[Farmwelding]

I figured that I should start a thread where if anyone wants they can put heir story about how/why they got into welding. I'll start I guess.

I'm just in high school right now but it would take a massive force to change my mind about welding. I started welding when I was 12 during a summer school class. The teacher showed us the machine and have fun pretty much. I went to my uncles farm and did some welding for him. I took some metals and engineering classes and decided that mechanical engineering was a good plan. I wanted to design farm equipment. My uncle then bought a newer combine and I began helping more with equipment maintenance and realized that these guys who design them don't know about the equipment anywhere. There was a lot of flaws. (Any engineers on here, don't take offense you've at least tried welding and know stuff.) I mean grease seeks that have to be reached by a 6'4" guy only if it is turned right or a flat spot in the grain tank. I came back to school the next fall took another metals class and after looking at farming careers and policy in government I realized that welding is the better option and so I began learning more about welding. Joined the forum watched some videos and began going to my technical school through my high school and learning everything I could. I've decided I'll try to get into welding and repairing fame and construction equipment and then open my own small repair shop for the weekend and after hours.

[sedanman]

I started in general because I was poor and could not pay anyone to do anything for me. I started tig because l needed to modify my own motorcycle fuel tank and didn't trust anyone who work for a price l could afford. Basically, l weld because I'm poor.

[homeboy]

I don't know if it got me started but I remember the first welder I saw. My dad was a bit of a tinkerer and built -modified and repaired a lot of stuff on the farm when I was a kid. Sometime in the 50s he built a welder ( probably one of the first in the area -people still went to the blacksmith for repairs etc.) out of an old aircraft generator. It was a huge thing mounted on a two wheeled cart that hooked to a tractor and was run by the pto. Voltage was adjusted with the tractor rpm. I guess it worked fairly well and he did a lot of fab. work at home and for the neighbours. He was the type who was always trying to figure out a widget that would make the work a little easier and more efficient. I never realized until years later how many things I had picked up from him without realizing it at the time.

[exnailpounder]

I remember my dad bringing home an old stick welder when I was like 8. I wanted to build a go-cart so I figured out how to turn the machine on and I cut some 1/2" EMT to length and started welding it together. I didnt' have a bender so I bent a few pieces over my knee and realized I was never going to finish it so I hauled it outside,,,,highschool I loved metal shop, ag shop, building trades...all the shop classes ...I was a certified stick welder when I left school in '81...don't know what I was certified for but certified at something nonetheless Met a guy through Scuba diving and went to work welding up fast lube center equipment and installing the lube systems....Got sick of carpentry after getting hurt in '08 and opened my current business the same year at my wifes goading. Metal good....wood bad. Thats the highly abbreviated version but all I want to do is weld..if I never cut another 2x4 I would die happy.

[MosquitoMoto]

Good thread idea!

Grew up in the country with dirt bikes, tools, freedom. In the city now but can't take the country out of the boy, as they say.

I am a writer but have a life long love of motorcycles...riding, building, racing, modding. Got to a stage where I was racing and there was a constant need for aluminium repairs or builds such as subframes, brackets, case guards, hangers. Simply wanted to do it myself rather than pay for it. Bought an ACDC Tig and the love affair quickly blossomed. I now weld anything I can. Bike stuff, steel, aluminium, arty crafty stuff, car part repairs.

I absolutely love the fact that learning the basics of welding and fabrication has taken me beyond just 'bolting stuff together' and given me the capability to make, modify, customise, change. Going beyond 'bolt-on-modifications' has been the best thing I ever did.



Kym

[exnailpounder]

This is going to be a great thread...very cool stories already. This may top the Rogues Gallery thread.

[MosquitoMoto]

Agreed, Exnail.

Something to add...how mad does it make you when you see projects on the Instructables website excitedly titled 'Workshop thingamajig project - NO WELDING!'

1) What, because welding is evil or particularly difficult?

2) Ever notice that the stuff that involves no welding always looks like flimsy shite cobbled together by cave hippies?

I realise maybe not everyone wants to weld or can afford to weld, but why get so excited about NOT welding?



