porta-a-can company I worked for years ago and got comfortable with the stick welding and would love to learn the other arts of welding, but without the equipment, it's would hard to become profecient. I like the others suggestion of taking a course if you wanto weld the right way.
Before working on the trucks, I had developed a lot of bad habits from not understanding how the process is supposed to work.
littlebob

I do welding at work all the time but taught by too many people with too many ways to do it had to find the ways that worked for me .

My wife learned by herself from reading old books, she cant be that bad becuse she was hired at a ship yard a few years back and was welding unsupervised on her hire date.

I do have some military pdf files somewhere that covers welding, If your interested I will have her look for them.