OT sorta-Learning to weld

Sorry for the sorta OT, it atleast can partain to tractors unlike some other OTs, so i guess its allright....

Ive been rolling the idea around in the back of my head for a while, and now that schools finally out i can accually persue it some. Welding seems like it would be a really useful skill for me to learn, and its something most kids dont know a thing about anyways.

Ive watched a good number of how-to videos on youtube and it doesnt look to be that hard once ya get the hang of it, but that seems to be fun part. Id really like to get good enough to do cast iron at some point....

Just from what little ive dug up online, the best i can figure is id find the most uses around here for an arc welder. The garage has both 120 and 240 volt, so im not so limited.

Classes would really hit the spot but that doesnt seem to be that much of an option...

Its not hard to track down a good used lincoln or hobart on craigslist for $100 or so... And im going to look at one tomorrow a few towns over.

Is there anything in particular to look at/for?? Wear points or anything of that nature??

My general plan...assuming one of these machines looks good enough to bring home... is to drag up a ranger full of junk from the scrap pile and figure it out through trial and error, like most things i do...

Any Advice??? Thanks in advance

Sound like a good idea. I do a lot of welding around the farm. I have a spool gun and use CO2 love it no smoke. The only thing I hate about welding it the heat in the summer. I try to put off my big project's for winter. Trial and error will teach you a lot. I take it you were not in FFA. Thats where I started 50 years ago. Good luck.

Learn to gas weld first. Then the other processes come easily. And you really need an oxyacetylene outfit first, because you can do so much more with it than an arc welder: heat, cut, braze and weld. A good acetylene rig is going to set you back about 500 bucks by the time you buy tanks, but once you have it you won't know how you ever got by without it.

If you can take a welding class, it's well worth the time, money and effort. If that's not possible, find an experienced welder who's willing to help you get started.

Buy it and as many E7014 Rods They will make great welds, and are easy to start and make beads. The coating on the rods will set the working distance. It is just touched to the work as the rod burns off. JimN

Lanse,get a 220 volt arc welder that has both ac and dc welding capabilitys. Hoss

Buy a simple welder like your'e looking at. They will do almost anything you will need for "farm" repairs.

Your plan of practicing on a pile of scrap is an excellent idea.

lanse, i'd agree with mark that gas welding would be better to start with, but... a oxy acetylene rig is spendy, there is tank lease or ownership, or rental, plus fills ect. in your stuation, a stick arc welder would be your most useful right now.look for an old name brand, lincoln, hobart, airco, ect 180 to 260 amp 220 volt buzz box. you can get welding rods from your local farm store, even home depot and menards sells em. e-6011 and e-6013 are good starter all purpose rods for steel. prolly 1/8 inch diameter. a decent welding helmet, and a good pair of heavy leather welding gloves. i have an old lincoln "tombstone" lincwelder 180 amp buzz box. it was old when i got it 40 years ago. it still welds great. welders have a duty cycle, basically how many minutes out of every 10 minutes you can weld, 20 percent would be 2 minutes out of every 10, the welder cools the rest of the time. anything over a 20 percent will get you by. you do spend time chainging rods, chipping slag, grinding ect, so a real high duty cycle isnt that important for your application. here is a pic of my old tombstone welder.
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I did some MIG welding for a living for 5 years, so I tend to agree with Mark...and here's why: folks who learn oxyacetylene welding learn to watch the PUDDLE of molten metal as they weld. A lot of folks who only learn to stick or mig get caught up in watching the arc instead of the puddle. That's what an old pipeline welder once told me. As he explained it, you know more about what your weld is doing by watching the puddle...while watching the arc tells you little about the results of your weld.

But dollar for dollar, decent stick welders are inexpensive, used. I've not seen many affordable quality MIG welders. You can get a Lincoln "tombstone" for around $100 if you do some serious searching. Figure $300 or more for a good used Hobart, Miller, or Lincoln MIG unit big enough to actually do anything [say 140 amps or more].

Another consideration is what you're going to spend on consumables. For a stick welder, that'll be your rods. For a MIG welder, not only do you have the wire and the gas, but there's contact tips and nozzles...and when just starting out, you'll have a lot of burnbacks and go through a lot of tips. For oxyacetylene, there's your filler metal and your gas. So stick will be cheaper to start with.

