[NU_BLUE]

I have a question. Most of you on here are good welders. I was wondering where ya'll learned it? Do you just pick up over the yrs. or were you trained, etc?

I've played around with a stick welder more times than I remember and I've got the basic idea from welding on farm equipment, etc. However, I would like to get into MIG and TIG welding....I'm just curious where to start.

[00 Trans Ram]

Still learning!

I simply went and bought a good, but not expensive, Miller 110v mig machine. It came with all the stuff to weld - gas lines, helmet, etc. I simply had to pick up a gas cylinder from the local store.

I started by watching some videos. The best ones are the ones that show you what the weld is actually doing - not the ones with a bright spot of light and some guy talking. Simply put, you want to see some guy make a puddle, move a few mm, make another puddle, repeat. Then, I started sticking metal together.

It was bad at first. I'd set the wire speed too high, or the power too low, and it'd sputter all over the place and do weird things. I finally figured most of it out. But, a HUGE help is to find a print out a guide that tells you suggested settings for what you're welding. You may change a little, but it'll get you in the ballpark.

Honestly, and others (who are better than me at this) may disagree, it's MUCH more of an art than a science. Sure, the analyzation of it is all science. But, actually DOING it is pure art. You have to picture the finished product in your mind, then translate that to your hands.

Oh, another thing that helps me a LOT is to practice right before I weld something. I've found that, because I weld once every blue moon, I get out of practice. If I start welding what I want to weld, I get in the rhythm just about 1" from the finish, while most of the weld looks like bird poop. But, if I waste some time and wire running a few beads on a similar thickness of metal before working on the real piece, I get much better welds once I actually start.

Finally, if it's something important, I take it to a pro. On my car, I've welded my side mirror mounts, my camera mount, and a few other things that don't matter. But, when I needed custom front LCAs made, I didn't even try. I just brought them to my friend (pro welder) to TIG and make.