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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Malcolm dave mike: Advice on classes
- - By calabrese052 (*) Date 08-08-2004 14:59
I told you I was going to class for welding. I just received the pamphlet on the course and it states that the "student will acquire a working knowledge of oxy-fuel burning, and shielded arc welding." This is different from what I was expecting. I thaught this was an obselete way of welding. I messed around with torches in shop along time ago. Is this necessary to get an entry level technique on welding? When I looked in a catalog these are pretty cheap machines. Can they accomplish what MIGs do? Can I actually accomplish projects like motorcycle frames and cars and stuff? when I read some specs on them, they actually say they can weld alot thicker metal than the cheaper migs. Do they actually melt the metal and fuse it together?
The class is one night a week for 3 hours, and lasts 10 weeks. It's costing me 379 bucks, [worth it?]
Parent - - By Malcolm (*) Date 08-09-2004 00:45
"Oxyfuel burning" means using a torch to cut steel. That is a typical part of an introductory welding class. It is not welding, that would be "oxyfuel welding." That indeed is more or less obsolete. At least it is not used much for production work anymore.

By "shielded arc welding", I am assuming that they mean shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). This is commonly called stick welding.

If you only want to do MIG or TIG, the class won't get you where you want to go, although it may be a necessary step on the way. At my local community college, before you can take any other classes, you have to take an intro class that covers safety, oxy-fuel cutting, shielded metal arc welding (SMAW or stick), gas metal arc welding (GMAW or MIG) and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW or TIG). You don't get good at any of the processes. You do learn your way around the shop, the basics, and which processes you might want to study more.

Stick is usually used for heavy things like buildings, bridges, etc. MIG and TIG are what you probably want if you are going to work on chopper frames and cars.
Parent - By tinker Date 08-11-2004 21:09
Although I'd had a small 120v MIG for a while I was interested in learning TIG so I took some night classes at the local CC (Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA). Started with the intro class and after the safety training/testing they split us into a group that started on stick first and one that did O/A welding first. During the semester we also got to try brazing, O/A cutting (thin to 1"), plasma cutting, carbon arc gouging, a little MIG on steel and aluminum and heavy flux core. Lots of exposure and I learned a lot about the various processes. Got to the point where I could lay some decent stick beads with a number of different rods including 6010. I enjoyed the O/A work and got very good results on sheet and tubing. Here we worked flat, horizontal, vert & overhead. A great chance to get a good background and appreciation for the field and the different skills required. Cost me a little under $200 for the semester but I'm sure I burned a lot more gas, electricity, rods and filler than that :^)

I went on to take a short MIG class (ICAR certification) and a semester of TIG (yes, I think learning a bit about O/A welding helped) and even took an orbital class so I could continue to use the lab to finish some TIG projects. I found I learned something new with every class, exercise and project. For home I'm sticking to my MIG and the used TIG welder that I got off eBAY but I did build up a cable to try some stick on it. Figured that I might someday need to do something heavy duty and was pleased to see that most of the stick skill was still with me.

If it's a good school with a good lab (visit and talk to students), go for it!

Gary
Parent - By Michael Sherman (***) Date 08-12-2004 11:16
Take the basic class. It will pay off in the long run to understand the fundamentals. Knowledge is never wasted and I believe you will be a better welder for having learned SMAW and how to use a torch properly before jumping into GMAW. Short arc mig has serious limitations and once you understand SMAW you will find it easier to understand these limitations. I also believe it is easier to learn all other types of welding once you learn SMA.

Good luck,
Mike Sherman
Shermans Welding
Parent - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-12-2004 12:36
I'm with these other guys on this, get the basics down. Those fundamentals are to help you understand the hows and whys. It might seem like you are wasting your time learning to stick(SMAW) weld, but some fundamentals are taught here and will be applied when GMAW is introduced to help you understand how to produce a sound weld(things to be watching for while welding). GMAW is more than picking up the gun and pointing the trigger at the joint. You'll also see where SMAW will often tolerate a less prepared joint than will GMAW. Rust or foreign matter will cause bigger problems with GMAW than with other processes. Take the class, you'll see we are heading you off in the right direction. A few years down the road you'll look back and understand why they started you out with those other processes first.
Don't let that instructor out of your site if you don't understand something, ask the question until you are satisfied. I have seen students leaving class with a puzzled look and if you don't ask them what's on their mind, they would simply leave with the questions unanswered. It's your money, get the most out of it.
Best wishes on your class,
John Wright
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Malcolm dave mike: Advice on classes

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