And if you can afford an auto-darkening helmet, that's an investment in your eyes that will be worth whatever it costs. I tried to learn stick by the trial-and-error method with a flip-lens manual helmet, and I flashed myself so many times I actually dreaded welding. When I got the auto-darkening helmet, it was so much better that I wonder why I ever bothered with that old helmet.

I took an adult ed welding class at the local high school, and I got to spend a lot of time on oxyacetylene, and learning about 7014 and 7018 rod on the stick welder...but the downside was, there was only one TIG machine and not enough time for everyone to take a turn with it. If you can sign up for one of these classes, you'll still learn a lot if you want to.

Good luck, Lanse...long post, but I hope it helps you out.

Lanse,

If you are close enough to Minneapolis, I will teach you the basics at no charge. I have done the same for another board member. I am not a professional weldor, but am a pretty good farm weldor.

Even though other responders here suggest learning to gas weld first, and that is not bad advice (given you have the $$ to get the equipment), I find it is not necessary. There is some overlap in skill between gas welding and arc (stick) welding, but not enough to keep you from getting started with arc, if your budget is thin. When buying a basic welder, I'd recommend staying away from the oriental stuff, and go with a good 20 to 40 year old USA built name brand machine. Get someone to operate the machine before you buy it, as proof that it works properly. It is quite possible that a welder from a farm shop has become the winter home of some dang rodent and has insulation gnawed up. Fortunately it hasn't happened to any of my welders, but I have cats that love to lay on the soft pad of the 8N seat and have a good vantage point for watching for mice. We used to have a mouse problem, now we have fat cats and safe wiring in the barn.

Paul in MN

Buzz, you made a statement, about something I never thought about, just did it... I always watch the puddle, whether I am welding, or brazing etc. I started out with the oxy-acetylene rig, and moved on from there to "stick", then TIG, and MIG. What made me think about your statement, was that I was talking to my Boss' son the other day about welding, and I told him to watch the puddle, and he could see what he was doing, and how good the penetration was. I got my second helmet, and let him watch as I was welding some brackets on an ATV they use when Sprint Car racing. I got a couple of pieces of scrap, and had him try a few passes. I think he may get the hang of it pretty quick... I think Lanse will too. Between what we can tell him here, and hopefully the help he can get locally, it should be good. Hang in there Lanse, we all started with welds that looked like pigeon droppings, and now do a little better. At least I do, mine look like a Vulture stopped by!!

Lanse, keep it simple to start. I bet 3 out of 4 of the old boys here have taught them selfs. Minimum is 220 volt 180 amp AC. Don't even think about 110 volt. To me, DC is worth double AC- about 140 amp DC is what some are rated at. Forget the other stuff for now. Yes, I learned with gas first, but that is not a must. Since you have good sense, I assume you know you need a good helmet. No look with out one.

Kennyp

Lanse, nother thing buy gloves for both hands and a welding jacket. If you don't know, there is some shock hazard. Also flash is not only about your eyes, but on your body like an extreme sunburn and coppertone don't help. I had my grand daughter welding quick by turning the heat up about 200 amps. As she got better, we turned down the heat. Dave

Lanse, at least get a welding helmet with the Large Square lens..not the small lens..they are a lot easier to see your work..
Probably a "9" or "10" darkness..I like the gold lenses..easier to see your work too..
Striking an arc can be tricky..try "scratching"..
You can cool the puddle and move the heat around by the way you "Stitch" the welding puddle with the arc..
Watch you don't set yourself on fire, and have FUN..!!!
Ron.

Good points. If you don't have/can't afford a welding jacket, at least pop for some gloves and some sleeves. Indiana Oxygen Co. has some good deals on welding apparel on their website. [And a couple of bikers I know wear a welder's cap--the flat-top, quilted type--as a sort of fashion statement.]

Another good idea is to always wear boots when you weld, with your pantlegs over the tops of the boots. Jeans are good, as long as they're not frayed enough to catch fire if a stray piece of hot slag falls the wrong place.

There's nothing quite like watching a guy welding in short pants and tennis shoes getting some hot weld slag down his shoe...no way he can get that shoe off fast enough to prevent a nasty burn, but if you've already warned him and he's not a relative, watching him dance can be amusing for a few moments.

Weld burn is a radiation burn, just like sunburn but often more intense...one night at the plant I had a gap between my gloves and my sleeves, and got a nasty burn on my wrist. Took about a week to get better.

