Welding Tips and Tricks

Another possibly dumb question....

How long can you new welders practice before you lose focus?

After a couple of weeks, I try to time my practice session to use up about one filler rod before taking a break. Any longer than that, and my attention starts to wander and I get sloppy.

How long do other new welders practice?

david

Hello David,

The length of my practice seesions (which are far to infrequent) are usually determined by how good my welds are turning out. When I am getting decent to good results, I usually go through 6 to 8 full length filler rods over the couse of 2 hours ( prepping the metal practice pieces, making a few runs on various types of joints, examining the results, making adjustments and making more practice beads). The practice sessions are very short if I am getting poor results. At the end of every practoce session, I take the metal with the best results and write down the date and conditions. I have a stack of these practice parts which I had hoped would show a steady improvement. At my rate of practice, the results are not improving much. I need to set a weekly schedule to get get home from work earlier for a change and dedicate time to improving my skills. I recently picked up a few pieces of 8" x 8" plates of various thicknesses (aluminum, stainless steel and cold rolled steel) to start running the bead after bead across the plates. I really need to start practicing by padding the beads on the plate to develop a good routine. I have been jumping around too much from different thicknesses of different materials and different joint types.

Jim

I can practice all day if its cool enough. Especially if it's something new. It brings the fire that got me started welding. Practice isn't sitting down making pads and practice joints. Practice is experience which you get everytime you weld or have a job you have done in a while that makes you think of the proper procedure. I know you're new and I have to say 1 filler rod isn't very much. I would want you to keep practicing but if you can't weld for more than that, this might not be your thing...

Run one setup till your happy within the results even on a bad day. Then change 1 thing and see how you do. Practice till even a bad day looks good.

I find 2-3 hours to be a good practice session.

When I taught my sons to weld, they would usually run about 2 hours per session as well.

John was learning stick at 12 and Mike was learning aluminum tig at 16 - but Mike already learned oxy/acetylene and stick the summer before in my shop.

About an hour or so.
If things are going well and I am doing "good" welds or I have clicked and fixed a problem and are getting good results I might go longer.
On some days when I cant co-ordinate blinking and breathing, its better to go do something else that doesnt include TIG, this will be more than evident in less than 5 minutes.

I would practise for an hour every day if not for the price of argon...



Kym

Thanks that helps.

This evening's session was butt joints in 16 gauge steel with a .030 gap at 50 amps with 1/16 electrode and 1/16 filler. I prepped, tacked, and ran about 24 x 4 inch joints before I was ready to take a break. I'll probably head back out one more session and work on butt joints with no gap on round tube at the same settings.

David

When I trained, I generally undertook 2-hour sessions then a break, then another 2 hours, etc

Now, when I weld, many times I might work much longer than two hours in any one hit. Whatever the job takes. But initially, 2 hours at a time was a reasonable exposure.

Trev

David,

As you see, the answers are all over the map, just like the folk who offered them.

For attention span versus actually learning something, I'd set myself a minimum 20 minutes of seat time at any one go. This is enough for "muscle memory" to form, so you can replicate it next time. If you are able to go longer, give yourself a five or ten minute break every 20 minutes or so, so you can clear your head. You can't often do this on a job, but that comes later.

Play music you like when you practice. Choose songs with a tempo you can move to as you weld, and it will help with technique and that "muscle-memory" thing. Don't let yourself start to sing along; Rather just move in tempo like you're tapping your feet to it.

Steve S

Excellent summary as always.

I am trying to separate my learning into four different areas:
1. Understand my materials and how they behave as heat and filler are added.
2. Understanding my machine setup like amperage, argon flow rate, and electrode selection and preparation.
3. Puddle management. How various factor like materials, machine setup, and techniques such as movement rage, torch angle, and arc length affect the puddle.
4. Muscle memory. Getting my hands and feet to work together to consistently reproduce a specific puddle as desired.

I think a couple of 20 minute sessions per day are possible.

Interesting ideas with the music. I often find myself counting in my head.

dfarning wrote:...Interesting ideas with the music. I often find myself counting in my head.

That's why I suggested it. Music and tempo come naturally to us, for reasons I can't speculate on. It just "is".

Steve S

my practice is simply limited by my little 40cf bottle... doesn't take too long to empty it

A little over 46 years for now, but when I'm done I'll be too dead to answer.

I consider every weld I've ever done as practice for the next one.

Len

Awesome Len. I've got to watch every single thing I do. Nothing happens via memory

Sent from my ZTE T83 using Tapatalk

All I do is practice, being a welding student.

8 hours a day, 4 days a week. Cut, grind, weld, repeat.

When I first started, by the time Thursday rolled around, I started losing focus as I was looking forward to the long weekend.

Now, Thursdays are usually my sharpest day. Run a plate, get feedback from the instructor, cut it grind it, do it again.

