Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi all,

I've only be welding for about 2 1/2 years, initially took an 8 hour intro to TIG course at my local makerspace, then a friend gave me a 1 minute intro to MIG, and eventually bought a small AC/DC stick welder to play around with. I'm still really new to this, and most of my welding is practice, or tacking a few (none critical) things together for others at the makerspace. Most of my welds look pretty bad for the first few inches on new material (scraps), but usually I seem to get the hang of it.

About a year ago, I was asked to help out with a short course (approx. 3 hours class, and 4 hours welding, grinding, plasma cutting) to get others started. This is not to teach professional welders, but just to get people interested in learning the absolute basics. We started with MIG and got basically no support from most pro-welders, who said they'd only teach MIG after people did 50+ hours of stick first. I'm wondering what others on this forum think about teaching MIG as an intro to welding for people that will probably spend less than 5 hours welding in their entire lives?

Many think MIG is the easiest process to teach and learn because a weld can look good fairly quickly. The problem is, MIG has serious limits in its strength despite its appearance. For hobbyists, it probably is the best process to learn, but some basics about its application, direction, and strength should be stressed.

oudent wrote:This is not to teach professional welders, but just to get people interested in learning the absolute basics.

MIG has the shallowest learning curve and students can get good results quickly, which can make them more likely to pursue welding more seriously. Maybe part of the course could include a cut / polish / etch of each student's welds to emphasize the importance of proper fusion. The instructor can dial in the settings to ensure good results, and as part of the instruction tell students there's more to it than squeezing the trigger.

Welcome to the forum.