Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi, I've been a hobby welder since I was 15 years old, in 1970, when I bought a JC penny 230 amp arc welder with money earned from cutting lawns. High School Metal Shop made a big impression on me, and lead me to trade school, were I started my career as a machinist. Of course, welding is often required in the machine shop, but most of the shops I worked in had their own in-house welder, so I seldom got to make sparks.
In 1985 I quit my real job and started my own Machine Shop. I never took in welding work, as I never considered my welds to be good enough to charge people money for, but I still had my old buzz box to fabricate things in the shop, or to work on my own hobby projects.
I'm 60 years old now, and enjoy making sparks on my own little projects. I'm looking forward to learning some new tricks.
Tony

Welcome to the forum, Tony.


Kym.

Welcome to "The Hood" Tony.

Welcome to the forum Tony.

Welcome, Tony,

There are many stories similar to yours here. I burned my first rod at age 13, and never saw it as a career path, but just a good skill for a broke-ass redneck to have. Then I went to school, and worked on the side, and slowly found that every time I needed real money I returned to welding, even if briefly.

It took a lot of years to realized that welding, while not the only thing I get paid for today, was at the heart of where I was going, or at least the light ahead on the path.

Steve S