Kym

[PeteM]

Really nice idea for a thread.

I started working for a contractor at the Newport News shipyard as general labor. Just about everything we did was made of steel, and I guess I had a talent for cutting, grinding, and banging things into shape, but not allowed to weld on anything for lack of experience or certification. I became the welders helper for just about everything. The welders were all pretty cool and I really liked and respected what they did (except the one, he needed his ass beat.) and we had a good time getting in to some really neat stuff. Plus that was getting to see the construction of the USS Ronald Reagan and a few other things. That was incredible, with a lot of fine welding and some true mega machines bringing it all together.
I left that job to come back home (pittsburgh) and eventually started working for a welding tooling,repair, and manufacturing company. There I did sales, serviced tools, and got into automated and robotic welding systems repair. In my spare time I'd also started running some beads, and started helping to set up mock ups and demos of different types of machines. At that point I was pretty much hooked on welding. I parted ways with that company but moved on with welding and fabrication from there. It's been a really cool journey so far.

[exnailpounder]

Agreed, Exnail.

Something to add...how mad does it make you when you see projects on the Instructables website excitedly titled 'Workshop thingamajig project - NO WELDING!'

1) What, because welding is evil or particularly difficult?

2) Ever notice that the stuff that involves no welding always looks like flimsy shite cobbled together by cave hippies?

I realise maybe not everyone wants to weld or can afford to weld, but why get so excited about NOT welding?



Kym

The no welding crap popped up because a majority of todays "man" can't even change a flat tire and walk around looking more like a girl than a man, They all walk like they have a butt plug in or something. How the Hell can you teach something like that to weld? Maybe we're welders because we are men doing mens work.

[Olivero]

I agree with Nail, Better to leave welding to men who won't worry about snapping a nail or having the grinder attack you

Good idea for thread,

I started out a couple of years ago just because I needed to, my job is to maintain a commercial kitchen and some other stuff, but mainly a kitchen, as kitchens goes, its all stainless or aluminum ,some steel. So as these guys pop out 2500 meals, 3 times a day 7 days a week, as you can imagine, some of their equipment and carts started getting wrecked, as well as their dishwasher and here I was, standing with a tilt skillet handle in my hand looking like an idiot with no idea what to do. So my boss came, took it and went and welded it.

Then the next one broke, we ran out of Argon so he couldn't fix it in house, had to go somewhere else and somewhere in that process the thought that I can't ever REALLY do my job without being able to fix everything, so I studied welding like there was no tomorrow, we have a Dynasty 200 in the shop but I had no idea how to use it.

Studied, studied and studied, practiced on real stuff, not scrap, stuff going back in service so that extra umph to make it right was always there and I would show it to my boss and he would give me this sideways smile, like "yeah, its getting there" and so there it went.

Learned on my own, made more mistakes than I will ever admit

Just as stories go, Ill tell you how I really got hooked on fabbing.

I built an aluminum pan rack because they weren't made by a company anymore, 20 shelves (40 pieces of angle) and it took me days, copied an existing design with some user based improvements. Bought stock, cut it all up, started welding it all together, 6 or so hours a day, 3 or 4 days later, I am drilling the holes to put the wheels on, the whole thing is done otherwise. I remember this moment so clearly, I lowered it on to the ground and sat down and just looked at it, this whole structure, every shelf the same height, 20 shelves 100% parallel to the 1/8" tolerance, square frame and everything.

That's when It really clicked, and I really got serious about fabricating.

[MosquitoMoto]

Great story! Love it!



Kym

[exnailpounder]

Yeah...good story.

[Tommy2069]

got started welding when i was 15 or 16. my dad had a old tombstone in the shop and i was hooked . i would repair all my buddies 3 wheelers and motorbikes. i just plain cutting apart stuff and rebuilding it and making new stuff and making new stuff better stuff. if you can make money doing something you love you'll never have to work a day in your life.

