Welding Courses

[Jim Brewster]

I suspect a fair few people on here know how to weld... it's something I've wanted to learn to do for quite a long time for various reasons, and ties in with brewing. I also have an old car that could do with patching up. I have an Engineering degree so know a bit of metallurgy theory already but don't have the practical skills.

I've seen a City and Guilds course at a college for £550 for an 11-week course, which is basically one evening a week for 3 hours, doing one of either MIG, TIG or stick welding (I think), is this the sort of thing that would be useful as a newbie for DIY automotive or brewing applications? I'd expect further qualifications would be needed for specific jobs such as being qualified for welding SS to fermentation vessels etc, so this is just a first step.

https://www.wsc.ac.uk/courses/engin...ntroduction-to-welding-21et576717?occ=1383754

 

[MmmBeer]

I decided to teach myself how to weld during lockdown; bought a cheap MIG welder, watched a few youtube videos and just had a go. I'm not exactly 'stacking dimes', but I can get two pieces of metal to stick together.

Made a FV support for the base of my fermentation fridge, a few hanging basket brackets and repaired a few bit & bobs, but it's nice to know it's there if I want to make anything out of metal.

 

[An Ankoù]

If it can't be done with blu-tac on the one hand, or thermite on the other, then it's not worth sticking together, in my book! My poor departed uncle was a welder- always had holes in his socks.

 

[Nicks90]

I taught myself and its not hard. After all you are only wielding the power of electricity into a ball of plasma the temperature of the surface of the sun to fuse two metals together :-)

But in all seriousness, if you know the fundamental theory, just get a decent kit and crack on. Just make sure you have plenty of scrap steel and lots of grinding/cutting disks and stick bits together and then cut them in half to see penetration of the weld.
Once you are reliably sticking bits together with full thickness penetration, make a crib sheets based on your style and equipment with power settings and wire thickness / rod size for each thickness of metal. Laminate it and stick it to your welder.

Don't buy a cheap hobby welder. They are frustratingly unreliable in the power and wire speeds and give rubbish service intervals before capping out to cool down. We'll worth spending an extra 200 on something mid range.

 

[Rodcx500z]

It's very easy to set a car on fire welding it if you don't know what your doing

 

[Nicks90]

It's very easy to set a car on fire welding it if you don't know what your doing

Hahahaha
Reminds me of when I was asked to weld a patch on a friends Landrover chassis. He didn't want a proper job, just a patch glued on over a hole the mot tester had just poked through it at the mot. "just stick a 2" square patch on that grotty bit mate, here's a 4 pack'. Turns out a couple of years previously he had squirted waxoyl in to the chassis legs to put off the inevitable tinworm.
So I give the surface a quick grind and set to tacking the patch on. All goes well and I start on the first seam.
Wooooof and flames start shooting out the chassis drain hole 6" from my face!

We got it put out quick enough (garden hose jammed against the drain hole) and I got the patch finished, but it took 10 years off my life!

 

[rybinss]

Did first bit of welding last year after 40 year gap.... It looked like rice pudding
Structure didn't collapse though. Watching guys in Hong Kong arc welding without masks was something else...put rod near joint then turn head at last second. Not a lot of H&S going on there.

 

[Griff097]

A course like that will give you a good baseline on the subject, it's far too short to go into much depth, but you will have a clue what your doing.
I did a 6 week course on gas welding as part of my 4 year apprenticeship in the good old days, I was very lucky as if you can gas weld you can turn your hand to mig, stick etc, not tried tog, but it would be a case of getting used to the foot pedal for power more than the welding itself.
Ypu can learn shedliafs on YouTube these days if your fairly practical.
Mig would be a good starting point, the cheapest welders have a high starting current which is useless for repairing old rusty vehicles or even new paper thin steel panels on vehicles!
I can't remember the brand but I bought a better quality Chinese mig/stick electronic welder a few years ago and I am amazed by how good it is, you can set it up for Mig or Stick by swapping the leads over with a kit, I bought a 4m hose kit which makes working/fabricating much easier without having to drag the machine/bottle closer as you move and the soft start (through the electronics) makes striking the ark on stick so much easier it's like writing with a pencil, compared to the old transformer machines which will last forever, I have had one 30 years now and I know it would work tomorrow if I needed it!

