I took a Welding Class at Lincoln Electric recently....

[SMSW]

A couple of months ago I took a week long MIG class (oops, GMAW) at Lincoln Electric. Absolutely amazing! We had a morning class every day and then welding practice in the afternoons. It did not make me a good welder - only practice does that, but I did learn a lot. There is a whole lot more to welding (even if you stick only to mild steel*) than most of us laymen know. And, once you learn to weld mild steel, there is stainless, aluminum, etc....

Thinking about doing some welding? I have a few suggestions. (Note: my experience is very limited and only to MIG (Gas Metal Arc Welding GMAW) and I know little about stick or TIG). Each welding process (Stick, MIG, TIG) has its own advantages and disadvantages and you need to know what you will be doing to pick the best for your application.

If you are a do it first and figure it out later type of guy, go ahead and jump in. Otherwise, visit the Lincoln Electric website and explore it. You can download their 'textbook' - Gas Metal Arc Welding - Product and Procedure Selection as well as other manuals. Read these a couple of times. There is a lot to digest. I'd also suggest getting some books out of the library and, if available, take a class. A class or a friend will give you hands on instruction that will make your learning a lot easier.

Buying a welder? I have a Miller I bought years ago and the technology has changed a lot. Newer units will do a whole lot more. Having been exposed to our rather biased instructor, there is a lot to be said for Lincoln Equipment. However, at one point in the class he asked what equipment each of us owned, and one guy confessed to having bought all Miller gear for his truck repair business. The instructor said that of course, Lincoln was superior, but also said his Miller equipment would do everything he needed. Bottom line, I think is to go with the brand that is sold and SERVICED near you. I've always been a proponent of buying the best tool I can afford; if you use it a lot it will be cheaper in the long run.

I'm know there are a number of experienced welders here. Hopefully they will chime in.

*pun intended

 

[Bmacleod]

I am not an experienced welder at all, but I just bought my first MIG welder a couple of months ago, a Lincoln MIG180. But, with YouTube, I will be a pro in no time...J/K, LOL. You hit the nail on the head in that you should learn at least the basics, but there is no substitute for practice. Unfortunately, I havent had much time lately to practice, but it will come.
I will also add that if one is thinking of buying a MIG welder, keep in mind that purchasing the welder is only part of the expense. You will need other tools and safety gear (a helmet was $100), but also a tank of argon/CO2 mix and I had to spend $100 in materials to add a 40 amp 220 volt outlet to my shop and another $100 to make an extension cord so that I can move around with the unit (it only has a 4 ft. cord). In my case, the welder was only 1/2 of the investment.

 

[Oldbikefixr]

Refreshers are wonderful things to do periodically. I was an avionics tech in the early 1970's and did lots of solder repairs.
Fast forward 12 years to my favorite employer where I was an electical/electronics manufacturing engineer. My first class showed me how much I had forgotten and how many bad habits I had slipped into. I did a voluntary refresher annually, right along with the assemblers, after that. Some of us DO forget what we think we knew....or something to that effect.

 

[SMSW]

A PostScript to my last post.

The Lincoln 210MP is a fine 120v or 240v machine. And it will do a lot of our welding tasks. Unfortunately, as Bmacleod said, the welder is the tip of the iceberg. You will want a cart to hold the machine and the tank, as well as consumables - the inner welding tip and outer sleeve (which comes in flush and extended), cutting pliers, helmet, gloves, welding wire, etc. When you are configuring the machine (i.e. buying it) you can choose to get options which extend its usefulness to stick and/or TIG. The 350MP is a workhorse of a machine that is probably out of reach of most of us ($) - aside from weighing a few hundred pounds it can be configured (for a princely sum) to do it all, and our instructor said he had never seen one overloaded.

 

[MaxPete]

Cool thread <oops....another pun, I guess>.

I bought a MigPak180 a few months ago...because it was on sale....and...I sort of...you, know...needed it...yeah, that’s right. Hmmmm....haven’t even open the box yet.

