Welding Tips and Tricks

Good morning. I am Pops, I am in Colorado and work as an airline mechanic. I'm sorry if this is a bit long, but here is my story. My wife and I recently gained custody of our grandson. This poor kid is carrying a lot of baggage with him that we desperately want to help with. He wants to be a welder and has been handed nothing but negativity his whole life, so I bought him a Lincoln handy mig and he has been happily burning up spools of flux core for a couple of weeks now. He is going to start classes at a local trade school next school year so I wanted him to have a head start. Please be patient with me (us) as I will have many many questions. Thanks in advance.

Welcome Pops! Glad you found us. I'd suggest getting your grandson to sign up so he can ask all the questions he wants. There are a lot of very helpful folks around here.

Welcome, Pops! ^^As FatBob says, lots of folks willing to help, so ask any and all questions.

Hopefully you've heard this from others: thank you for looking after your grandson.

Thats awesome Pops. It takes a man to step up like you did and that is just plain awesome. You will get tons of help around here you just can't be afraid to ask questions. The nice part about this site is there aren't any jerks or prima-donnas...just highly educated welding craftsmen who love to help newcomers to the trade. Tell your grandson to watch Jodies videos, he is the best! If Jody can't teach you something, you are unteachable. Best of luck and hope to see you around....Jeff

Welcome, Pops,

And a big "welcome to the trades" for your grandson, as well. Several of us are grandparents, and I'm recently a great-grandparent (and I'm 46!)

After five years of dating and two years of being married to my wife of 23 years, we regained custody of her son. My first and only experience with parenthood came 13 years old with all that baggage packed, and since I'd never been a father I took the learning curve on two wheels.

Good on you for stepping up and going through it again. I agree there's no reason not to involve him in our forum. I agree that if this truly interests him, there's no better tutor than Jody's videos.

And, if you ever need to simply vent on the whole "baggage" thing with someone who's been through the wringer, I answer my PMs.

Steve S

Welcome to the forum Pops.

Welcome, you came to the right place!