Looking for welder's opinions

[Ranchero]

I'm interested in doing a welding course, solely in order to deal with my BM's issues.

How difficult is it, in actual fact, and what is the basic minimum of "kit" one needs in order to do a satisfactory job?

I'm talking cost-cutting here, cheap and cheerful.

[shadrack]

get ureself a half decent mig welder, bout £200+ then get some diffent scraps of metal to practice on. push forward making tiny circular movements with the welder, make sure you get the feed of the wire right and set the ampage so that it does not blow a hole but, makes markings on the other side of the metal. when youve got it perfect it sounds like your frying bacon. its hard to describe on here but easy just get some gear and practice!!!

[Brianmoooore]

As above! Getting the welder's settings right is everything, along with cleanliness of what you are welding.
Get this right, and MiG welding is easy.
Bit like colouring in with a felt tip pen.

[harry_p]

It's a bit of a craft, if you've got decent hand eye coordination the basics are pretty simple to pick up. Mos people will be able to get a good strong weld pretty quickly, it takes a lot more practise to get it looking pretty too.

Also, always try and get samples to practise on which are the sme thickness as what you're going to be welding proper. No point practising on 5mm plate if you're going to be welding car bodies.

A decent set of gloves, various clamps and a decent mask make it a lot easier.

I would also reccomend an autodimming mask. I was a little sceptical at first worried about flashes or the mask bot responding quick enough, but in reality it's a joy to use and hugely improved my welding, the decent ones aren't cheap though so probably worth waiting and seeing whether you like it and are likely to be doing much before investing.

[jaymos]

I'm interested in doing a welding course, solely in order to deal with my BM's issues.

How difficult is it, in actual fact, and what is the basic minimum of "kit" one needs in order to do a satisfactory job?

I'm talking cost-cutting here, cheap and cheerful.

Ranch i started one in september, tbh its good to get the basic skills and learn how to set the wire speed and amps etc, but the course im on (dunno if others are the same) seem to have you using thicker metals i.e 5-6mm thick. if you can get on a course for free id say go for it to learn the basics, but then you are prob better trying to pick the rest up yourself, loads of vids about on the net. Like the other guys say get the gear and do loads of practice on the thickness of metals you are gonna use.

[benjy]

How'd that site work out Rancho??

[Ranchero]

Oh yeah!, thanks for reminding me. I meant to put this up for anyone else who might be interested.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

Good beginner's guides. Makes things look a lot less daunting than expected. Cheers.

[B7]

If you pop into your local body repair place and ask nicely, they will let you take some of the old damaged panels from their skip. Practice on these......LOTS

But just as important as buying the welder are the tools you need to carry out the job in hand in addition.

Like a Joggler which i find really helpful

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ccessories

A nice 4.5 inch grinder to loose as much of the rot as possible (if not all of it). These are so cheap now as well.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ccessories

and I swear by one of these on an electric drill. Cutting sheet metal can be a right pain and the last thing you need is a distorted edge when welding. These cut really clean with virtually no distortion and can even cut radius's.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... rs-formers