Welding questions

[mikealeus]

I am going to restore/renovate my 1971 FJ40. I know zip,zero,nada about welding but expect that I will need to learn. What types of welding should I try to learn? How do I learn i.e. books,tapes,dvd,etc.? How much will equipment cost and suggestions on where to buy. Any and all help is appreciated since I am clueless. I did do some arc welding in metal shop class about 35 years ago but remember virtually nothing about it other than the rod kept sticking to what I was welding. I expect I wiil need to do some body work as well as mechanical enhancement.
Thank you.

 

[brian]

nite school at your local vo-tech.

you have many questions, they'll all get answered there.

 

[honk]

Agreed. Look to see if the local high school has adult ed programs, or check out what's offered at the local junior college.

You probably ought to concentrate in mig welding - it's the easiest to learn, equipment can be cheap, and there are several levels that depend on what thicknesses you want to weld.

 

[krzyabncanuck]

I learned from trial and error ( more from error ) but i would agree with the school part, much easier. And then someone can tell you right then what you are doing wrong and can help you on the spot to correct it.

 

[riverliver]

Buy A Miller "90" (they're Fairly Cheap) Get Some Scrap Metal And Throws Some Beads Down. Look At Other Welds On Anything Layin' Round. I'll Admit A "90" Won't Do 3/8" Metal, But It Will Get Hot Enough For Any Shadetree Guys. Tech Schools.....we Don't Need No Tech Schools...........

 

[cruiserhead]

Home Depot has a book in the welding section.It covers everything and will be very helpfull to novices and experts.Buy it,read it then get a welder and practice,practice,practice.I`d give you the name of the book but,it has been loaned out to a friend.How to weld like a pro,I think.

 

[TLCA_Paul]

Mig is fine for starters. but if you realy want to do the sheet metal right you should use tig, or gas. The mig will make a hot, hard weld. Pulling alot of stress into the metal causing warping. The tourch is a softer weld that is easier to manipulate into shape, bump down the high spots.

 

[brian]

Mig is fine for starters. but if you realy want to do the sheet metal right you should use tig, or gas. The mig will make a hot, hard weld. Pulling alot of stress into the metal causing warping. The tourch is a softer weld that is easier to manipulate into shape, bump down the high spots.

a torch will also twist the wee out of sheetmetal......there's a reason why you don't see much oxy/ac welding any more.

 

[White Shark]

This is one of the best instructional books for the beginner to intermediate welder. He has techniques, practical exercises, and has some funny stories. The book is broken into oxy/acet, mig, and tig. The Author also covers spot welding, torch cutting, plasma, and other subjects. He also covers under represented but usefull skills such as brazing and soldering.

I have purchased many of these to give as gifts for friends who are new to welding. Home Depot and Lowes stock the book, but Amazon and other book sellers will have the book too.

Read the reviews. The book is great and highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...002-8920612-3953619?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

 

[72FJ40LandCruiser]

I second the class. Many vo-techs offer various welding classes for $cheap$. I went to school for auto body and even the instructor there wasn't very good welding sheet metal. I had to teach myself and then later on I took a welding class. TIG is what I consider best because you can independently control how fast you feed your filler rod and also your heat, but I've had no training in it. Oxy/acetelyne is what some of the old timers use, and many of them can do it very, very well on thin sheet metal. It takes a lot of practice to get it down right for thin metal. People who say that it warps too much probably aren't using the correct technique. MIG is what I use(d) because I had to buy a reasonably priced welder and I needed something that was good for everything that I will need it to do. I have a MillerMatic 175, and it will weld the thinnest sheet metal I need to, and will weld up to 1/4" in one pass, though a good root pass and cap would probably work best when welding that thick of metal. I took a class for national standards pipe welding so I could get some experience using stick, and I loved it. I loved taking some 6" or so 1/4" wall pipe, beveling it nicely, and laying down a perfect root and subsequent passes and cap. I'd step back and take a look at it and the almost seamless tie ins with no undercut and almost get wood. The smell of the rod burning, smell of the leathers, the heat from the weldment, and while your welding there is nothing else on your mind. All you're doing is concentrating on the weld and everything else that's caused you stress/frustration throughout the week is left behind. Very relaxing. Man I miss having access to my welder...

You can get some very good sheet metal welds with MIG if you take your time and use the right technique. Be sure you also have a hammer and dolly set so that you can do some finishing metal work after welding, though. Welding is a LOT of fun, and the satisfaction of building your own stuff is awesome. The welding class will be well worth it, as would an auto body class if you plan on doing your own body work (why not?!).

 

[TLCA_Paul]

Sorry I may have confused myself too in the speedy reply. Should have read Tig tourch. or Tig. Gas is te wat it was done originaly before tig was invented. In the right hands it can do wonders.

