If you love welding you will love school. After trying to teach myself, watching videos, and doing some small jobs I enrolled....and am still in a welding program. Trust me you will learn more than you want to know. Blueprints, weld symbols, geometric construction, theory, metallurgy, fabrication basics, and of course to weld better than you ever thought you could. After a few months of school you start to learn to weld, but more importantly you understand what bad welds look like and what people did wrong.
My instructor wrote the book "How to Weld" -Todd Bridigum. He is a AWS certified inspector, teacher, and art major. He has won major welding competitions and awards for his knowledge. Unions and companies also pay him for training. He told us a couple months ago he was teaching some welders from Toro...the lawnmower company. Toro bought a heavy duty line of small tractors and was having problems welding the 1/4 plate. 20 or so guys that had been working for Toro for almost 30 years "thought" since they were old experienced welders they "new it all. He gave them a groove test on 1/4" and told them to weld it any position and settings they wanted. They all failed. People that "think" they know to weld usually can't. Welding is very detailed and extremely hard to master. After 5 months of schooling each one of his students (including myself) passed that test. I still have 4 months left and another full year before I would ever consider myself an ok welder.
It's one thing to make metal stick together, it's a whole other game trying to destructive test welds, and having them turn out perfect over and over. Most people won't get a welding cert because it cost $800.00 per test through the AWS. If you fail the test you loose your $800 and have to pay another $800 to try the next day. Most "welders" refuse to put there money where their mouth is and test out. Jody from welding tips and tricks has lots of certs and is a top notch welder. He also tries to keep learning and becoming better. I like the fact he uses the Everlast welders and gets great results from them. that;s why I am here...
Yes you can "learn" to weld in your garage but I promise you will be blown away with how much you learn from a good school.
After I figure in the cost of using a Dynasty 350, and a bottle of argon each week, plus tons of stainless, and aluminum, electricity, plus all the tooling....it is actually CHEAPER to learn at a college. I'm not hating on people that just "weld" out of their garage....I use to do that. But I now have welds that are so perfect I could have never dreamed I could have welded. Here is some welds I am very proud of and can't believe came from my hands. If you want to be a WELDER....check yourself in. If you want to "weld" teach yourself.
Choose your path
Reply With Quote
