Beginner

[XLevel]

I am interested in welding and fabrication, but have no skills or experience at all. Where should I start?

[ramairjudge]

I've found welding manuals written by Ron Finch to be very useful to at least get an idea of what kind of welder to purchase & to how to begin welding along with fabrication basics. Also a community college in your area may have a welding course that will definitley be a plus to get you started.
Good Luck!

[Buildin'MyOwn]

Originally Posted by XLevel

I am interested in welding and fabrication, but have no skills or experience at all. Where should I start?

Get the best quality 75-100 amp mig that you can reasonably afford. Get some scrap metal (all thicknesses and sizes) from a scrap yard or junk yard. Set up a fire-safe area with an extinguisher or two. Make sure you understand everything about your welder before welding anything. Build something simple like a 5-sided box, or a pair of saw horses, or maybe a small welding table to work on your other projects. This isn't rocket science, but you do need to be careful and safety conscious whenever you are welding. Oh yeah... be sure to wear welding gloves too.

[menrey]

You can go on youtube and watch all kinds of welding videos.It's can give you a rough idea.

[rixcj]

Check with your local community colleges. Sometimes they offer welding classes.

If there's an art college nearby, they sometimes offer welding classes. An art school here offers metal sculpture classes, where you learn to weld, and fabricate a little, too.

Many people are self taught, or someone showed them how to get started, but it really helps to learn the right way. Welding can be used in critical applications, and hoping for the best, and getting lucky, are not the way to go. Experience and confidence is the way to go.

After you learn the basics, you have to PRACTICE!! People don't seem to want to practice, they try a little welding, get the hang of it, a little, and jump right in on their project. Then they wonder why it looks terrible, or why it broke.

When I went to welding school ( at a major shipyard), we stayed in a welding booth, and welded for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, for 10 weeks. In that time, we learned stick welding ( all positions ), and had to pass a vertical and overhead bend test.

Then we had 2 weeks of MIG welding (spray) and had to pass a horizontal bend test.

If we passed the tests, we got hired. YOU GOTTA PRACTICE!!

There are books and video's available to learn to weld, but it's much better to have someone there to show you how to start, and help you out when you're doing something wrong.

Well, good luck to you! When you can join metal together, it's amazing what you can make!

Rich

[Andrew]

In my book a 75 ~ 100 amps MIG machine is a bit on the small side !! the minimum entry level is 130 amps. Within 6 months of purchasing it you'll be cursing yourself for it lack of umf / power. Remember a welder is one of your workshops "foundation equipment" and should be good enough todays job / project but also for the future.
I know you poor US people have a limitation with respect to standard 110 VAC supply connected to your homes / workshops.

[TMEngineering]

Originally Posted by XLevel

I am interested in welding and fabrication, but have no skills or experience at all. Where should I start?

Local community colleges usually have pretty good programs to get your feet wet without any huge commitment. They usually have evening classes so it won't interfere with most people's daily schedules.

MIG welding is possible to mess around with and learn on your own, but TIG is a whole different animal. The learning curve for TIG is probably not worth trying to do it all on your own, even a little in-person hands-on coaching would accelerate your learning curve dramatically.

If you can MIG proficiently, you will have a better grasp of TIG when the time comes, as you will at least understand the concept of the metal pooling, blowing holes in material due to excess heat or moving too slowly , etc.

Also be aware that your proficiency will come in bursts, you may think you are not getting any better, but then suddenly you will become a lot better in spurts, so don't get frustrated!

Other metal fabricating skills require specialized equipment, you can start obviously with the basic stuff, jig saws, grinders, drill/press, etc. But if you are at all ambitious you will quickly need to move on to other stuff like shears, benders, lathes, etc. Again, a community college would be great, as they usually have most of these things and you would more often than not have full access to all of the shop equipment and tools, even if you are "only" taking "welding" classes. The instructors are usually very helpful as well, since most of them are passionate hobbyists themselves.

[mikeyr]

I tried to take a college welding but around here they stopped many years ago, even Adult Ed. stopped. I ended up taking a week vacation and going to Lincoln school of Welding for Motorsports.

Cost me a flight (frequent flyer miles), a week in a budget hotel and I think $500. Absolutely the best week of vacation I have ever taken. I learned way more than I could remember.

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowl...ol/courses.asp

[marlorup]

My suggestion would be to check out your local tech college. Many offer classes that you can work around your work schedule. I've also noticed that they through in a little fabrication lessons. I've been checking out my local tech school, and have been pleasantly surprised to find out all that they offer. It won't hurt to just stop in and ask for some info and class schudules. Good luck.

[figure_finishing]

i also recommend a community college class. i took one through work and learned a ton. the class i took also did various certifications at the end depending on the level of skill you developed.