Thread: How difficult is self taught Welding?

To Grahame and others.

Thanks for all your help This is a great site and the Welding info is right up with the best for this mug.

At present I am snowed under with so many projects that require the skill of ten tradesmen which is being performed by a person with little skill.

For me, it is difficult to devote the time necessary to improve my knowledge in welding because I have so many other pressing things to do. When I take time out to do some learning I get the guilt feeling that I have been neglecting other important things that should be done which then makes it hard to concentrate on the job on hand.

It becomes very depressing at times, So much to learn and do, so little time.

ps. Grahame as a teacher will probably be aware of this problem and I guess his answer is to prioritize your time, be more organized and

STAR ( Peter )

Peter,
No one here is pushing you to do anything until it suits you.
Practice is good but not as good as practice with knowledge of the techniques to use and knowing when to use them.

When you are ready, the forum have have found close up photos of the weld ,that the you the learner is practicing,to be more than helpful in assessing the effectiveness of techniques employed.

Bit by bit we are able to refine the process for you.

Truly its not that difficult ,once armed with a technique suitable for what you are doing at the time.
Do what you need to do and when you get some "me time " your friends on the forum will be here.

Cheers
Grahame

Grahame. Thanks for your support.. When I get through a few urgent projects I will try to post a few of my learners welds.

While you guys are here to help the least I can do is push aside some projects and take advantage of your help.

Thanks to all.

One of the instructors at our wood club saw my first effort at welding which is a part of a woodworking project I have had on hold for about twenty years.

He said what's that. My answer is my first welding project. Well, it was stuck together, and sufficient for what I needed. There was silence and he said that if I want to learn how to weld to come over to his place as he was a welding instructor at Newcastle TAFE once.

This guy is a genius, there is nothing he cannot do as far as machinery is concerned. I have seen him pull a lathe down, machine spare parts for our heavy duty wood working gear. He has a University degree and used to work in the Army repairing the big guns out in the field of fire in Vietnam.

I will see him tomorrow and tell him I will take up his offer of help. He is retired so I hope that the offer is for more then one session as he is very popular and very busy at the woodclub at least three days a week.

I will let you know how I get on and ask for help so I can get up to speed to take advantage of his help. This guy does not suffer fools so I hope I can get invited back for a second lesson.

ps.

At least I have had one crack at this caper, thanks to Carl giving up a Sunday morning while he was on the Coast.

Hi Grahame,

New Member after just having completed a 10 week introductory welding course at TAFE. Registered here primarily due to your posts - which were definitive when all else on welding on the Web is vague. I saw a reference from you on another post to "photoghraphic tutorials". How do I find these tutes?

Wannabewelder.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Hi Peter,
Believe it or not there have been a couple of guys that self taught themselves the basics given right here on this forum.

They had a go and just asked specific questions about the difficulties they were having.The guys here with the experience are able help steer them in the right direction with advice and responses on their questions.

Starting out with a specific exercise to do or job to do will be do to set a goal.

Can I suggest obtaining some 6mm plate and running some parallel beads.
Post some digital photos if you can and we can help with constructive criticism.

If you can't do photos give us a description of your problems and we will respond with help.
Rather the dump the whole theory on you at once we can start out with a practice first and relate it back to the theory.

Cheers
Grahame

Hi
Its simple!

Take some quality digital pics of your practice pieces and post them.

Quite a few here can look at the weld pics and advise on what areas need work to improve aspects of your welding.

We have improved fellas with no formal training.Also as much data info as you can provide .
For example "I was using a Cig 180 Transarc welder with a 2.5 weldex rod on 95 amps doing a flat weld butt on 3mm plate ". That and a close up picture is good.

Grahame

I too am new to welding and would like some help,,,,but first how bad is welding gal?? i spent all arvo welding up my new work bench. ground back most weld areas before i started but they was a few i just did on the fly as i was in a hurry to get it together. All roughly taced up and ground back ready for some more practices finishing welds tomorrow.
But has i type i feel a bit ill and tight pains in the cheast as i work up a sweat thinking of all those gal fumes i was in hauling, not to mention the flash burn from only wearing thongs gloves and a helmetand of course me stubbies and king gee singlet
Quit happy with me bench but will i live to use it??

If you are not suffering asthma or other bronchial problems hopefully you will be ok. Welding gal can cause big problems for folk with those ailments.

The symptoms you describe as those of metal flume fever.You might also chuck up a bit but this usually passes with time.If get yourself to the quack.



If you have to weld it again , place a fan behind behind you and blow the fumes away from you. If you have a breathing ailment,avoid welding the gal.

As for the thongs etc ,hopefully the hands on experience with the flash & burns will cause you to revise your PPE ideas & requirements.

Cheers
Grahame

Thanks Grahame, that is simple!

The question for me at the moment is which welder to buy. 45 yo professional who's always wanted to understand welding and finally did the course. At TAFE I found stick welding to be more fulfilling than MIG since I really felt like I was welding - MIG felt a little like painting. I've had about 5 minutes experience with TIG and after blowing holes in thin plate, got some nice looking beads down on some thicker stuff.

Everyone always says, "what do you want to weld?". I'm fairly clear on that. I want to make up an enclosure for my vegie garden using 1.6 mm wall thickness box tubing; I want to weld a dolly wheel and spare tyre support onto my box trailer; and I want to make up some ramps to get my ride-on mower onto the trailer. Apart from that I reckon I'll just be tinkering,

I'm happy to spend up to $1,500 but I don't want to be spending it if I'll never need the extra features. Stick/TIG or MIG? If MIG, I'm already sold on the Lincoln 180c. If Stick/TIG it get's trickier. Cigweld have a nice little 170 amp inverter which is lift TIG. They'll have a 170HF on the shelves any minute now but I'm not sure of the price differential or of the value of the HF start for TIG.

