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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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#1
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Signed up for Welding class
Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per
week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#2
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Signed up for Welding class
"Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i You're going to love it if you get a good teacher. I was fortunate and got some good ones. Believe me, they can make you remarkably better in just a few hours a week. And most will skip the stuff you already know and let you advance to something you're having problems with or need to learn, and you don't have to spend a lot of time going over stuff you already know how to do. It's nice, too, from the standpoint that usually you get to weld on steel that has proper root and bevel configuration. Sometimes this translates to the real world, but a lot of times, it just gives you an idea of how it would be done in ideal circumstances, and then you will adapt from that to the real situation in your shop. Let us know how you do, and share those AHA! moments. Steve |
#3
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Signed up for Welding class
Thanks Steve. I wil let you know how it goes.
i On 2008-07-09, SteveB toquerville@zionvistas wrote: "Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i You're going to love it if you get a good teacher. I was fortunate and got some good ones. Believe me, they can make you remarkably better in just a few hours a week. And most will skip the stuff you already know and let you advance to something you're having problems with or need to learn, and you don't have to spend a lot of time going over stuff you already know how to do. It's nice, too, from the standpoint that usually you get to weld on steel that has proper root and bevel configuration. Sometimes this translates to the real world, but a lot of times, it just gives you an idea of how it would be done in ideal circumstances, and then you will adapt from that to the real situation in your shop. Let us know how you do, and share those AHA! moments. Steve -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#4
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Signed up for Welding class
Where? All the evening classes in my area seem to be three to 4 times a
week... thanks "Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#5
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
On 2008-07-09, Kelly Jones wrote:
Where? All the evening classes in my area seem to be three to 4 times a week... Our local community college, west of Chicago. It is actually rather good based on my past experience. i "Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#6
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
I'm envious! The great stateof Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and
university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. -- J Miller "Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#7
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
On 2008-07-09, John Miller wrote:
I'm envious! The great stateof Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. About 4 miles for me. This is a great CC also. I studied some things there a few years ago. -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#8
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
COD Iggy?
Rob "Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... On 2008-07-09, John Miller wrote: I'm envious! The great stateof Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. About 4 miles for me. This is a great CC also. I studied some things there a few years ago. -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#9
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
On 2008-07-09, Rob Fraser FraserRacing wrote:
COD Iggy? Yep. i Rob "Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... On 2008-07-09, John Miller wrote: I'm envious! The great stateof Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. About 4 miles for me. This is a great CC also. I studied some things there a few years ago. -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#10
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
"John Miller" writes:
I'm envious! The great stateof Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? |
#11
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Signed up for Welding class
Joe Pfeiffer wrote in
: So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? It's a cost-effective way of maximizing the use of the existing equipment without spending anything upon either maintenance or consumables. The CCC may also get a subsidy from the Feds as part of a job-training program. |
#12
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Signed up for Welding class
"RAM³" writes:
Joe Pfeiffer wrote in : So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? It's a cost-effective way of maximizing the use of the existing equipment without spending anything upon either maintenance or consumables. From my perspective (I'm a computer science professor at NMSU), it just seems totally contrary to the whole community college concept. Having local access to vocational training like that is exactly what CCs are supposed to be good at. Let's see... three of NMSU's four community college campuses offer welding (I wonder why the fourth doesn't... hmmmm...) The CCC may also get a subsidy from the Feds as part of a job-training program. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. |
#13
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
Joe Pfeiffer wrote: "RAM³" writes: Joe Pfeiffer wrote in : So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? It's a cost-effective way of maximizing the use of the existing equipment without spending anything upon either maintenance or consumables. From my perspective (I'm a computer science professor at NMSU), it just seems totally contrary to the whole community college concept. Having local access to vocational training like that is exactly what CCs are supposed to be good at. Let's see... three of NMSU's four community college campuses offer welding (I wonder why the fourth doesn't... hmmmm...) The CCC may also get a subsidy from the Feds as part of a job-training program. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. Having spent several years working for a community college system, I can tell you that the sad truth is that colleges exist to serve their bureaucracies and the egos of their faculty, not the needs of the real world and certainly not the needs of their students. Welding and other "dirty" classes aren't trendy, so they get shoved to the side in favor of trendy classes and of course the handful of classes that serve no purpose other than to employ otherwise unemployable faculty. Even calling those classes "vocational" is a sign of the discrimination, since virtually all classes beyond art appreciation are "vocational". |
