Welding Tips and Tricks

Is it worth it to take a class costing $880. Most of the welders I know personally say I will be better off teaching myself the basics and just keep practicing. I have never TIG welded in my life and only have a few hours of FCAW and SMAW under my belt. Would it be worth it to take a 13 week course 2 nights a week 4 hours per class to get a better understanding of the basics from a CWI than to fire up my Alpha TIG 200X on my own and just practice till my brain explodes from all the foreseen mistakes I will make?

That depends mostly on two things. Do you plan on getting a tig welding job or is it hobby? Also, meet with some of the instructors and talk to them. They may be able to help you find out what you want and if you don't like the instructor you may not want to.

I have asked that the instructor for the class give me a call so I can ask questions such as how many of the 104 hours are hood time and class time, but have not heard from him and the class starts in about 2 weeks. One of my friends that I rely heavily on for welding advise is a CWI and he is the main one telling me that it is pointless to take the class. I am looking to get a job that requires you know how to put a 1/8" dime stack no grind weld on a outside corner joint for a tool box as a test.

I don't know if this helps or not. I'm a hobby welder (55+ years old) and I took the introduction to welding at my local junior college. It really helped me. It was very benefitial to have someone point out ways I could improve. That helped me avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.

I don't know anybody who welds, professionally or for a hobby,.and it would have been a slow and painful process to get where I am now if I hadn't had a good teacher and a lot of valuable feedback.

Good luck,
Dave

I took a class through my high school at my local tech school. He class was structural metal fab. The main project was a stool out of pipe. I will tell you though I learned so much more in that class. The instructors had such a vast amount of experience and were so helpful. Learning to use industrial machines, layout, jigging, and how to better tack a part up. It was just such a great experience.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a fab shop and bug the welders to teach me and watch them.
However I think it really depends on the school. The one around here is junk. I've had 2 or 3 of the students after they graduated and they were untrainable. They always said that's not how we were taught. I would tell them well they taught you wrong. And the new place i work said the same thing. They won't hire anyone who trained there.
But if I wanted to learn pipe welding I would go to an actual school.
I guess it depends if you can get tips and feed back from real welders without it or not. If you do go to the school just realize there are other ways of doing things and listen to old timers.
If it's 1/8" aluminum outside corners they are very easy to learn. If you need help just let me know.

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5th Street Fab wrote:I was lucky enough to grow up in a fab shop and bug the welders to teach me and watch them.
However I think it really depends on the school. The one around here is junk. I've had 2 or 3 of the students after they graduated and they were untrainable. They always said that's not how we were taught. I would tell them well they taught you wrong. And the new place i work said the same thing. They won't hire anyone who trained there.
But if I wanted to learn pipe welding I would go to an actual school.
I guess it depends if you can get tips and feed back from real welders without it or not. If you do go to the school just realize there are other ways of doing things and listen to old timers.
If it's 1/8" aluminum outside corners they are very easy to learn. If you need help just let me know.

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.100 or .080 from what is written on the scraps that my future father-in-law has dropped off for me to practice on once I get my Alpha TIG 200X. It diamond plate if that matters at all.

If you can get your hands on 3/16" it'd be easier to learn on. But it's do able.
Fit up is important for nice welds.
Tack them edge to edge so you have a valley to fill.
For that thin it's gonna be around 90 amps but it's good practice to set your machine hotter incase you need it.
Start a half inch in front of your start. Make a tack and back up to the start.
For your bead all you need to do is heat it until both the bottom and top edge melt together. But you need to make sure your puddle moves with you as you move. If it stays still you need more heat.

I think I explain a lot of it in this video.
https://youtu.be/soaJrvelE0k

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5th Street Fab wrote:If you can get your hands on 3/16" it'd be easier to learn on. But it's do able.
Fit up is important for nice welds.
Tack them edge to edge so you have a valley to fill.
For that thin it's gonna be around 90 amps but it's good practice to set your machine hotter incase you need it.
Start a half inch in front of your start. Make a tack and back up to the start.
For your bead all you need to do is heat it until both the bottom and top edge melt together. But you need to make sure your puddle moves with you as you move. If it stays still you need more heat.

I think I explain a lot of it in this video.
https://youtu.be/soaJrvelE0k

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If I could TIG outside corners like you I would already have that job lol.
By the way that box looks like an amazing idea for a project and used for the same purpose.

Thanks it doesn't take long to learn I had maybe 10 hours of aluminum experience before I got this job 3 months ago. The test was an outside corner and a t joint on 1/8" aluminum. Just learn to be consistant.

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5th Street Fab wrote:Thanks it doesn't take long to learn I had maybe 10 hours of aluminum experience before I got this job 3 months ago. The test was an outside corner and a t joint on 1/8" aluminum. Just learn to be consistant.

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Those are the two welds my father-in-law says they use to test but I am unsure of the thickness of the aluminum for the test.

A lot of times its just to see if your trainable. So if they tell you a different way of doing something try it. But until then just sit down and practice practice practice.

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5th Street Fab wrote:A lot of times its just to see if your trainable. So if they tell you a different way of doing something try it. But until then just sit down and practice practice practice.

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Plan to start that as soon as my TIG machine is here. Only bad thing about getting and AHP from what I can see is the waiting on the container to get unpacked and a unit shipped out to you.

bigfabdaddy wrote:

5th Street Fab wrote:A lot of times its just to see if your trainable. So if they tell you a different way of doing something try it. But until then just sit down and practice practice practice.

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Plan to start that as soon as my TIG machine is here. Only bad thing about getting and AHP from what I can see is the waiting on the container to get unpacked and a unit shipped out to you.

Haha true. That's what I have at home and used in that video. Great machine though

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5th Street Fab wrote:

bigfabdaddy wrote:

5th Street Fab wrote:A lot of times its just to see if your trainable. So if they tell you a different way of doing something try it. But until then just sit down and practice practice practice.

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Plan to start that as soon as my TIG machine is here. Only bad thing about getting and AHP from what I can see is the waiting on the container to get unpacked and a unit shipped out to you.

Haha true. That's what I have at home and used in that video. Great machine though

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What model do you have? I ordered the 2017 so thats why I am having to wait a bit. Do they really come with the knockoff CK flex head torch and super flex line? That is something I forgot to save cash to pick up. Would love to get a Flex Loc with 25m line later down the line along with building a 30m ground clamp this way I can let the machine sit in one spot and still weld any were in the basement(someday shop/garage.)

2016 model it came with a 17 flex head torch. Definitely not a superflex hose. I bought a number 9 superflex ck from usaweld and soon I'll get the s ssc foot pedal. The stock one Works but it isn't the best and it moves around on you unless you make a base for it.

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5th Street Fab wrote:2016 model it came with a 17 flex head torch. Definitely not a superflex hose. I bought a number 9 superflex ck from usaweld and soon I'll get the s ssc foot pedal. The stock one Works but it isn't the best and it moves around on you unless you make a base for it.

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Thanks, I was planning to get flex loc 9 and 17 this way I have some changes in size and then put a CK stubby kit on the 17 to make the cup the 9 size. The SSC pedal is on my wish-list already for Christmas and I don't even have the welder yet.