Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm a newbie TIG welder primarily interested in working with aluminum. I would gladly pay $100 - $150 and maybe more for a self-training kit consisting of pieces of aluminum ready to be welded together supported by a DVD or YouTube video showing how to weld these pieces together. Most of the popular joints and positions should be covered. Enough material should be provided to support three or four learning attempts for each joint/position covered. It would be nice if, instead of all the same thickness, different gauges were included to round out the learning experience. Biggest pain I see in putting this together would be cutting the aluminum pieces needed to complete the kit. It would really be cool if an additional package of the materials could be purchased for $25 - $50 to repeat the entire process for those who need it.
Again, I'm a newbie and don't know if I'm overlooking complexities that would make this impractical.
It's one thing to watch Jody do the welds on YouTube and another to do it yourself. Watching Jody WHILE doing it yourself - now that's the ticket!
Thanks for your consideration.
Bill
Everlast 250EX

Hi, Bill. Welcome to the forum.

That's an interesting suggestion. For practice, I buy random cutoffs from the scrap bin at a local metal supply shop, but I'm sure a lot of folks don't have one of those handy. There's probably a small business opportunity to package up practice pieces, if the shipping cost can be managed.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks for the feedback RichardH. In my case, I just got through dropping about $2,000 on the welder and supplies and would gladly pay for a kit that included pieces that exactly matched what was being welded on the video (grade, thickness, size, etc) to get up and running as soon as possible. I've already killed a lot of time watching every video on YouTube, running beads, trying to get the bench set up, building third hands, etc. Maybe the video could include set up as well. It would be well worth the money to me if I could save a day or two or week of the learning process. I've already found that small things make a big difference.
Thanks,
Bill

Fantastic idea!
Small aluminum tool boxes come to mind,....even a diamond plate truck tool box is possible. I worked in a couple of fab shops, and shearing and breaking the metal is the main thing that 'Homer Home Owner' cannot do in a home shop because of the expense.

wawinst wrote:... would gladly pay for a kit that included pieces that exactly matched what was being welded on the video (grade, thickness, size, etc) to get up and running as soon as possible.

I'm liking this idea. More specific than I was thinking, but could lead to a whole tutorial series with a plan and parts list. Maybe not full-on "projects", per se, but as you say, the materials to try the same techniques.

Or even small, very loosely-defined projects, like a third hand. Being able to buy a small kit of parts that included a rod of silicon bronze would be useful because even a 1-pound tube of that stuff is pricey. Or a couple rods of 309L, which isn't as common as I'd expect. I think it'd be neat to work with some coped chrome moly tubing, too.

For larger project kits (like bumpers) there are places like Swag Off-Road, but those aren't suitable for experimenting and failing on.

Cheers,
Richard

Geezis. I though you were going to tell him to get some Hooters girls for his videos.
It's aluminum. Buy a vice, a jigsaw or hacksaw(get both for that pro look) and a hammer.If you were smart enough to own an O/A rig before getting a TIG you can anneal the AL and bend it using the shiithouse door jam as a vertical brake.

wawinst wrote:I'm a newbie TIG welder primarily interested in working with aluminum. I would gladly pay $100 - $150 and maybe more for a self-training kit consisting of pieces of aluminum ready to be welded together supported by a DVD or YouTube video showing how to weld these pieces together. Most of the popular joints and positions should be covered. Enough material should be provided to support three or four learning attempts for each joint/position covered. It would be nice if, instead of all the same thickness, different gauges were included to round out the learning experience. Biggest pain I see in putting this together would be cutting the aluminum pieces needed to complete the kit. It would really be cool if an additional package of the materials could be purchased for $25 - $50 to repeat the entire process for those who need it.
Again, I'm a newbie and don't know if I'm overlooking complexities that would make this impractical.
It's one thing to watch Jody do the welds on YouTube and another to do it yourself. Watching Jody WHILE doing it yourself - now that's the ticket!
Thanks for your consideration.
Bill
Everlast 250EX

Bill,
I have given this some thought for a few days. While I see this as a good idea on the surface, from a business perspective I think it would be very costly (mainly from a time perspective) to get it started. The videos would take a lot of time and effort. I would estimate the package cost might be substantially higher than the $100-150. I believe Jody does a great job already making videos that can be used to teach while you are welding. I do not know how quickly Jody sells his dvd collection when he puts them out, but if it is not as fast as he would like, I might be hesitant on stepping out into something like this. I am not saying this could not be done. If you were asking me to start a business like this, I might jump into it, except for the fact I don't make videos.
Putting the business mind aside it would indeed be great to be able to receive a package with everything ready to go for learning to weld. I do like the idea of various filler materials. This kit could be offered in various stages as well i.e. a kit for fillet welds, tee joints etc and a advanced kit with pipe for 6G. Throw in a TIG Finger and the package would be complete!
This is all just my opinion.
-Jonathan

I'd like to see something to the tune of a flat rate box with say a coupon of pipe or plate, tungsten, and filler rods and the chart with settings etc....

Maybe some modification....

Sound ok?

~John

John,
Something like that would work. It would have to be packaged as to be simple and cost effective. Kits could be offered as Aluminum, Steel and Stainless. You could get into a lot of "kits" thus the reason for figuring out how to get down to, say 3 kits. I believe it would be worth giving a shot. I am a risk taker (not saying others are not) and minus the videos the materials them selves are not that expensive. I just see the videos as time consuming, although once they are made you would be set.
Again my opinion.
-Jonathan

For the OP, You need to learn to cut and fit material anyway.
Heck, aluminum cuts nice with a skill saw, table saw, or wood cutting chop saw.

Buy some metal and get after it man!

MinnesotaDave wrote:For the OP, You need to learn to cut and fit material anyway.
Heck, aluminum cuts nice with a skill saw, table saw, or wood cutting chop saw.

Buy some metal and get after it man!

That is a valid point!!
-Jonathan

Superiorwelding wrote:

MinnesotaDave wrote:For the OP, You need to learn to cut and fit material anyway.
Heck, aluminum cuts nice with a skill saw, table saw, or wood cutting chop saw.

Buy some metal and get after it man!

That is a valid point!!
-Jonathan

Very Valid

I still like @Antorcha's shithouse door jamb comment! I've bent annealed 3003h14 around some odd shit to get the shape how I wanted!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. This is definitely a cool idea.

At first when I saw this post I thought that it sounded like an interesting idea, but that it would be too much time and effort to actually do... then I just realized that if there is a high school welding and/or fab program in your area that it might be a nice way to get some of those kids some experience without and tutelage that would be valuable.

You could bring them in as interns so you don't have to pay them but they get valuable experience and then you could use the package price to cover the materials and your mentoring time.

Just a thought...

Bill