#14
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Signed up for Welding class
Joe Pfeiffer wrote in
: "RAM³" writes: Joe Pfeiffer wrote in : So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? It's a cost-effective way of maximizing the use of the existing equipment without spending anything upon either maintenance or consumables. From my perspective (I'm a computer science professor at NMSU), it just seems totally contrary to the whole community college concept. Having local access to vocational training like that is exactly what CCs are supposed to be good at. Let's see... three of NMSU's four community college campuses offer welding (I wonder why the fourth doesn't... hmmmm...) The CCC may also get a subsidy from the Feds as part of a job-training program. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. Here in my small Texas town, we have a Junior College which offers HVAC classes and Auto Mechanics classes. The local high school offers a Tractor Mechanics class as a part of the Agriculture program. The nearest Welding course, though, is an another town 25 miles away. 30 years ago, the Conroe, TX, Vocational High School offered adult night classes in welding, machine shop, and general metalworking. Each was a 40-hour class taught by the same teacher at the same time. The best description of the welding class was "40 bucks for 40 hours and all the rods that you can burn." grin At the time, they only had O/A and stick. They also had a pair of engine lathes and a mill that was in need of repair. Still, it was enough to learn some of the basic basics. grin |
#15
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Signed up for Welding class
On Jul 9, 8:58*am, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
"RAM³" writes: Joe Pfeiffer wrote in t: So... *the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? It's a cost-effective way of maximizing the use of the existing equipment without spending anything upon either maintenance or consumables. From my perspective (I'm a computer science professor at NMSU), it just seems totally contrary to the whole community college concept. Having local access to vocational training like that is exactly what CCs are supposed to be good at. *Let's see... *three of NMSU's four community college campuses offer welding (I wonder why the fourth doesn't... hmmmm...) The CCC may also get a subsidy from the Feds as part of a job-training program. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. I'd just like to add that CCs are also feeder schools for further education at a four-year university. Around here, in southern California, the majority of students are going to CCs to either get an AA, or to go on to a university. There are a lot of people who don't get the chance to go to a university right after high school and community colleges give them another chance. But, with that said, I agree that CCs should have a strong job- training component. Maybe, with the decline in mining, in Wyoming they had to consolidate the welding classes because there just wasn't enough demand to support them. |
#16
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Signed up for Welding class
On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:59:33 -0600, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
"John Miller" jamwfourtwo writes: I'm envious! The great state of Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? John means that only the Casper school has welding classes -- there are 9 more CC's in 7 other Wyoming towns. Wyoming is #50 in population among US states, has about 5 people per square mile and 10% as many people as Cook County, Illinois. -jiw |
#17
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
James Waldby wrote in
: On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:59:33 -0600, Joe Pfeiffer wrote: "John Miller" jamwfourtwo writes: I'm envious! The great state of Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? John means that only the Casper school has welding classes -- there are 9 more CC's in 7 other Wyoming towns. Wyoming is #50 in population among US states, has about 5 people per square mile and 10% as many people as Cook County, Illinois. -jiw Yabut the people who ARE there are very friendly. grin |
#18
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
"RAM³" wrote in message 0... James Waldby wrote in : On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:59:33 -0600, Joe Pfeiffer wrote: "John Miller" jamwfourtwo writes: I'm envious! The great state of Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? John means that only the Casper school has welding classes -- there are 9 more CC's in 7 other Wyoming towns. Wyoming is #50 in population among US states, has about 5 people per square mile and 10% as many people as Cook County, Illinois. -jiw Yabut the people who ARE there are very friendly. grin And the sheep are cute, too.............................. |
#19
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
"RAM³" wrote in message 0... James Waldby wrote in : On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:59:33 -0600, Joe Pfeiffer wrote: "John Miller" jamwfourtwo writes: I'm envious! The great state of Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? John means that only the Casper school has welding classes -- there are 9 more CC's in 7 other Wyoming towns. Wyoming is #50 in population among US states, has about 5 people per square mile and 10% as many people as Cook County, Illinois. -jiw Yabut the people who ARE there are very friendly. grin |
#20
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