[jrporter]

My first job out of high school was for a local company that built snares, the kind used to trap fur bearing animals. In addition to running a punch and bending up the sheet metal parts, I got to run a carbon arc torch used to cut and put a bead on the end of the wire rope of the snare. A few years later I got my first exposure to welding. I was building pick-up truck canopies and used to bug the welder in the shop next door when I would hang out during lunch and watch him work. He told me he was needing help so I jumped ship and became a "shop boy". Learned a bunch about layout and fab, but unfortunately never learned to weld. I tried once - the old timers brought me over to an arc welder, gave me what seemed like a half inch rod, and laughed their tails off every time I stuck the rod. I gave up embarrassed and frustrated. Fast forward forty years and I decided to give welding a try as I was retiring and wanted a practical hobby. I can stick metal together but came to the forum to learn all I can.

[motox]

my first boss was a tinker/fabricator who thought a good weld was determined by how much
rod you burned on a joint. i was 18 and the day job pay was terrible but he would let me comeback
after work and help with his projects so the extra hours offset the low dollars. we built rack
truck bodies, repaired equipment ect. he would hire a local welder to do critical welds (truck
body frames) and we would build the rest. after watching Jack (the local welder) and grilling
him about setting, rods, joints i went to the library and took out all the books i could find
on welding and metallurgy. i would practice on anything i could scrounge up and before
long my welds looked close the ones Jack did. soon Jack was replaced by a low dollar
welder, me. from there i picked up gas welding when i started racing motocross to repair pipes (which
i smashed on a regular bases and fab parts. this was the early !970s and aftermarket parks were scarce so you needed
to make your own. i moved to TIG around 1980 with a big old miller goldstar and have
TIG welded since. learned MIG about 10 years ago but still prefer TIG. not very exciting
but that was my path.
ps also took over his business eventually.
craig

[ODIS]

I'm just a hobbiest, and I have a lot of hobbys. Back in the 90s I needed a shop and tools to be able to maintain a classic British motorcycle plus for doing maintenance on my cars. I bought a Lincoln 100 amp wire feed and a set of torches, bought a oxy bottle and propane cutting tips for the torch and started raiding the steel scrap piles at work. No internet for me back then so I read a few books and figured out by muddling through it on my own. I'm by no means a good welder but I do get by. I have a shop on my property and 90% of my tool cabinets shelves stands have all been made by me and since I now live on my retirement dream which is a small hobby farm I now have a small utility tractor which is in need of very expensive 3 point hitch implements and I don't want to buy them so I bought my new Hobart 210MVP. I like to make things, so it was a natural progression for me to start welding, it makes me wish that I had learned and got the training back in the early 70s so I could have become a welder professionally rather then embark on a career in railroading. I love it.

[exnailpounder]

Great stories!

[Otto Nobedder]

Great stories!

I agree! I intend to toss mine in here, but it's a long story if I tell the whole thing, so I need to do it before I'm too far into my evening beverages. Else I'll be way too wordy, and bore everyone to sleep.

Steve S

[Rupes]

I had a go on a mig when i was about 7 or so. Was at one of the workshops my dad used to go when he needed some bodywork for his truck done, or tanks/boxes made up etc. I remember them showing how to do it and I think I did my initial but I can't remember. The boss there also showed me how to magnetize a bar with some copper wire and a truck battery.

After that I didn't touch any type of welder till I was about 15 in trade school. And that was O/A welding of black mild steel pipe for mechanical services. That did however open my eyes to welding steel with gas and what I could do in my garage. My dad had a carpet cleaning machine (built and designed by Tim the Tool Man I think) Had a Perkins diesel running a Cat pump for water pressure and a massive blower for vacuum. Anyway I remember welding up heaps of different brackets on that thing for this and that in 1/4 steel. All I recall of gas welding is it took forever and I used way too many coat hangers.

O/A was my go to whenever I needed it until about 4 years ago when I got an inverter stick welder. I thought that thing was fantastic. Not having to wait 60 seconds to get a puddle up like the oxy

Then I bought a mig and during the course of learning how to weld with it I made my current workbench out of 5mm steel. Thats when I discovered spray transfer. For some reason I got a real kick out of building that thing. I think I felt that I finally had some industrial quality welding on

Shortly thereafter I bought an AC/DC tig and discovered how easy it was to fab up stuff in aluminium especially with a sliding compound saw with and alloy cutting blade.

