Picked up my first welder today

[Mark @ Everlast]

I understand both sides, the eagerness to get a jump on things which probably has caused no harm...and from the side of it's harder to "unlearn" bad habits than to learn correct new ones...especially in something like welding where muscle memory and all that has to be relearned if something isn't right.

 

[Reverser]

How can you "learn" a bad habit by practicing at home what you have learned at welding school?

 

[Happy Gilmore]

$180 is OK but $300 would be too much. You can a buy a new inverter for about the same money. Try to learn the basics in the class first so you don't pick up bad habits. The class should hopefully give you a good idea what to be practicing.

A striker for lighting your torch will make an auto lens darken.

I'm a little confused. You bought a welder, which is good, but you're trying to teach yourself welding before you even started the class. I think it would make more sense to take the course and then practice what you learned. Isn't that the whole idea of taking a beginners welding course in the first place.:confused3:

Seems a bit condescending if you ask me?? Am I misreading this Arc Weld or is it how you always come across??

I understand both sides, the eagerness to get a jump on things which probably has caused no harm...and from the side of it's harder to "unlearn" bad habits than to learn correct new ones...especially in something like welding where muscle memory and all that has to be relearned if something isn't right.

I'm not sure how there came to be a "both sides" in this thread, it's not a debate, I'm simply enthusiastic about learning to weld and picked up a welder I thought was a good deal to learn on and try to become more proficient. It just seems Arc Weld has been quick to climb atop the old soap box :confused3:

 

[Shield Arc]

I think what Arc weld, and Mark are trying to say is don't be in too much of a hurry where you'll pickup bad habits. When your instructor shows you how to do something, sure work on that. But try to restrain from going to far ahead of the instructor.

 

[dragoneggs]

I am eager too! And no class in sight at this moment in time. Have my Miller 211 MIG all set up and ready to go on my first project.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

I think what Arc weld, and Mark are trying to say is don't be in too much of a hurry where you'll pickup bad habits. When your instructor shows you how to do something, sure work on that. But try to restrain from going to far ahead of the instructor.

Yes. Trying to help someone unlearn a bad habit from self teaching is the hardest thing a teacher will ever do...and hardest thing a student will face in the learning process. Absolutely practice at home, but if you are about to start a class, or are thinking of one in the near future, just wait a little longer until you have some guidance. If you don't have access to teaching, then get someone to help you that knows before you jump into the deep end. There are a lot of bad habits that can develop early on in the welding process...a lot of them. Just a caution that is all...certainly not a prohibition.

 

[Arc weld]

Thank you Shield Arc and Mark for understanding what I was trying to get across. I think the best thing a person can do, well the second best thing, is take a course to learn welding. The best thing though is to take a trip to Shield Arc's shop and learn from the master himself. Being enthusiastic isn't a bad thing but sometimes it's better to hold off a bit. Kind of like impulse buying where you think it's great deal but find out later you didn't really need it.

 

[Happy Gilmore]

Shield Arc do you have an open guest room? How far from MA are you . I'm planning on taking it slow, we tried a bit of horizontal last night in class, that was a bit challenging. I won't be practicing it on my own just yet, need to get a better feel for it. Working on the flats however just seems plain relaxing.

 

[dragoneggs]

Thank you Shield Arc and Mark for understanding what I was trying to get across. I think the best thing a person can do, well the second best thing, is take a course to learn welding. The best thing though is to take a trip to Shield Arc's shop and learn from the master himself. Being enthusiastic isn't a bad thing but sometimes it's better to hold off a bit. Kind of like impulse buying where you think it's great deal but find out later you didn't really need it.

Ha! Exactly what I plan to do... I am about 10mi away (I think) from ShieldArc and hope to invade his domain next week! No kidding.

 

[Arc weld]

Shield Arc just needs to put a cot in his shop because you'd never want to leave.

I was very fortunate to have an extremely experienced teacher when I took welding in high school. Here's my welding 101 lesson to give you something to practice.

What would be good practice is to take some plates, preferably about 3/8'' thick and practice making beads on the plate. Not joining anything together, just beads. Mark some parallel lines about 1/4" apart with soapstone and try to keep your beads a consistent width between the lines with nice round ripples. 7014 would be a good choice for this but good to try different rods. Ripples should be rounded but with more heat could be slightly pointed. This indicates proper speed. Really close together ripples is too slow. Really pointed far apart ripples is too fast. A 1/8" welding rod should burn 6" or maybe 7" with 7014. A weld needs 4 basic things. If all 4 are right it should be a pretty good weld. Remember DASH.... Distance (arc length) Angle (electrode angle) Speed (travel speed) and Heat (amps). Once you can get consistent uniform beads, try making a pad of weld on your plate where the welds overlap each other. The overlap should be about half the previous bead with no valleys or depressions in between. You could cool the plate off every few beads since it's just practice. Too hot will screw you up. Once done the pad should be a uniform thickness and as smooth as possible showing the ripples from the welds. Also at the end of the weld go backwards a little to fill the crater. Once you get good at this, you can get to practicing joining two pieces.