"RAM³" wrote in message 0... James Waldby wrote in : On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:59:33 -0600, Joe Pfeiffer wrote: "John Miller" jamwfourtwo writes: I'm envious! The great state of Wyoming has consolidated all of its CC (and university) welding classes to the Casper CC. At 175 one way miles at todays or even last years fuel prices not an option. There is no other. So... the definition of "Community College" there calls for only one community to have the college? John means that only the Casper school has welding classes -- there are 9 more CC's in 7 other Wyoming towns. Wyoming is #50 in population among US states, has about 5 people per square mile and 10% as many people as Cook County, Illinois. -jiw Yabut the people who ARE there are very friendly. grin On my last trip to NW Wyoming, I found that the favorite obsession of the local young women was to find men who they hadn't "known." Visitors were considered Gods. It was a lot of fun until I met all of them. That took about two weeks. Still, a fun vacation. Even caught some fish and found some arrowheads in-between all the horizontal air hockey. Steve |
#21
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
"Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. Hawke |
#22
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
On 2008-07-09, Hawke wrote:
"Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. What I will get out of the class, is all speculation at this point. Hard to say. Even in the worst case, I will get an introduction to welding methods that I never tried, like O/A and MIG. Also, I will get a chance to practice harder welds like vertical and overhead, and have someone knowledgeable who would correct my mistakes. Plus, having access to proper welding setups, test materials etc, will also be useful. My welding experience for now is 90% stick like this one http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Home...th-M105A2-Bed/ and 10% TIG. -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#23
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Signed up for Welding class
On 2008-07-09, Hawke wrote:
Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. What I will get out of the class, is all speculation at this point. Hard to say. Even in the worst case, I will get an introduction to welding methods that I never tried, like O/A and MIG. Also, I will get a chance to practice harder welds like vertical and overhead, and have someone knowledgeable who would correct my mistakes. Plus, having access to proper welding setups, test materials etc, will also be useful. My welding experience for now is 90% stick like this one http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Home...th-M105A2-Bed/ and 10% TIG. What do you want first: the good news or the bad news? I heard that recently from some profound pundit, but can't for the life of me remember who jolly positive fellow was. YOUR experience is going to be YOUR experience. You're going to a buffet, be sure to get your money's worth. In all, I had four instructors. Three were retired Navy, and were artful in their laying on of metal. One weighed near 400# and the other barely 120 and did not look like they could hold up the cable very long. All the places I went to school, I went in night classes, which may have something to do with it. They get a lot of people who have to go there, either court directed, or some other reason. They also have people who are taking up usable oxygen and instructor time, and will never enter the trade or even follow their urge to make better yard art. Even a couple of babes with big hair who finally at least learned why welders wear those funny hats. But they did learn to run beads, women make some good welders because most like to draw. In night classes, I found that there were mostly serious people, and that the student to pupil ratio was good so you could have one on one time. Ahhhh. Next comes attitude. Attitude has a lot to do with a lot of things in life. I never had a problem with any of my teachers. Maybe it was my attitude. One I saw years later when he was having a yard sale to raise money for his cancer treatment. He had dropped dramatically from his 120 fighting weight, and looked like crap. We immediately recognized each other, and reflected about the ten years or so that had passed. We had both come on some major health issues and were changed people. Point is, we were friends from school, not teacher pupil. I bought about five bucks worth of stuff and handed him a Franklin. He had very little for sale that was worth anything. During school, he was like the other two. They let you flounder a while, then bring in their hood and say, "Watch this." (Tip: when you see the instructor coming to your booth with his hood, it is a G-O-O-D thing.) Then they would show you a secret that would end days of burning blobs. But in the meantime, you'd take in a patch of blobs and they'd say, "That's good, keep working on it. You got one good spot right .................THERE." They had to get the idiots set up and going, but they always were there to give you those pearls and AHA moments. But I REALLY think it was the attitude I presented to them. I can see why someone like Hawke may have problems with people, based on his attitude. And obviously, Mr. Hawk went to different schools than I did. Where I went, the instructor found your weak areas and then let you work on them instead of boring you with stuff you already knew. We were not classes. We were all working on different machines doing different things at any given time. I remember working on TIG one time, and the doofus down the way came and said, "Dooood, why do YOU get to work on TIG and I have to burn these dumb rods?" (He still had trouble striking an arc and maintaining it on flat plate after 2 weeks.) So, Iggy, it all depends on the school, the teacher, and you. I can't say anything about the school, or the teacher, but I know you will view it as going to a buffet and already decided to get your money's worth before the first class. Some people will sit there and wait to be served and never grasp the concept. If you luck into a good teacher, or someone who will see you already know something, they should let you skate to the area you want to improve in or work on. If the school isn't so rigid that they have the syllabus set and allow for no deviation, my experience was that it was night time, the school was closed, and for all intents and purposes, the welding instructor WAS the president of the college for a few hours. But if they are strict, fall back on the buffet principle. Even if it's mediocre food, I have full confidence you'll get your money's worth. And, if by chance, you get caught up in a structured situation, you will know next time which questions to ask before you select a school or course. I still say that you might do better if you could hook up with a pro, and learn on the pizza/beer/football/friendship/bass fishing principle. But good friends are getting as rare as good welders. I'm done. Stick a fork in me. Steve |
