Educate me

[Torvy]

Sadly, my only welding 'experience' is running and fetching for welders at my dad's shop when I was a lad. I know you cannot look directly at it without eye protection, and not much else.

I am wondering if it is worth learning a bit about welding (thinking a community college class or 2) so I can someone minor things for myself. In my head, I am thinking I may need to attach hook(s) to my bucket; d-rings or similar to the trailer.

What I would like to know from the community is two-fold. 1) what other things would I likely need to use welding for in my small retirement operation? 2) Do you think it is worth my time to learn at this point?

Thanks,

T

 

[Thomas]

Just go with your gut feelings for answer.

 

[Eagle1]

Never too late to learn new skills....

 

[sea2summit]

I'm self taught and no good at it but I sure do a lot of it and so far it's all held together. I think it's worth figuring out.

 

[Rockbadchild]

What you would use welding for, well any repair or fabrication project or customization, it could be as simple as a strip bolt, you could weld a new nut on the existing one to remove it ... Yes, I think it's worthwhile if you regularly need to weld things, it could save you time and money. Its not that hard to learn although it can be for some people if you have a steady hand its easy.

I wouldn't suggest a class, there will be mix opinion, but this is mine... I would suggest a small stick welder, purchase the proper PPE, watch a few videos and go in your garage and practice start on the flat position master that then you can start trying vertical then overhead... For every position start on a scrap piece of metal and simply do welding bead and practice over and over until you can do them straight and at a constant speed and can identify what is too hot and what is too cold and what is just right, once that is accomplish you start with thin plats like 1/8 inch and practice welding them together and go up in thinness from there until you get to half inch... once you weld 1/2 inch plats you can do the test like cutting it in half see if there is impurities and bend them in half. If there isn't any porosity and you can bend them right in half, you can have confidence in your weld and weld pretty much anything at that position ... that's what you would do in any class.

 

[jwmorris]

You could learn more in an a few hours with someone that knows what they are doing than a month of reading words they wrote.

 

[big bubba]

agree w/your idea of community or adult ed classes. hands on experience under supervision imho for a novice is more valuable than initially on your own. after a class or 2, you'll be in a good position to decide where to go from there for your own purposes in terms of skill & equip.

 

[BlueKnife]

Sadly, my only welding 'experience' is running and fetching for welders at my dad's shop when I was a lad. I know you cannot look directly at it without eye protection, and not much else.

I am wondering if it is worth learning a bit about welding (thinking a community college class or 2) so I can someone minor things for myself. In my head, I am thinking I may need to attach hook(s) to my bucket; d-rings or similar to the trailer.

What I would like to know from the community is two-fold. 1) what other things would I likely need to use welding for in my small retirement operation? 2) Do you think it is worth my time to learn at this point?

Thanks,

T

Definitely worth learning. Everyone should. No need to take a class. Plenty of good how to videos on Youtube. That and some practice are sufficient for a do it your selfer who isn't welding big structural stuff.

 

[GeneV]

I went to YouTube college for welding classes.

 

[tom3]

I too like the class idea. That and watching some you tube videos will get you off to a good start. But using a mig welder is a real easy way to learn.