First welding class tonight

[RJohnson]

mikim

I do not know what type of lens shade you have but when I first started I traded my green one for the gold covered one. The best thing about the gold lens was that I could see everything in color instead of only shades of one color. It was a little more expensive and if you scratch it, it is ruined as it works off reflected light instead of absorption. The hardest part I had was not looking at the bright arc but the molten weld puddle. The gold lens helped me distinguish between molten slag and molten weld metal. I am sure you will get better at welding but I have to admit there were some people in my class that at the end of the semister their welds looked as bad or worse than when they started. Alot of welding is more of an art than anything else. We can all be house painters but not very many of us can paint a masterpiece. Best of luck with your welding and remember if your not having fun, give up welding.

Randy

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Really, once you figure out how to make decent beads and joints, you're on your way to making stuff. I know this will hurt Harv's ears, but I can make most any ferrous metal stick together with a 6011 rod. I don't know if it's right or not; I just do it. I took overhead, vert, horiz, mig, and tig classes. The instructor had forgotten more about welding than I'll ever know. Unfortunately I forgot most of the details that make you a really good welder. Actually when I bought a little Miller mig welder I've sort of forgotten about stick welding altogether (sorry Harv). Of course all my welding is light duty (1/8" thick or less), and none of it ever has to be pretty. Don't read into this that I think my classes were a waste of time, I learned a lot. I guess I'm trying to say don't stress over what all those different rods are, you'll figure out what works best for you when you get there. I think trial and error is in all our futures when it comes to welding.

 

[mikim]

I've got an auto-dark lens. I think I've hit on what it takes to allow me to see what I'm doing. I've only got 1 eye so I have no depth perception , but I finally found an angle of view that works for me and started making improvement. Last night I finally ran a plate of 6010 that passed criteria - and am now using 7018 - back to square 2 - it's different enuff that I was making bad passes again - but I could see that they were bad/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif. I figger the fun part will start when I start my projects - getting the skills needed to do the projects is a bit of boring work tho'. But ima a gettin' dere/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif
mike

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I also have the auto dark helmet but do have a question. Mine has settings for different darknesses ranging from 9-13, I believe. Is there a "right" or "wrong" setting on these if I'm doing arc welding with 6013 stick? I'd rather sacrifice a little on visibility while I'm welding now than a lifetime of vision later.

 

[mikim]

sure hope you're asking the general populace here 'cause that'd be good for me to know too. Mine just goes from static 4 to dark 11. I had an additional lens in there that made it a 12, but I found the 11 easier to manage on the 6010s.
mike

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I bet that the different settings are for the differences in brightness between cutting, and welding. The cutting torch requires less protection than the arc welder. However, the plasma cutter seems brighter than the torch when cutting, so it probably requires a darkness somewhere between arc welding and torch cutting. I also bet the darkest setting should be used for all types of arc welding, but I don't know that for sure.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I keep my lens set at ten. Sometimes mig'n with low amps I'll cut it back to nine. And if I'm cranking up around two hundred amps I'll move it over to eleven or twelve.

I've been welding about thirty years and I don't seem to have eye problems, short arm problem I do have. But with reading glasses or a friend on the other side of the table willing to hold the menu I'm fine.

Anytime you use a torch you should have safety glasses on period, end of story. Shade five is the recommendation I've always heard for torch work. In fact my hood had a torch selection that locks down the lens to a shade five. It also has a grind selection that's clear.

As you go along doing this welding thing you'll find that you just don't do it with your eyes. You do it with your ears too. And what is fun is sometimes you'll just know that something's not right. You stop and check and low and behold you did a booboo and conciously it never registered. But something wasn't right and for some gawdawful reason you noticed it. Chances are most likely you heard a fault I'll bet.

Now I know that by now most of ya'll have figured out I'm probably not of a species even close to your own. But this welding thing will grow on you. I'm not going to say it's like a tune you hate but can't help humming. But it does grow on you pretty soon you're catching yourself listening to another's welding and humming along, sad but true.

A thing I've noticed and it might be true of your species also. It's got this thing in common I've found with driving. You always drive in front of yourself, the further ahead the better. When you don't you drive herkey jerkey cause you're constantly adjusting.

Welding I think works better when you're ahead of yourself too. You get this confidence thing where you understand that it's working. So you're concentrating on what's ahead of the puddle and you'll find that puddle is following you like it's a pup and you've got the cutest little boobies known to dogdom.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I get the feeling that you are a pretty good welder. I tend to watch the puddle behind the stick, and adjust my travel speed according to the diameter of the puddle (trying to keep the diameter constant). The feed rate of the stick kinda seems to regulate itself. I have welded this way since high school, and I don't think I could do it another way. I do not consider myself an expert, because I weld fast and ugly. Usually my welds serve a specific purpose and then are discarded. Even with my sophomoric welding skill, I have rarely seen one of my welds break before the metal broke. My neatest welding trick is removing stuck bearing races by welding a bead around the inside of the race. They tap right out.