#24
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Signed up for Welding class
SteveB wrote: On 2008-07-09, Hawke wrote: Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. What I will get out of the class, is all speculation at this point. Hard to say. Even in the worst case, I will get an introduction to welding methods that I never tried, like O/A and MIG. Also, I will get a chance to practice harder welds like vertical and overhead, and have someone knowledgeable who would correct my mistakes. Plus, having access to proper welding setups, test materials etc, will also be useful. My welding experience for now is 90% stick like this one http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Home...th-M105A2-Bed/ and 10% TIG. What do you want first: the good news or the bad news? I heard that recently from some profound pundit, but can't for the life of me remember who jolly positive fellow was. YOUR experience is going to be YOUR experience. You're going to a buffet, be sure to get your money's worth. In all, I had four instructors. Three were retired Navy, and were artful in their laying on of metal. One weighed near 400# and the other barely 120 and did not look like they could hold up the cable very long. All the places I went to school, I went in night classes, which may have something to do with it. They get a lot of people who have to go there, either court directed, or some other reason. They also have people who are taking up usable oxygen and instructor time, and will never enter the trade or even follow their urge to make better yard art. Even a couple of babes with big hair who finally at least learned why welders wear those funny hats. But they did learn to run beads, women make some good welders because most like to draw. In night classes, I found that there were mostly serious people, and that the student to pupil ratio was good so you could have one on one time. Ahhhh. Next comes attitude. Attitude has a lot to do with a lot of things in life. I never had a problem with any of my teachers. Maybe it was my attitude. One I saw years later when he was having a yard sale to raise money for his cancer treatment. He had dropped dramatically from his 120 fighting weight, and looked like crap. We immediately recognized each other, and reflected about the ten years or so that had passed. We had both come on some major health issues and were changed people. Point is, we were friends from school, not teacher pupil. I bought about five bucks worth of stuff and handed him a Franklin. He had very little for sale that was worth anything. During school, he was like the other two. They let you flounder a while, then bring in their hood and say, "Watch this." (Tip: when you see the instructor coming to your booth with his hood, it is a G-O-O-D thing.) Then they would show you a secret that would end days of burning blobs. But in the meantime, you'd take in a patch of blobs and they'd say, "That's good, keep working on it. You got one good spot right .................THERE." They had to get the idiots set up and going, but they always were there to give you those pearls and AHA moments. But I REALLY think it was the attitude I presented to them. I can see why someone like Hawke may have problems with people, based on his attitude. And obviously, Mr. Hawk went to different schools than I did. Where I went, the instructor found your weak areas and then let you work on them instead of boring you with stuff you already knew. We were not classes. We were all working on different machines doing different things at any given time. I remember working on TIG one time, and the doofus down the way came and said, "Dooood, why do YOU get to work on TIG and I have to burn these dumb rods?" (He still had trouble striking an arc and maintaining it on flat plate after 2 weeks.) So, Iggy, it all depends on the school, the teacher, and you. I can't say anything about the school, or the teacher, but I know you will view it as going to a buffet and already decided to get your money's worth before the first class. Some people will sit there and wait to be served and never grasp the concept. If you luck into a good teacher, or someone who will see you already know something, they should let you skate to the area you want to improve in or work on. If the school isn't so rigid that they have the syllabus set and allow for no deviation, my experience was that it was night time, the school was closed, and for all intents and purposes, the welding instructor WAS the president of the college for a few hours. But if they are strict, fall back on the buffet principle. Even if it's mediocre food, I have full confidence you'll get your money's worth. And, if by chance, you get caught up in a structured situation, you will know next time which questions to ask before you select a school or course. I still say that you might do better if you could hook up with a pro, and learn on the pizza/beer/football/friendship/bass fishing principle. But good friends are getting as rare as good welders. I'm done. Stick a fork in me. Steve Another advantage of the evening classes is you often get instructors who actually have real jobs in that field during the day, in the welding case the instructor had years of sub welding shipyard experience and had semi retired to running his own welding business during the day and teaching the welding class a couple nights a week for beer money. |
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Signed up for Welding class
On 2008-07-09, Pete C. wrote:
Another advantage of the evening classes is you often get instructors who actually have real jobs in that field during the day, in the welding case the instructor had years of sub welding shipyard experience and had semi retired to running his own welding business during the day and teaching the welding class a couple nights a week for beer money. I think that evening classes will also give an opportunity to meet some interesting people, including the instructor. -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#26
