Beginners Guide to Welding (including class info, equipment info, and my progress!)

[Got Insulin?]

I got on the waiting list, but I'm not too miffed about that; early bird gets the worm. You'll have to make sure to tell me about it, Bryan!

[TROLL]

First night is tonight! I'll report back with how it went...

[420sx]

I def recommend the full jacket as well. Make sure you button that baby all the way up. Molten metal down the front of your jacket SUCKS, especially when its a big spark and doesnt go out for a few seconds. I still have a scar on my chest from stick welding in high school.

As for the hat/skull cap, I just wore a baseball hat backwards. The beanie thingys were a bit less durable, and still allowed my shield to grab some hair when I went to remove it. The hat kept my hair from getting burnt or pulled.

Your shield choice looks good. And definitely go for some steel toed boots.

[Khellen]

Originally Posted by TROLL

First night is tonight! I'll report back with how it went...

This thread peaked my interest as well. I've welded for fun a couple times but I'd really like to become proficient. I might have to look into taking a class sometime!

[TROLL]

I just picked up a set of boots at Work N Gear... they are Rocky Ranger 8" Gore-Tex steel toe boots, they are also waterproof and insulated. I hadn't heard of Rocky boots before but in all fairness I've never really gone boot shopping before. I talked to a salesman there who spoke highly of them and they were by far the most comfortable pair I tried on including Wolverines and Timberland Pros. It looks like that model is being discontinued so the remaining stock was 50% off... originally $200 marked down to $100 which was great. Hoping to use them for welding, auto work, construction, snow, and whatever else comes my way.



I'm just headed to class today with the required clothing (cotton long sleeve shirt, jeans with no holes, work boots, eye protection, ear plugs). I'll ask about gear when I'm there though and am expecting to pick up the mask I linked above as well as a jacket and gloves.

[TROLL]

Ok... just updating with weeks 1 and 2 for those interested. Not a ton of action but things have started moving forward.

They have leather jackets and gloves available in the class, and standard welding helmets. I'd definitely recommend picking up an auto-dimming helmet though, there are some inexpensive but good ones available for $70 or less (like the one I linked earlier). I purchased the one I linked above and it came in today. I removed the stickers and now its just plain black. I used it tonight and it works well, as expected.

Week 1 was classroom introduction, safety, a tour of the facilities, and then watching a video that went over a lot of different elements of welding. Not very exciting, but necessary.

Week 2 was in our welding booths, getting set up and started running beads. We were given 1/4" flat plates and were practicing running rows of beads next to each other with 1/8" 7024 rods. Very basic but necessary to get a feel for the diagonal movement required to both move the rod from left to right as well as feed it toward the plate at the right speed as you go. This started slowly since the instructor needed to help everyone get started, but once it started flowing it was cool. I did better than expected to be honest, but I realize this is still pretty basic. Looking forward to next week for sure, where hopefully I will get more consistent with my speed and my feed and be ready to move on to a different rod or weld type.

Here's a photo of my plate at the end of the class tonight. I made one full layer of welds, then started on my second layer, getting halfway. As you weld next to other welds, it kind of buries them so you can't really see everything I did, but this does show 2 rows. From what I can tell, there are some spots where I went a little too fast here so I will concentrate on consistent slower speed next week.

[420sx]

Is Carney still teaching weld shop there?

[TROLL]

I think he's teaching the daytime class but he's not doing the night classes... we have a guy named James who is probably in his late 20s or early 30s. I'm really looking for more education and instruction on being able to ID metals, how to choose the best rod, how to set up the machine for different scenarios, etc. but I'll give it some time to develop and hopefully he'll spend some time on that.