Thread: Where to learn to weld?

CIG products are usually pretty reasonable, and free is always a good price for tools.

I was fortunate in that my best mate was moving interstate and didn't have room for his mig welder (150A SIP), so he parked it in my shed - about 15 years ago. It sat around in my shed for a few years until I decided to build a trailer, which was my first real welding project.

I would second the comments about a good auto darkening helmet - my welds went from looking like a duck with diarrhoea walked over them, to something halfway reasonable.

Since then I've been given a small stick welder (140 A Einhell) and I've bought two more (a 240A ESAB stick used, and a 250A CIGWELD MIG new). From this I have found that the better quality machines are easier to make better welds with. The Einhell struggles to even strike a consistent arc with 2.5mm rods, where the ESAB will burn 4.5mm rods all day long. The SIP will make decent welds if you're patient, due to a cheaply manufactured wire feeder, but the CIGWELD will happily feed up to 1.6mm wire very consistently (so I hear - I've not used wrote that size in mind yet)

TLDR; My opinion is that a good quality, known brand name welder, in good used condition, will serve you better for longer when compared to a cheaply manufactured unknown brand. It will be a pleasure to weld with, and won't put you off learning due to unreliable operation.

Cheers,...Jon.

P.S. Electrode choice is important too. But that's a whole different post. Basically, don't buy them from hardware stores, buy good brands from a locally owned engineering supplier, preferably one that has a workshop attached as they will likely give better advice than the sales rep at Bunnings who probably has less welding experience than you.

I'm a noob welder just starting as well and I found this site a nice and simple reference. I printed out some of the pages to keep in the shed so I can compare welds to help diagnose what I've done wrong on a bad weld.

Arc Tutorial - Rod Position, Motion, and Technique

Originally Posted by Judo

I'm a noob welder just starting as well and I found this site a nice and simple reference. I printed out some of the pages to keep in the shed so I can compare welds to help diagnose what I've done wrong on a bad weld.

Arc Tutorial - Rod Position, Motion, and Technique

Yes, a good site with a bunch of helpful folk in the forum too. I've gleaned a lot of information from there over the years.

Also worth checking out is YouTube user ChuckE2009. He's a young bloke with a lot of enthusiasm. His earlier videos have better instructional value than his later stuff, as he tends to do a lot of product reviews these days, but even they're interesting in their own way, it's just that not all of the brands are available here.

There's a guy on there 'weldingtipsandtricks' which I find very understandable. Good camera work helps too.

Looking forward to it,

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Tell me = what sort of welder would be best for building a canopy?

Assuming you're talking about RHS steel tube frame with a canvas cover, I'd say the best would be MIG but it can certainly be done with a stick welder.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

I suppose you need a TIG to do alloy welding?

No, actually you don't. It can be welded with a MIG quite successfully. I haven't done it myself, but I've seen perfectly acceptable aluminium welds that were done with a MIG. In fact, a friend of mine built an aluminium boat with a MIG.

Or are you asking about aluminium alloy castings, etc?

In fact, a friend of mine built an aluminium boat with a MIG.

All aluminium boats are welded with MIGs commercially. TIGs are too slow.

I was actually thinking of whats needed to do thin alloy sheet welding and from what I gather an expensive Tig with high current start ??? is needed which means 3 phase...



Anyway that aside, and back to the stick welding.

I have a much smaller project in mind - a stand for my Honda CX500.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

All aluminium boats are welded with MIGs commercially. TIGs are too slow.

I suspected as much, but didn't have the experience to back up the claim.

TIG makes for some very pretty welds, but from what I've seen it is time consuming - especially to get it looking really nice.