We had a set of torches amd a lincoln arc welder. When I was 12, my brother showed me how to weld with the torch and a coat hanger and soon after, Dad showed me how to start with the arc welder. A pile of junk and plenty of practice had me doing pretty good with both by the end of the summer. Haven't used a set of torches in 20 or so years, but still do OK with an arc welder.

Do it and have fun.

Dave

Sounds like you have the right idea here lanse.

On your budget yes a old name brand AC arc welder is the right idea. If you can on your budget get a AC/DC machine. 7014 is by far my favorite rod. I keep it around in three sizes for varing sizes of work. One of the welding courses I took at Iowa State they started us out on the fast freeze rods (6010 and 6011) Took a really steady hand to make a decent bead with those. Once I had my samples done with those two the rest were a cake walk. I think we used 8 different rods. Still prefer my 7014 hands down though.

I ran a Buzz box from the mid 80's that dad bought new but when I was getting ready to build a loading dock for the local Threshing show I finally got ahold of a Lincoln tombstone Idealarc 250 like the ones they had a college and one in Highschool. Those are a pretty much industricable machine and they make a steady arc. They will have to remove that one from my cold dead fingers.

I know you have 220 in your shop just make sure you have the amperage you need. I think you should have at least a 60 amp service.

The ideas of starting on gas aren't all bad but that is just plain out of your budget right now. to start from scratch you will drop about $500 for tanks and the torch set (most of that will be tanks). Mig would be nice but they take a little more work to get used to. Start with the stick and work up.

Also be careful working in that wood framed building. It can be done but I wouldn't weld right up till you leave the shop. Work on your welding and start messing with something else for a hour before you leave the shop just in case. Fires can smolder a long time before you see smoke.

Sorry for the long post

Check with your local community college, vo tech, or maybe some high schools and take their oxy acetylene welding course and the regular welding course. I took them at the same time. Some of them have night classes and they also start you on mig. I got 6 hours and an A in both classes but then no 4 year college would accept those welding classes for credit. Go figure. I take an occasional class from the community college and I try to audit the classes cause all I want to do is learn and not worry about taking a test and studying to get a good grade. Sometimes they don't allow audits.

When I was taught to weld I was started out with 6011 rods because if you can weld with that you can weld with anything

Hey Guys nobody said any thing about a disc grinder and a pair of safety glasses. It a lot easier to weld on something clean and smooth and always protect your eyes when chipping slag. I learned by watching my dad and trail and error but borrowed a text book from my BIL and learned a great deal about rod movement and arc distance. Good luck Lance I still love to weld. If you keep at it one of these days you will be welding underneath something and one of those little red hot sparks falls down in your ear, that's an experience no one can describe you just have to feel it for your self.
Ron

Buzzman72, you are right, the puddle is the key.

Some brands of 6013 that I have tried work fine
in a butt joint or in any flatwork, but when you
are welding any included angle (90 degrees or l
less), the flux puddle is so big and thick that
you can't see what the metal puddle underneath is
doing especially in corners of included angles
(welding the inside corners of a box).

6011 and 7014 usually allow a welder with less
experience to view his puddle underneath or through the flux and make a better weld.

I recently had my first bad experience with an
auto darkening helmet. I had an inexpensive one
with a "Weld It" name on the auto darkening module
that I began getting welding flashes with. I had
another welder observe my welding thinking I was
seeing an intermittent problem with contaminated or damaged flux. He wasn't getting the arc flashes through his helmet. Fortunately, I didn't flash burn my eyes.

These are all great ideas, I see old Lincoln welders al the time for $100-150, even as cheap as $80. I'll stress the need for welding coats, pants, etc. I can't tell you how many times I've had the sunburn and the molten metal down the boot thing before I got some proper clothing. Also, when beating the slag off, be sure to wear safety goggles...my dad was blinded in one eye when he was 20 because of this, he's now 79 and has had to think about that every day since. My garage is stocked with a mig welder, stick welder, torches and a plasma cutter...there's not much I can't make.

