Teach Yourself Stick Welding from Square One (Videos)

[brin]

It does my heart good to see so many members here enjoy Lanse's welding videos.:thumbsup: On another tractor forum we belong to Lance caught a lot of **** for posting his videos there!

Hard to believe anyone would berate him...he seems to be a fine young man that has a passion for welding and it looks like he is going to make a good living with ad revenues from You Tube and probably welding jobs he does...he has said he does not want to go on to college so he is now in business for himself...I have to respect that....Only criticism I have is in his early You Tube videos he has some really bad language and still he uses the F word ...I think that will hurt him, especially with parents who won't want their young kids ,who might want to learn welding ,to watch his videos.

 

[Shield Arc]

Hard to believe anyone would berate him...

Some members over there didn't like the idea of Lance making a few pennies off of You Tube. They reported him every time he posted a video, then voiced their displeasure about him making money. Personally I could care less what ever he makes, I say more power to him!

 

[brin]

Some members over there didn't like the idea of Lance making a few pennies off of You Tube. They reported him every time he posted a video, then voiced their displeasure about him making money. Personally I could care less what ever he makes, I say more power to him!

Me too...I agree, I admire his spirit...More power to him is exactly right..:thumbsup:

 

[Wa11banger]

He isn't charging me anything for his insight and advice, I can only respect a person who can make an income from their passion. Unlike myself who makes an income from what I was able to do not what I wanted to do. I hope the funds roll in on YouTube, good on him. Anyone who has a problem with it is just not right in the head and isn't thinking about him being and entrepreneur. Wish I had the capability.

 

[Shield Arc]

Having passion for your work, and wanting to learn everything you can generally goes a long ways with trades people. The job I turned journeyman on, I was the only apprentice. My foreman and I were the only two on site that weren't union pipe fitters. There must have been 15-pipe weldors, and 30-pipe fitters on site. 4 or 5 of the pipe weldors really liked me. When ever they had a critical weld to make they would send their fitter to find me. The fitter would walk up to me and say hey Carl so and so wants you to grab your hood and come watch him make a weld. You just don't see that very often where another trade is willing to teach someone else how to weld!

 

[jwmorris]

I remember when I learned to stick weld. I was 13 and after watching my Father for years, I asked him if I could try. He gave me a big box of rod that had been rained on that my Grandfather had (passed away before I had been born).

After an unknown amount of time, I became pretty good. By the time I made it to welding class in high school, I became a master as I had never welded with a rod that had the flux intact. So well in fact that I welded a half dozen others coupons to pass the class.

Ah, the good old days. I only use stick a few times a year these days...

 

[Arc weld]

I always tried to help apprentice's and tried to explain how things work the best I could. I had several experienced welders show me some tricks of the trade as well. What really ticked me off was some of the old school guys who would do more to try and sabotage the new guys than help them. Some of them wanted the newbies to find out the hard way and others seemed really worried that giving away acquired info could have a negative effect on their own job. Probably best not to take advice from those guys if they don't have enough confidence in their skills.

 

[Shield Arc]

What really ticked me off was some of the old school guys who would do more to try and sabotage the new guys than help them. Some of them wanted the newbies to find out the hard way and others seemed really worried that giving away acquired info could have a negative effect on their own job. Probably best not to take advice from those guys if they don't have enough confidence in their skills.

I've always heard stories like that. Personally I never seen it. I always thought it was strange to ask another trade why they do things that way, and have them explain / show me. I guess I was real lucky!
Maybe that's why I have no problem passing on what little I know to the next generation.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Learning the puddle and how to manipulate it is one of those things that you don't get it until you get it. I once had a vocational instructor tell me that some people just seem to get it instantly and others never do, kinda like a sixty something picking up Microsoft Office I guess. That little bit of information that helps you get it can come from anywhere. And if you are a youtube generation that is the best place to look, if you're older than that, go where you go to get it.

In 1969 I came home from Nam and I was an OJT trained telephone cable splicer, learned under some pretty difficult circumstances. It was comparable to learning the trade as a welder with only working oxy/gas for a couple of years in the field. I went to work at the phone company and they had the good old boys who were terrified that someone would learn their jobs and make them insignificant. We didn't get along so well. I was twenty years old and had a real attitude. It never came to blows but it was close on a couple of occasions. I had the basics and was better and faster than they were and like I said, I had this attitude.

One of their tricks was to keep the new guy running for stuff. That way he wouldn't pick it up like he would if he was sitting there side by side or actually doing the work. My position was you forgot it, you go get it. That went over like a poop in a hot tub let me tell you. But the guys who were skilled and loved to see a young guy pick it up took to me like bees and honey. We got along great and I was able to advance very quickly, but only because they were so generous.

The same thing goes with any trade. There will be those who are petty and jealous of anyone else having a chance to advance their skills. And there are those who understand that teaching and encouraging is what we are here for in the first place.

BTW, I wish I had Lance's skills with the youtube. We have some videos out there on Ubuntublox, some of them professionally made, I wish I could do that. In fact what I want to do is the slide show thing with some of my old projects where I have start to finish photos. Youtube is a way for us to pass on what we've learned in a medium that is friendly to the next generations. We all need to take advantage of that. After all, it's what we are here for in the first place.

 

[Arc weld]

Shield Arc, I think if a person is confident in their own ability, they have no trouble sharing their knowledge. I think it's the guys that are worried they'll get showed up are the ones that won't share a thing.