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Signed up for Welding class
Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. What I will get out of the class, is all speculation at this point. Hard to say. Even in the worst case, I will get an introduction to welding methods that I never tried, like O/A and MIG. Also, I will get a chance to practice harder welds like vertical and overhead, and have someone knowledgeable who would correct my mistakes. Plus, having access to proper welding setups, test materials etc, will also be useful. My welding experience for now is 90% stick like this one http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Home...th-M105A2-Bed/ and 10% TIG. Here's what you'll get, from my experience. You won't get any of the hard welds like vertical or overhead, that is advanced. What they do in a college class is just like any class. They start at the very beginning and give you the basics, a lot of safety, different metals, history of welding, etc. Then they start you out on O/A because once you have the hang of that you can pretty much do the rest. In my school we only got through oxy, stick, and barely some mig. But once you understand how to do oxy the only thing you need to know about mig is how to set up the machine for your specific job. The joke is that a monkey can mig weld if a human sets up the machine for him. We never even got to TIG at all. I doubt if you'll get to that in a first semester class. That's why I said you just scratch the surface in a first class in a community college. You really need to do another semester to learn what you probably want to know. That said, I'm glad I learned all the fundamentals the right way. Welding can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. You have to start somewhere though and that first class is a must even though you won't learn what you hoped to. Hawke |
#27
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Signed up for Welding class
Hawke wrote: Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. What I will get out of the class, is all speculation at this point. Hard to say. Even in the worst case, I will get an introduction to welding methods that I never tried, like O/A and MIG. Also, I will get a chance to practice harder welds like vertical and overhead, and have someone knowledgeable who would correct my mistakes. Plus, having access to proper welding setups, test materials etc, will also be useful. My welding experience for now is 90% stick like this one http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Home...th-M105A2-Bed/ and 10% TIG. Here's what you'll get, from my experience. You won't get any of the hard welds like vertical or overhead, that is advanced. What they do in a college class is just like any class. They start at the very beginning and give you the basics, a lot of safety, different metals, history of welding, etc. Then they start you out on O/A because once you have the hang of that you can pretty much do the rest. In my school we only got through oxy, stick, and barely some mig. But once you understand how to do oxy the only thing you need to know about mig is how to set up the machine for your specific job. The joke is that a monkey can mig weld if a human sets up the machine for him. We never even got to TIG at all. I doubt if you'll get to that in a first semester class. That's why I said you just scratch the surface in a first class in a community college. You really need to do another semester to learn what you probably want to know. That said, I'm glad I learned all the fundamentals the right way. Welding can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. You have to start somewhere though and that first class is a must even though you won't learn what you hoped to. Hawke What you say is probably true for the daytime classes. The night classes tend to get more to practical hands-on since the people in the class often have some experience already. In my Welding II evening class I did all TIG (and fixed a few machines in the class too). |
#28
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Signed up for Welding class
Hawke wrote: "Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. Hawke I expect it varies quite a bit. When I took a similar evening welding class the book portion was pretty much limited to the first class and just about everything after that was practical hands on time. The student to instructor ratio was low enough to get an adequate amount of time with the instructor. There is usually an advanced class or welding II you can continue in, or given the low cost of most of these classes, you can easily take it twice if you need more instructor time. |
#29
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Signed up for Welding class
Pete C wrote:
I expect it varies quite a bit. When I took a similar evening welding class the book portion was pretty much limited to the first class and just about everything after that was practical hands on time. The student to instructor ratio was low enough to get an adequate amount of time with the instructor. There is usually an advanced class or welding II you can continue in, or given the low cost of most of these classes, you can easily take it twice if you need more instructor time. Tentatively, if this class goes well, I will take a TIG class and a stick class to lean more about out of position welding, which is my weak spot (among many). -- Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers you will need to find a different means of posting on Usenet. http://improve-usenet.org/ |
#30
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Signed up for Welding class