Can you tell me how you got the class at Lincoln? That really sounds like a great way to kick off ones welding career.

Pete

 

[Jerseyst]

We have a shipyard apprentice class at the shipyard every yr or so and have had quite a few great welders learn here in PA. The vocational schools in the area do not even teach the type of welding we do here at the yard. Lot's of many different types of processes out there and honestly it all burns you in the end. I hated welding all my life but it has paid the bills for sure!!!

 

[EuroPanUK]

I have spoken to quite a few welders over the years who all agreed that if you want to learn to weld you should start with stick because it is the most difficult. If you can master stick even a little bit then you will be able to use other types of equipment with not much of a problem.

 

[SMSW]

I have spoken to quite a few welders over the years who all agreed that if you want to learn to weld you should start with stick because it is the most difficult. If you can master stick even a little bit then you will be able to use other types of equipment with not much of a problem.

Having done a bit more welding since I posted this thread (I'm an amateur, doing things around the house, not professionally or on a paying job) I think it is not necessary for the home welder. It really depends on what you want to weld. Overhead (i.e. welding on the underside of something)? Mig will do it, but you will need a more expensive machine. Mig is easier and more forgiving for the novice. I've heard a number of experienced pilots say glider pilots make better pilots when they fly planes w/ engines. However, there are a lot of very very good powered flight pilots out there who have been no closer to a glider than one flying overhead.

I will never do any critical welding, and I'm not going to do enough welding to justify spending hours and hours learning the trade. Some guys (and women) are naturals who pick up the techniques quickly, I'm not and need all the help I can get. My welds would no doubt make a pro cringe, but then, when I watch (most) amateurs do electrical wiring I cringe too.

 

[Nashcat]

I spent 5 years, servicing 8 Lincoln GMAW machines on automated equipment, making truck wheels for F-150’s. I’m not saying that we welded a lot, but the wire for each machine was a 1200 lb spool that fed through overhead pulleys. I felt naked if I didn’t have a pair of welder pliers in my back pocket.

Now, I’m down to a Harbor Freight flux wire machine for keeping lawnmowers together.

John

 

[SMSW]

Funny story that was told to us by the instructor in that welding class I described. A big Lincoln client suddenly had their weld quality drop precipitously and they couldn't figure out why. Our instructor was called in by the salesman, he was a welding troubleshooter then. When he arrived and looked at the welds, he said, 'bad gas mix'. The plant manager told him that was impossible, and was backed up by the production foreman who told him the gas was kept under lock and key and only those two men had access to the manifold. So they tried a few more welds, tried a few adjustments, and finally he insisted on seeing the source of gas. The mix was not what it was supposed to be. An investigation discovered that Argon gas costs more than CO2, and some bean counters, intent on saving money walked into the plant and changed the mix, using less Argon and more CO2. This cost three days of production, and they threw out one day's production of poor quality parts. My instructor guesstimated the cost was a million or more $.

Note: I believe I got the expensive gas right, if not, it was the reverse of what I described. This anecdote was told to us to emphasize how the mix influenced the quality of welds. Our next assignment was to go out into the welding shop and make a few practice welds with pure AR then add CO2 in 5% increments and compare the welds.

 

[TourNut]

How to weld is a great , handy thing in your arsenal of knowledge . I got a ~1962 Forney C6 arc welder from a concrete contractor neighbor , then my father in law taught me how to use it in the mid-'80s .