I teach welding/metal fab at a community college. I pull the students out of the booths every 90 minutes and make them take a 10 minute break.

Everyone is different. Everyone learns differently. There are those cats who will get it right away, and make progress throughout the day. Then there are those cats who will 'get it' then plateau, and then suddenly make progress. Then there are guys like me. If I start the day and don't 'get it', I won't have a break through anytime that day. But I do have to put the hours in practicing, otherwise the 'break through' will never happen.

It is a fact that as the day wears on, you will get tired. I try to tell the guys to 'live in victory'; which means that as you are getting near the end of your practice day, and you lay down a real good bead you feel good about, shut down. Let the last thing you do for the day be the right thing.

Don't run long stringers. Run about 2" or 3", then shut down and evaluate what you have done. Self correct and repeat. I have seen guys run 12" of stringer completely wrong. All you did is teach your body the wrong way to do something. Short and self correct. This is the most difficult thing to teach the guys; they all get going and they want to run and run. But you do pay a penalty for running a long stringer the wrong way.

Watch other noobs and have other noobs watch you. You might be using a bad angle and be completely unaware of it. Learn from as many sources as possible.

On running long stringers ...
Run a short stringer. Change one variable, like a slight change in angle, or a slight manipulation. See if you like the change. If you do, incorporate it! If you don't discard it! This is one way you can slowly teach yourself what is right and what is wrong.

I have too many cats come through my program who learned from someone (usually in high school) who really, really didn't know how to weld. They (unfortunately) have to spend time unlearning the bad stuff, before they can go ahead. Now, I am not perfect, and I am sure that there are folks out there who would disagree with what I teach. But I try to teach the students to be flexible and adaptable, so they can change and fit into just about any situation.
Gary

Good advice Gary. Makes complete sense to run short beads, inspect, evaulate and make a change or not. Thanks!

Jim

NYWELDERJim wrote:Good advice Gary. Makes complete sense to run short beads, inspect, evaulate and make a change or not. Thanks!

Jim

Thank you, Jim! My idea is that you don't train your body to do things the wrong way. My biggest problem with noob students is to get them to slow down! They all want to see how many beads they can lay down! Accordingly, I have 'choke points' built into the process; they have to mark and shear their own practice coupons. Also, when they mark coupons, I have them do something different each time. For example, I might want these coupons cut at 1 1/2", or the next ones at 1 3/4". This gives them practice reading a tape and doing basic layout.

I also have systems in place to conserve metal. After running stringers on pads, they go to a lap joint. I typically have them cut these coupons (they are all 4" width), at 1 3/4". They then weld them together in stacks of three, and only three. These get saved and put into a holding area. After a certain number of hours doing this, they go on to a T joint. They make the T's out of the three stacks of laps ... and they put together about five of them into what we call 'dogs'. (Don't ask). From there, the dogs will wait until it is practice time for plasma and oxy/fuel cutting time, where they will get chopped into little bits.

I have a home-made test evaluation that I give for each joint. This is a major part of their grade.

Gary

Gary,

Have you considered doing the occasional cut-etch on your student's welds, to show them what the nugget is doing?

It's pretty simple to do, and very educational to show them what "penetration" means.

Steve S

Will the etch process Jody describes work on notched joins in round tube? Every time I have seen Jody do it he makes the cut on a right angle to the weld joint.

I have looked at a few of my lap joint on flat stock and it was humbling... yet informative.

David

David,

You do not need to cut at 90*. Any cross-section will do, as long as you interpret the perspective you're seeing. In other words, if you cut at 60* and etch it, be aware the section you're looking at is 1.414 times longer than a 90* cut would appear.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:Gary,

Have you considered doing the occasional cut-etch on your student's welds, to show them what the nugget is doing?

It's pretty simple to do, and very educational to show them what "penetration" means.

Steve S

Yeah, Steve! I do something like that when we get into multi-pass. We are an ATF here, so we get a lot of opportunity to look over coupons that have failed, as well as those which have passed.

You are absolutely right on when you suggest that seeing the nugget is important. In fact, I have a pic on one of my bulletin boards from Jody's site showing the complete lack of penetration of GMAW vertical down on 1/4" material.

Try not to throw up ... but I have instructors here that don't see the sense of teaching vertical up, because "no one does that". I am taking over the program next year ... changes will be coming ...

MosquitoMoto wrote:I would practise for an hour every day if not for the price of argon...



Kym

You've got me paranoid about argon now lol. I don't even turn it on half the time I start a weld!

nathan wrote:

MosquitoMoto wrote:I would practise for an hour every day if not for the price of argon...



Kym

You've got me paranoid about argon now lol. I don't even turn it on half the time I start a weld!

Ha!

Every time I pause for more than a minute, I turn it off at the bottle. And I am constantly painting all of my connections with soapy water, checking for leaks.

Resigned to the cost now. Chalk up one more very expensive hobby!


Kym