I expect it varies quite a bit. When I took a similar evening welding class the book portion was pretty much limited to the first class and just about everything after that was practical hands on time. The student to instructor ratio was low enough to get an adequate amount of time with the instructor. There is usually an advanced class or welding II you can continue in, or given the low cost of most of these classes, you can easily take it twice if you need more instructor time. Tentatively, if this class goes well, I will take a TIG class and a stick class to lean more about out of position welding, which is my weak spot (among many). If you are going to a good community college in the Chicago area I expect it will be a lot like mine even though I took my class in northern California. My class was a typical college class. There was a syllabus, a big expensive book, 130 bucks when I bought mine, quiz's every week, mid terms and a final too. I took the class at night too and the first part every time was classroom work then we went into the shop. The problem I had was that there was only one instructor. He was good but there were too many people wanting his time and I had to wait in line to ask a question. You may not have that but you probably will. My class was a full 16 week semester but it still wasn't enough to learn what I was hoping to. If you learn the fundamentals of welding, how to O/A weld pretty well, basic stick, and some MIG consider yourself lucky. Don't expect to learn any TIG in a first class. If you do I'd be surprised. It takes too long just to learn the other forms of welding to have time to get into TIG, which is the most difficult to learn. After you know how to weld pretty well with the other processes then you will be ready to learn to TIG weld. Unfortunately, learning to weld takes quite a while. I would like to have had a skilled welder work with me as a master/apprentice approach. It would have made things go a lot faster but the college was all I had access to so I took what I could get. After spending so many years in college I just hate the way they do things. It's so slow and tedious and overly structured. Hawke |
#31
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Signed up for Welding class
On Jul 9, 12:01*pm, "Hawke"
My class was a full 16 week semester but it still wasn't enough to learn what I was hoping to. If you learn the fundamentals of welding, how to O/A weld pretty well, basic stick, and some MIG consider yourself lucky. Don't expect to learn any TIG in a first class. If you do I'd be surprised. It takes too long just to learn the other forms of welding to have time to get into TIG, which is the most difficult to learn. After you know how to weld pretty well with the other processes then you will be ready to learn to TIG weld. Unfortunately, learning to weld takes quite a while. I would like to have had a skilled welder work with me as a master/apprentice approach. It would have made things go a lot faster Hawke My experience was completely different. While I was in high school, I took welding during the summer. As far as I know the class ran continuiously. There was no cost for me and I think that was true for everyone. Lots of guys taking welding to collect on their GI Bill benefits. I was working so the classes were evening classes. You could go either 3 hours or 6 hours. I did as much of the 6 hours as I could, but staying to midnight made me pretty sleepy if I did that two days in a row. The instructor showed me a few things and then I spent the first month doing Oxy/Acet. welding or at least trying. With about fifty students and one instructor, I saw the instructor for a few minutes at a time. I found O/A difficult to learn. The second month I did stick welding. Much easier. Just one hand needed. I went to welding school at night for three years as I remember. There was no Tig or Mig welders at the school. So about fifty years lator, I thought I would get a TIG welder. But with all the talk about TIG being hard to learn, I enrolled in a CC welding class. You could take a regular set of courses leading to certification, or you could take what is called " welding refresher ". Basically come and do whatever you want to do. Again there was about 50 students. About 40 working to get certified as stick welders. About 8 taking O/ A. And three of use wanting to learn TIG welding. Half the first night was a lecture on safety. The instructor was pretty busy with all those students and did not get to the 3 doing TIG until about ten minutes before the end of the class. Fortunately we had figured out how to get started and had been welding without any help from the instructor. We had read some books. I found TIG to be much easier than O/A fifty years earlier. In fact easier than O/A or stick welding. You can see the puddle better and you can control the heat. Before the class was over, I could run a bead across the end of a pop can. Easier than running a bead along the side. Dan |
#32
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Signed up for Welding class
On 2008-07-09, Hawke wrote:
If you are going to a good community college in the Chicago area I expect it will be a lot like mine even though I took my class in northern California. My class was a typical college class. There was a syllabus, a big expensive book, 130 bucks when I bought mine, quiz's every week, mid terms and a final too. I took the class at night too and the first part every time was classroom work then we went into the shop. The problem I had was that there was only one instructor. He was good but there were too many people wanting his time and I had to wait in line to ask a question. You may not have that but you probably will. My class will have 17 people in it, max. i |
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Signed up for Welding class
On Jul 9, 9:05*am, Ignoramus2215
wrote: ... Tentatively, if this class goes well, I will take a TIG class and a stick class to lean more about out of position welding, which is my weak spot (among many). You can use that truck crane to keep all the welding in-position. I hung the scaffold frames from a tree to weld the pipe joints. The truck can be protected by scrap sheet metal, I use water-heater shells, or welding curtains made of cotton cloth soaked in alum and borax. |
#34
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Signed up for Welding class
On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:05:26 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm,
