Thread: Welding Education Resources

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I am learning from a real expert, his name is Randy. Imagine that, MY name is Randy :P I think if you get yoru own welder and do just anything on your own, it will help you a lot more than books, videos and other people will. Now I'm not saying that the ladder is'nt important, but I believe no one will get anywhere without actually doing it on thier own.

1/4" Iron I did just the other night for fun. I have a little Lincoln Electric Wire Feed Flux Core welder. Turned up the heat and increased the duration and got through pretty well. Not all the way penetrated from what I could tell, and I had a few cracks once I ground it down, but hey, do something different next time and observe the results and LEARN!

All I can say for the last few posts is YES you can learn on your own but then again, it could look great from the outside after you hit the slag off (if your stick welding) and look like it penitrates but you need to KNOW if it is a good weld. Take a bead across some metal, etc with a few different settings. Some will come out good, others wont. Now take those good ones and see which one you THINK did the best. Now take a grinder to that weld and grind it down. You may find pinholes or if you stick weld it you could find slag under it as well. Just make sure your doing it RIGHT not make sure it just LOOKS good and right.
See my point?

Originally posted by FMXhellraiser
All I can say for the last few posts is YES you can learn on your own but then again, it could look great from the outside after you hit the slag off (if your stick welding) and look like it penitrates but you need to KNOW if it is a good weld. Take a bead across some metal, etc with a few different settings. Some will come out good, others wont. Now take those good ones and see which one you THINK did the best. Now take a grinder to that weld and grind it down. You may find pinholes or if you stick weld it you could find slag under it as well. Just make sure your doing it RIGHT not make sure it just LOOKS good and right.
See my point?

Exactly why I mentioned that the others are still important You need to know what to look for, but you also need to at least know how to get it started. A mixtureof both will lead to a great weldor I believe.

I'm in my 3rd week at the local county technical institute. We started Oxy/Ac cutting and welding. It been pretty good. The instructor is an old school welder doing it 35 years. The first class we were on the torches within the first 15 minutes. This Saturday we start MIG and eventually TIG. You can't beat the setup, instruction and use of all the materials you can get through. 13 classes for 220 bucks. ---CM

LOL, well thus far, I suck ass at Oxy/Ac torch use. ::P:

It is good to take these classes too. You can weld for 4 hours straight every night of the week (at least my classes are that long) and it's worth it. You get the metal, welder and everything and weld for as long as you want and it's not your materials your buying either. You can burn over 50 rods a night and after 400 or so you will tell a HUGE improvement. The degree I am going for includes MIG, TIG, Stick, Oxy acetylene, plasma, ESAB robot, submerged welding, Fabrication, Metallurgy, blue print reading (actually I don't think I am taking this blue print reading because it will not be of use to what I am doing). Those are just some of the classes I am doing. But what I am getting at is for the price of the classes it is MUCH worth it. You will get a LOT out of it and even get discounts at welding supply stores and other places as well.