Welding instruction/school

[luvmud]

I am the new owner of a wire feed welder. (death in the family)
I was wondering if anyone knows of a school to teach the hobbyist some welding skills. Not looking for a career change, just safety and serviceable welds.. I probably won't be building a cage but that trailer fender I've been looking at for two years is a gonna get it.

[Cebby]

CCAC has programs.

[Dragonslayer]

Instead of blowin money on schoolin just to be a hobbist, just pick up some scrap steel here and there and just keep practicing on it. LOT's CHEAPER(actually free, xcept for wire and electricity). Dat's what I do. You can pick up a welding guide for about 15 buck's.

[beat1078]

I would venture for something like this a book can't teach you everything, but I have been wrong once or twice before on some things.

[OverkillZJ]

Instead of blowin money on schoolin just to be a hobbist, just pick up some scrap steel here and there and just keep practicing on it. LOT's CHEAPER(actually free, xcept for wire and electricity). Dat's what I do. You can pick up a welding guide for about 15 buck's.

School can teach you things books can't, unless you already know English, which from that post I question.

I never took classes, someone on the bored here helped me get my welds good enough to trust, but I'm no expert by any means - I still want to take classes and have been considering CCAC.

[Dragonslayer]

School can teach you things books can't, unless you already know English, which from that post I question.

I never took classes, someone on the bored here helped me get my welds good enough to trust, but I'm no expert by any means - I still want to take classes and have been considering CCAC.


UH HUH, go ahead Matt. I see ONE spelling error. :flipoff2:

[jim91303]

i am cheap so ..... i say heck with schooling.
clean the metal good, if thick metal being welded bevel the edges for but welds,and make 2 or 3 passes over lapping welds. thin to thick welding keep wire/rod on thicker metal. preheat thicker metel. never back track over a weld ...it will make the weld contaminated and could make it weak. practice practice practice.

agree with the book idea ... will help with some things. i have a friend who took a welding class and he said they where more interested in pritty welds then strong welds.

thats my 2 cents on it.

[limegreentj]

what kind of welder...we can be of better help to coach you if we knew what it was

[trailerrails]

I did the CCAC route, it was not too expensive and they taught me a lot of stuff I would have never figured out on my own.

[Jeepin'Jones]

Start welding classes Monday. The union hall is offering some classes and I figured I would take them. The first six weeks are stick welding but I got to learn somewhere.

[Super Scout]

I would be interested in a welding class...I hate books

[RalphDogg]

take the classes, they help. community college also has night classes, thats how my dad learned to weld. before taking the calsses, his self taught welds were awful now thew are awesome.

[Nothingface5384]

ccac is good, though the brazing/welding class cost like 300 bones though..

we did oxy cutting, welding, brazing..stick welding with all the basic joints and posistions

It may take a little more grasping if youre left handed like me ,as you have to reverse everything ha
got a mig now.. so using what i learned from class to do mig

the main thing is getting comfertable with how you hold the gun
penetration is easy once you know the range of amps per thickness of plating..
cosmetics of the weld takes practice, once you get the correct work angle/speed/distance you're golden

[Nothingface5384]

good thing is you may weld over top of youre welds/passes, and for joints...if youre root pass isnt the greatest or even if its great, you may do filler passes
this is a good way to to learn what type of angle is needed to blend with the root to make it look like one weld

[oldschoolyotaguy]

school only gets you so far and only teaches you what you put into it...the thing with welding, is it can be taught, but sometimes really vague, my school pounded us with theory and then a shit ton of hands on... and everything was industrial based, such as 1/4" plate was for the intro classes, and after those, 1/2" and bigger was the norm, and everything was done according to code (aws and api), which was a bitch for most that were new to it, but it paid off, because you knew how important your 10" test piece becomes when its 10" of a 100' seam, holding back 30,000 psi, get my drift??

plus all of the teachers were older than dirt, could run beads better than you could draw them, a few would sneak in your both, put their arms around you and help you get everything right, sounds gay, but it really helps and they all had years upon years of experience....THAT'S where schooling can become NOT worth the cash... places like ccac require 5-7 years of welding experience, wow, get a joe schmoe who welds sheet metal everyday to teach kids to weld plate/pipe, they might have the "idea" and "experience", but you gotta watch out for teachers who bullshit their way through


if you enroll in a welding class, know who your instructor is going to be, ask about his experience, ask where he/her has worked, years on the job, processes they've run... might sound crazy to you, but you'd be surprised how many people i've run into that "went to welding school", just as i have, and the cope in my lip would hold over what they would lay down, and most could be blamed for shitty education, which in turn didn't help their understanding of the process, WHICH IN TURN makes for booger welds... and there's a TON more theory to it than people think, and understanding that theory makes up for it under the hood, because corrections can be made before it's too late and a failure arises...