I like to do my research pretty thoroughly before buying equipment such as this and place value on quality. What sorts of specifications should I be concentrating on for the anticipated usage mentioned above? Which brands are repuatable (i.e. how's Esseti; Cigweld; Uni-MIG? I know Fronius/Miller/Lincoln rule the roost). Is DC OK or is AC/DC capability worth paying for? With MIG, I think I've read your posts saying gasless MIG is not great. Is the technology getting better (?) - if gasless MIG gave good results I reckon MIG might be more veratile.

WBW.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Hi
Its simple!

Take some quality digital pics of your practice pieces and post them.

Quite a few here can look at the weld pics and advise on what areas need work to improve aspects of your welding.

We have improved fellas with no formal training.Also as much data info as you can provide .
For example "I was using a Cig 180 Transarc welder with a 2.5 weldex rod on 95 amps doing a flat weld butt on 3mm plate ". That and a close up picture is good.

Grahame

Wannabewelder, interesting topic. I just purchased a CIG MIG today for very much the same thing. My day job is working with computers so welding is something I haven’t got any experience in, however my brother-in-law does. He’s in the metal trades. So I took his advise. I wanted something good but not something that was a waste of money. The one I got was the GIG 135 (it’s in the shed so don’t know the exact model).

Anyway, at the moment it’s running gasless. (BOC isn’t open here in Adelaide till Tuesday). Brother in law came over this afternoon to give some guidance on usage and check it out. Perfect. This will do you quite nice. Bit of a challenge on the 1.6mm tube but with practice, should come out ok. He did it with perfection.

The only negative comment was no fine adjustment of the power. But not a big issue as it’s also adjustable (in a round about way) by adjusting the wire speed which is fine adjustable. (Power has 4 settings using two switches).

One thing. Get the right face mask. The one that comes with the unit is a number 11. With gasless, it’s not quite dark enough. I put my polaroid sunglasses on and it’s ok then. Suggest a 12 for gasless, however told by the expert, when using gas the 11 will be fine as it’s not quite as bright (not burning flux which adds considerable brightness).

Summary – for what I do which is very much the same as you, I’m happy. It’s versatile. Even (if I want to spend the money on the right gas) can do aluminium J

Help with price; I paid $615 today for mine. (GIG MIG TANS 135 Twin)

Hi Wannabe welder,
I think your choice in the type of welder ie Mig or stick comes down to :

Finance - Migs cost more,cost more to run and need much more maintainence .Against that stick welders are a clear winner

Application- the type of work you will do and how often you will need to do it. If you have lots of sheet work to do the Mig - gas type is the go. but you have to pay a cylinder that is unused most of the time.The stick however will cope with 1.6 thickness and the weld on your trailer.


Welder Specs
Mig-gas shielded ,up to 180 amps 15 amp single phase
Stick Inverter to 180 amps 15 amp single phase.



Grahame

Thanks Grahame,

I'm getting the message from enough different sources to say Stick/TIG it is for my particular needs. Inverter to 180 amps, 15 amp single phase. That lines up with the Cigweld 170 Inverter. Is HF start worth chasing for TIG? Is the extra cost of chasing comparable specs in a Fronius/Lincoln/Miller worth thinking about for the knockabout home user?


Smitthhyy,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. There are also plenty who argue for the MIG - which is what makes the decision so difficult! It seems you didn't pay too much going on what I've seen for the same machine, so enjoy.

WBW

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Hi Wannabe welder,
I think your choice in the type of welder ie Mig or stick comes down to :

Finance - Migs cost more,cost more to run and need much more maintainence .Against that stick welders are a clear winner

Application- the type of work you will do and how often you will need to do it. If you have lots of sheet work to do the Mig - gas type is the go. but you have to pay a cylinder that is unused most of the time.The stick however will cope with 1.6 thickness and the weld on your trailer.


Welder Specs
Mig-gas shielded ,up to 180 amps 15 amp single phase
Stick Inverter to 180 amps 15 amp single phase.



Grahame

I would be going for a cheap Ozito or GMC stick welder just to begin with. If it did not suit in that you found you did not like stick welding or just had shortcomings its only a $100 or so to try.Elsewhere in a different thread there's mention of Cigweld Auto darkening helmet which seems great value.
I would avoid Tig as it does not suit beginners.It is harder to learn,slower and a completely different and expensive process.

If you find theres more welding than you thought and you like stick , you can always go up to an inverter model later on.In general stick is far more versatile.

If you discover stick does not suit theres always the Mig option,and the helmet of course will suit the lot.

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

...Elsewhere in a different thread there's mention of Cigweld Auto darkening helmet which seems great value...

They have a few helmets as I have found out. The one I purchased was a fixed 11 at $95. O for the first time, but like I mention ealier, it's not quite dark enough for gasless
MIG (WBW, I know your going for TIG, but I think it's worth making sure you get the right one for the application). They have another model which is variable which gives you a range of darkness.

You need to be able to see the puddle. So make sure what you buy is right for the job and also make sure you don't have a hassle returning it if it's not right for YOU.

WBW, enjoy your TIG. Let me know how it goes. Who knows, I might even trade up one day.