Last buys were the EWM machines but haven't had a chance to play with them.

Also along the way was a cold cut saw and a plasma and also a bunch of other tools. All of which have been part of a massive increase in my skills and knowledge. And I think that's the best bit. All these things become skills that open your horizons. I run my own plumbing business and I almost feel embarrassed for some guys that don't even have a hammer. I talked a guy through was was a 30 second job on the phone only to find that he didn't have a screwdriver, hacksaw or a spanner any of which could have done the job. So I drove there and did it, felt awkward billing him for that as it was the kind of job my dad would have expected me to do when I was 10. Some people get a kick out of creating something or learning a skill, some would rather just camp out the TV I guess.

Stuff that was strictly a "take it to a specialist" deal 10 years ago are cake now. I thank Jody for most of my welding knowledge and I'm so thankful we live in a world with so much information at out fingertips. I'm not even sure why I started as such, I think its all about the journey not the end result.

Note to Steve S..... Look how wordy this is and I've only just cracked my 3rd

[exnailpounder]

Great story Rupes! I got the welding bug very young as you did...can you imagine handing a mig gun or stick stinger to a 7 year old nowadays? We'd make the newspaper

[Artie F. Emm]

My Dad was in the welding industry, and "retired" to run a LWS. Summers I drove trucks and was a general shop flunky, but Dad taught me some O/A, stick, and MIG. I still remember the "holy crap, I'm doing it!" feeling when the O/A lessons came together.

Dad gave me an AC stick welder, which I carried around for a while but never used. Some years back I resurrected it from my brother's barn, cleaned the mice and mud dobbers out, and that's when I seriously got bit by the welding bug.

[LSFRACING]

I grew up on a cattle ranch and followed my dad around in diapers while he pulled our big ass Lincoln around, generally with the tractor. The dial didn't show amps but you could turn the wheel. It might adjust, it might not. At best he might have a wire brush but I never really saw cleaning and all fitting was done with a torch (never saw a grinder that wasn't bench mounted). I always watched with an extra lens if I could and when I was able to take that over, I definitely considered myself "of age".

He'd always say "Watch your eyes!" then strike an arc. My old man.

I left and went to college and graduated....and wanted to weld still? As a college grad I went to a shop that built firetrucks and asked for a welding spot. They asked if I could weld and I told them I could weld stick...they told me there was a place washing the trucks and doing some assembly. I gladly said yes.

This business had painters, assembly, fabricators, and "body guys". There were serious dudes there with tons of experience and on my lunches I would ask one of the friendlier fabricator guys to set up a machine for me. (btw there was a shortage of "friendly guys").) Each day I would try out some TIG AL or SS, run Mig passes all over the place, different joints ect.

One day one of the only 2 body guys got into it with the owner. Now these 2 guys had been there 20 plus years and kinda were the badasses of the deal. They didn't do "bodywork". They "created" bodies. They didn't talk to you and they could fabricate ANYTHING with 6 things shear, brake, welder, hammer, heat...um....oh, and metal!. Anyway I heard the journeyman say to my boss "Good luck with that, I leave here and youre FU***D! You cant replace me and you know it..."

I was walking by and the owner said (in a real degrading way)..."Hell, Casey can do what you do." then he turned to me and said, "Casey, get your shit over here and finish this truck". And that was it. Before I left that job I built over 50 trucks from scratch. Stainless tanks, Aluminum Hose beds, Trays, diamond plate everything, doors and 50+ Steel Rescue, Tank and Ladder Trucks starting from a chassis. The 15 guys I stepped over didn't like it too much but I was a tough kid and I assumed the role of "one of the 2 body guys". I still like the sound of that. The owner was right, I could do it. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't without mistakes but I loved it and I got it done.

