Weldors, and welders

Who all welds here? Who all wishes they could weld? What kind of rigs you guys have? Stick, Mig, Tig? Or all three? What's your favorite way to weld? Any one do it for a living?

I'll start by saying, yes I can. Does it always look pretty? Nope! Sometimes it does though. I'd wanted to weld for years, and finally took a college level course about a year ago. I realized if I wanted to make implements, and repair them, I'd better learn.
So far, stick is what I need, a Mig machine would be nice too! I've got an old Lincoln IdealArc 250, I bought from a weldor at the plant for $150. Best buck and a half I spent in a long time. AC/DC, and I can weld all day at 125 amps. If I need to weld anything over 3/8", I can do that too. I've never moved this machine off DC REP. One of these days I'll try it on AC and see what happens. Most of the time I use 6010, but like 7018 for a nice weld too. 7024 is a caddilac for me, and I do use it once in a while when I'm welding something of my own at the plant. Whenever I build my rod oven, then I'll be keeping some Lo/Hy around in the barn.

So let us know your experiences, funny stories, whatever.

Well....I don't but I want to. It's on my list of things to do new in '06. I read alot of the post about it in hopes I glean some good info for when I do. I am envious of those who can. I have so many ideas that would require it.

I can weld too, sometimes its good, most of the time its not, hey, that peice of metal needed drainage holes anyway right?
Never had lessons, get complained at if its bad, ignored if its good, seems to have worked Best skill I have ever learned, apart from maybe washing up, cos that keeps me out of trouble, most the time
I have a 130amp stick at home but use the fancy TIG at work sometimes. I never use anything but 6013, nothing else burns through rust and paint as well or is quite as cheap. I like welding horizontally doing butt welds, anything else usually results in bodily fire or parts not remaining welded for long.
From a year of expereince it is safe to say that welding + Mith + wooden shed + expensive item = fire = panic = burns = destruction of expensive part

I just taught myself to weld. I had wanted to do this for a while and when I saw a Clarke 130 amp Mig on sale for $300 I decided to take a plunge. Haven't welded anything worthy of mention yet but what I have welded seemed to work pretty good. I did some practice stuff and then cut it up to inspect the welds and tried to break them and they seemed to hold together better than I expected. So far, it has been easier than I thought.

I'm thinking of getting a cutting torch, and keeping my eyes out for a decent used high power Arc welder for big projects. I'm just surfing craigslist and waiting for something to jump out at me.

I've got a lot of stuff (bucket re-inforcement & chain hooks) prepped and ready to go when the weather gets better. If I have free time I try to get stuff cut up and ready to weld for the next dry days. It's raining too much to work on the tractor (no shop - sigh).

I'm going to make some ladders out of some extra T-Posts for hopping the fence on my property to visit the neighbors. Gates would get left open by the kids and then the fence loses its purpose. Last time I checked my dog couldn't climb a ladder worth beans.

I wish I could weld. And wish I had a welder.

I look forward to learning from some of you pros in this thread. Good idea John!

I bought some of the welding DVD's from Northern Tool and would recommend those. I think it helps to get the visuals of what a good weld puddle looks like (as well as what the bad looks like). I think the series does a good job of teaching the basics and showing how things are supposed to be done. I've bought the MIG, Flux, and Arc ones and just ordered the OxyAcetlyene ones.

Of course, if you can go to a local college and take a course that would be cool too. I couldn't fit one of those into my schedule.

The welding class I took was worth a dozen times the price and time I put in it. It even turned out the instructor is a neighbor of mine, and his wife is an instructor herself. Between the two of them, I was able to put in a lot of extra time at no cost. This was something I REALLY wanted to learn and succeed at. Am I as good as I want to be? No way, yet.
At the plant, I've access to very accomplished weldors and some very expensive equipment. All I have to do is ask. One of the weldors, a personnal friend, has even had me cap pipe welds on non-critical welds. It's a good feeling to me when I can do something like this.
Ofcourse, most weldors I know, don't know diddly about building. It helps sometimes to know something others don't.
I would suggest to anyone wanting to learn, is to take a course on it if possible, then get out there and practice till ya drop.

I no no one that is an accomplished weldor. I know lots of people that have crappy little arc welders and I don't want to learn from any of them (trust me). In lieu of a class or knowledgeable friends I think the DVD's are pretty good and sure beat doing nothing at all.

I have been welding for the last 31 years. Started with oxy/acetlyne then to stick then to mig and tig. I consider myself very good and probably could get a few certifications if I so desired. My preferred method is mig as it is the most versitle of any of the methods. Lately I have been getting my tig technique up to where I consider it to be acceptable.

I Weld for therapy! I do mostly stick…. Not a big fan of MIG. I am just an arc bigot I guess! I take classes when ever I can, always more to learn.

I took an adult ed course at our county vocational school in welding in 1978. At my business shop, I have a miller 130 mig on the end of the work bench that gets used every other day.( I'm on my 2nd one, I wore the first one out ) I use a millermatic 250 for the HD stuff. At home I have a hobart handler 175 mig in the hobby shop as well as a little lincoln flux core portable 110volt unit of 100 amps. I have the standard lincoln 225 buzz box stick at the shop I use very occaisionlly when I need to use it to weld in windy conditions where the mig won't work. I do some actylene welding , brazing & soldering as the need arises, usually on radiators & tanks. Taking that $125.00 welding class years ago was money well spent. I only wish I had more time to be creative with my machines instead of just fixing broken stuff.