 

[BigDave]

Wow, an auto-dark lens. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif I used to tilt my lense up, just before the stick arc'd, well that's how it worked theory. I took my welding class back in the mid-80's, did they have these lense back then? /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

WH, you're gonna confuse these younguns by tellin them about welding by sound. You gotta burn at least 200# of rod before you can do it by sound. We ought to tell the youngsters about the delightful sound it makes when you burn the wax out of your ear the first time though.
Welding is a little bit art, a little bit science, a touch of machine, and a whole lot of time learnin to do it right.
Last night we pulled a 1915 General Electric rotary welder out of a warehouse where it's been sitting for 50 years, and it was interesting to see the number of "features" that already existed on that machine. There are a few I won't get figured out till the machine has been cleaned up and checked with a megger, but that old girl sure looks sweet. Alongside the machine was a box of 3/16 rod that the coating on looks like it was wrapped on as a tape and allowed to dry. Hopefully, I'll get to burn a rod and weld a pass with the old girl before next spring. We also found an early water cooled spot welder that looks like it will handle 2 layers of 10 gague. There is kind of a warm feeling when you find something like this, and have a chance to preserve it, when I strike the first arc I'll probably feel like the first weldor who struck an arc with the machine is looking thru the helmet with me.
The old girl will be cleaned and lovingly preserved. I doubt any of the current generation of hot glue guns will last 85 + years, or if they do, anybody 85 years from now will want to operate one.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Franz,

Our instructor told us how things should sound before he bothered to tell us how they should look. He said we'd hear it before we'd see it. I won't get into what analogies he used so as not to start a debate over the sound of bacon frying vis'-a-vis the sound of steak on the grille. Suffice it to say that the sound of a good weld being put down has been covered. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[gmason]

Here's a picture of on of our welding booths. Walls are all painted black. You can see the Lincoln welder in this booth, and the gas tank for the mig welders.

 

[gmason]

Here's picture of the board that has samples of the good welds processes that we need to follow.
gary

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I like that idea and wish we had that. The second class is tonight and I'll try to report in tomorrow. The one thing I'm going to make certain I do tonight is have my throat covered. I'm still a little tender there from the 'sunburn' from last week resulting from a low collar and a long neck my helmet didn't fully cover. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Gary, you've discovered the difference between teachin and learnin. You learned a valuable lesson.
Another one I can save you the learnin on is NEVER CARRY MATCHES IN YOUR SHIRT POCKET.

 

[bgott]

Or a plastic Bic or other disposable lighter.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Don't forget the boots! I don't wear boots with a ridge around the toe. I've see guys who did dance the dance cause eventually one of them there dingle berries burnt through.

I wear lace ups. I've heard guys complain how that with lace ups it takes too long to get out of them when a dingle berry hits home. But I figure a dingle berry has a much greater chance of getting into a pull on than it does a lace up.

My wife is ironing behind me reading over my shoulder and talking. She's insisting that I mention that ya'll shouldn't be like me and work in a t shirt. Them pockets are only for pencils anyways, right?

I guess she doesn't want any of ya'll to have the little freckle looking thingys I have all over more'n anywhere's else. Them dingle berrys do like to party!

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Fortunately I have no need of matches or a lighter. Smoking is a vice I never acquired. I did get my first burn hole in a shirt last night from a piece of slag I chipped off. The boots I'm using now are really smooth with no places for anything hot to get caught where it can't be kicked off quickly. They are pull-ons but high enough it's highly unlikely (yeah, I know) anything would burn through jeans and fall down inside. At least that's how it's supposed to work. /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

As to the class itself, last night was spent trying to get a series of welds to overlap 1/8" atop the first bead. My work isn't ready for any kind of grading but is getting better. As with so many things, it's practice time that makes the difference. Actually, I had a rather nice set of beads I thought would do the trick until the instructor looked at them and told me they were far closer to 1/4" than 1/8" wide.

I have to admit it was far easier to do the 1/4" than the 1/8" buildups, too. Those smaller lines were far tougher to get down properly. I'll give it another shot next week. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[bgott]

I was cutting some metal one time when a glob of slag dropped through a hole I didn't know was in the toe of my lace up boot. I started laughing and the guy next to me asked what was up. I told him about the molten metal that was burning it's way down between my toes and he asked what was so funny about that. I told him it was funny because there wasn't a f**kin' thing I could do about it. I had some slag get in my ear, that durn near killed me. I could hear it sizzle as it went 'round and 'round and down my ear canal, the almost killed part is when I tried to sit up under the bailer I was changing bearings on. I worked for a junkyard when I was a kid, that's were I learned to not even flinch when the slag falls on my chest. If I haven't done it in a while I'll dance around until I get used to it again. I don't have a real steady hand cutting freehand under ideal conditions much less while laying on my back flopping around trying to keep those little dingleberries rolling until they cool off.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

It don't take you long to learn to ignore the feeling and oh dear of burning. One bumping of body part into something and knee jerk reaction is something someone else does from then on.

I've had more than one dingleberry loose in the ear. I'm not sure if the pain is worse than the sound. I do know that I can smell through my ear. Cause when it's happened there's been a stench of burnt flesh I could taste!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

It only takes one time for a dingle berry to land on a metal watch or ring for you to decide jewelery is for other folks. That brass and gold heats up instantly all around. So instead of having a single owee about the size of pencil point you have this nice burn where the glitz lived before you decided it wasn't important anymore.

I had both pants legs on fire one time. That was hilarious, in retrospect.