Welding Class posted for Sunday July 1st

Metal Shop
#1

The welding class for July 1st is live on the calendar.

It is three parts:

  1. Safety - To weld at DMS you must have had this course.
  2. TIG Welding - Mild Steel
  3. TIG Welding - Aluminum

If you want to take just the safety and either of the TIG classes that will get you certified to weld TIG at DMS, but you’ll have to take another class for MIG and/or Stick. I’ll be teaching MIG and Stick classes after the summer heat has died down (TIG is a lot cooler than the other welding processes).

If you want to take both the Mild Steel and the Aluminum, you can, but unfortunately with the way the calendar is structured you’d have to pay for both classes. If you have your own hood, register for one and I’ll try to fit you into the other so you don’t have to pay twice.

Let me know if you have any questions

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#2

I have never welded before. I preliminarily signed up for the mild steel TIG class because I have wanted to learn welding for a long time, but I’m not sure if that’s a feasible thing to try learning without having done stick or wire feed before. Should I drop and wait for another class?

#3

I think either TIG or Stick is the best process to start learning welding on.

The reason I think TIG is the best follows:

  1. It is the least dirty/messy/hot/loud of all of the welding processes. This means that you shouldn’t hate doing it because it’s more enjoyable, and you can get your eyes closer to the arc without fear of burning balls of fire running down your neck.
  2. It is the only welding process where you add the filler material separate from the heat to the base metal. This means you can master the different things you need to do while welding separately, and you can focus on what things look like when you’re doing them wrong. Even if you don’t ever TIG again after the class, you’ll still be better off on the theory of welding than if you just jumped straight into MIG (wire) welding.
  3. It is the hardest of the welding processes to master, but gives you the best control and abilities. If it can be welded, you can do it with TIG (I hate blanket statements, but I can’t really think of anything as an example of a weldable metal that you couldn’t weld with TIG).

And of course the flipside:

  1. It is slow, and most production shops don’t use it unless they need the extra control it provides.
  2. With the equipment we have you are limited to about 1/4 inch of “full penetration” so you probably won’t be welding anything too structural. (our MIG equipment also limits us to 1/4 inch, but for different reasons; our stick equipment could do any reasonable thickness under a foot or so).
  3. It requires the most finesse and operator control. I’ve been welding a few years and I’m just starting to get decent at it.
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