Well family pressure kicked in and in moving on I became a mortgage broker. I was focused on the money, thought I needed to, but after a 20+ yr career I let the easy money go. I bought a bunch of welding crap, fabrication crap, and opened a shop. I have no idea if Ill ever eat anywhere close to how I ate before, or if my aging body will keep up with what has to be done, but, but when the helmet is on I still feel like a badass and I got Jodys welding sticker on the back of my truck window letting people know to mind their manners cuz I'm a welder and one of the 2 body guys.

[Olivero]

I grew up on a cattle ranch and followed my dad around in diapers while he pulled our big ass Lincoln around, generally with the tractor. The dial didn't show amps but you could turn the wheel. It might adjust, it might not. At best he might have a wire brush but I never really saw cleaning and all fitting was done with a torch (never saw a grinder that wasn't bench mounted). I always watched with an extra lens if I could and when I was able to take that over, I definitely considered myself "of age".

He'd always say "Watch your eyes!" then strike an arc. My old man.

I left and went to college and graduated....and wanted to weld still? As a college grad I went to a shop that built firetrucks and asked for a welding spot. They asked if I could weld and I told them I could weld stick...they told me there was a place washing the trucks and doing some assembly. I gladly said yes.

This business had painters, assembly, fabricators, and "body guys". There were serious dudes there with tons of experience and on my lunches I would ask one of the friendlier fabricator guys to set up a machine for me. (btw there was a shortage of "friendly guys").) Each day I would try out some TIG AL or SS, run Mig passes all over the place, different joints ect.

One day one of the only 2 body guys got into it with the owner. Now these 2 guys had been there 20 plus years and kinda were the badasses of the deal. They didn't do "bodywork". They "created" bodies. They didn't talk to you and they could fabricate ANYTHING with 6 things shear, brake, welder, hammer, heat...um....oh, and metal!. Anyway I heard the journeyman say to my boss "Good luck with that, I leave here and youre FU***D! You cant replace me and you know it..."

I was walking by and the owner said (in a real degrading way)..."Hell, Casey can do what you do." then he turned to me and said, "Casey, get your shit over here and finish this truck". And that was it. Before I left that job I built over 50 trucks from scratch. Stainless tanks, Aluminum Hose beds, Trays, diamond plate everything, doors and 50+ Steel Rescue, Tank and Ladder Trucks starting from a chassis. The 15 guys I stepped over didn't like it too much but I was a tough kid and I assumed the role of "one of the 2 body guys". I still like the sound of that. The owner was right, I could do it. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't without mistakes but I loved it and I got it done.

Well family pressure kicked in and in moving on I became a mortgage broker. I was focused on the money, thought I needed to, but after a 20+ yr career I let the easy money go. I bought a bunch of welding crap, fabrication crap, and opened a shop. I have no idea if Ill ever eat anywhere close to how I ate before, or if my aging body will keep up with what has to be done, but, but when the helmet is on I still feel like a badass and I got Jodys welding sticker on the back of my truck window letting people know to mind their manners cuz I'm a welder and one of the 2 body guys.

Alright, now THAT is a story.

[Rudy Ray]

[/quote]
The no welding crap popped up because a majority of todays "man" can't even change a flat tire and walk around looking more like a girl than a man, They all walk like they have a butt plug in or something. How the Hell can you teach something like that to weld? Maybe we're welders because we are men doing mens work.[/quote]


Exnail, I feel your pain brother.
Ohh, It's dangerous, its hot, it's dirty, it's noisy ! Yea, and I do it all day long!

[exnailpounder]

The no welding crap popped up because a majority of todays "man" can't even change a flat tire and walk around looking more like a girl than a man, They all walk like they have a butt plug in or something. How the Hell can you teach something like that to weld? Maybe we're welders because we are men doing mens work.[/quote]


Exnail, I feel your pain brother.
Ohh, It's dangerous, its hot, it's dirty, it's noisy ! Yea, and I do it all day long![/quote]
My hands are permanently stained from grease and whatever...drives my wife nuts...the fags in her office get manicures and pedicures. She asked if I wanted to get a manicure one day but stopped short when I looked over the top of my glasses at her with my best Clint Eastwood "I'll fucking kill you" look