Welding - how did you get started?

It isn't "knowledge" passed down - it's preparation before you start and practice.

Others have said it www.migwelding.co.uk have loads of tutorials



Get a decent welder and it can make life a whole heap easier but budget also for decent PPE (self darkening helmet, good gloves and good welding clamps) and a few angle grinders that you can set up with cutting, grinding, flap discs and wire wheels



Leave welding the car alone for now - seriously leave it well alone you'll end up doing something that in a very short time you will want to do again

Go to a breakers yard and get a few panels that you can use to practice all the key welding techniques - butt and spot would be good to get under your belt first but I probably wouldn't even start with thin stuff - I'd make a dolly for the MGB first so I could get all the running gear off it first and that way you'll have a shell that you can still move around at a decent working height

He's what I started with for one of the dollies that I have built over the years



Made a basic frame



Wheelie Bin wheels



Plates for the wheels and drilled for the wheels



Almost finished just the uprights to support the shell



Made in situe



Makes a huge difference to welding up a car and at the time when I put the car on it all the running gear was still on it

Of course I had a fair bit of rust to cut out







Of course it is - just get plenty of practice first before you tackle the MGB

And don't cut out all the rust at once - cut a bit out and replace it before moving to the next bit - do the bits where cosmetics don't matter (floor pan and areas that are hidden by carpets or covers) that way grinding back is less important and you can practice getting good penetration with minimal weld left proud - this will help a lot when you get to do more noticable areas

bstardchild exactly hat I've been told and plan to do. What spec metal did you use?

I had no money and my Metro was going to fail the MOT, a very nice bloke at work lent me his mig.
I then saved up and bought my own.
I did goto night school but that was after the event, but still worth while.
Excellent tutorials and forum here
www.mig-welding.co.uk

bstardchild - nice dolly, I'm seriously impressed - simple but very effective.

elwood, it sounds as if you are starting with the right approach - *good luck* - it's a lot of fun and you will be amazed how many mechanical projects require welding :-D I found that after a fairly short while I learned the "feel" of when it was going well. I'd recommend you make sure that the earth strap is connected to really good clean metal and you keep the torch clear of spatter.

Argoshield (argon/CO2 mix) yields less spatter than neat CO2 but please, please make sure you cover/mask up around the work-piece as you can easily set light to things you didn't really want to :-)

The self-darkening visors are proper Gucci kit, well worth it. I've never had one but borrowed them once or twice, I used a conventional permanently dark screen and developed the "nod" technique to tip it down over my face as my hands were always busy ;-)

I use those thin leather gauntlets marketed as being for TIG welding, they are plenty thick enough to protect your hands but thin enough for you to have good manual dexterity. I rarely bothered with proper overalls or anything like that, just burned lots of small holes in old sweatshirts :-D

Thanks again all.

Welder, gauntlets and self darkening mask are all here. Doing some video watching and reading up. Will hopefully grab some scrap this weekend and then have my first practical attempt one evening next week.

Will let you know how it goes!

Best of luck Elwood, have fun!

bstardchild, very good points - I've had spatter go down my neck (cue wild jive dancing demonstration) but never inside a boot - yet!

I've seen local welders in NW Africa and India making do with sunglasses (if they're lucky) and no safety kit, you can tell a welder in the street from the spatter burns all down one side of his face :-(

Yet another tip- check out your environment before you weld. Tidy up your garage. Have a look and I bet its full of stuff like cardboard newspaper paint white spirit etc. Get anything flammable well away preferably in you shed. Little balls of molten metal can come off, bounce on the floor and roll anywhere. It really might be a idea to buy a fire extinguisher. I'm sure you can get a c02 one online for £30 or less. It's very useful as well if your car paint undersea etc starts to burn.
I can second the tight shoes. I had a 1 inch piece of red hot wire go down my boot as a apprentice and I had to pull it and the melted sock out of the front of my foot. i still have the scar!
Just practise practise practise, keep the metal spotless and maintain your welder_spare tips shrouds and torch liner every now and again and keep it free of dust and damp as the wire can rust and foul up the torch.

I managed to set a beetle interior on fire. It had about 2 inches of that fluffy insulation under the carpet! And a fire extinguisher was on hand when I tig welded the floor on my golf next to the fuel lines ( DO NOT DO THAT PLEASE ANYONE )

I have also experienced a practical joke at work involving 5 litres of solvent on the floor, me in a locked toilet on the other side having a number 2 and the effect of a red Hot bit of molten spatter from a mig. Usain bolt had nothing on me .


Stay safe kids.

I'll be honest and say I skipped through this thread so sorry if I am repeating someone else...

Buy the very very BEST welder you can possibly afford (second hand gets you better deals). I use a Clarke 151TE, does me nicely. If you buy a pants welder you will get pants results. Go steady, practice LOADS, use the mig welding forum, put pics up of your welds and ask for critique. Get an auto darkening helmet (saves you no end of bother), buy large bottles of decent gas NOT the little disposable ones, buy big spools of welding wire not small ones (in the long run this will save you a LOT of money), and most of all, enjoy yourself! Start off making random stuff, with a big pile of scrap. Learn what happens when you try to weld painted surfaces, rusty surfaces, thin stuff, thick stuff, and don't assume you've "got it" just cos you lay down one good bead. Test your welds to destruction, grind your test welds flat or right through them to see what's going on underneath, eventually you will learn what to look for, listen for and smell when it's going right. Oh, and log sleeves at all times unless you like sunburn!

I started off laying pidgeon poo and thinking it was fine, and progressed through trial, error and listening to advice and not spitting out my dummy when someone said "That is absolutely rubbish pal".
Sticking two bits of metal together is easy. Getting a good solid weld less so, Preparation is absolutely KEY, make sure you clean to shiny metal every time, be aware of how metal responds when heated especially with thin stuff, and learn different techniques (for example thin stuff you want to do one tiny dot at a time, then do a dot somewhere else, then somewhere else etc as concentrating on one area for ANY length of time warps it badly... Thicker stuff you need to really lay down some heat to get the penetration you need... Fillet welding is different again, as is plug welding, stitching etc).

Here's my welding now after a few years (on and off) of picking up the torch:





It's a far far cry from where I started, but I did exactly as you are about to do... Went and bought one, and just went for it.