If a guy wanted to learn and had a good attitude, I always considered it a compliment if they asked me something. If I saw somebody having a problem, I'd take a minute to try and help them. Some guys think they're more valuable if they keep all the knowledge to themselves. I think a guy willing to share his knowledge is a lot more valuable to the company. I've had a couple young apprentice's assigned to work with me that seemed to think they were supposed to be teaching me (because they knew it all). Usually they found out pretty quick they don't know as much as they think. Sometimes I knew their way wouldn't work but let them continue on just to give them a dose of reality. Some would be humbled and start paying attention to what I was telling them and others would be mad like it was my fault. I would stop them if they were making a big mistake but sometimes it's good to let people see why things are done a certain way. There's also times when a new guy comes up with a great idea and/or a better/easier way of doing things too. It's so much more enjoyable and productive when you're on the same wave length. I could never understand why some guys just try to cause trouble. It doesn't make them look better, it makes them look like idiots. You just hope the boss see's what's going on and doesn't like these brown nosers. Unfortunately, some boss's like having their ego stroked by these suck ups.

 

[Shield Arc]

Here in the Seattle area you can request by name your entire crew out of the union hall. So we had a tendency to work around the same guys all the time. A click if you will. It has happened to me more than a few times. Something go wrong in the boom of the crane, 150-years of experience standing around trying to figure out what to do.:confused3: A first year apprentice walks up and says why don't we do it this way? Everybody looks at each other and some one would laugh and say yeah why not.:laughing:

 

[DXN1EL]

I really need to start practicing :duh: My welder has been sitting next to my bed, I have almost forgot the smell

I left the leads clamped on the table I made, Today I went and grab the clamp the thing and it felt apart. Any way I need a new clamp. Is this decent?

 

[Shield Arc]

That is the kind of ground clamp I use. That is a very good price,:shocked: I didn't know Harbor Freight had those!

 

[flusher]

As good as a video might be, having a qualified welder right beside you is still the best way to learn welding. A video is a great learning tool but just can't teach you the same as someone in person. You could watch a 100 videos trying to learn welding and I bet an hour with Shield Arc would teach you more than 100 hours of video's could.

You can learn a lot of stick welding info from videos in a short time. I recommend the videos from Wall Mountain

Wall Mountain Company, Inc.

What takes the time is developing the eye/hand coordination; developing muscle memory so you can hold the rod angle and gap; developing the habit of watching the puddle, not the arc; and learning how to control rod speed and motion so you get good tie-in between the puddle and the base metal. There's no shortcut, just practice, practice, practice. Most novice welders tend to run the bead to quickly and have to develop the habit of slowing down to give the puddle time to do its work.

 

[Arc weld]

I bought the Wall Mountain video of oxy/acetylene welding on sale to check it out. I paid $14 but the regular price was something like $29:shocked: It was good but was missing a few points. The biggest one was there was no mention at all of having and keeping a keyhole when butt welding. This is mandatory for full penetration and strength. The other thing it mentioned was setting gas pressures with the gauges. The best way to set gas pressures for O/A welding is to use the regulators but to completely ignore what the gauges say! The gauges could broken or non existent and you could equalize the torch more accurately. I don't think any manufacturer would want to admit their gauges aren't accurate or even needed. Once the acetylene jumps the end of a specific size of tip, indicates the max flow the tip can use. Add oxygen to get a neutral flame and you're equalized. That's the condensed version but covers it in a nutshell.

I think videos would be an enhancement to hands on instruction but nothing beats actual one on one in real time.

 

[ChuckE2009]

Lanse is a good kid! There is a special place in my heart for him. I think the world of him.

That's awesome, Shield Arc!! You're a great guy, and I really do appreciate the kind words

 

[ChuckE2009]

Thanks everyone!! People sure do seem to be enjoying this series, I'll put together a MIG and a couple TIG series' in the future. Glad y'all like the videos

 

[Hiltz]

Ive watched these videos in the past on youtube. I don't know why anyone would complain or make bad comments about them. I found them very informative and also entertaining too. The young guy is also very likeable. Just the kind of person you would like to be around.

 

[ChuckE2009]

Ive watched these videos in the past on youtube. I don't know why anyone would complain or make bad comments about them. I found them very informative and also entertaining too. The young guy is also very likeable. Just the kind of person you would like to be around.

Meh, it takes all kinds I guess. I get overall very positive feedback tho, so its not a big deal...

Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoy the videos

 

[rankrank1]

Some members over there didn't like the idea of Lance making a few pennies off of You Tube. They reported him every time he posted a video, then voiced their displeasure about him making money. Personally I could care less what ever he makes, I say more power to him!

We all have the very same opportunity that Lanse/Chucke2009 does to use Youtube to make a little money as Youtube is open to everyone.

Oh but to make a little money at it you have to put in the time and effort to make the videos, actually be good at making them, and be enjoyable to watch so people will watch them. Only then you will make a little money.

Course most people too lazy to do any of that so it is easier to complain about someone else putting forth that effort that they are otherwise too lazy or unskilled to do.

Darn it Shieldarc it is so unfair that you made a very good living welding/rigging in your career. Those same companies that hired you should have paid me to weld just as they did for you. No matter that I have zero formal training in welding, spent very little practice time honing my craft, and frankly just not a natural at it either, nor is my vision very good. Heck those companies should have flown me from Ohio to the west coast (1st class mandatory) each and every weekend in the name of job fairness. For that matter, I should also be the quarterback of the Denver Bronco too instead of Peyton Manning; again in the name of fairness. (LOL rant)

I bet all those same crybaby complainers demand the very best doctor that can be found for them instead of worrying about doctor fairness when it comes to their personal medical treatment. Of course With welfare and Medicaid picking up the tab for them then no expense should be spared either.

I treat Chucke2009 videos just like I do the TV. If I like em, then I watch them (often multiple times). If I do not like them then I do not watch and turn the channel (Youtube or TV).