Recommendation on a welding book, and beginner thoughts

So I would like to learn how to weld. It would help me with stuff for my car, and occasionally it would be nice to know how at work, because my place of employment loves to ghetto-rig stuff together, and I'm kind of on a "fix everything the right way, damnit!" kick. Zip ties are no longer acceptable.

Yes, I ran a search, but no specific books were mentioned. Which one (or two) would be the best to read for a complete and utter beginner who can't even tell the difference between all the 'IG's?

That said, I can solder like no one's business. Been doing it since I was 7 or 8. How much different is welding?

lightyears of difference between soldering and big boy welding. solderibg just works on the principle of heat transference whereas welding actually transfers an electric current through the bitch. as for the IGs, start with MIG. trust me, its the easiest. just go back and forth and down reeeeeaaall slow

Whatever you do, DO NOT start with a MIG machine. Learn to weld properly first on an arc machine, then learn to use a MIG welder. By that time, you will understand the basics of making a good weld.

Arc welding is easy, it just takes practice.

I've got a copy of Performance Welding that's yours if you want it. PM me with your address and I'll drop it in the mail.

Blessed be the mother who gives birth to a brewer.

I was in this situation about 3 years ago. You cannot learn Kung Fu, high performance driving or welding from a book. It is all about seat time, and not just burning stuff - quality seat time.

Take a class at your local vo-tech. Get the guy who trains certified welders and teaches the classes for local maintenance depts if you can. Tell him what your goals are and the kind of equipment you will ultimately be using. There is no use learning to weld overhead on bridge i-beams if all you ever do is work with sheet metal. He will ignore you anyway and make you use a stick welder until you can lay dimes on a couple different angles and positions... but once you have got that down he will likely move you to equipment similar to what you have in-house. Practice, practice, practice. Ask questions until he avoids you. Cut stuff in half and see where you penetrated to. Borrow his crack testing fluids and check things just because you can.

I'm making just about anything I want out of steel these days using a little underpowered MIG. I'm going back to have that guy teach me to TIG aluminum this winter and I'm saving for more equipment. I'm sure he is already rolling his eyes but I do get my monies worth ;)

You will never look at a project the same way again. I promise.

EDIT: You can, however, learn to weld "better" from a book once you have the hand skills to weld in the 1st place.

I waded in with a tiny, crappy Schumacher stick welder when I first started on my A-H Sprite 15 years ago - upgraded to a 140 amp 110V MIG which kept me going for close to a decade - and upgraded to a Millermatic 185 MIG and a Miller Syncrowave SD180 TIG the past few years. I've had tanks and a torch forever.

If you've got work to do - I recommend buying a medium sized MIG machine, preferably from Miller, Lincoln or Hobart. Used is good, bigger is generally better - to a point - and if you have 240V in your garage you're golden.

Get a bunch of scrap steel to practice on and a copy of "Performance Welding" or the Miller book on MIG. Miller has tutorials on their website - and youtube has loads of how to videos.

Spend the money on a ~good~ self darkening helmet.

Take the time to make sure all metal you're welding is CLEAN. An angle grinder w/ flap wheels and die grinder w/ Scotchlock discs is a must.

And try really hard to remember not to pick up a freshly welded part with your bare hand. You will do that.

Der Snorkelwacker is right on the money. Take a class!

We have a welder at work, pretty sure it's a 240 volt Lincoln. Again, confused by the IGs, but I think it's a MIG. You need to use little skinny rods when welding with it, if that helps. I know it can weld stainless though, too...our maintenance guy does all the time, just not very well haha.

I was going to kind of take some scrap out of the pile at work and go to town, but I have NO idea where to start, hence the book. As I said, the maintenance guy at work can weld, he's just always too busy fixing other stuff to show me how.

Woody- you've got PM. And I'm not a brewer, I work in the packaging department, but I do homebrew, and would like to go back to school and train to be a brewer...if only I could find the $26Kish that the Siebel Institute wants for tuition.

Twin_Cam wrote: We have a welder at work, pretty sure it's a 240 volt Lincoln. Again, confused by the IGs, but I think it's a MIG. You need to use little skinny rods when welding with it, if that helps. I know it can weld stainless though, too...our maintenance guy does all the time, just not very well haha.

Little rods sounds more like arc welding (aka stick welding) if you clamp them in the welder...

I learned from a book. My first welds were with an old tig machine, which I think is the easiest process- to make a GOOD weld. Anyone can weld with MIG- point and shoot, but it's actually not that easy to ensure you have a good weld with all the sparking, spatter, and fast movement required. Tig is nice and calm- you move at your own speed.

