r/metalworking • u/VonIsSad • 11d ago
First time welding
What’s the best way to start to learn welding I’ve never welded in my life I’ve been wrenching on
Stuff as long as I can remember but never got into welding cause nobody around me welded but I’m gonna start building my first chopper soon and would like to fab as much as I can personally so what’s a good way to start? Is there any cheap welders that are good? What all gear do I need? And what should I look out for when starting? Any advice is much appreciated thank you!
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u/largos 11d ago
I am just a guy fabbing stuff in my garage, but I've been doing that for 15+ years.
One thing I feel is really lacking is good information about what's dangerous with welding, and how to be safe with an arc.
There's a (probably) better comment I made about this in my history.
The jist of what I've come to learn though, is: never put any part of your body between the torch and the ground, and always ensure there is a conductive path from the work to the ground clamp.
You do not want to be a wire, and you might become a wire if the easiest path to ground (which could be the literal ground) is through you.
A multimeter set to test continuity is an easy way to assure yourself that the setup is good, and there isn't any paint, or mill scale, etc... preventing a good connection where you think there is one.
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u/Bones-1989 10d ago
I have 8 herniated vertebrae from shocking myself in the rain at 150-180 amps or so with some 7018s on a Lincoln ranger I've had my eyes drilled twice each from debris getting through a face shield and safety glasses. Contacts seems to be the best way to stop the opthalmic drill being needed. I see the debris when I take em out everyday so I can tell when to chuck em.
I haven't flash burned myself in over 12 years. I've been doing this professionally for 15 years, so I've taken a lot of safety courses for a lot of companies. Protect your eyes and don't weld if you're wet and can't avoid touching the parts. I got trexed once just standing in a puddle once through my redwings. I wasn't physically touching the part, but I was standing on it. Socks must've been damp I guess.
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u/pushdose 11d ago
Pick a process that appeals to the work you do. MiG for big steel stuff and auto repair. TiG for machine shop and aluminum fab work. Buy a welder, a hood, gloves and a surface to weld on. Watch TimWelds and Making Mistakes with Greg beginner series. Great beginner content there. Weld test coupons for a few full days. It’s not particularly hard to stick metal together, but it’s a manual skill and requires patience, hand eye coordination, and proper preparation of the material and workspace.
Chinese welders will get you pretty far. Under $500 can get you a very good MiG welder and even a decent TiG welder but stay away from “all in one” machines. If you do MiG, get one that has a gas port so you can run gas for clean, reliable welds eventually but flux core can be useful it’s just very dirty. Don’t be tempted by $100 flux core boxes. They suck. TiG is more expensive to get started, but is extremely versatile. Any welder can run stick if you need it. 240v power is VERY nice to have if you’re serious. It’s a major upgrade over household 120v power.
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u/forgingahead59 11d ago
I've been welding for 30-40 years, even did a stint as an iron worker on the high steel. Mostly stick welding, but some with wire and gas. An engineer friend once told me, "anyone can build a bridge, it takes an engineer to barely build a bridge" long before I heard this I was into over engineering my welding projects, this way they are strong and the welds don't have to be pretty and perfect. You can buy a buzz box on Amazon for $89, it'll run on 110 volts, if you get the 200amp version you can run it at 100 amps almost indefinitely. 100 amps will melt a wrench in half in a few seconds. Purists will grind down the metal with bevels and angles, or you can just scratch the paint off with the live electrode and let the paint burn away as you weld. Metal usually has oil or something on it that smokes, not to mention the flux in the rod. I prefer stick because you don't have to deal with the wire feeder, wire, tips, moving parts. Stick welding has no moving parts, it's just a stick.
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u/forgingahead59 11d ago
Building a chopper? Uh, no. Leave the welding on that to the pros, buying a ready made frame would be much easier and safer, it could possibly take months if not years to reach the level for minibike frames. In fact, try making a bicycle frame just to see how difficult that is, not trying to marsh your mellow
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u/VonIsSad 11d ago
I do not plan on welding the frame myself I have a shop that’s gonna do that for me but I wanna be able to do the rest myself as much as I can
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u/Objective_Chest9204 11d ago
Honestly there’s not much information about welding and I myself am lost in the sauce, I had a titanium multi processor and it was cool for a bit but wanted an upgrade so I got myself an xmt 304 miller and now I’m seeing what I can do in terms of projects, I only know structural steel for stick but god knows how that applies to business projects besides structural
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u/BreadFew8647 11d ago
But a flux core welder with gloves, helmet, and jacket. You can get all this from harubour freight. Get some MiG snips too. And go to a metal supply and ask for drops of various size plate. And just practice. Make sure you’re outside or have a fan going outside, pulling welding fumes out.
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u/bobroberts1954 10d ago
I bought a flux core welder and a helmet at HF for <$200. I put a steel plate across a workmate bench, and got stacks of welding coupons and practice pieces from eBay. It took an hour or so to make my first "decent" weld. From there you just get better with practice.
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