Best way to learn how to weld?

[GLTHFJ60]

Auto darkening helps with the start but I find a light as close as possible to the weld is best, even with an auto darkening. Shadows are a bitch. Just know that the light will get splatter, so it shouldn't be your most expensive one, lol.

Keep it up man. Two pieces of general advice:

Clean tight shiny and bright. That's how your weldments should be before you start.

Practice makes perfect. It'll never be good at the start, but if you focus on your technique, you can be as good as a pro.


I've mulled around the idea of having a welding "tech day" hamom to present the basics, teach good habits and let people practice. I'm not a certified welder, but @hman913 is, and maybe I could get him out. Think there'd be interest in that kind of thing? Like a mini crash course in welding.

 

[Hokie LX]

Yes.

 

[JohnVee]

I've mulled around the idea of having a welding "tech day" hamom to present the basics, teach good habits and let people practice. I'm not a certified welder, but @hman913 is, and maybe I could get him out. Think there'd be interest in that kind of thing? Like a mini crash course in welding.

Great idea! The CLCC guys have educational tech days every year or two. Past ones that I can recall have been on 12v electrical or HAM and are well attended; they rent a space with tables/chairs/projector/etc but that's for stuff that isn't as hands on as a welding thing.

 

[hman913]

Auto darkening helps with the start but I find a light as close as possible to the weld is best, even with an auto darkening. Shadows are a bitch. Just know that the light will get splatter, so it shouldn't be your most expensive one, lol.

Keep it up man. Two pieces of general advice:

Clean tight shiny and bright. That's how your weldments should be before you start.

Practice makes perfect. It'll never be good at the start, but if you focus on your technique, you can be as good as a pro.


I've mulled around the idea of having a welding "tech day" hamom to present the basics, teach good habits and let people practice. I'm not a certified welder, but @hman913 is, and maybe I could get him out. Think there'd be interest in that kind of thing? Like a mini crash course in welding.

 

[Beams37]

I would encourage anyone in the Triangle looking to learn welding to check out Shop space. They have classes for all kinds of metal working, including welding. Great shop, great people. I was there once and a guy who had taken a few classes brought in his Amazon welding kit and they helped him dial it in as best as possible. Worth the time, cost, dive.

 

[lastresort576]

Life has been crazy lately... we were out of our house for almost a year for some water damage and remodeling but we're mostly settled back in now.
At work, we get a day off around our birthday so I took today off. One of my priorities was to try my hand at some welding. I went Linde this morning and got some gas then grabbed some steel pieces from Home Depot.

it certainly isn't pretty but i started to get the hang of it. Here's one of my final passes. I know it's horrible but you should have seen my first few

I beat on it and tried to pry it apart and it held ok although I wouldn't trust it for anything on my vehicles yet. Looking forward to trying some more projects though...

View attachment 3634040

the brackets are for some steel targets and should hold up for what they're for.




I think I'm going to shop around for a new helmet, I was really having a difficult time seeing and I think a lot of that is just having a cheap helmet

Did you setup your voltage and wire speed to match the chart for the thickness of the metal? The charts are usually pretty spot on from what Ive found, only making slight adjustments to speed. I feel like with this weld, a little more heat and wire speed/faster gun work to get your puddle to flow into the joint more vs sitting on top of it would help...but if its holding being beat on, thats mostly what matters, so awesome job!

When I switched to an auto darkening helmet from a cheap flip up, my welding results were night and day. As a few have already said being able to see your start is imho a huge factor in a successful run. I on occasion do the light method as well, but 9/10 i dont remember to grab it until after im already in some funky position, and oh well haha.
As for your weld, what pattern are you moving the gun in? Theres a few different ways..Keeping a consistent angle and method for each run will help tidy up your bead; Drawing C's, Drawing circles.
I personally like to draw circles and push the puddle forward. I just feel like drawing circles keeps my movement and angle more consistent as i move across the joint. But definitely practice push and pull because sometimes location of what youre welding dictates how you move the gun.

Listening to your arc is just as important as as what you see. You want that uninterrupted ZZZZZZZZZZ. When you start getting ZZZ ZZZZZZ Z Z ZZZZ Z zzzz is when your ear comes into play. It could be material prep, ground, wire about to run out, or as I have found a compromised liner whether its dirty or broken.. once you get an idea of technique down, ugly welds are often due to poor prep and inconsistent gun movement...Both things im guilty of...quite often.

I use a Hobart auto arc 130 110v with Lincoln fluxcore wire. The splatter is honeslty so minimal, I dont see a huge need to switch the machine to gas. The Hobart machines are great. Theyre very similar to Millers, as Miller is the parent company but with some cheaper parts. Plastic hinges vs metal. Things like that.

 

[Pick]

Thanks for the feedback... I watched some more videos this weekend and agree that my wire speed should have been higher.

One of the videos I watched said that gun manipulation wasn't really necessary and that a straight line is better. That wasn't my experience though; my straight-line welds weren't gluing pieces together and it wasn't until I started doing some circles across the two work pieces that they were sticking. DEFINITLEY need some more practice... I have everything set-up now so going out to the garage in the evening should be very doable now.
Love the recommendation from @Beams37 for Shop Space; that is only a couple of miles from my office. I'll try to get a class or two this summer.

 

[lastresort576]

Thanks for the feedback... I watched some more videos this weekend and agree that my wire speed should have been higher.

One of the videos I watched said that gun manipulation wasn't really necessary and that a straight line is better. That wasn't my experience though; my straight-line welds weren't gluing pieces together and it wasn't until I started doing some circles across the two work pieces that they were sticking. DEFINITLEY need some more practice... I have everything set-up now so going out to the garage in the evening should be very doable now.
Love the recommendation from @Beams37 for Shop Space; that is only a couple of miles from my office. I'll try to get a class or two this summer.

I think I watched the same video about zero gun movement other than forwards. I think it could work, but you gotta go a tad bit slower. Either way, I only had marginal success with that method and found myself running circles again.
I’ve found that Welding can be a lot of fun. There’s lots of variables but once you get it down, there’s nothing like hearing that consistent zzzzzz and then getting to admire the work afterwards.