So i'm 100% complete noob when i comes to welding, I've signed up for classes at the local collage but that doesn't start until fall and i don't want ot go in there knowing nothing at all. Can anyone recomend any books or articals that i can start reading to get my knowledge up? Also i would like to pick up a cheap welder (one that doesn't require the use of any gas) just so i can start dicking around with it and maybe mock up a downpipe or two. I cna't have anythign with gas because i live in an apartment and wouldn't really have any place to keep it. So help me out with alittle info so i can edumakate myself

 

Well most of the useful types of welding, or at least most jobs usually require a gas shielded weld. I started with a craftsman wire feed welder which taught me the basics. Never learned or improved at all from reading, just from practicing and watching / listening to others who were better then me as they did their thing.
good luck.

 

Well for reading materiel i'm really not trying to learn from reading but i would like to understand the physics of welding instead of just knowing how to do it and not really understanding the property break downs ect. I mean ---- the classes just cost me $1200 for the begginer and the advanced class, i figured i'll just do them back to back over the 16 weeks.

 

Having taken a CC welding class my suggestion is read up on proper procedures. My teacher was a very nice guy, but wasnt too specific on how things should be done. He never discussed beveling material. Never discussed cleaning materials. He basically taught us the mechanics and some very basic theory and thats it. It took a while to get stuff to look decent because of this approach. If you know proper procedure before you walk in the door you will be better off as then you can take what he says, combine it with what you've studied, and progress very quickly.

 

i took a class at a local college a couple years ago. Started out with oxy-acetylene and dropped the class before we got into mig/stick/tig. But it was a fun class, very informative. although i never did the homework my teacher thought i was good for a first timer ever touching that kinda stuff. I learn from watching/practicing as opposed to reading/listening

 

The problem with just learning by watching is they generally only teach half of what you need to know. So if you just went based upon that information, then you are missing a whole part of the picture. Buy a decent book on welding. Read some of the welding forums. Download the info provided by Miller and various other companies and you should be okay. Combining the information you read with what is taught to you in the class will allow you to become a good welder at a much faster pace. Things like cleaning the material well and various prep work needed for welding were totally ignored in my welding class and it really caused some problems when I attempted to do some projects.

 

buy a flux and just start practicing with wire speed etc


real life owns

 

My dad had this video i'll find out the name but it was pretty cool, it was pretty basic but showed you what was accutaly happening and difference between gas mixtures and differnet techiques, but i just teach myself mostly Its fun for me and I seem to be getting better

 

Go to millerwelds.com. Click the "education" link and go into that. There's a lot of info there that's nearly 100% accurate...which is way better than other sources of info.

 

This might help:
http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/...ad.php?t=11401