[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.

[Norm Peterson]

Couple of things that I don't think anybody has mentioned yet . . .

I really don't know how to put it into words, but the sound that the welding process makes is some indication of how well things are going. I think it was one of the weldors in the maintenance dep't where my Dad worked that told me that one.

Acetylene welding with steel wire. If you don't learn a thing or two about welding and the weld puddle from trying this, you probably won't no matter what process you try.


Mostly, my own learning has come in little bits like that. Dad tackwelded plates together in a shipyard during WWII, and an uncle grew up on a farm and had a little buzz-box, so I at least had a little guidance in the beginning. I wouldn't rate myself as a "good welder", although with only a few exceptions (involving metal of dubious weldability), the things I've welded together have stayed that way, including some frame structure weld repair on one of my cars. It's not always pretty, and likely not good enough to get certified with. Adequate, I guess.


Norm