I give up! I've looked / called everywhere and I can't find a single welding class. I'm just looking to upgrade my skills. I'm in the San Jose area. Anyone know of any classes anywhere near here? Yes I've checked all the community colleges in the area. None of them have welding courses. Evergreen has one course in auto body repair but welding is not the focus of the course. I called a couple of the welding supply shops (like AirGas) and they didn't have any hints other than checking community colleges.

I am planning to do a 2 day course in san diego. our focus will be welding on a 914 and how to deal with hte rust issues. class wont be for a few months. would you be interested in driving down here?

You might want to check out pipe fitter and boiler makers unions. They certify welders.

check high school GED/Continuing education programs... this is what I went to, it was cheap and was actually a good class... all welding practice, no 'book learnin' I had taken a welding class in HS many moons ago, but it was focused on stick welding... which I became pretty good at. this class let me focus on mig welding

CA used to offer ROP courses
http://www.quikreg.com/classreg/catalog/ge...CPJL000AWLCS9J6

this is san diego but perhaps your area has something similar

sgomes,

Have you seen this?
Search here for the welding courses. I found MIG, TIG, etc.

or this?

No personal experience with either, just did a search after reading your post. Probably more in the area too.

The community college course I took included some classroom as well as hands-on like Chabot. Classroom is where most of the safety info was presented so it's highly recommended.

Yes I did the same search as you. Great minds think alike Chabot et al is pretty far away from San Jose. Being a family man put limits on my wanderings. I guess if there was no other choice I would consider it but I can already hear "management" looking for some kind of "payback" that involves me taking the kids while she disappears to her sister's for a week at a time.

oooooh that tech shop looks like just the ticket. Kinda far away but it looks like just the right fit. Thanks race914!

Now think of a good negotiation

Those welding classes do look pretty good. I would like to take the Aluminum TIG class if I was still up in the area!

Wish I could help with the negotiation!!!

Personally, I would buy a good welding book and read it. Then head out to your local metal supply where you can get odd pieces of sheet steel for the per/pound price (it's so cheap I sometimes wonder why they charge at all). Look for steel in thicknesses that are similar to what you need for doing the work you will do and practice, practice, practice.

Most on here don't weld every day or even every month, so it's always a good idea to have a couple of scraps to set-up your machine with and make a few passes on before moving to the project.

MIG welding is something that you don't really need a class for, you just need practice and using different voltage settings and wire speeds so you can begin to see how each effects the end result. Before you know it, you will be doing quite well. It may take you $20 in scrap and most of a bottle of gas, but you'll get it in time.

Now TIG it would probably drive a person crazy trying to learn on their own. At the very least, you need a competent TIG welder to show you how and demonstrate first. Then guide you through it.

I'm in!!!!

Negotiation was a piece of cake. She wants to do some half marathon thing.

I agree. Those classes look pretty good. The part that sold it was when I looked at the class listings and only one person was signed up for tonight and no one for the other classes. Good chance I'll get some one on one training!

Actually the whole shop looks pretty awesome. Did you see those CNCs!

Yes I agree that you can practice your way through a pile of scrap (been there done that) but when you are done you're not really and I mean REALLY sure you've done a good job. You can try and beat it apart or cut it or whatever but how about embrittlement and other things? You just don't know what you don't know. I may not be a certified welder when I'm done but I'll be much more confident that what I've done is ok.