Finished Welding Class

chevy4x4trucks · December 14, 2001

For my own personal knowledge I took an arc welding class. It was tuesday nights for 2 hours, I think about 12 weeks. But, in the end I learned a lot about welding and got pretty good at it. Only did stick welding w/ various types of rods (7018, 6010, 6013, 6024, and a few others) Here's some pics of some T-Welds that I did. Each Tee is a different type of rod so that's why they look different. Some are harder than others.

Next semester I'm thinking of taking another class, maybe in wire welding and another in TIG.

mikeb · December 14, 2001

Not bad Jon, looks like you've got the hang of it, but it's all about practice. I've been doing maint. welding 20 plus years and your welds look better than some of the guys I've worked with, they just don't have the eye hand coordination. Take the TIG and Mig classes, you'll like them.

chevy4x4trucks · December 14, 2001

Yeah, I plan on taking a few more, not for a career, just more for a hobbyist kinda thing. I think the reason that I can weld decently is becuase I have a very steady hand. But it's all about being comfortable. My teacher was very impressed w/ some of my welds. When I showed the teacher some of the welds he was impressed w/ the fact that I used such thin metal and didn't burn through.

illmac77 · December 15, 2001

looks good , i would definitly recommend taking a tig class, to me it was night and day from stick welding...had a really good time at school, but glad im certified now... to be back home and get planes back in the air to bomb the hell out of osamin.

god bless america

Jpshostr · December 15, 2001

Welding is so fun, I just got a welder last Christmas. Trying to put together a nice set of metal working tools, slow going, but I'll get there. I learned how to stick weld in Ag class in HS (what a joke), but then I was introduced to the wire feed. Never picked up a stick since. Since then I've played around fixing things here and there, getting better as I go.

Just gotta get or make myself a good welding table now. I don't have one yet.

pacodiablo · December 15, 2001

make some truck accesories

alsz71 · December 15, 2001

Looks good, have you tried any uphand ? I'm going into my 2nd yr of appreceship at NAIT in a couple of weeks and should have my red seal in a year or so.

siume99 · December 17, 2001

chevy4x4, I see your welds look like you are laying dimes down. I've been told that is a better weld than one that looks like tooth paste. Is that correct? ??? I'd love to learn to weld to make small accessories for my truck, bicycle and such.

chevy4x4trucks · December 17, 2001

that's the way the teacher said to do it, to get a nice ripple effect. I've heard it both ways though

Paco: i was thinking about making some truck accesories, but first I'm going to weld a bowtie to the side of your ford.

pacodiablo · December 17, 2001

go ahead, if u want potato dent in your truck

Torque Junkie · December 17, 2001

<in Chief Wiggam voice> That's some nice weldin, Jon

My dad just bought a MIG arc welder, and I used it for the first time and MAN that was the crappiest weld in the world. It looked like a metal bird sh*t molten metal bird sh*t on the piece I was welding. It was nasty!! After a couple more tries I did better, but it was still horrible. My dad's got it figured out (this was his first time welding too - but he's a master solderer) and his look as good as yours are now, so I'm gonna take lessons from him and weld up the crappy exhaust system that was put on my truck.

-Mike

chevy4x4trucks · December 18, 2001

really all you need is practice and a steady hand. That class was about 30 hours of practice. When I was there the first day I kept sticking it to the metal. But after a few more classes I was getting better. The teacher essentially just threw us in a welind booth and said go at it. I was at a disadvantage because for a beginning class 90% of the people there had a few years of welding experience.