 

[Bmacleod]

When you posted this a couple of years ago Peter, I had stated that I just got my first MIG welder and since then, I have used it sparingly. Funny thing is I started getting reports of my pacemaker acting up when I would go for my yearly checkup. It took a few minutes to figure it out, going by the dates of the outages, but I finally said "hey, I just started welding" and they said "Bingo". I didnt know that a welder can trip up your pacemaker. I asked what welders with pacemakers do and they said if you keep your arm extended, it should be okay. Problem is, I dont see that great... always somethin"...LOL

 

[SMSW]

When you posted this a couple of years ago Peter, I had stated that I just got my first MIG welder and since then, I have used it sparingly. Funny thing is I started getting reports of my pacemaker acting up when I would go for my yearly checkup. It took a few minutes to figure it out, going by the dates of the outages, but I finally said "hey, I just started welding" and they said "Bingo". I didnt know that a welder can trip up your pacemaker. I asked what welders with pacemakers do and they said if you keep your arm extended, it should be okay. Problem is, I dont see that great... always somethin"...LOL

Welding is a spark, and this broadcasts radio frequency electromagnetic waves. In fact, that's how so called 'lightening detectors' work. Do you remember static noise when you were listening to AM radio broadcasts and a thunderstorm approached? Same thing. And I think pacemaker wearers are warned to avoid strong magnetic fields and certain rf producing equipment.

I just did a quick google search and found some of the cautions for pacemakers included: Don't wear a cell phone in a pocket directly over the pacemaker; Avoid strong magnetic fields (xray, mri, etc.); and finally,
"Extended exposure to electromagnetic fields can hamper the working of the pacemaker. An individual working with heavy electrical equipment, live wires and industrial welders should take proper caution, when working with these equipment if he is implanted with a pacemaker. Too much proximity with these devices can disrupt the signals and stall the working of the pacemaker temporarily."

If I wore a pacemaker, I'd seek out an Elect. Engineer and ask him a few questions. PM @MaxPete, and if he cannot help you, he might be able to refer you to a friend. My questions would be, would wearing a copper screen vest that was grounded shield you so you can occasionally weld? How about a piece of sheet copper in the form of a chest shield? Chain mail? What you are doing is making a faraday cage that will protect you. At one point, I learned that the size of the mesh of the screen of said FC is determined by the wavelength of the rf field you want to eliminate. That was 50 years ago, and details are lost in the nooks and crannies of my memory. Since they told you to weld at an arm's length, clearly the signal strength is not very great.

On the other hand, it might just be a better idea to find a friend and teach him to weld and let him use your machine free in exchange for doing odd jobs for you.

 

[Bmacleod]

Welding is a spark, and this broadcasts radio frequency electromagnetic waves. In fact, that's how so called 'lightening detectors' work. Do you remember static noise when you were listening to AM radio broadcasts and a thunderstorm approached? Same thing. And I think pacemaker wearers are warned to avoid strong magnetic fields and certain rf producing equipment.

I just did a quick google search and found some of the cautions for pacemakers included: Don't wear a cell phone in a pocket directly over the pacemaker; Avoid strong magnetic fields (xray, mri, etc.); and finally,
"Extended exposure to electromagnetic fields can hamper the working of the pacemaker. An individual working with heavy electrical equipment, live wires and industrial welders should take proper caution, when working with these equipment if he is implanted with a pacemaker. Too much proximity with these devices can disrupt the signals and stall the working of the pacemaker temporarily."

If I wore a pacemaker, I'd seek out an Elect. Engineer and ask him a few questions. PM @MaxPete, and if he cannot help you, he might be able to refer you to a friend. My questions would be, would wearing a copper screen vest that was grounded shield you so you can occasionally weld? How about a piece of sheet copper in the form of a chest shield? Chain mail? What you are doing is making a faraday cage that will protect you. At one point, I learned that the size of the mesh of the screen of said FC is determined by the wavelength of the rf field you want to eliminate. That was 50 years ago, and details are lost in the nooks and crannies of my memory. Since they told you to weld at an arm's length, clearly the signal strength is not very great.

On the other hand, it might just be a better idea to find a friend and teach him to weld and let him use your machine free in exchange for doing odd jobs for you.

My pacemeaker doesnt do alot of work, so i dont even notice when the reed valve gets tripped up and im not in any real danger. Your right though, I should look into other alternatives. I havent used my welder much, but I have been making a conscious effort to keep my arm extended more and see if that really makes a difference. Its a little tricky. Picture signing your name with your arm extended... You can probably pick out my welds in lineup