Thats a real good idea.Best thing to do is try and weld with whatever welder you think about buying.Lincolns are good welders for a farm,Forney,Marquette,Hobart,if they work are 220,and have a cooling fan they usually will weld all day without any trouble.Look for long cables as welding cable is high priced and its a lot easier to drag a 100 foot cable to weld on something than to try and maneuver something 10 ft from the welder.When you get into the cheaper ones like imported Harbor Freight ones,Northern Hydraulics sells import stuff and other places,those will cut off on you(thats called a 20% duty cycle which means you can only weld 2 minutes out of 10 minutes) and you have to wait for it to cool down because it doesnt have a cooling fan,just too aggravting.I guess better than nothing,but not much.7014,7018,7024,6011 are all rods you can use.6013 is worthless.Dont waste your money on 6013 unless you have to weld sheet metal and you run it downhill.You have to know what you are doing to weld with 6013 any other way.Its not a good rod for a beginner.It makes a real ugly weld thats full of slag and wont hold unless you know what you are doing and even if you get something welded with it its so poor of a weld that its not worth the time it takes to do it.
Dont wash your clothes with fabric softener or you will go up in flames.Probably wont have this happen but if a girl sprays you with hair spray that will catch fire on your skin or clothes 30 minutes later at least,dont know how long it stays on you for sure.Dont have anything that will catch on fire around when you weld like a gas can,solvent,paper towels(those darned paper towels will catch on fire 10,15 feet away from where you are welding)dont stand in water and weld,keep you rods dry.Dont weld standing over a battery or in less than a second it will explode showering you with battery acid.Always wear leather gloves,and a good cotton work shirt with long sleeves at least,or leather sleeves.For some reason a 100% cotton work shirt if you can find it doesnt burn real bad,The synthetic stuff can catch on fire and melt and stick to your skin.That causes a very painful burn plus you have to pull it off of your skin.If you dont notice you are on fire and are wearing that synthetic stuff it can blaze and really cause you trouble.The first time I welded after I got new uniforms made out of that stuff I caught my sleeve on fire up underneath of something and had to rip my shirt off right then.Had a big burn on my arm that wouldnt have happened if I had been wearing a cotton work shirt.New flannel work shirts will blaze until it burns the fuzz off of the flannel.Cloth gloves will catch on fire before you make one pass but they are better than nothing.Once you burn the fuzz off of them they dont catch fire as easy but still can.
You have to keep in mind that you are going to start a fire.Dont freak out if you do and put it out,especially if its you thats on fire.Thats a big reason for wearing leather gloves is that you could have to beat a fire out thats on your clothes.How will you do that without leather gloves?
Hood with a big lens is good.Proper shade is necessary.It doesnt have to be gold but they are alright.You need to look your helmet over each time you use it and dont use it if the shade glass is broke or any light can get through around the shade glass.That can cause you a miserable eye burn that is hard to describe.You dont want to experience that,terrible headache,eyes feel like they are on fire,and it takes surprisingly few flashes to get it.
Welding is a lot of fun once you get on to it.You can make about anything.

Did not have time to read the other posts thoroughly, but there sure seems to be some good experience, knowledge and technical information on the subject here, can't say thanks enough for the help I have received here on the subject, and it far exceeds my knowledge on same.

Only thing I can say is it is most definitely a highly valuable, practical skill, sometimes an art to learn, with all the variables, processes, and field conditions involved.

I also think that if one owns equipment, etc. being self sufficient to fabricate, make repairs etc. is just extremely valuable, I saw that myself very clearly this spring while helping a farmer plant 300+ acres, so far by welding I repaired the cultipacker 2x, the disc 2x (2nd repair is what it needed the 1st time), and just over the weekend, rebuilt the worn out quick tach couplings on his 265 JD loader, which would have cost him 3x-4x more by the local shop, I got it done for about $200, strong, looks professional too. I welded mostly vertical joints, with his old AC miller, 225 or 250 amp welder, had him pick up some Forney 1/8" 7018 electrode, and boy did I like the results of that combination on his old welder, at about 130 amps. I have my machine over there, and between us all we had was 7018 DC electrode, which just likes to stick like heck off that AC machine, just makes it a real pain to do what you want, but he was headed out for supplies, told him to get AC electrode, the root pass on the half pipe radius on the top coupling I did vertical down and it just laid in there like a steamfitter did it, it was rewarding to see that my work came out nice, was strong and looked nice.

Welding safety, well you should ( and so should I ) take a vo-tech class etc. remember the fumes are toxic, the eye protection, put plugs in your ears, etc. etc. One thing is for sure, I could not do this full time, separates the men from the boys no doubt, it can be real dirty nasty work sometimes, if not most of the time, you can inhale some nasty things, sparks, hot slag, UV light etc. Remember fire safety and think your work out carefully. It is well worth knowing, as it makes all the difference when something breaks in the field and you need to do repairs immediately. I have one of those Lincoln 225 AC units from the early/mid 80's and a Miller Trailblazer NT 251 with a 20 HP Onan, latter is handy for field/mobile work, AC/DC, you can switch polarity, add a wire feed etc. but that good ole Lincoln 225 buzz box turns up on craigslist every so often, and should be able to be bought reasonable.

