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So, i've agreed to polish up this old dudes car in town (which needs it REALLY bad) in exchange for him to teach me how to weld. I've seen his work, it's flawless.

So, what's a welding student to know ahead of time? Any tips from current weld-a-holics that may help me out?

I'm not a weld-a-holic, but I was a welding student a couple years ago. Some of this advice is pretty obvious, but...

Of course, have patience. It takes time and lots of practice to learn to finesse things right.

Try to learn the science behind what you do and keep it in mind. Basic metallurgy is good to know.

Cut open a lot of the joints you make to see how well they penetrated and see if there are any slag inclusions.

If you're arc welding, invest in one of those whizband auto-darkening LCD helmets. It's soooo much nicer to see both with and without an arc without having to flip your helmet up and down.

I'd love to learn to weld. My uncle does exotic metals for aq defense contractor, but he lives too far away. Good welders are hard to find - even people who get paid good money sometimes can't weld for shit.

Steve

I took an intro class a month or so ago. It definitely takes some practice. I think for every day use, gas shielded MIG welding would be what I'd choose. Gas shielded is going to give you less smoke and nasty stuff in the air then MIG welding with flux or arc welding.

I'd really like to practice, but I've got the car project eating my money and time right now. Plus I'm not sure how often I'd use it.

Personally I'd like to learn how to weld aluminum. We just did steel.

Definitely go with the auto-darkening LCD helmets.

Nobody I work with likes those auto-helmets. I don't quite remember exactly why, either they've been burnt before or they don't like screwin' around with the sensitivity.

You'll learn plenty when you start doin' it, but there's only a few key things to look for in a high quality weld. Penetration, underfill, undercut, stop/start craters, inclusions, toe-shape (how well the you "tie-in" to the base metal), cracks, delamination, and carborization. Ask your instructor to explain those if he skips them. Ask him about back-purging, too.

i have welded for years, i really cant think of anything off the top of my head, but i will say this.
Practice practice, try to break your welds to check for penetration, and always clean your metal to the best of your ability before welding.

And as far as the speed glass you guys are talking about, they do make nice ones, i use a optrel satellite, theyre about $300 or so, but they work flawlessly, and are excellent helmets....

If you come across anything you have a question about, shoot it my way and ill be able to give you a little insight if not straight out answer it. My experiences are with MIG and TIG though, no ARC....

My Idoit's School of Welding tips:

wear a fireproof welder's hat or cap to keep your hair from catching on fire from slag

wear tight long sleeves to prevent a ball of slag from rolling up your sleeve and burning you 14 times before burning a hole through the sleeve at the elbow and exiting finally

go to a metal supply house and buy a couple buckets of various thicknesses and types of metal scraps to practice with => declare your welded creations modern sculpture

if you are MIG welding and get off to a bad start on a weld, stop, clean it back up, and start over again or you'll end up with crap

don't pretend that your $400 benchtop welder can do heavy gage materials with any type of penetration

similarly take you thinwall (1/16") aluminum jobs to an expert for TIG welding, you'll make a mess with a mig

buy a "nearly rust free" british sports car, to provide endless hours of practice

I am going to sign up for WFT 124 at south seattle community college in 15 minutes
they accept blueprints you draw up for class assignments
I did a bunch of welding in HS, and pretty decent with an arc and oxy/acetylene. I'm going to make a bad ass lower chassis brace/skidplate mount, some workshop storage stuff, maybe some huge jack stands, and a few sculptures. If I find the material for cheap I'm also going to make a 500lb work bench. but mostly I'll just be improving my skills on arc and learning some mig.

i second the "no" on auto-darkening helmets. i've spent a lot of hours with both helmets doing MIG welding. i felt more eye strain with the auto dimming helmets. maybe it's the split second to switch over. plus, the non-auto ones are so cheap.

and my only tip is this:
when welding thin materials, it's incredibly easy to get the material too hot and burn a hole in it. that goes for the edges especially. don't be afraid to work in small passes.

I've been getting alot better with the MIG at school. We have some huge welders at school. I've been reading up on TIG so I can mess with the big water cooled hobart. We've got a new torch and more tungstens lying around than I'd ever use up. I'll need to be able to TIG weld if we remake our F-SAE frame out of chromoly.

>>I'll need to be able to TIG weld if we remake our F-SAE frame >>out of chromoly.

not true, MIG's work fine on chromoly

true, but I'm too picky to let that fly. We have some gorilla welds on our current frame which is mild steel. I just like the control you have with TIG, especially when working with thin-walled tubing.

TIP: Don't do like I did and weld over carpet in your garage. Big mistake.