How do you weld? Hard to Learn?

I'm thinking about learning how to weld-- any welders out there have any advice? Good idea or is it worth just getting a welder to do it? How much am I looking at either way?

I know there are some welders on this site that can answer your questions but as with most things it's neat to go to an actual welding BB and read up on stuff just like you would here about beer.

I too am thinking about learning how to weld.

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Have only done so very basic welds in the very distant past, so can't really help other than to say I think it's probably best to look around for a local community college with a vocational class or two you could take. Learning on your own might not be the best way to fly.

Ric

A friend taught me how to use a stick weld a while back. I got an elcheapo spool welder that works like a hot glue gun for the most part. I'm hoping to take a welding class at a local community College to get a little more familar.

For basic basic welds, learning off a friend would have to be the bare minimum I'd expect. Unlike beer making, welding is messing around with high temperatures/dangerous voltages and it can be deadly if you don't know what you are doing.

IMHO, it's fairly easy to learn how to weld, it's much harder to get good at it. Additionally, welding thin metal (like a stainless keggle) is much harder than welding thicker (1/4" and thicker) material.

If you are serious about it, a good way to get started is to take a metalworking/welding class at your local community college or tech school.

Welding is a lot of fun, and it can be as addictive as brewing...

I'm assuming you are talking about trying to weld stainless, and have it turn out well. Anyone, with a little practice and a few minute of reading can produce a decent weld on mild steel with a wire feed MIG welder. Welding stainless is slightly harder, especially if you want it to come out looking like you had your eyes open.


That said, I'd encourage everyone who's interested in it to learn. It's a great skill to have. And it's not really that dangerous, if you can follow instructions.

Unless you have access to welding machines, it will probably be a lot cheaper to have the work done for you.

Welding is definitely very fun! I've been using stick and MIG welders for quite a few years. MIG is much easier, all you really have to do is pull the trigger, it does the rest. But the most important thing is practice practice practice. Practice makes better, not perfect. Just get yourself a little MIG welder with shielding gas, (makes a cleaner weld than flux core) and start welding.

You have a few options:

Take a class. It might be expensive, but you'll benefit greatly.

Find a friend who can weld and ask for some lessons. Unfortunately, not all "friends who can weld" know how to weld properly, and not everyone has "friends who can weld."

Buy a welding machine for the process you want to learn. Teach yourself. It's expensive, time consuming, possibly dangerous, and possibly catastrophic to your brand new welding unit. But, it can be done. Just be careful.

Whatever you do, don't learn how to weld simply by reading a homebrew forum.

Yuri_Rage said:

Whatever you do, don't learn how to weld simply by reading a homebrew forum.

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but if you do, be sure to videotape it and upload it to youtube...

I have been welding for nearly all my life and have all the equipment for gas welding and TIG. If you want to learn just to make your own beer equipment it is not cost effective. You are better off getting the welding done by a certified welder. If you want to learn to create all kinds of things then you are going to spend a lot of money if you buy all the equipment needed to work with metals. Remember that you have to be able to cut metal, grind, drill etc. You need some basic tools too like a belt sander, angle grinder, drill press, cutoff saw, band saw and much much more without loosing fingers. You also need the practical experience with all these tools so you will not make a lot of scrap or injure yourself. Safety is a concern. I am a retired tool and die maker so I have seen all kinds of disasters during my career. You are either mechanicly inclined or not and this does matter. Be careful.

These guys are dead on. SMAW (MIG) welding carbon steel isn't *that* hard to do (but not necessarily as easy as your first practice weld may suggest), and it's really handy skill to know. However, welding up stuff that touches beer is a whole other game. You need to be good at tig welding thin metal, you have to back-shield, etc. I just got four half-barrels that are destined for keggle-dom, but I'll be using weldless fittings.

That said, I took a couple classes at the local tech college. The first one was a basic Intro to Welding where we covered stick, mig, and tig welding. It was $85 for 10 weeks of class, which was totally worth it. Then I took a for-credit class on SMAW welding mild steel, which was a lot more comprehensive (including multi-pass and out-of-position welds). Even that class was only $230, and I could have gotten work to pay for it as continuing education. I am very, very happy to have done this...I don't weld often enough to be *really* good at it, but I'm good enough for anyone who can't weld on their own. I bought a welder, but you can rent one for a weekend or whatever. Or, if you get in good with your instructor at the tech school you can use *their* equipment. Any good tech school teacher will approve of projects like this, especially if there is a beer involved at the end.

At any rate, the cannon that we built after learning to weld was *awesome*.

Yuri_Rage said:

Whatever you do, don't learn how to weld simply by reading a homebrew forum.

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Yeah, I have to admit, it took me a while to learn to brew by reading that welding forum!

WBC said:

You are either mechanically inclined or not and this does matter. Be careful.

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Very true! Although I'm *not* mechanically inclined, I learned to make a respectable weld on .040 aluminum sheet with an oxy-acetylene torch- it's kind of like sticking two sheets of tissue precisely together in a hurricane.

Anyway, my point is that I'm not mechanically inclined, but I have an excellent sense of mechanical "right". I can tell when something's not right. I can't always fix it, but I know if it's out of place. And that's incredibly useful when, say, you're thumb is holding the metal tubing that you're about to drop the vertical bandsaw on.

The ideal weldor is mechanically inclined. But you can also do well if you are both motivated and also contemplative and careful by nature.