At the weld school that Tower Automotive sent all its employees to, safety glasses were to be worn at ALL times, even while welding...since they were required to be worn on the plant floor at all times. But for added protection during grinding operations, a headgear-type flip-down face shield was especially handy...so much so that I actually bought my own for working at home. If you get used to wearing the weld helmet, wearing the face shield becomes instinctive as well...and nodding your head to flip the shield down is as natural as doing so with your weld helmet.

How well would an old carhart coat burn??? That may be the best i can come up with as far as a jacket...

Thanks for the help everyone!!

Actually, a Carhart coat might be pretty good. If you go to the IOC website I recommended, they sell the green welding jackets--cotton, not leather--and welding sleeves [real handy on those 90-degree days when you need to weld something, and you don't want to wear a jacket over your T-shirt] that have elastic on both ends.

Just be wary of any frayed areas on the jacket...they ARE prone to catch fire. And if you do weld in a T-shirt or a cotton shirt, don't do it in a shirt you want to keep. Weld spatter [especially with MIG, but also a factor with stick welding] will eventually make "termite" holes in the shirt...usually in the sleeve and belly areas closest to the welding action.

Hope you can get started with welding soon! If you have a welding shop nearby, contact the owner and ask him if he'll take a look at some of your welds and advise you on what you may be doing right, as well as what you're doing wrong. You just might end up getting a job offer from him, or maybe he'll hear about a welding job and pass the info on to you. And even if you only work there a few months, you can get really good at welding if you have to do it every day to get your paycheck...so long as you're not repeating any mistakes you make. And when you're beginning, you WILL make mistakes. Make 'em, learn from 'em, and then make fewer mistakes...repetition is good for the soul, as one of my kids' high-school teachers said over and over.

And just remember...there's always going to be someone who's encountered a problem--or a solution--that you haven't. Be willing to learn from the experiences of others. You'll be fine.

Great skill but tough to do a good job. I dabbled some, took a class, bought an expensive wire welder, and still take everything to either the local blacksmith/machine shop or to a retired welder that worked in a prototype build shop. The retired welder only uses a MIG and both produce a product that looks great. I would rather pay more than have a poor appearing weld job, and can never accumulate enough experience to master the craft like they have. Therefore will only use the wire welder in an emergency.

Probably smolder, not completely sure, but something flame retardant, in the summer I just wear a long sleeve shirt, preferably heavy cotton, which protects you from the UV light, and most spatter, slag etc. Don't quote me, but seems most cottons would just smolder, last Sat. I was using a cutting wheel on a 4 1/2" grinder, and unknowingly concentrated the sparks onto my heavy 50/50 cotton polyester hooded/insulated sweatshirt, with only a 100% cotton t-shirt underneath. I was on fire, well a flame the size of a bic lighter, just felt a warm spot, smelled a bit of smoke, but had no clue, my friend the farmer was nearby, he had a good chuckle, I was like darn it !!! USA made heavy sweatshirt, good quality, now with a golf balls size hole in it ! If it were just cotton I think it would have smoldered. It took concentrated sparks to do this, same would have happened if I let the weld spatter/slag concentrate and on it. Most steam/pipe fitters I observed wore heavy denim button down shirts, and depending on the position they were working they would use the leather apron or whatever you call it. Ideally you try to make the work easier and safer on you, and it's best to protect yourself with the correct gear, no substitute, however seems on a low budget, heavy cotton, fire retardant or similar will afford you adequately, though you must have good heat resistant gloves, sometimes you need to touch hot parts of your work. You don't want any material that can melt or erupt into flames quickly, again don't quote me, research the safety gear, there is good reason to have it, but if you use care and sound judgment, I think heavy cottons will suffice as they tend to smolder which will warn you when you feel that vs. erupting into flames. I've never had any trouble with heavy cotton apparel, but OSHA may say different, and others may disagree on this with good reason so "buyer beware", as I am not aware of any hazards with heavy cotton, there may be some I don't know about. You don't want oil/grease soaked, dirty or otherwise soiled work apparel, just like an oily rag, it will burn rapidly. Another trick is to soak or moisten up areas where sparks, slag and similar may accumulate, fall or concentrate, good common sense always helps.