But yea I agree if you have never welded before and want to know what you are doing fast. Take a few classes. I been doing this for 18 years. and I passed my first certification test 2 years ago. That was only stick. I got a way to go still.

 

[brian]

. I loved taking some 6" or so 1/4" wall pipe, beveling it nicely, and laying down a perfect root and subsequent passes and cap.

that would be sch80


i'll be dealing with some 3" 80 on monday.
moving a condensate return line.

 

[72FJ40LandCruiser]

that would be sch80


i'll be dealing with some 3" 80 on monday.
moving a condensate return line.

Schedule 80 shmatey... Been a few years for me.

 

[cruiserhead]

This is one of the best instructional books for the beginner to intermediate welder. He has techniques, practical exercises, and has some funny stories. The book is broken into oxy/acet, mig, and tig. The Author also covers spot welding, torch cutting, plasma, and other subjects. He also covers under represented but usefull skills such as brazing and soldering.

I have purchased many of these to give as gifts for friends who are new to welding. Home Depot and Lowes stock the book, but Amazon and other book sellers will have the book too.

Read the reviews. The book is great and highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...002-8920612-3953619?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

That`s the one.Thanks for posting it White Shark.

 

[mikealeus]

Thanks everybody. Not sure which route I'm going to take since new welding classes won't be available until the fall. May just get a welder, a book and practice as some of you have suggested.

 

[honk]

When you're deciding which type of welding to begin with look at the totals of what you'll need to buy for each. one of the aspects seldom mentioned is that each type of welding requires it's own consumables. The gas used for mig in steel is different than the one used in mig in aluminum, for example, and there is a myriad of choices that have to be made when considering starting to tig weld, or weld different materials and thickness of material. Besides cluttering your shop/garage with gas bottles, rods, wire, and such it gets downright expensive beyond the initial outlay for a welder and helmet. This was a problem I had with Richard Finch books (above). He jumps from technique to technique, even talking about some that are as much as esoteria without mentioning the cash outlay required as you flit from one to another like a butterfly sampling flowers. Not to worry though, he'll have you thinking that you can build yourself an airplane in a couple of hours to fly down to the welding supply store.

Oh, and start gathering scrap metal wherever you can TODAY. Paying for good steel just to practice with is discouraging because you're going to waste steel.

 

[TLCA_Paul]

Just don't colect galvanized for practice! I don't recoment galv for welding, but if you have to you can. just got to grind the crap out of it, and not breath.

 

[72FJ40LandCruiser]

Oh, and start gathering scrap metal wherever you can TODAY. Paying for good steel just to practice with is discouraging because you're going to waste steel.

This is a very good point. I used to live near a scrap yard and the lady there would let me go dig around and gather up whatever I wanted as long as I didn't hurt myself or get in their way. I think I paid $.15/pound and there was some excellent scrap out there. I got a 4ftx4ft piece of 1/8" sheet that was perfect once, along with a 2ft by 3 ft piece of 3/8" plate that I used to make the top of a welding table for small projects. Tons and tons of square and round tubing, too, with no signs of rust on any of it. There was a place that manufactured Dixon lawn mowers in that town so there was always a lot of fresh scrap to dig. Some places won't let you poke around in there because of liability issues, though.

 

[TLCA_Paul]

I got $7 in my front bumper. That includes the winch mount that someone let me cut off a truck before it went to th scrap yard.

 

[e-man]

I have that book mentioned and I was left wanting.

I bought an OXY/Acetylene outfit and I am scared to death of the bottles. I read in that book athat Acetylene is unstable above 15PSI without some sort of catalyst that is in the bottle. I accidentally turned the regulator the wrong way one day and ended up with way more than 15PSI in my regulator. I safely freed the gas into the yard but It freaked me out.

It also said never to hold the bottle horizontally. The gas supply place I bought the welding outfit from stuck the bottles into the trunk of my Honda Accord for me (laying down obviously). I of course didn't learn the horizontal thing until I got the gas home.

I also read all kinds of stuff about oil getting on the oxygen bottle and fire and explosions and that sort of thing. I do in fact own a 30 year old land cruiser and oil seems to come from everywhere possible on the thing.

I was able to succesfully weld some metal together with the OXY/AC stuff, but I haven't used it in many months now as I am just too darned scared of it.

I am sure my fear is somewhat irrational as there are plenty of red necks out there that have been welding with this stuff for years and I just can't recall ever hearing about anyone blowing themselves up (keep your stories to yourself if you have em). I will however always maintain a healthy respect both for the blazing hot fire coming out of the end of the welding thing and the flammable gas that is compressed to 2500PSI in a small brown bomb in my garage right next to the slightly bigger green bomb.