I think I will title this post "Better keep my day job!" Last Wednesday I took a 2 hour training session from a local welder who has his own metal fab shop. He has done some work for me in the past and does a really nice job and is pretty reasonable. But... I always wanted to learn to weld and I always regret not taking the welding class in high school.
View attachment 1715060890 So after some basic lecture and do's and don't he just had me run some welds along the top. Pretty ugly I know! He pointed out that I was a little nervous and trying to hold my breath too much while welding - he compared it to shooting a rifle and how breaths affect your pulling the trigger and aim.
View attachment 1715060891 A little better, maybe.
View attachment 1715060892 Could be worse?
My biggest problem I think is my ability to see what I am doing. My eyes and eyeglasses are part of the issue, and maybe the helmet he had me use was the other. My eyeglasses have progressive lenses and with the small window in the welding helmet I had trouble trying to put my head at the right angle to focus on the weld and just could not see the weld area very good.
I think I would do better if I just had some prescription reading only glasses with maybe a higher magnification. The helmet I had was not auto darkening and had a real small window. He told me it was about a 11 darkness, so I am not sure if that was a problem, but that is what he uses.
So I am not sure if I will go any further in my welding career. I do want to get some plates welded on my LCA's and also plan to take off my K-member and possibly weld up those if needed. Right now if I did those it would look like some slacker hack job!
If I see a smoking deal on Craigslist I may pick up a used welder but I am thinking I now need a new tool chest worse than a welder. I don't have a 220 outlet in my garage, so I would have to get one installed unless I went with a 110 volt unit, which my welder told me to generally stay away from.