You also want to eliminate places hot slag and molten metal can fall into, kind of like roof flashing and shingles, make sure the tops of your shoes, uppers, uppers are covered, tongue of your shoes, boots, can't allow anything in, you can leave your shirt untucked, but that creates another hazard, loose clothing that a PTO shaft can grab, put earplugs in, especially if welding over head, spatter still can get behind your mask and I can live with the occasional bit of slag getting under my glove, always happens no matter how careful I am, always wear good eye protection when chipping slag, it always comes up at your eyes, and stings your face when hot, or because it's sharp. There can be a lot of little annoying things like this to contend with, good reason to think about what you are doing well ahead of the work you plan to do.

I think that you will do just fine. In addition to other cautions, be careful working in a wood building not to set it on fire.
I "learned" to weld when I was over 40 years old without lessons, just some advice and reading books. My welds never looked pretty, but they never basically failed. When in doubt I used some kind of reinforcement (gusset, etc.). By the way, with a stick welder, you will be able to also cut metal just fine--not a real pretty cut, but it works. I build a number of pipe cattle gates years ago and they are still in use.

Get a book ;not a Hot Rod book like PERFORMANCE WELDING but a tech school book like HOBART SCHOOL OF WELDING TECHNOLOGY.Keep the book by the machine to look up amps for diameter rod and polarity.Try for an AC/DC machine even if you pay a little more.Some of it is troubleshooting when things go wrong like arc blow,bad rod angle caused by inaccesability to weld area[so you bend the rod for the job etc] For repairs bead appearance is not as important as penetration You can have what they call an ugly "Gorrila weld" but if its burned in good it will make the repair.Prep up good with V notch for tractor or heavy junk[equipment] welds. As you gain puddle control you will get proper bead appearance.So now you need a small grinder too.If you see guys welding on a building ask for a handful of rod and they usually will give you a few pounds for free.Taking a class would be ideal but you said its not an option.

After reading the guy before me I thought it important to also stress what he did;Fire extinguisher[2],water bucket and fifteen minutes of hanging around after welding for firewatch duty.All the money saved welding at home goes out the window if you burn the building down.Also dont take a fire extinguisher from a column or mounted on wall use an extra portable one.Ive seen an Ironworker crew do that and plant maintenance start a fire a run to the column and its not there ,its over at the welding job.Now fire gets out of control and fire department gets called;insurance rate goes up.

Yes, to re-emphasize exactly that, firewatch and fire safety, we always had someone assigned to that task when I supervised ironworker crews, and still theres that tarp in a shaft or inaccessible place where there's welding going on above, slag and molten metal dropping down from upper floors, tarp now burning, seen it a dozen times on sites.

The value of fire watch goes a lot further when working in a building, a fitter was soldering some copper pipe in the main office of the lumber yard where I worked, established 1888, made 100 years, but that year 101st, she burnt mostly to the ground and there was absolutely no stopping it, one of the 2 worst fires I have ever seen first hand, the other was my friends farm that was intentionally set in his shop on fathers day '95. The lumber yard fire was directly caused by the fitter, late friday afternoon, bitter cold too, I punched out, he was working in the ceiling between the joists, scorched the wood and or left embers or something smoldering. You soak the area first, and start that job early in the morning, for just the same reason, so you are there to catch it if it does go up. We heard it on a scanner, I went down and watched it burn, the old carriage house turned into a pine lumber shed/stocking area, cool old building, gone, most of the main office and upper floors of the hardware store, it melted a roll of coins in the owners office, some say it was done intentionally. Funny thing was my charred time card was still pretty much intact, the next day, I was the only one who came in, everyone thought they were off, saturday, place burned down, nope, they set up phones in the mill next door, and I took all the delivery tickets, filled the orders we could and made all the deliveries. Stupidity, he should have done things a little differently that fitter, dummy burned the place down, risked a lot of firemen, and days later during the demo, 2 natural gas laterals, 2" lines were spewing gas, 2 days before anyone reported it, another disaster averted, fire & safety aint nothing to fool with..... ever.

Books are fine but it takes on the job experience to learn to weld. It is like writing your name. The book can show you the letters but you have to put them together yourself. I have been welding for about 50 years, but can't remember anything from books other than the different uses for different rods and what the numbers mean.