Ignoramus2215 quickly quoth: Pete C wrote: I expect it varies quite a bit. When I took a similar evening welding class the book portion was pretty much limited to the first class and just about everything after that was practical hands on time. The student to instructor ratio was low enough to get an adequate amount of time with the instructor. There is usually an advanced class or welding II you can continue in, or given the low cost of most of these classes, you can easily take it twice if you need more instructor time. Tentatively, if this class goes well, I will take a TIG class and a stick class to lean more about out of position welding, which is my weak spot (among many). I'd do that here but the local CC (just 8 miles away!) wants something like $425 per class ($275 for the class and $150 for supplies) or $3,500 for the entire welding class array. They have a very extensive setup here. /drool ---------------------------------- VIRTUE...is its own punishment ================================== |
#35
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Signed up for Welding class
"Hawke" writes:
Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. I fully realize I was very lucky to get as good and patient an instructor as the one I had. I hope I'm as patient with my backward CS students as he was with me! The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. Well, yeah. How much of a skilled craft can you learn in 10 weeks? What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. Actually, the videos/book/tests were the easy part for me. But then, that's the sort of thing I'm good at.... |
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Signed up for Welding class
"Joe Pfeiffer" wrote in Well, yeah. How much of a skilled craft can you learn in 10 weeks? Sometimes, just enough to survive the next layoff at the shop? Steve |
#37
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Signed up for Welding class
On Jul 9, 2:52 pm, "Hawke" wrote:
"Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. Hawke Well, yes , you are partly right - if you start from NO knowledge, then the learning curve is really steep. I did a "short course" in welding years ago, was pretty well useless as I couldn't stick weld at the end of it. The only way is to go through boxes of rods until it "clicks".- eventually you get to the stage that, if you change your brand of rods, you can cope with them having different characteristics..... And your correct to re instructor time - modern education is run by accountants who do profit and loss statements, run schools as "Business Enterprises" - the trade college I go to has a CEO , for gawds sake. I don't think he was ever a teacher....but, you wait your turn, the good ones wander around and yell at you if your doing something really stupid - and as a Old Fart, I don't learn as quick as the Kiddies ,so I do take all chances to learn from the teacher. But I disagree, particularly in welding "proper" classes, where one day a week for a semester adds up to a LOT of time practising, and thats what is needed. Oh sure, there are the "self paced learning modules" where you fill in the boxes (it does save having to employ a teacher to do it, and its a crap way of learning, my view anyway) but it doesn't take long to show the basics of welding - after that, its up to the student. You will get practice time, perhaps not enough, but hopefully enough to get to some degree of understanding. Next semester, I am "doing" welding as part of my course - looking forward to it, I have got reasonably OK with stick (after I bought a DC inverter welder and an LCD helmet and did LOTS of practice)), used to be good at oxy, which I prefer above all else as I did so much lead wiping as a Lineman that it came easy but then bottle rental got so expensive I couldn't afford it (Bugger!) and am doing TIG and MIG as well - that should be good, always wanted to have a go at it. Will I be a competent tradesman at the end of it - No, there is a separate course of hundreds of hours to get to that stage, and you need to be working in industry as well (its called "apprenticeship") - but I will have the basic knowledge and ability to develop my competency. Wish I could afford MIG and TIG and Oxy gear tho...... So - go for it, if you want to learn, you will. You will have a decided advantage over the Kiddies as you will have learnt to work for what you want and stay focused - you wont be nursing a hangover from the weekend, or fall asleep cause you been out to 3am the night before, or think you don't need to bother cause your never going to need these skills. And you wont think you know it all before you start. And you will know to be nice to the storeman as he is the most important person in the place - antagonize him at your peril. Teachers WANT to teach, they live for the bright, enthusiastic student who WANTS to learn - and as a mature age student, they can probably relate to you more that they can the Kiddies. You have a natural advantage there, use it. (Gee, I got fired up over that one - still getting over the envy attack of seeing Gunners big lathe pictures I guess) Andrew VK3BFA. |
#38
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Signed up for Welding class
"Hawke" wrote:
"Ignoramus32025" wrote in message ... Signed up for the fall for a welding class, 6-10pm one day per Good to hear! Hope you enjoy your class as much as I enjoyed the ones I took! It really can depend on the type of teacher you get, but you will be able to learn from it no matter what. 4 or 5 hours once a week was the format of all the classes I took. Some where 4, some where 5. week. Should cover all welding processes such as stick, mig, tig, and O/A. I am sure that I will learn quite a bit of stuff and maybe will get "re-educated" on things that I already learned to do incorrectly. Would be nice to be introduced to MIG and O/A, also. i Which do you want first the good news or the bad news? Okay, I'll give you the good news. Taking a beginning welding class is in general a good idea if you plan to do much welding. I took one a year or two ago and since I knew absolutely nada about welding at the time it was a necessity that I learn the basics, which I did. The bad news; unless you are very lucky you will not get nearly as much help from the teacher as you need. I didn't find that to be true for any of the classes I took. The teachers were standing around doing nothing half the time and it was easy to get them to answer questions or demonstrate a weld or give you feed back on your last weld. Class sizes were typically 10 to 20 for us and most had both a teacher and an assistant to help out. Often, there were other students in the classes with a lot of experience that could answer questions as well. The lab has something like 12 arc welding stations and 16 oxy-acetylene booths. After the first few classes, there were always people who didn't show up or