Gonna take a welding class

[AlfromNH]

There's a "hacker space" the next town over from me: www.makeitlabs.com
They have woodworking, metal working, electronic, and other workshop equipment. You can pay a monthly fee and use all of it.

I first learned of it a few months ago and have been meaning to go check it out. Well, I just discovered their have a welding class, so I've signed up for one next Saturday.

I'm pretty excited! I've done woodworking for years, as well as mechanical work and home repair/remodeling, and have a fairly well-equipped shop.  But metal working has always been out of reach in a way, aside from real simple stuff with pop rivets or screws.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?  8-)

[marcmax]

That is awesome! You will get a real thrill out of it if you like making things. I wish I had something like that near me.

About 20 years ago I wanted to learn welding and found a guy with a little one man shop and made him a deal. I came by after work three times a week and cleaned his shop, emptied the trash, straightened the stock racks, whatever he needed. In exchange on Sat he gave me a couple of hours of instruction and let me practice.

I don't think I could get a job as a welder and my work isn't as neat and clean as someone who does it for a living, but I can do what I need for myself and made a friend in the process.

[AlfromNH]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it!

Great story, nice way to learn the skill. Do you have a welding rig of your own?

[marcmax]

I have a small oxy/acetylene setup that works well for cutting and brazing and a small wire welder that is good for light plate and sheet welding. If it gets beyond that I leave it to a professional.

[nhmaf]

I've often wanted to take a welding class - but never seemed to have the free time.   I even designed the control system for a 3-n-1 process portable welder that is sold  globally, but I had to rely on professionally certified welders to test it and provide feedback on what needed to be changed, etc. during development.  They'd promised to give me one of our alpha/prototype units, but it never worked out.  Too bad really.   Maybe I'll have to look into the course offered down near Al..

There is alot of science behind a good arc welder design, and alot of art behind being a good welder.

[AlfromNH]

Thought I'd follow up…

The welding class was pretty good, I learned the basics and we got to practice for 30-45 minutes.

The Makeit lab is very cool. All kinds of machinery and tools, even an auto lift! They also have a media blasting cabinet, and the capability to powder coat small parts. I plan to join and make use of the facilities and get to know some of the people, it seems like a real supportive community of talented people.

[subco]

Welding is something I am most interested in, but I am afraid of spending the time going to a community college class for it. I guess is time to start searching for local hacker-spaces and see if anyone there offers something similar. Thanks for the idea.

[AlfromNH]

Here ya go!
http://hackerlab.org/

[bjamesw]

I learned welding in the maintenance section of a factory I worked at for three years.  The tool room supervisor was cool enough to let me DIY the work I brought in (uncritical stuff obviously) and gave me welding 101 on setup and skills. 90 percent tig.  Later I took a community college class but soon discovered that I should have enrolled in an intermediate class.  It doesn't take much really to school yourself from a book and a basic machine, or learn a bit on the job like I did,  to achieve that next level and it's a better investment of time and money.
Soon after I looked far and wide for the best value in a tig welder and sprung for this
http://store.cyberweld.com/tharc186acti.html?ref=lexity&_vs=amazon&_vm=productsearch

I learned, in the shop and in class, almost exclusively on Miller 250 Syncrowaves and my 185 AC/DC inverter (it was called '185' ten years  back), with a water cooled torch, has never left me wanting more.   I can stick weld with it but rarely have. If I felt the need to build any large fabrication I'd invest in a mig without pause.  Stick is too damn dirty and tig would take all day to do a half an hours' mig work.

This years' Thermal Arc appears to be essentially the same, updated a bit cosmetically,  who knows how much functionally?, as my 185 ac/dc.  The new moniker reminds me a bit of Spinal Tap.
"Yes, but this one goes to 186!"
Why they'd add one amp to the designation is bewildering marketing. But what do I know?  There is a 200 AC/DC in the lineup but from my research and gathering advice (again, ten years ago)  that model is only a little more capable and rarely on sale.  The 186 seems to offer economies of scale and marketed to individuals while the 200 is more ofteh purchased by small industries and tool rooms.  They are of identical quality.

Anyway,  if the build quality and electronics have been maintained since my model this still remains a hands-down best value.   Check out comparable models by Miller, Lincoln, Esab, etc and be sure to tally up the cost of all the extras and consumables to get started.  
 
All pictured is industrial quality (all of mine was anyway).  Heavy stamped steel pedal,  heavy brass Victor regulator and gauges, torch, starter kit of consumables, tungstens, collets and cups, and other pictured.  

Not to weigh too heavily on perceptions of national skill, but who doesn't?  My Thermal Arc's electronics were manufactured 100 percent by Sanrex, a very highly respected Japanese manufacturer of industrial electronics.  I've really put this little tig through the paces in 10 years without a single hiccup.   It's difficult to find the source of manufacture for many other company's products.  Many of the Lincolns are rumored to be Italian made.  I've heard that Miller makes all of their own in Wisconsin and may be a mixture of sources.  (this is all 10 year old info).
Everything anecdotal tho.  And Thermal Arc many have changed completely for all I know.

True though what's been said.  Welding is incredibly freeing.  I go through quite a bit of rod and consumables and often wonder where it all goes.  I'm constantly repairing, reinforcing, fabricating jigs, fabricating or modifying tools, etc.  I remember getting along just fine before I learned to weld but in reality I was doing a awful lot of painstaking and laborious work-around with bolts/rivets/fasteners, bends, hose clamps, mending plates, etc, that most often would have been far better welded.  For modifying tools alone a tig is handy.  Customizing sockets, vice-grips, various clamps... some stay in regular use, some are ad hoc tools for one job never to be used again.

I spent a crazy amount of time and wild imagination building my own deluxe water cooler with micropump, radiator, digital temp and pressure gauges, flow meter, adjustable delay-at-break timer relay (so the pump didn't cycle on/off with every lift off of the pedal), filter, reservoir, and body to match the size of the welder and bolt underneath.  A whole winter of after-work shop time.  Insane really.   I'd highly recommend anyone water cooling a tig welder of this power to fill a 5gal poly bucket with distilled water, add anti-fungal,  snap the lid on, and just set a small positive displacement pump (more common small centrifugal pumps do not have the lift/pressure to overcome lengths of narrow tubing) on top and plumb it to the torch.  5gals of water is more than enough mass to absorb anything you'd be doing with this size machine.

Money no object?   I'd love to have this on my benchtop
https://weldingsupply.com/cgi-bin/einstein.pl?PNUM::1:UNDEF:X:0460150884

Just cool looking.  Integrated water cooler.  Portable.  Only marginally more capable than the Thermal Arc at three times the price (adding gauges, pedal, cables, torch, consumables, etc)  but just says "Yellow Ferrari"