Not quite an on-target reply to what you asked, but assuming your nephew is just starting out and has all the beginner questions - I have a couple of thoughts:
1) That FFA book sounds excellent for a youth starting out.
2) The modern generation is comfortable with learning from video and may prefer video to a textbook.
3) Some of the welding videos on YouTube are excellent beginner guides. Not all, there's a lot of junk nonsense posted by idiots, and some posters are egotistical characters who are on there more to persuade you of their greatness, rather than serving as good teachers. So look around to find the videos where you actually learn something useful.
The advantage of a video over a textbook is this is a skill where watching and understanding what is happening, is as important as the theoretical book learning needed to select materials, processes, settings etc. Similar to learning to drive, tennis, golf, anything physical.
Night school or vocational ed courses are great, recommended, if you are interested it tradesman level skill. But some of us simply need to repair or fabricate farm stuff, and that's where watching videos can be a good learning source.
I've come to respect '
Making mistakes with Greg'. He describes what he is doing using language a beginner can understand, and learn from. In his job he welds to maintain municipal equipment - snowplows, garbage trucks, structures, utility piping - and some fabrication from scratch. He can describe each of the modern welding processes and where to use each. He can be longwinded (like some of my posts
), just skip ahead where needed.
I wish I had viewed his '
How to weld with 2011' when I got a $50 230-AC buzzbox 20+ years ago. After some practice I could do good solid work with it but learning on my own was like being dropped into a foreign country where I didn't know the language. That video would have made a big difference starting out, more valuable than anything I read at the time.
34Willys for your nephew, book learning is valuable to understand suitable processes and materials, but viewing videos demonstrating actual use are equally valuable. In particular if he isn't going to take courses.