I bought a stupidly cheap electronic stick welder for onsite repairs and fabrication and it paid for itself in a day, nothing like as smart a soft start setup as the dearer machine, much easier to get rods stuck to the workpiece when trying to strike the ark (like an old transformer machine) especially when it's dirty or rusty metal in an awkward to clean or prep location, but it saved my bacon the other day fabricating some brackets and repairing a roller shutter door at my unit and as it cost me £80 instead of the £550 the mig/stick machine cost I don't mind risking using it on an extension lead (voltage drop) which could wipe out the electronics.
I had some special SY extension cables made up for using the other machine, but they are a faff to coil up and drag around and really it needs a 16a socket to run it or if I use my step-down adapter to 13a I have to be mindful of how high I go with the current settings so as not to wipe out the electronics.
I can give youote details of my Mig tomorrow of I remember to pop in the garage.

 

[RichardM]

Hahahaha
Reminds me of when I was asked to weld a patch on a friends Landrover chassis. He didn't want a proper job, just a patch glued on over a hole the mot tester had just poked through it at the mot. "just stick a 2" square patch on that grotty bit mate, here's a 4 pack'. Turns out a couple of years previously he had squirted waxoyl in to the chassis legs to put off the inevitable tinworm.
So I give the surface a quick grind and set to tacking the patch on. All goes well and I start on the first seam.
Wooooof and flames start shooting out the chassis drain hole 6" from my face!

We got it put out quick enough (garden hose jammed against the drain hole) and I got the patch finished, but it took 10 years off my life!

I did a lot of welding on my old Discovery. One day I was welding a patch to the underside of a rear wheel arch...I forgot to remove the carpet from the inside of the arch before I started. Luckily I had a fire extinguisher to hand and the damage was limited to a whole in the carpet.

@Jim Brewster I can recommend MIG Welding Forum and Learning MIG Welding

 

[dcbrookes]

I've been welding for years although I'm not very good at it. My strong recommendation would be to get an automatic (self-darkening) mask, which makes things a lot easier.

 

[eyuptm]

And another tip for the older gent- make sure the area is well lit- I've had beautiful welds, straying away 2 or three inches from the seam!!!

 

[Sausages]

I suspect a fair few people on here know how to weld... it's something I've wanted to learn to do for quite a long time for various reasons, and ties in with brewing. I also have an old car that could do with patching up. I have an Engineering degree so know a bit of metallurgy theory already but don't have the practical skills.

I've seen a City and Guilds course at a college for £550 for an 11-week course, which is basically one evening a week for 3 hours, doing one of either MIG, TIG or stick welding (I think), is this the sort of thing that would be useful as a newbie for DIY automotive or brewing applications? I'd expect further qualifications would be needed for specific jobs such as being qualified for welding SS to fermentation vessels etc, so this is just a first step.

https://www.wsc.ac.uk/courses/engin...ntroduction-to-welding-21et576717?occ=1383754

For patching up car metalwork you'll be wanting to MIG weld (aka GMAW). You can TIG (GTAW) thin metal but it's generally not practical on cars, and can be more expensive to get set up with. Stick/arc (SMAW) welding is generally only suited for thicker metal than you'd have on car bodywork.

I would say look for a second hand hobby MIG and have a play with it. You'll be able to sell the welder and not lose out if you decide to upgrade or don't get on with welding! mig-welding.co.uk have some good videos and advice. On youtube jody collier on the "Welding tips and tricks" channel has a good back catalogue. When I was learning having someone show me the ropes helped a lot, so the course would be useful in that respect. If you know of a local metal stockist or body work repair place they may have a scrap bin you can get some practice pieces from. An angle grinder is also a must to get the surfaces nice and clean.

I have a Clarke 90 hobby welder bought from ebay a long time ago which has patched up many cars, including a full rebuild of a Mini shell. Replace the plastic torch liner with a metal one, they feed the wire more cleanly. Don't bother with the disposable gas bottles, get a proper one; if you're set up with CO2 for brewing you'll likely know where to go! I get on better with a mixed gas rather than straight CO2, I'm using Argoshield from BOC at the moment. If you're welding outside then the slightest gust of wind will blow the gas shield away and annoy you. A gasless MIG (flux core) would work better in this instance but I've never used one, in the past I've rigged up a windbreak of some kind. As mentioned an automatic visor makes things much easier and means you keep both hands free on the job.

Good luck!

 

[Jim Brewster]

Thanks all.

I phoned up today about the MIG Level 1 course, it's apparently full until the next term in September so I'm pencilled in for then or as a reserve.

Had a quick look at welders on eBay but I've really no idea what I'm looking at yet so will do some researching on forums and YouTube when I get a day off work and see if it's something I can get started with myself. I already have an angle grinder for odd jobs, I do quite a bit of work on my car so it often comes in handy in emergencies.

Good tips on the self dimming visors I see screwfix do them and cheapest is around £30 so that's not bad.

 

[sifty]

You will get very familiar with your angle grinder as a learner welder...