Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey folks. Just saying a quick hello to begin with before getting involved.

Many years ago I was a ductwork fitter and gained plenty of experience working with drawings and various tools but after that ended up stuck in retail until a friend played a few good cards and got me in at this place as a welder. At this point my welding experience was five blitzed in MIG joints for brackets during my time ducting and oxy/acet during my A-Levels for one project; I do however have the attention to detail and methodical approach to tasks and problems which he was convinced made me an ideal candidate for welding. The plan being that I would go on the simple production MIG welding for eight to twelve months to get a reasonable understanding of the basics before learning more advanced techniques and then later on moving up to TIG welding for various jobs and materials.

That was four months ago.....

Now I'm TIG welding many jobs both large and small and of both mild and stainless steel; this includes food industry components, plastic extrusion components, electrical control panel and terminal housings plus some mild steel bracketry components for industrial diesel engines. Apparently I seem to have a knack for welding which is nice to hear and I'm being pushed quite hard and fast so I'm basically learning at a 'put up or shut up' kind of pace and for now it's actually working well.

I have been picking up lots of information and tips from the youtube channel so naturally, being very PC centric at home, the forum was the obvious next move. I will probably remain a lurker for quite a while just reading and absorbing information as much as possible before I begin posting comments and/or topics while I become a better welder myself and gain enough knowledge to be able to contribute and certainly before I consider posting any pictures of my work

Ok, didn't expect to put up a wall of text but it is what it is. See you on the boards people, go easy on me

Jonty

Welcome, Jonty!

It does sound like the craft comes naturally to you. This is both a blessing and a curse, as your narrative proves. You're progessing very well, and because of that you're being pushed.

If you're comfortable with it, I say "let it ride". I also advise you to never be afraid to say "no", when they ask you to do something you're sure you're not yet qualified for. If they respect you, they will certainly respect that, and give you time to become comfortable. In other words, don't allow yourself to be pushed into doing something that may put others at risk if you are at all unsure of your ability to perform.

I have no doubt you'll be able to contribute.

If you've had a good browse of the forum, you'll notice we can discuss anything at any skill level with no one being derided for a lack of knowledge. Any welding question can be asked here, without flaming or shaming. That's the online neighborhood I always wanted. I finally found it, and now I get the privelige of helping to keep it that way.

Steve S

Jonty welcome to the forum.

Thanks guys.

You're exactly right Otto, every week it seems like a new and more challenging job lands on my bench which makes me question whether I am capable for it yet; each time I have a crack at it and it comes out ok.....so far at least lol

My main area to focus on learning right now is the various grades of materials, particularly stainless steels, as is not studied it before. It might be tricky to translate from here though with us using metric this side of the pond hehe, I think a real forage through the boards for material guides/reviews is in order unless someone can link a thread which they know about however.

Cheers, Jonty

Jonty,
Welcome to the forum!! Congrats on moving up so quickly but I agree with Steve that it can be a curse as well. In the end it is all what you make of it though. We are all glad to have you here and look forward to your contributions. Remember, deep technical knowledge or pure skill is not needed to post, sometimes the "high jacked" threads are the best anyway

As for your SS question, what specifics are you looking for? There are many topics that discuss SS in many forms, from what it is to how to weld it and even the effects of nitrogen on SS (which I agree guys, that discussion still is not finished).
We are here to help in many ways!
-Jonathan

For the SS it's specifically what the various grades are and what they're used for usually. Pretty much just increasing knowledge of materials in general as I'm getting a ton of welding and welding tools/consumables knowledge on the job (at least enough to keep it ahead of what I'm actually doing for now) but materials and their properties is lacking a bit. Even just a handy reference table would do to be honest, I tend to remember stuff once I see/do/hear/break/forget it.