Anything welding

It's the last welder I used professionally of all things; pulse MIG

 

Exactly!

 

And my comment was regarding someone that wants their cake and eat it too; expects a cheap aluminum bumper with minimal modding

 

Alright guys, shoot me straight. How bad is it I borrowed my pops $70 gas-less flux welder over the weekend and decided I was going to try and teach myself how to weld. I have absolutely zero experience and no idea what I was doing, but I successfully welded a piece of scrap square tube to an old lawn mower blade lol. I beat the shit out of it with a hammer and the tube bent in on all 4 sides and never broke off so I guess I did something halfway successful lol. The welder only has a wire speed knob and a min/max setting. I didn’t really know what I was doing so I ran it where it was set, then turned the wire speed down some. Any tips?

 

Looks cold, flux penetrates better than solid wire and gas

Where are you located? I'm sure plenty of people would offer a quick crash course

 

Appreciate the offer, I’ve got some family that can help me along the way, I just wanted to borrow it and “play” a little bit before actually taking on a real learning project. When you say cold, what exactly does that mean? Materials too thick for the welder? I think that welder was only rated for like 3/16” material. The tubing was like 1/8” and the lawn mower blade definitely pretty thick.

 

I would look up pictures of "bead profiles" and getting familiar with how welds look, and what they mean

In short, cold means wirespeed is typically on the lower end, thus translates to less heat and doesn't penetrate your base metal

Instead, you lay wire on top of the base metal rather than fusing with it

 

I’ll definitely do that, thanks! So maybe turning my wire speed down did more harm than good!

 

Best thing you can do like I said is look up bead profiles; print a picture and hang it up!

Then when you lay down some beads, you can see what you're doing right (or wrong).

 

What welder?

If this was the Harbor Freight Chicago flux core welder, then you did fine for a novice.

That machine should be pulled from their shelves and chucked in that harbor.

No novice can make that unit weld for fuck all!

Us skilled wire welders fight to make it weld even half assed.

In case I wasn't clear, that unit is shit!

 

Should I got take some welding classes?

I've been welding as a hobby for about 10 years. I'm not going to pretend to be very good. I'm not looking to make this a job, I just want to improve my my skill.

What do welding classes cost? How much time should I expect to spend on them?

 

That can be a very hard question. In the end it always will come down to the teacher.

Over the years I interacted with very many some were outstanding those all were welder fabricators in the field for years a few military trained . Some schools would gladly hire walk ins they never had but a few classes.

You would need to check what classes can be found in your school district .Most run a whole semester timed by the school year . Most often 2 nights a week in my area.

Cost in these days I have no idea? Here in the Commonwealth if you attend classes out side your distract you pay an added amount.

I would say if you know anyone local . I know I would gladly teach you for a few dollars toward consumables . Best of luck .

 

You might have a little time to the price drops.

 

Uhm...what holy shit 10 years?

You'll learn a lot if you take up a job as a welder, otherwise don't bother with a class.

 

I have a good 350P story The person worked in a smaller fab shop (3 phase) used the 350P for 75% of his work.

Time to upgrade to new machines He bought his machine at a few dollars over trade in credit price.

it was an older model that still had links to change for input voltage and phase short version it lost so much on single phase he never liked the output and dumped in a few months.

 

The question is 10 years 3 times a year? Every few years? That might impact things a small bit.

 

Dang, I used my 350P on single phase 240v and it always ran like a champ

 

Very true

But if I had a welder at home especially for that long, I would be taking it upon myself to learn instead of firing the torch once a year (that is, if learning was something I wanted to do)

It's the only reason why I got into the industry - real world experience teaches you more than any school setting ever could

 

There are classes aimed at hobbyists. There’s a cool place called the crucible here that teaches mig, tig, gas welding, brazing.

I have a buddy who welds for a living and he’s been willing to come over for a 15 minute “clinic” which has been insanely helpful. Better than any class. Make friends!

 

What are friends