Lanse...
Don't forget VENTILATION...as well as fire prevention...Charles

With all the good advice about safety equipment, I just want to stress the importance of always wearing polycarbonate safety glasses. In addition to the obvious protection against flying metal, they are also cheap insurance against getting your eyes flashed. Polycarbonate will block most of the UV that does the real damage. Just remember to keep your safety glasses on when you don your helmet.

Don't think I'll take the time to read all of the responses. Did anyone mention to look the leads of the used welder over to make sure the insulation is in good condition? High dollars to replace them.

Generally the older the welder the heavier gauge the copper leads will be. Insulation should be good for decades but I'd look for cracking anyway.

If you can you should really learn to weld on an ox-acetylene gas rig. Once you learn to push and lead the puddle around you can easily weld via arc. My old shop teacher would let us arc weld until proficient with gas first. He did good. Thanks Mr. Redemer!

Welding requires a very high level of hand eye coordination. This doesn't happen overnight. It can take years to master various types of welding. The best thing to do is take a course at the local tech school and not just from someone who's welded on the farm. Sorry, guys. If it's worth learning, it's worth learning how to do it properly. Welding is more than just picking up a rod and burning away. If you buy a cheap welder, you get a cheap welder. Once you use a good DC welder, you won't be happy with a cheap buzz box. A used Idealarc 250 AC/DC or Dialarc 250 AC/DC would be a good machine. A course at the tech school would be a wise investment. They will teach you about safety, machine differences, rod selection, joint prep., type of load and tons of other stuff as well. Learning how to weld with a cheap buzz box will be very, very frustrating. Cast Iron is a specialty application of welding and requires very specific techniques. You can watch videos till your blue in the face but as far as welding, nothing beats practice and proper instruction. Look into a course before you waste your money trying to find a "good used welder for $100"! Another misconception is the heat someone or a book says to burn a rod at. Every machine will weld differently. A good welder sets his heat by how the rod burns for the job he's doing, not because some book or the dial says to burn it at a specific amperage. The dial is just a reference point to hopefully get you in the ball park of the right heat. Good welders like Puddles, who's posted some pictures on here, make it look easy but he's been doing it for a lot of years and knows what he's doing. Dave

I don't see anything wrong with buying an old Linc buzzbox for 100 bucks. That's what I learned on when it was 12 or 13...
I would also suggest to ask to see it work before you make for home. The one I had was a 225 amp machine and it did everything I needed for a long time. Then... down the road, if you get good at it, and you need more welder, then go buy another welder. You'll probably still sell the linc for what you have into it.

Do get good gloves.
You should get a welding jacket.
Get a decent chipping hammer and wire brush.
I liked the wide lense helmet. Makes it easier to see and you can pick them up for 30-50 bucks.

If you've got a good deep scrap pile, buy a box of 1/8" 6011 rods and practice running beads until you get good at it.
I hate 6011's. I rarely ever use them because of spatter... but they have 2 features important to you.
1. They're cheaper than a 7018.
2. They work well on dirty, rusty unprepped metal... which is what you'll likely be using for practice. Also, when you learn to burn a 6011 well, anything else is easy...

Once you get onto that then start sticking stuff together.
At that point you'll start to see the value in proper preperation and fitting. Clean bright metal is a must...

As others have suggested, learn to watch the puddle as you work rather than the arc. From that you will learn to set the amperage correctly to get a good size puddle... and then learn to control the puddle with the direction of the electrode.
It would also be a good idea for you to pick up a text book on welding. If you go on Amazon you can find various different titles that would be of use... and then mabey scour E-bay to find one cheaper. Most are up in the 150-200 buck range. Then get reading.

Courses at a trade school CAN be a good thing. They can also be a waste of money...
I'm sure you've heard the expression, 'Those who can, do. Those who can't.....teach'
That's not always true. Probably most often not true... but I've had the experience. Sitting down and reading a good book, then learning to apply that will go a long way for what you want to do.

Then down the road you can get into Mig or gas welding. It's just that both are rather costly if you're just trying to learn.

Also beware of buying big old welders like the Dialarc or Idealarc. There's nothing wrong with them, and very nice old machines... BUT they also require a LARGE electrical service in your shop. Likely 100 amp at least. That may be something you don't really want to invest in....

The 225 Lincoln or 225 Miller ThunderBolt are both good little welders to learn with, and mabey keep.... and both are fairly cheap to get going.

Rod

Rod