shadow
Member
- 116
- 1
- 18
- Location
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
I’ll jump in here. I’m taking welding at the local collage right now. We were told to always bevel the edges on anything thicker than 1/8” to ensure a proper penetration. Your talking sold bars but if the edges were just butt jointed, you would not have much penetration at all. I would bevel them if it were me.
Were I’m going, we start out with stick and do a brief A/O cutting, and then go to advanced stick, then your AWS bend test. Then you can start MIG then A/O welding, brazing, and then TIG. I skipped the AWS test and did some of the MIG welding including spray and globular. I had to go to aluminum because we only have 1 pulsed spray machine and it was being used. I LOVE spray transfer on steel. It is hot as hell but makes great looking welds and is so quit. I totally hate aluminum right now. I will never buy anything made out of it after seeing how fast it melts. I really need more practice on it. I am now doing the AWS bend test this term.
I’m wondering about this talk about stick welders. I thought it was the lowest class, so to speak, of a welder. I actually prefer stick. I think it is way easier them MIG. It does have its down side but I love the “Christmas tree” weave. I did it perfect (visually) the very first time I tried it. I love it when you can just tap the weld edge and the slag just falls off in one piece or when you’re running beads and the slag curls up as your welding and you have this big tail with little swirl marks in it.
I have gotten some slack from people when they hear I’m doing stick. Maybe it’s because of all the people around here that claim there welders and have never been taught or looked at a book before. I’ve seen a lot of people that played up how great of a welder they are before I started taking classes. Now that I have been welding for awhile and know what welds should look like, there welds were horrible and probably would pop off the first time stress is put on them. A neighbor of mine had to weld a piece on my snow plow mount last year. He said he is a master welder and pipe fitter.
He had a 110volt MIG with 70amp max rating using flux core .030 wire saying he welds truck frames with it. His weld broke on the very next use. I brought it back and he welded it again, and it broke right away again. I took the piece off that broke and there was probably 1mm of penetration in the welds. I told him I'll weld it with my arc welder this year and he thinks my welds will not hold at all using a stick welder.
Were I’m going, we start out with stick and do a brief A/O cutting, and then go to advanced stick, then your AWS bend test. Then you can start MIG then A/O welding, brazing, and then TIG. I skipped the AWS test and did some of the MIG welding including spray and globular. I had to go to aluminum because we only have 1 pulsed spray machine and it was being used. I LOVE spray transfer on steel. It is hot as hell but makes great looking welds and is so quit. I totally hate aluminum right now. I will never buy anything made out of it after seeing how fast it melts. I really need more practice on it. I am now doing the AWS bend test this term.
I’m wondering about this talk about stick welders. I thought it was the lowest class, so to speak, of a welder. I actually prefer stick. I think it is way easier them MIG. It does have its down side but I love the “Christmas tree” weave. I did it perfect (visually) the very first time I tried it. I love it when you can just tap the weld edge and the slag just falls off in one piece or when you’re running beads and the slag curls up as your welding and you have this big tail with little swirl marks in it.
I have gotten some slack from people when they hear I’m doing stick. Maybe it’s because of all the people around here that claim there welders and have never been taught or looked at a book before. I’ve seen a lot of people that played up how great of a welder they are before I started taking classes. Now that I have been welding for awhile and know what welds should look like, there welds were horrible and probably would pop off the first time stress is put on them. A neighbor of mine had to weld a piece on my snow plow mount last year. He said he is a master welder and pipe fitter.
He had a 110volt MIG with 70amp max rating using flux core .030 wire saying he welds truck frames with it. His weld broke on the very next use. I brought it back and he welded it again, and it broke right away again. I took the piece off that broke and there was probably 1mm of penetration in the welds. I told him I'll weld it with my arc welder this year and he thinks my welds will not hold at all using a stick welder.
