Which Welding Course?

Robie

I'm thinking I would start to learn to weld in 2007. Never done any welding at all...nada.
I find times I need to fabricate something from angle iron or other shapes and always pay someone to do it.
The local tech college offers 2 courses: one for basic welding with this as the description...
and this one, labeled MIG/TIG welding...
Where's a good place to start?
Thanks.

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mdshunk

I'd take them both. I took a long-term welding night class 3 years ago, and it started out with oxy and stick, and worked up to MIG and TIG. I'd highly recommend that you learn in that order, and not skip to MIG and TIG.

tzzzz216

I would think stick weldiing is all you would need , for just light fab work but later on I would take the mig and tig classes also .

JustaFramer

Learn stick and oxy first. These are the basic's as stated. If you are fabbing angle iron. You won't need to know Tig or mig. Now if you want to weld sheet metal and aluminum. Then you will need tig and mig exp.

If you want to purchase a set up you can buy a arc/tig machine in one box.

I also have welding class on the agenda for this year. I learned a little bit of arc in shop. But that was years ago. And I still can't get oxy cutting down. I have to dodge the pop's of moulton steel.

Driftwood

still weld, was certified in the pile drivers union. best buy would be a 220
transformer welder. [buzz box] learn 7018. make sure machine has D.C.
GOOD LUCK driftwood

doubleaction

MIG is the easiest to do. But you will want to learn ARC and OXY first.

747

Depends on where your getting the training. If its at a Junior college they might have prerequistes before you can go up the welding ladder. Take a good look at there requirements for the welding courses you would like to take. You just can't hop into a mig or tig welding class generally speaking without experience. Welding came a long way since i messed around with it. My father and his brothers up at the garage had a dc welder back in the day and also a cutting torch.

joasis

Like building, foundations help. Stick welding teaches the fundamentals to arc control and movement. Sure, you can do without it....be like all these guys that claim to be machinists, when they only know computers....a manual machine? OMG! I know a lot of guys can do beautiful fab work wig a mig, but hand them a stinger (electrode clamp) and regular welding rod, they are lost. And mig is not the preferred method of doing repair work..if you are fixing stuff that is broken/cracked, etc.

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Teetorbilt

As said before, start at the beginning. I took the one offered at the local CC.

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747

Thats the kind i can do regular welding rod and clamp on to the surface . dc welder. I don't know anything about new school welding like tig or mig only old school lay a bead.

john elliott

A lot of the advice on this thread is perfectly good if you want to learn all the different types of welding thet there are, but it is similar to saying you shouldn't learn to drive a car with auto transmission until you can drive stick shift. If you are only ever going to drive an auto then you simply don't need to learn the old fashioned way of doing it

So it all depends on what sort of welding you want to do. If you are only going to weld car chassis then all you need is a mig for the welding and a plasma cutter for the cutting, no need to bother with the arc and gas at all

John

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ATH

Here's my welding experience ...

I took a welding course from one of the local Vocational/Technical high schools (it met in the evenings once a week) with two of my friends. Everyone in the class had different ideas of what they wanted to get out of it. One guy was going to get certified in pipe welding. He did that for the entire time the class met. One of my friends wanted to weld aluminum and so he sped through the stick and MIG welding as quickly as possible so that he could play with the TIG machines for the rest of the time. I was more interested in building and repairing using iron and steel, so I spent most of the time on the MIG machine and brought in some materials to build a shop cart and a housing for an air cleaner I had wanted to build for my shop. My other friend built a pair of ramps for changing his oil, etc. The instructor did some introductions and then let everyone go off on their own. If you needed/wanted to learn something new, you just asked.

We got to learn some stick welding, MIG, TIG, oxy-acetylene brazing and cutting, and even got to do some carbon-arc gouging. That last one was very impressive, but something I'm not likely to do again.

I inherited a 220V stick welder from my father-in-law and purchased a 220V MIG welder. I've never plugged in the stick welder. One of the problems is that the rods tend to absorb moisture which adversely affects their performance. I am told that the same thing can happen to the MIG flux-core wire. That's why most welding shops have rod ovens. I use regular wire and a shielding gas on my MIG.

I also bought a small oxy-acetylene torch (called burgler tanks) that has worked well for brazing, but I am more likely to use my recip saw or metal chop saw to cut metal as it is a cleaner cut and is more precise for straight cuts.

I would love to get a plasma cutter, but I haven't been able to work that one into the budget ... yet.

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sheeter

As a welder, I can tell you that you should take the basic class first to learn how to control the heat. That is why welders have ranges of amps and volts, to get the heat right so that you can penetrate the steel that you are working with. I see a lot of guys who think they can weld because their beads look neat, however, put it under pressure and it will snap. The basic processes are FMAW and GMAW. If you really want an idea of where to start, purchase the Welder's Handbook at Lowes or Home Depot. If your welding projects for yourself, purchase a Lincoln Mig welder for $500 and some flux-cored .035 wire. If your going to weld professionally, take the class, buy a Miller Trailblazer for $5,000, and good luck.

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flamingskull

When your cutting with oxy-acet pull torch tip back from the steel a little bit further. This should help with the popping.

flamingskull

Take as much as you can. I just finished college with my A.A.S, majored in Industrial Welding Technology. Learned great stuff and had a blast. It took two years but was worth every minute of it.

Magnettica

I'm thinking about starting the welding class offered at the local Vo-Tech because theres not enough people signed-up for the electrical courses to get them going. The problem I have is the last thing I want to do after a long, hot day is put on the fancy welders helmet and heat up pieces of steel. Although I want to learn it as to making it easier to mount strut on steel columns to mount panels. I think I'll go with a carpentry course instead.

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flamingskull

Once you get a plasma you will probably hardly use the torch anymore. Most likely for thick stuff 1-inch or thicker. I bought a plasma, Now the only time I use my torches is to color steel.

TempestV

until you have to move some manual vehical out of the way or are taking a road trip with a friend and his manual, and look like an idiot because you don't know how to drive.


Same goes for Stick welding and oxyfuel. I had to do my oxyfuel welds in welding class in highschool, and I thought it was great fun. Even though I usually use my wirefeed for most repair welding that I do, my current welding intrest lies with increasing my knowlege of oxyfuel. Oxyfuel lets you weld stuff that you can't touch with mig. All the WWII chrome molly airframes were welded with oxyfuel. I have an old road bike frame I'm rebuilding, which all the welds on it were done with oxyfuel.
stick welding allows you to change the type of electrode for the work you are doing. different rods ment for different strengths, locations of the weld, ect. mig, in all likelyhood would just run the same wire for all that. Stainless steel? there ain't even any point in wondering about the mig, but there are arc electrodes for it. the list goes on and on.