Learning to weld.

[Texas-Whisper]

I have been a “hobbyist welder” for over 15years, I’m not an expert on welding by any means but I can give you my “2-cents worth” as well as my experiences. As you know there are many different processes i.e. Stick, TIG, MIG, Gas, Plasma and Laser; those are the most popular. Each has its advantages and disadvantages; I’ll try to outline the basics of each later on.

One of the most important pieces of equipment regardless of which process you choose, is your safety gear. Buy a nice Miller auto darkening helmet, they are kind of expensive around $300-$400, it’s so much nicer to be able to see where your starting your weld, opposed to doing the “old head flip” this alone will improve your welds special on pieces that require precise welds. Proper gloves depending on the type of welding your doing, the two basic types fall into either insulated from heat i.e. these are your big thick gloves used for stick, mig and the more precise thin deer skinned gloves used in TIG etc… Along with other protective clothing, stick MIG Plasma all “shoot” off hot sparks as you weld so therefore you need to protect your body and surroundings from these sparks. Regardless of the process your also need to protect yourself from the UV rays not only to your eyes but your skin. So in a nutshell buy a good helmet!!

Here are a few details about the different process there’s a lot more to each but this should give you some idea as to what process you need to be looking for.

Stick Welding:
Advantages: The ability to weld in the wind (self shielding), forgiven to not having perfect joints and clean metal and relative easy to learn (cheap start-up cost) Fast welds
Disadvantage: not very precise on small intricate work and leaves slag that must be cleaned off. Heats up the surrounding metal more. Flying Sparks. Most cases you cant weld very thin metal. Stopping before competing a weld require you remove the slag and grind out the area.
Uses: Great for major construction of buildings and farm type work.

MIG Welding:
Advantages: More precise than stick. The ability to use self shielding wire or solid wire. Solid wire (where you use a separate shielding gas 75argon/25Co2 mix most cases) produces good results on most metals. Fairly easy to learn. Fast welds. Simi forgiven regarding metal/joint prep.
Disadvantages: Heats up the surrounding metal. Flying Sparks, depending on the shielding method you may or may not have to remove slag. Not easy to do weld very small parts with out warping. Stopping before competing a weld require you remove the slag and grind out the area. Depending on the shielding method you may(gas) or may not(flux-core) need a controlled environment.
Uses: Auto body work, farm type work, fast production work, furniture, BBQ’s etc… basic welding above stick.

GAS Welding: I never welded with gas so I can’t guide you on this process.

TIG Welding:
Advantages: Very precise and controlled welding. If you have a machine with AC you can weld aluminum and other non-ferrous metals. You can weld with out the use of a filler rod if the joints are overlapping etc.... i.e. join the two pieces together by simply melting them into each other. This of course takes away some the strength from the joint, so you need to know the how the part is to be used etc…and use filler rod if you need the joint to be as strong as the rest of the material or stronger. The ability to weld thin material, control heat to the weld area makes very strong welds etc… Not to mention very pretty welds. And no splatter, very clean it’s the “white collar job” of the welding world.
Disadvantages: Difficult to learn and master. Start-up cost, slow welding, controlled environment needed i.e. no wind, metal must be very clean, you will spend more time in prep work than welding time. 220volt needed unless you get a newer inverter type (big cost there for a ac/dc machine)

Plasma and laser: yes there is plasma welding not just plasma cutters, the cost of both plasma and laser welders are out of reach for most hobbyist, and are most of the time they are ran by CNC machines.

So to someone starting out in welding I would say take a class before you buy any equipment, this way you will get hands on with different machines and see what’s best for you and your application. I have had cheap $300.00 MIG’s and $2,000 MIG’s, stick welders “buzz boxes” along with TIG’s in the past, my current set-up is a TIG (see photo) Miller 180SD, Miller Coolmate 3 water cooler, size 20 tig torch and a Miller cutmate 375 plasma cutter, given the type of welding I do this is the best set-up for me, I can weld aluminum, titanium, stainless and carbon. Given my set-up I can weld about anything I need to. If you take a class I’m sure they will explain everything in great detail about the different process, I just wanted to give you a little info. If I can be of any further help just ask. Also you need to think about the type of metal you will be welding.

I would say this in closing if you cant take a class for whatever reason and don’t have the money to invest in equipment you best bet is to still buy that good Miller helmet, and buy one of the $300 flux-core MIG’s like they have at Home Depot/Lowes and a right angle grinder get some scrap metal and start learning. Now you have to look at this machine as a learning tool its not going to be welder that’s going to last forever or produce welds that would stand up to x-ray standards, and even thought you can set them up to run a shielding gas don’t waste your money, just use it as a flux-core machine and a learning tool. But that $300 investment you made on the helmet will carry over right into that new Miller TIG machine. You can also check with a local welding supply house and see what machines they have used, I bought my plasma cutter used for $1,100 which is about $400 cheaper than they were new it was a demo unit. I used it for about a year and then it stopped working but it still had the Miller 3year warranty on it so it was fixed for free.


Hope this helps, Now I need some help on 300Whisper Loads.
Texas-Whisper (Jimmy)