OT = welding, Learning to weld Options

[mikelsr]

I am taking a welding class at our local community college. We started out with oxy/acetylene to learn the basics and then on to stick welding. We did the basics: running beads, butt joints, overlaps, tee joints, outside corner joints. These were all done flat, then with stick welding we also had to do them vertical (tacked up on a jig). I am still in the stick phase doing my vertical tee joint (not a lot of fun when you have bi-focals, my head can't go back far enough - time for a different set of glasses). We do wire feed next. We have also used the plasma cutter - what a trip!

I know a lot of people say to just grab a mig welder and read a book or watch a video to learn or to just try it but I wanted to learn some basics. I remember when I was much younger I tried to weld a piece back on a snow blade. Looked good but after it cooled off I hit it with a hammer and it flew off (and I thought I had reinforced it). (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/sad.gif)

Last night I had a chance to do some tig welding. Talk about nice. It was amazing and I thought much easier than stick welding. In the next couple of weeks we will learn a bit about mig and we will get to try it.

I wanted to get into a class that taught mig but I had to have this class first, then it will be tig, then mig. sigh.. The reason is that they alternate teaching tig and then mig.

Why did I want to learn to use a welder? I own a 914!

M (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/welder.gif)