but IMHO, buy a couple books, with lots of pictures and possibly dvd's, study them, buy a small (or larger mig machine, perhaps a multi-process machine) and just use it, clean the material properly, get used to how the machine reacts to different settings and how to adjust it/actions.... the more time you have under the hood, 9 times out of 10, you'll produce better work

[oldschoolyotaguy]

good thing is you may weld over top of youre welds/passes, and for joints...if youre root pass isnt the greatest or even if its great, you may do filler passes
this is a good way to to learn what type of angle is needed to blend with the root to make it look like one weld


not always good, because welding over a shitty root is like duck taping over rust.... when root passes are less than sufficient, when suffice able (failures can arise in some metals due to too much heat input), grind it out and do it over, plus, after having to take the time to grind it out will piss you off enough to NOT screw it up again and doing it over will more than likely make it turn out way better....repetition is key with learning welding processes

[pittim]

places like ccac require 5-7 years of welding experience, wow, get a joe schmoe who welds sheet metal everyday to teach kids to weld plate/pipe, they might have the "idea" and "experience", but you gotta watch out for teachers who bullshit their way through

I'm taking a welding class right now at CCAC and the teacher spent 40 years in the millwright union and is a certified welder. He retired in the summer (turns out him and my uncle were in the same apprentice class and retired at the same time) and I guess he's just teaching the class to pass time.

I kinda wish I didnt have to start out with stick and go right to MIG because I dont see myself welding as a profession but more as a hobby. I think the CCAC courses are more geared towards people that want to do it as a profession.

I'll probably just buy a MIG welder and play around with it, since there are a few courses until I could take the MIG/TIG course.

[limegreentj]

truth is, there is an insane difference in industrial mig/flux welding, and single pass mig/flux fabrication, industrial stuff is more difficult, because its multiple pass stuff.

stick welding is an awesome way to weld, its simple, and you can weld anything with stick and the right rod, i used to actually prefer stick over mig, when i was younger

[oldschoolyotaguy]

very true, but being somewhat flexible with processes is nice, plus after you run mig, tig, and stick, you'll have a better grasp on how the whole welding process works, and somethings you pick up and learn from one process, will help you improve others... no matter how i phrase that, its vague, haha but an example would be, a way you might manipulate a mig gun doing vertical fillets, would/could/should improve your stick electrode manipulation on the same position....

its little things like that, that get overlooked in it that kinda bugs me, which is why i think education is key... cuz i've come across a lot of people who "know how to weld" and my right way is not needed, or "it'll be fine this way".... although it "might" work, its not right and there IS a certain way to weld things, and when i mention education to back up my stand, i somehow get made out to be an ass, so no more help for those pricks! haha but lemme check around at what i can find online, textbook-wise, and ill post up..

an hour or so every evening of reading for a a month or so would't kill ya, and then you would have some theory in your head before you start burnin wire, then, once you start, you'll have actual text to refer to for problems/improvements

[steveg0690]

I kinda wish I didnt have to start out with stick and go right to MIG because I dont see myself welding as a profession but more as a hobby. I think the CCAC courses are more geared towards people that want to do it as a profession.


I started with an old stick welder and I am very glad that I did. Stick welding IMO takes a lot more skill and practice than a mig. It made it very easy to learn mig welding later on. Also i've seen people that have a mig only and while their welds look ok, they won't hold any type of pressure. Going from a stick you get to understand and see what good penetration looks like, so when you get to start using a mig you know what to look for.

I've only been welding for about 9yrs, and I am completely self taught. But I know that anything that I weld, will hold.

[RedRaider]

I'm taking a welding class right now at CCAC and the teacher spent 40 years in the millwright union and is a certified welder. He retired in the summer (turns out him and my uncle were in the same apprentice class and retired at the same time) and I guess he's just teaching the class to pass time.

John Ginther is a great teacher there. he knows his stuff
Cody Stroud is another cool teacher there

[Jeepin'Jones]

I'm taking a welding class through the ICD program at work while I'm laid off. Just took my Vertical and overhead tests. Next week I start pipe. It's all geared toward industrial applications too. The instructors are retired Iron Workers and they seem to now their stuff. A Lot of the people in my class got called back to work, so for the last couple of weeks I've been the only person in class. It's been nice. I been able to pick their brains without them having to help other students.