Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi ya'll

Been checking out the "WTAT" vids on youtube for a while and decided to join the ranks on the forum!

So who am I? Well, 21 year old dude who studied automotive industry for 3 years in college, to later figure out i hated wrenching.. Luckily for me, i took a little side class in auto body work where i was taught how to weld the thinnest pieces of sheet metal i've ever encountered

The knowledge i was given during that time, lead me to my first job as a welder in the industrial sector on a company called TitanX, which i think some of you might have heard of My main task was gonna be welding aluminium intercoolers for trucks and boat engines. Mainly Volvo and Mercedes.

My first thought when i applied was "Oh well f*ck it, how hard can it be?"

I was sent down in their basement to do some test welds on scrapped coolers. I informed the guy there that i had never welded this particular material before.. He made somewhat of a *Sigh* noise and told me to proceed.

I sat down and took a deep breath and started laying it down, tried my best to get something similar to a "fish scale" finish on it. After about 60cm i was done. I brushed it off and told "the guy" i was done. He pushed his glasses up from the tip of his nose and looked at my product for a while when he said a couple of words that i shall never forget: "Son, during my 37 years of working in this basement fixing crap welds, i have never seen someone with such tiny amount of experience, pulling a weld like this off".

So i got hired and worked there for a full year, loved every minute of it Still one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

In a matter of weeks i'm going back to the school bench to get my certificates, tig stainless/aluminium and mma pipe. Hopefully i'll be able to go out off-shore after that

Sorry for the novel looking introduction!

Welcome Hansen! Enjoy your stay here will ya?

Thank you!

I sure will

hansen188,

My introduction to aluminum TIG has some similarities... I was sent by a headhunter to a job that was fitting and welding aluminum pipe (all x-ray), though I'd never done it before. Yes, I already had TIG skills, but aluminum is a different animal.

Fortunately, I was paired up with a top-notch aluminum welder with a nuke-plant background. He was a pain in the arse and generally disagreeable as a person, but with his help, I was passing x-ray right out of the gate. I repaid him in kind; He could not read an isometric drawing to save his life, so we made a pretty good team.

Now, there's very little I'm uncomfortable welding.

Best of luck, both on the certs, and the offshore work. There's real money in that.

Steve S

hansen188 welcome to the forum.

welcome to the forum