Thread: Learning to weld.

I assume TAFE where you are would be the running the same courses as in the NT. I did one over 8 weeks (1 night a week) which gave me the basics of arc, mig, and a few other things. It was a sub module of the apprentice courses. Well worth it!

Originally Posted by dm_td5

I assume TAFE where you are would be the running the same courses as in the NT. I did one over 8 weeks (1 night a week) which gave me the basics of arc, mig, and a few other things. It was a sub module of the apprentice courses. Well worth it!

Thanks, I had a look at TAFE and couldn't see a basic course. Will give TAFE a ring tomorrow and see what is on offer.
David.

just buy a mig and some practice steel its very easy to mig weld

Rang TAFE today and they dont do a short welding course. On offer was a course of 36 weeks, two days a week at cost $418. Not what I am looking for.
Anyone aware of adult education with introduction to welding?
Might have to do as dirtdawg suggests and buy a machine and learn by trial and error.

That's a shame. The course I did through NT TAFE was actually based on old NSW TAFE material.

I enquired about this a few months ago as well as a course in polycarbonates, both replies were you have to be employed in the industry to apply (I'm not about to leave my job to learn how to weld and fibreglass)

I agree buy a mig and practice. I did a short tafe course in brisbane. I picked up stuff I could probably have got from a book.

don't bother with bottled gas, go gasless as bottles cost about $100 / yr.

try and get someone to get you started and to show the different effects of wire speed and power, what to do and not to do. That would have saved me some time. I never really understood wire speed.

I bought a portable 170 amp SIP brand. It has been a good unit.

Originally Posted by rar110

I agree buy a mig and practice. I did a short tafe course in brisbane. I picked up stuff I could probably have got from a book.

don't bother with bottled gas, go gasless as bottles cost about $100 / yr.

try and get someone to get you started and to show the different effects of wire speed and power, what to do and not to do. That would have saved me some time. I never really understood wire speed.

I bought a portable 170 amp SIP brand. It has been a good unit.

Im not a fan of gasless, you may as well just have an arc welder but they do work and are good enough for small jobs.

1st thing to do is to work out what you want to do, Mig is the easiest but there are a few tricks to it in regards to amps/wirespeed and gas sheild but once set up is all pretty easy to use.

2nd thing to do is get a heap of scrap and try welding it together as practice is about the only way you will get good at it.

Basics to start with MIG:

get so thick scrap angle iron or the like and set your amps to the max and put a piece on the bench and working away from you pull the trigger and see what happens.

If it is not feeding the wire through and is getting stuck on the end then increase the speed and if it is jumping around and hard to control the arc then slow it down.

If you buy a new mig then most of them will come with a book that will tell you what to set the wire speed to in comparison to the amps.

Once you have it set up, then try welding 2 pieces together working away from you in a slow sort of fashion to try and keep it straight and neat and after each practice run doit a bit quicker and quicker until your happy with the look of the weld as in not too much weld beading but not breaking arc.

You work away from you so that the arc is within the gasious shield.

Also look at the heat mark around the weld, it should be about the same width of the weld on either side and even along the length of the weld to ensure you have adaquate penatration.

The difference with arc welding is that you initially need to strike the rod to get a clean end and a little heat into it and then weld toward you, dragging the rod along holding it at about 40 to 45 deg to the material working in either small circles or from side to side with out welding over what you already have before you knock the slag (carbon remains of the flux coating of the rod) off.

ARC I think is a bit easier to start with as there is only you amps and rod thickness and material to worry about but the technique takes a bit more practice.

You can pick up reasonable cheap DC inverter ARC welders these days which are brilliant and easy to use and do a much better job than the old style ones and are also much smaller and lighter and can easilly be upgrades to a TIG and in some cases even a plasma cutter with aditional fittings.

You can also buy disposable gas bottles of ARGON from Lindy, BOC and most other gas outlets these days for about $40 which would do most DIYers for a year doing a little bit of MIG or TIG welding on an occasionable basis.

Good luck and I hope this might be of use and will get you started at least as like I said, it takes more practice than anything.