where to start in welding

[fred]

Junior wants to tackle welding. What would be his best/easiest way to start ?

[Tim Watts]

Small by decent Mig welder.

I taught myself fairly quickly and a small unit will manage 2mm steel and 4-5mm if you "V" grind the joint and do more than one pass.

The most important/irritating thing is wire feed. Some cheap units are rough and sticky. Smooth feed is essential and more important than most of the other attributes.

The other is gas - I got a baby industrial CO2 cylinder - not the throw-away ones. Very economical and lasts forever. But not too big to be a pain to store or lug around - couple of feet long IIRC, but otherwise heavy and proper. You need to hire this and buy a regulator.

[Nick]

In message , jim writes

Tomes that were recommended on this group in the dim and distant past: Practical Welding S. Gibson 978-0-333-60957-6 Farm and workshop welding Andrew Pearce 978-1-905523-30-6

[Cursitor Doom]

These days you need to define what junior means by "welding" as it's massively expanded as a field over the past 40 years when there was essentially just gas and stick (arc). Hopefully junior will be happy to learn stick as it's the cheapest route so if he gets fed up with it you won't suffer too much pocket-burn.

[newshound]

+1. While there is much to be said for gasless MIG as others have suggested (and which is what I have), things like MAPP gas get you into gas welding but also silver soldering which is, for many things (steam engines, bike frames?) a more useful technique. Not too difficult to migrate from MAPP to Oxy Acetylene and that takes you into a world of new possibilities (car restoration for example). Or demolition which is probably a growth industry, with all these coal fired power stations to get rid of. (As an aside, I havn't seen any discussion of whether the cause of the boiler house collapse at Didcot Power Station has been established yet).

The other standard advice used to be Evening Classes, I've no idea if these still exist.

The Welding Institute (TWI at Abington, near Cambridge) used to do some good VHS training videos at not silly prices. But these days I guess everything you might need is on YouTube somewhere.

[tabbypurr]

Gasless mig is a dream to use. Arc/stick welding is much cheaper, and once you can arc weld you can easily mig weld. Oxyacetylene not ideal for beginners due to the ongoing cost.

I'd mention spot welding but there's pretty much nothing to learn with it.

NT

[John Rumm]

[stvlcnc43]

gas welding

What can you weld with MAPP?

[newshound]

I was thinking about this sort of thing

but doing a bit more research it does not seem to have many devotees for welding. I had been under the impression that it was similar to OA, only slightly cooler, but it doesn't seem to give such an effective reducing flame.

I'd still go back to the first point. It all depends on what sort of things the lad wants to make. So the right answer might be stick, MIG (normal or gasless), TIG, or OA. My point about MAPP / oxygen is that it is a relatively cheap way into gas if you are interested in small scale stuff. And I would still say that silver soldering might be the right way to start: getting used to controlling temperatures and seeing the way molten metal behaves without having your workpiece disappear before your eyes.

The other big recommend for MIG is to get a self darkening helmet.

[Mark]

i tend to agree once you have learned to arc weld any other type of welding ie Mig or Tig is easy even with cheap the budget types of machines

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Crikey. Not known of anyone who uses Oxy Acetylene on car bodywork for ages. Too much risk of warping. MIG is still the common way.

[harry]

Further to other comments. It could be the start of a good working career, important these days. Make sure he's up on the safety aspects. Especially eye damage.

[damduck-egg]

Nephew got an apprenticeship with an engineering firm on the basis that he could already do some welding work and had experience of using plasma cutters etc,he joined the volunteer force of a preserved railway when he was 14 and progressed from just painting things to carriage restoration where a mentor took him under his wing and taught him welding and some metal fabricating skills. Certainly helped at the interview stage for the sought after vacancies as he had references that indicated he could get out of bed and reliably turn up as expected on a regular basis , absorb instructions and achieve results. Such things cannot always be ascertained by looking at exam qualifications alone.

G.Harman

[tony sayer]

In article , damduck- [e-mail] scribeth thus

Well done that lad then:-)...

Should think that our "electric's" Adam would like a few around like that than the ones he usually gets saddled with;(...

[fred]

Many thanks to all who responded. Some very usefule fodder in there. There may be an old stick welder laying about so I'll let him at it at that and he can progress to wire feed if he ia any way proficient

[tony sayer]

DO lay it on hard to him that he must use eye protection at ALL times not like a mate of mine lent him my arc welder..

Anyone know how "arc-eye" is treated at the local A&E dept;!....

[tabbypurr]

There's arc eye, red hot metal spatter, electric shock, burn & fire to beware of.

NT

[Cursitor Doom]

Very wise. Also make sure the rods he uses are thoroughly dried through first (stick 'em in the oven for a spell) as damp rods can really cause BIG setbacks for learners who will doubtless attribute poor results and difficulty striking up/maintaining an arc to all manner of more obvious possible issues.

[Mark]

Do also buy a auto darking welding helmet even the cheap ones on ebay work ok

-

[newshound]

Perhaps I am out of date. Mind you, I don't think anyone could have repaired some of the rusty heaps I used to drive using MIG, but it was a joy to watch my expert mate doing it with OA.