Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello everyone I am 22 years old I live in California and I have been welding for about a year now. Ive gotten my feet pretty wet welding in my junior college auto body course but I'm changing my major due to my interest in welding and my professors lack of teaching. So far ive learned basic fusion with Oxyacetylene including steel filler rod, Brazing: butt, lap, nut to plate, holes with backing, holes without backing. Ive also learned to MIG flat, vertical, horizontal, overhead, butt with backing, two plate 12 holes, and 3 plate four holes. I started to mess around with TIG before the semester ended and really liked it so I'm excited to start my new welding course on the 20th and be on my way to becoming a career welder! I'm here to soak up as much information as I can and also give you guys insight on how todays welders are being trained.

So here are my questions: 1) Would being able to weld something with an 1/8th in. gap be a useful skill? 2) Ive only welded thin auto sheet metal, will that help or hinder me? 3) What area of welding would you guys suggest me to go into? (I want to do this for along time and hopefully make big bucks!)

Thanks in advance and I cant wait to learn from you guys!

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome. Yes being able to weld an open gap is a needed skill. As a new student it can be hard to remember that your first few weld classes are generally covering basics and even though the practice sessions sometimes seem tedious it's because there training you for muscle memory and how to get repeatability. Your previous experience with thin metal will be a plus to you as it will likely put you ahead of some others in your class. Just remember if things seem to be progressing slow flip your hood down and do it again till you can do it with your eyes closed. As far as making money and what field to aim for. Well learn it all and you will be able to go wherever the money is no matter were that may be. Good luck

PrayingMantis wrote:
Would being able to weld something with an 1/8th in. gap be a useful skill?
2) Ive only welded thin auto sheet metal, will that help or hinder me?
Thanks in advance and I cant wait to learn from you guys!

Although you want tight fits, sometimes you have gaps. I've found that filling gaps has helped me a lot. I accidentally learned how to weave when I had some gaps to fill. Welding gaps I started using the cup as a pivot point.
I've also noticed that when theres a gap to fill, it takes longer and I have to watch that i'm not putting too much heat in the work. Jody has great video's on filling gaps .

I started welding some pop cans for fun and found it VERY helpful when I had to repair a very thin walled two stroke motorcycle exhaust . I did a few razor blades too . It all helped me get much better with thin sheet like body work and floor pans I just put in my '77 ford F250 . Thin stuff gave me very good practice being precise with the pedal and heat input. For me, it all carried over to thicker material.

Good luck man !

Mike wrote:Welcome to the forum.

Thanks Mike. Glad to be here.

Poland308 wrote:Welcome. Yes being able to weld an open gap is a needed skill. As a new student it can be hard to remember that your first few weld classes are generally covering basics and even though the practice sessions sometimes seem tedious it's because there training you for muscle memory and how to get repeatability. Your previous experience with thin metal will be a plus to you as it will likely put you ahead of some others in your class. Just remember if things seem to be progressing slow flip your hood down and do it again till you can do it with your eyes closed. As far as making money and what field to aim for. Well learn it all and you will be able to go wherever the money is no matter were that may be. Good luck

Thank You for the advice Poland. That was the direction I was leaning but I didn't want to be "a jack of all trades but a master of none." You're right it would be wrong for me to limit myself.

subwayrocket wrote:Although you want tight fits, sometimes you have gaps. I've found that filling gaps has helped me a lot. I accidentally learned how to weave when I had some gaps to fill. Welding gaps I started using the cup as a pivot point.
I've also noticed that when theres a gap to fill, it takes longer and I have to watch that i'm not putting too much heat in the work. Jody has great video's on filling gaps .

I started welding some pop cans for fun and found it VERY helpful when I had to repair a very thin walled two stroke motorcycle exhaust . I did a few razor blades too . It all helped me get much better with thin sheet like body work and floor pans I just put in my '77 ford F250 . Thin stuff gave me very good practice being precise with the pedal and heat input. For me, it all carried over to thicker material.

Good luck man !

Awesome I'm definitely going to try the soda can thing. Thanks Subway.