Educate me

   / Educate me #71  
I got my introduction to welding by watching the welders in the sheet metal shop while in the Air Force. I was "hooked and wanted to learn how"... Started looking and the Adult Education department at the local high school had GED Night Classes that were open to anyone to join in on a space available basis. The only cost was a "materials charge" which, when I took the classes, was $25 per class. I took two 6 week courses in oxy acetylene and two 6 week courses in heli-arc welding. My total cost was about $100 and 3 hours one night a week.

While I'm certainly NOT a "pro welder", I did get the basics, the safety part and the fundamentals. Through the years, I've managed to gain experience, mostly through trial and error, but with the basics, I can usually analyze how to fix my own mistakes.

Check your local GED program and see if it might still be available....
 
   / Educate me #72  
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
To echo many others, it's not to late to learn a new skill. My father-in-law "taught" me to weld. Basically, he showed me how to set up his stick welder and strike an arc, gave me some scrap metal, protective gear and rod and said, "Try to weld those two pieces together." I was hooked in about 10 minutes. A few months later, I bought my own stick welder and started making visits to the metal pile at the local landfill. Several years later, my youngest son and I took a beginner welding class at the local community college. I had to unlearn some bad habits. We started with oxy-acetylene. Before the class was over, we had been exposed to stick, MIG and TIG. We even got to do a little aluminum welding.

Over the years, I have welded all sorts of things. You will never regret learning to join metal together. Practice on scrap a lot. Be prepared to reweld some stuff. And, you can always go to a professional if you need something critical done.
 
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   / Educate me #73  
I remember in welding class in high school. Our teacher was a retired Marine Colonel Green Beret with several consecutive tours in Vietnam. Boys we might a done some welding off in there. We had a local steel fab shop that would give the school cut off pieces. They gave us a lot of right triangle pieces, 12" overall, 3" on the short side. I put four of them together and was making throwing stars for everybody. It was good, 3 hours each day. We had a mig welder bigger than two washing machines. But we only had one mig and several arc welders. I never cared for mig, most of my welding is outside. Wind bothers mig too much. Between an arc welder and a torch outfit, I can handle most all my needs. I may play with a TIG one day, for aluminum.
 
   / Educate me #74  
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
27 years ago I was in the same predicament as you. I got tired of asking family members who made such a big deal out of welding things for me and at that time they offered adult community education classes at night for people to learn various skills, so I chose welding. It was a cheap class, but it was the BEST thing I ever did. My class ran for a full school year, the machines they provided were the same that ISD (Voc. Tech) classes used and current. At that time I made the effort and got pretty good, my instructor even allowed me to test out to be a state certified welder. I started out in 6013 rod and moved up from there to various other rods and processes, GMAW etc. This has allowed me to repair many many items in my life and save me plenty of money. From doing body work to making my own trailers and hydronic wood stove, to fixing implements etc. the list goes on and on.

I highly suggest you finding the class as an adult community education course and I would hope the instructor teaches SMAW first, YES stick welding is more difficult than GMAW/MIG, but you learn how the metal should flow, how to select the right rod for the job, learning starting etc. and Stick will never go out of style, its still used in many many places and very handy sometimes.

And the #1 best part??? You can pass on your knowledge to others so they can get a rough idea on how to do things on their own. I did this with my son and his friends, taught all of them (6 friends and my son) how to weld stick first etc. My son learned welding at 7 years old and got real good when he was 10 to 11 years old. All of the kids I taught the basics to have thanked me many many times because some of them are now professional welders and have a career after taking voc ed class in high school to further their education etc. It is a skill that some people can master and some so so. Even the worst of the kids I taught, eventually got the hang of it, while they might not weld pretty its still strong and they know their limitations etc. All the kids were happy to learn from me since my area no longer has adult community education courses. You could even pass on your knowledge to neighbors etc.

Since you are retired, what does it hurt to learn new stuff? I even taught my wife how to mig weld so she could make crafts and various art work etc. Nothing sexier than a woman with a mig gun in her hand :) .

Good luck to you and your future learning.
 
   / Educate me #75  
40 years ago my dad bought us a welding machine. I could weld all I want when I was 13 years old. Dad never learned. My brother lives close to dad so his welding machine was at dads shop, I bought it from him because he wasn't using it and he will sell or chunk what he don't use. My brother finally built a huge nice shop. Took the welder. Dad had a little mig, plus my brother was next door, so no arc welder. I bought him one to keep at his shop. Dad just finished making a round bale mover to use behind a truck. I don't know why because he has no need for it. We have tractors for that, and other than seeing if it worked, never uses it. It's been two more tires to keep aired up. But, he's welding now at 75, so you can do it.
 
   / Educate me #76  
I get the idea of watching you tubes, but at my beginner class at the local community college I got to use welders ranging from old workhorses to state of the art automatic setting/sensing units and that went a long way in teaching me what I wanted and needed. Most were way beyond what I could afford or need though but I think most beginner courses are really stick welding focused, but we did get a taste of mig, tig, and plasma cutting. My class also had a virtual reality class, and that improved my stick welding fundamentals about 80% in one session.
 
   / Educate me #77  
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
I'm 60 and can relate. Daddy always said "Don't look while I'm welding, it'll burn your eyes." To this day if someone is welding I start looking for the door🤣. Seriously though, I still want to learn. I have plenty of projects lined up for retirement.
 
   / Educate me #78  
I remember the first time I saw someone arc weld. Our neighbor was building a boat and trailer in his back yard. At night, we was this orange glow in the trees behind their house. Then it would stop. Then start a few moments later. We walked around and the neighbor was standing there. We asked what he was doing. The first thing he said was welding. The second thing he said is don't look at it. So, of course, we looked at it. 🙃
 
   / Educate me #79  
I used to be the world's worst welder, might even have a certificate around here somewhere to prove it.

Took a night school course (gas welding, two nights a week, six weeks), I'm better, but still not good. (Instructor was a dud. I've taught in vocational schools and he really ought to be doing something else. Well, it was inexpensive, I got what I paid for.)

Practice makes things better, and I lucked out and found a "Makers Group" locally which has 3D printers, a giant Bridgeport mill, a prehistoric CNC machine, several lathes, several welders AND people to teach you how to use them! Meets every other Saturday for four hours. All free.

First meeting I spent an hour and a half rewiring a 3D printer, then an hour being shown how to use a MIG welder - hands on. And did I mention free? Next meeting I'm going to do a short presentation on fixing quartz watches (beyond just changing the batteries) and them I'm going back to the welder for more.

I'm very good with a soldering iron or soldering pencil (and modest, too!) because I've been doing that for years. PC boards, wiring harnesses, chips (R&R), restoring antique stereo equipment, all easy for me, practice makes perfect, or at least hopefully tends to lead in that direction.

Very good thread, two notable comments (so far) that I got a smile out of - "Like someone from the media trying to understand firearms" (Wonderful!) and "Knowledge doesn't weight anything, you can fill your head with it and still get up tomorrow morning."

I guess the media one is a culture clash. If you live in a city, you ignore sirens and freak out over gunshots. If you live in the country, you ignore gunshots and get nervous when you hear sirens.

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida (happily in a part of it where sirens make me nervous)
 
 
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