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Tue Aug 19, 2003 5:12 pm

Hello, my name is Vincent, and I've never welded anything before.

(hello Vincent)

Ok, now that I've admited my problem, I can do something about it. I'm looking through our friendly neighborhood community college for some welding classes, and I've come upon these... which would be the most appropriate?

DECORATIVE OXY-ACETYLENE WELD I
DECORATIVE ELECTRIC ARC WELD I
FLUX-CORED ARCH WELDING II

Hmmm. not as many as I thought. May have to wait till next semester.
FLUX-CORED ARCH WELDING I
will be offered next.

Tue Aug 19, 2003 5:19 pm

see if they have a mig class as know of these are a good way to weld on a dub.. not saying it wont work.. but well just find a mig class....

Tue Aug 19, 2003 6:11 pm

Mig is what you want. Mig with argon/CO2 gas hookup. I never took any class, just practice. I'm not saying you shouldn't take classes but it's not extremely complicated to learn. It's a very quick learning curve to learn the basics.

Welding isn't really the main problem IMO. It's problem solving like where to cut, how to make things fit, etc. Most welding you'd do will mostly hundreds of tack welds for auto body work. And lots of grinding too....

Here's my first wleding project after 1 hour of practice, I don't remommend jumping right away into this complciated of a project but I learned alot from it. Took me over 120 hours because I had to learn alot of welding things on the way. Now I can do this in alot of a shorter timeframe but I'm alot more confident on my welding because of this.

I started off with this:

Ended up with this:

Tue Aug 19, 2003 7:28 pm

Kubel Nick wrote: Mig is what you want. Mig with argon/CO2 gas hookup. I never took any class, just practice. I'm not saying you shouldn't take classes but it's not extremely complicated to learn. It's a very quick learning curve to learn the basics.

Awsome dash. I love the speedo being in the center. do you do stuff for others? :)

Vincent

Tue Aug 19, 2003 8:01 pm

Can you explain the term "tack weld". Also can you explain exactly what you did to that dash.

Tue Aug 19, 2003 9:16 pm

I took a few welding classes years ago and I agree with looking for the mig class. If none, get ahold of alot of scrap sheet metal cut it into about 4" long strips and practice lap joints and especially butt joints till you don't burn through and the weld looks even. It all comes down to practice.

Tue Aug 19, 2003 9:30 pm

timgud wrote: I took a few welding classes years ago and I agree with looking for the mig class. If none, get ahold of alot of scrap sheet metal cut it into about 4" long strips and practice lap joints and especially butt joints till you don't burn through and the weld looks even. It all comes down to practice.

Hard to practice when I have no welder. Hense classes: I can use their stuff while I learn, and see if I then want to spend $400+ on the welder.

Speaking of prices, what about this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2340647439&category=11704

What amperage to I need to work on light body/floor pans/seat springs, etc...?

Tue Aug 19, 2003 10:30 pm

When getting a welder, make sure you can hook up gas to it. Not all of them do. I wouldn't even mess with flux core (gasless) for a beginner. Also auto-darkening welding helmet is a novice welder's best friend. Makes learing alot easier. Most people uses .25 mig wire for body work also, that's the thinnest you can get them. If you'll be welding alot don't buy the smallest gas bottle, get the next step up or the one after that. Will cost a little more to buy the tank at first but they pretty much costs the same to refill. Saves $$ in the long run.

Also you'll need clamps and other tools, especially a grinder. I wouldn't get the cheapest welder. Or you may find yourself wanting to upgrade sooner or later and will cost you $$ int he long run that way. I'd stick with the good brands like Hobart, Lincoln or Miller. Buy cheap and buy twice.... http://www.harborfreight.com has free shipping for any orders over $50. Good for heavy tools like a welder.

Can you explain the term "tack weld".
Tack welding (aka spot welding) is welding a spot of the metal instead of a line. This keeps the heat buildup down to a minimum. Heat causes warpage, especially on long flat sheet metal.

"Also can you explain exactly what you did to that dash."
What I did to the dash was I took a '49 Ford dash, shortened it a foot to the same length of a VW, relocated the speedo to the center, removed the clock gauge hole, filled in the excess holes from the old Ford switches and put the stock VW speedo opening into the Ford's speedo so a stock speedo fill bolt onto it no problem. And installed it to my bug. More pictures on my site. Just practice, not hard to learn the basics. I started welding in December. Check out my site for my project including the dash buildup. http://www.runtrod.com/

Wed Aug 20, 2003 12:28 pm

I am not a big fan of custom rides but I dig that ride Nick. I thinks it's time I went and got a welder myself!

Wed Aug 20, 2003 4:14 pm

Kubel nick has some serious balls to tackle a job like that. Major props to you nick.

nolageek, stay away from a cheap welders, once you get better you can always find something to weld for someone. I started out with learning on a pretty nice miller welder. I bought my own thinking that the sears welder would work fine. until I noticed hey this damned thing arcs anytime the wire touches metal! damn pos welders. Needless to say I had it for about a day.

Wed Aug 20, 2003 4:54 pm

llok in you recler or what ever you have there.. good one come up a lot and are about 60% of there new cost and about 1/2 of them are sold by people who bought and never used but a ouple of f times....

Thu Aug 21, 2003 10:37 am

Our local college doesn't let anyone take MIG until they've completed 3-4 other welding courses (shop safety, oxy, arc, etc.). Since I only had MIG equipment, rightly or wrongly, I figured I didn't need all that other learnin'.

So, I asked one of the instructors for the name of a top student (recent graduate of their two-year program, now certified) who would be willing to tutor me. I paid that guy $100 for two hours - seemed a little high at first, but he delivered the goods, answering all my questions and giving me good feedback on my technique. The "instruction" was provided at my place, with my equipment, and he had to correct something that was set up incorrectly before we could begin. He even brought some scaps of different gauge steel for me to practice on.

Hooked on tutors - it worked for me!

Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:46 am

Good Idea. Better Idea and maybe cheaper.. go to a body shop and ask to talk to their lead body man. More tips for what you are wanting to do, but less overall, more like a specialist....