learning to weld

slantscamp said

well ive finally got my hands on a welder. i have been wanting to take a class for the last year. but havent been able to because they are always scheduled the same time as my apprenticeship schooling. so one of my buddies came over yesterday and brought his welder and the old floorpans out of his 41 willys. im learning on floor pans because i need to put some patches in our metropolitan before i put the drivetrain back in. he said he would leave the welder at my house and i could use it as long as i want. he is also going to come back with some thicker steel to teach me some more. he just said practice, practice, practice. to practice, i have been taking my grinder and cut slits in the pans. then practicing tacking it back together, and practicing 1 inch beads. i know these pictures arnt anything great, but im pretty excited. ive always wanted to weld, and now im learning!

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Take a welding class if possible . Being taught by a welding instructor will save you countless hours of trial and error (lots of error). I was certified by the Carpenter Union of Chicago in vertical and horizontal /overhead stick welding. The teacher was a friggen expert....

the crackle/tone from his welding arc was super smooth with no variance in tone as he would lay down a bead. When he was finished his welds looked like a perfect bead of chaulk !!!

Learned more in six weeks of school than years of backyard experimenting. Also took the Union Tig class and liked that so much I went out and bought a nice Lincoln Pulse/Tig welder! This welder could probably weld a piece of aluminum foil to the side of a pop can !!! It's that accurate .

Eventually I hope to make a Ray Barton style crossram for one of my 440's .

I made a 10 quart oil pan out of the metal frame from a 2 bulb fluoresent light fixture to keep my 440's alive at 6500+ RPM's !!! So far so good .

Stick with it (pun intened) and you'll be able to do all kinds of fabrication .