That said, I think a class is the best, but my limited time had me learning myself.

Nobody and the Snorkelwacker are correct. Follow their instructions.

+1 to the Vo-tech class recommendations

Rog

get a Mig welder and some wire and gas for it.. then get every piece of scrap steel you can get your hands on and start fusing them together.

welding is an art- for some people, it comes naturally. other people need to practice a bit. some people just never get it. the best welders i've ever known never took any classes.

Twin_Cam wrote: Woody- you've got PM. And I'm not a brewer, I work in the packaging department, but I do homebrew, and would like to go back to school and train to be a brewer...if only I could find the $26Kish that the Siebel Institute wants for tuition.

Well, screw it then.

No, seriously, the book will be in the mail tomorrow.

I went to welding school and graduated with a lot of arc welding certifications for structural steel type stuff. I learned from an instructor who welded for NASA at one point, his stuff is orbiting us currently.

Learning from a real pro is worth its weight in gold. Watching someone weld two beer cans together without blowing through is pretty awesome.

Cleanliness and dialing in the machine are half of making a good weld.

Practice practice practice. We would make "coupons" that were about 2" by 6" in varying metals and thicknesses and weld those in various joints until we had nightmares about them.

I specialized in TIG because I went to welding school to make manifolds, but to me arc welding is the hardest but most rewarding. If you can lay a vertical stick weld with one of the crappier electrodes on 1/4" plate steel with certifiable penetration and bead dimensions you are GANGSTER. I made it up to 4G on plate and up to 5G on pipe. 6G and 6GR are tough and I didn't plan on going that direction with my certifications anyway.

This was our textbook, and I still keep it around as a reference. Spendy, but it's almost 2" thick and gets into a lot of the science in welding, not just how to make pretty welds.

Now if only the welding jobs in my state didn't pay less than pizza delivery my education might be worth something..

I found that desperation worked for me. This was my first ever welding attempt. Seems to have done the job..

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2203663

Always been a firm believer in "No such thing as can't, when you have to..."

Can it weld my canoe?

[mod edit: zombie canoe referenced has been deleted]

Canoe welding for fun and profit?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker said:

I was in this situation about 3 years ago. You cannot learn Kung Fu, high performance driving or welding from a book. It is all about seat time, and not just burning stuff - quality seat time.

Take a class at your local vo-tech. Get the guy who trains certified welders and teaches the classes for local maintenance depts if you can. Tell him what your goals are and the kind of equipment you will ultimately be using. There is no use learning to weld overhead on bridge i-beams if all you ever do is work with sheet metal. He will ignore you anyway and make you use a stick welder until you can lay dimes on a couple different angles and positions... but once you have got that down he will likely move you to equipment similar to what you have in-house. Practice, practice, practice. Ask questions until he avoids you. Cut stuff in half and see where you penetrated to. Borrow his crack testing fluids and check things just because you can.

I'm making just about anything I want out of steel these days using a little underpowered MIG. I'm going back to have that guy teach me to TIG aluminum this winter and I'm saving for more equipment. I'm sure he is already rolling his eyes but I do get my monies worth ;)

You will never look at a project the same way again. I promise.

EDIT: You can, however, learn to weld "better" from a book once you have the hand skills to weld in the 1st place.

Absolutely. I bought an arch welder when I was 18 or 19 and learned to "stick stuff together" but it always looked like E36 M3. Never had anything break but it just didn't look right. So for years I avoided projects I wanted to build and had a friend who builds race cars for a living weld anything structural or safety related. Then a couple of years ago I took a night class at the tech college and learned the basics and some time a couple of weeks in, it just clicked. One of the projects he made us build was a square box that had to hold water. That comes in handy.

I read a book on welding and learned absolutely nothing except the difference between the different welding processes.  Watched a bunch of YouTube videos and started to get an idea of what the goals were.  Bought a POS wirefeed welder and auto darkening helmet from Harbor Freight, some flux core wire, and started making a huge mess of scrap steel.  I couldn't get anything right; now I know it's because I couldn't see what I was doing, and flux core really sucks.  Spent some money on a decent Lincoln helmet, some decent wire, a bottle of MIG gas and a $20 regulator off of Amazon, and the next thing I knew I was making some nice welds.  Nobody will confuse me with a professional welder but I've made all sorts of car projects and they've all turned out great.  90% of the project is done with the angle grinder, so make sure you get a good one of those.

 this is the book that I used in welding school and also the book that I use when I teach college classes. You can pick up the previous edition I think the tenth, for about 15 bucks. Practice practice practice you have to lay at least a mile of bead before you can make a consistent weld.