I own a miller - millermatic 210 welder. It can weld up to 1/4" sometimes I do a nice job & other times I burn holes, it all depends on what I am trying to do but one of my employee's is a certified welder so he does 90% of the welding in my shop. I would like to eventually take a coarse to cover myself for the day that he doesnt work for me anymore.

Kubota King said:

............. I would like to eventually take a coarse to cover myself for the day that he doesnt work for me anymore.

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Have no fear..... he will still be around, but you will be working for him!!!

This guy doesnt desire to ever be the boss.

I've seen some of the videos that have been mentioned. They give you the idea of what things are supposed to look like, and are really good. If this is all you have to gone on, by all means, do it! I self taught myself framing and carpentry years ago, so no reason why someone can't do it with welding too, IMO. I found that what happens is that when someone shows you a technique, it's usually their own, not neccesarily what the text books show. It all boils down to what works best for you.
One position that kills me big time is verticle up, with stick! No matter what I've tried, it's turns out nasty. So, I avoid that position, in other words, I get lazy. What I build is easily moved to a position that even I can handle.
Some out of position welding I'm comfortable with. I found that if I can lean on something, sometimes even what I'm welding on, I can brace myself and get comfortable to steady the rod.

Many years ago, I tried welding, and utterly failed at it. I had no clue what I was doing at all, 90% of the time, stuck the rod, and just gave up. Then I found it was something I wanted and needed to do, and said screw it, I'm GONNA learn!!
One thing that helped me more than any thing, seemed to be the Auto/Darkening hoods. It's nice to be able see where you are before you strike an arc!

I heeded everyone's recommendations and went with an auto-darkening hood too.

I think starting out with MIG has to be one of the easiest ways to learn. When I get an Arc welder that will be a lot more challenging.

johnday said:

One position that kills me big time is verticle up, with stick! No matter what I've tried, it's turns out nasty.

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The only exception to being worse I think would be overhead welding. It has the same challanges of verticle welding with the added bonus of having your red hot molten metal globs dropping onto you. I was lucky enough one day to have one of those globs drop into my boot. Yeehaa! What fun that was. And, yes, that one did in fact leave a mark.

I have a MIG much like Kubota King's MM210. I think his MM210 is actually rated to do 3/8", where he modestly said 1/4". They are about the best mid range MIG machines available. Mine is the MM251. It will just do a little heavier stuff than the MM210. Anyway, if you have to do much verticle or overhead welding, the MIGs are much easier to use than stick or even TIG. I mostly only use TIG for really thin stuff or aluminum. Although you can weld aluminum with a spool gun on a MIG, I've found that my TIG welds look much better and I don't have to screw with changing the tanks of my MIG.

As everyone has said, just practice and practice some more. When teaching someone, and testing the penetration of something I am welding, it is interesting to use a band saw or a chop saw and cut a weld in half. You can see how much penetration you are getting. A lot of times when a guy gets some "pretty" welds, they are basically just laying on top, and not penetrating enough. Those can be dangerous. Most welders now come with pretty good charts on the settings that should be used for common material thicknesses.

Just dragging this thread up to see if I got a good deal or not today. No....I don't drag up 4 year old threads and I am NOT LBrown

First, what I owned before today. A Lincoln AC225C that I am "taking care of" for my brother who moved to Florida. A Craftsman 85A mig that's good for maybe 1/8" or 3/16" metal and a 100A AC Forney that I picked up at an auction. The Forney is looking for a new home.....needs cables replaced and I think it runs on 120/230V, can't remember.

Today I picked up a Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC with wheels for $120. 225A on AC and 150A on DC. I learned to weld on a DC machine and there certainly is a difference when you try AC. Haven't fired it up, someone put a range plug on it and I have a welder outlet. Maybe we'll fix that tomorrow

So? Good deal? Hope so, already signed the check.....

OhioTC18 said:

Today I picked up a Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC with wheels for $120. 225A on AC and 150A on DC. I learned to weld on a DC machine and there certainly is a difference when you try AC. Haven't fired it up, someone put a range plug on it and I have a welder outlet. Maybe we'll fix that tomorrow

So? Good deal? Hope so, already signed the check.....

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That's a very good deal! Where did you find it?

PBinWA said:

That's a very good deal! Where did you find it?

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At a local auction. The wife asked if we really needed it? I don't know about her, but I did.....

Ya got a good deal there,ya did! Good for you! Do you really need it? Only if you really want it!

For a buck twenty? I needed it, because wanted it

johnday

It appears gatorboy is not inline. I just looked up WELDOR in the dictionary and it does not exist

I have been welding since the age of 13 with arc, and oxy, about 10 years ago i bought my first MIG and just in the last few week i bought a TIG. I weld better when pissed, the hand is steadier I can even weld laying on my back. I still don't understand though why these welds change over night.

daedong said:

johnday

It appears gatorboy is not inline. I just looked up WELDOR in the dictionary and it does not exist

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Well Vin, I think YOU misspelled it. I believe it's really spelled "weldour"!