who would drop out so most the time you would have a station to yourself for the full lab period. Only rarely would you have to share. The general nice thing as well about the lab was that it had a wide range of different equipment purchased one or two at time over a period of years so there was there was a wide range of different types of equipment to learn to use. There will be a bunch of other people constantly asking him for his help, so you have to get in line. The other thing is that all you will learn is the most basic principles of each type of welding so you won't get very good at any of them. What it does most is prepare you for the next class where you will learn a lot more because after the first class you will know what's going on. So you really need to take about a year to really get things down pat. Our CC doesn't have a single beginner class that covers all the processes. Arc welding is two classes: ARC-I and ARC-II. In ARC-I you learn flat position welds. In ARC-II you learn vertical and overhead. They also have a pipe class for ARC (which is one I've not taken). Oxy-acetyline is another class. It only covers work on 18 gauge steel (and maybe a little bit on 1/8" but has one project with multiple out of position welds. It covers gas cutting and brazing as well and when I took it, we had a heat treating project thrown in as well. Inert gas is another class which used to cover TIG and MIG but recently has been only TIG in another class. Then there is a MIG and fluxcore class which is mostly steel but has some aluminum as well. This used to be taught with 18 gauge steel projects but the last time it was taught when I took it was mostly 3/8" structural steel welds in all positions. These are all 16 week classes with about either 1 hour of class and 3 hours of lab, or 2 hours of class and 3 hours of lab. The lab time is always right after the class time and the class time is seldom over an hour even in the ones that are listed as 2 hours of class so they just end up with 4+ hours of lab time a week. Even with full 16 week classes on each process you can only just begin to learn all the different processes and positions. Every process and position and material is like learning a whole new skill. If you tried to touch on all processes in a single class you wouldn't have time to actually learn how to weld anything. Learning to make a good weld takes lots of practice. I suggested to one of the instructors once that they add an introduction course that covers all the processes, and his thought was that none of the students would actually learn to do a weld if you did that because the class would have to move on to the next process before anyone actually learned even a single weld in the previous process. I spend about a year taking classes and there were 3 or 4 classes they offered I haven't yet taken. I could easily spend another year working on the process if I wanted to get better to be a professional welder. But I did it just for the fun of it for hobby/home use and I know far more than I need to know at this point. I'm glad I took the class, for sure. But I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to out of it. Then there was the part of reading the book and taking tests and having to be graded on everything. There was reading, some homework, and tests, but most of that was trivial for the classes I took. I might have had to spend a few hours a week out of class total reading/studying/homework but the real work was all in the lab actually practicing welds. Maybe you won't have that to worry about but I went to a community college and they make the whole thing like the rest of the curriculum. Have fun and get the fundamentals down as well as you can because that's all you will probably glean from it. Hawke Once you got to the know the instructors, they would give you a lot of flexibility to work on other projects as well. So as long as you were getting the required projects for the class done, you could switch over and practice other processes or other positions, or even bring in small projects from home to work on if you had something that needed to be fixed or welded. The previous welding instructor (that sadly died the 2nd week I was there) was always welling to help people fix things that needed to be welded. One friend for example is auditing the oxy class this summer (which he already took last year) but not working on oxy at all - he's using it to learn pipe and other stuff. People sign up for classes basically just to get cheap access to the lab and the instructors. In our CC, the welding shop is part of the auto mechanics and it's in the same building so when you hang out there doing welding you also get to know all the guys in the auto-shop program so again you get to know people who like fooling around with mechanical stuff and metal. This summer, I'm talking an auto class which is an introduction to machine shop. I took it to learn the basics of mill and lathe work and I've spend most the class playing with the mill. I'm making a 6 sided dice which is almost done. I'll have to post pictures later. The class is really about all the specialized machine shop equipment used to rebuild engines so we only had one class on the mill, and one on the lathe and the rest has been on valve grinders and cylinder boring and honing, crank balancing, rod conditioning etc. It's an intro class that goes so fast you don't learn much of anything other than getting to see a demonstration of the processes but they have full classes you can take on each areas of engine rebuilding (one on heads, one on blocks, etc) if you really want to get into that stuff. The intro class is there mostly to get you familiar with the tools and the shop and teach safety. It's a pre-req for all the other auto machine shop classes. I wish they actually had pure machine shop classes instead of just specialized auto classes but they don't. It seems they used to a few decades back, but it was shut down. I guess with all the automation in industry these days there's just not much demand for training people to be machinists anymore. -- Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/ http://NewsReader.Com/ |
#39
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Signed up for Welding class
Curt, sounds great. If I can get 5 hours a week for welding, and
materials, I will be very happy. i |
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