Anyone know how to weld?

[F22RaptorDude]

i'm assuming you arn't in high school and can't simply do it in shop class...

for what it will cost to tool up, you should be able to get a evening course through a local tech school.

or...buy the cheapest MIG welder you can find, read a bunch of books, practice lots on scrap steel and otherwise spend a lot of time and money getting nowhere with toejam tools and no way of knowing if you're actually doing anything right.

and if you really want to read up about stuff on the internet...start here: http://www.lincolnelectric.ca/knowledge/articles/content/arcweldfund.asp

I'm a Sophomore in High school, the only class like that is automotive and they don't talk about welding
I figured I would do that, buy the cheapest one and watch as many tutorials on you tube and read as many books as I can find

I weld, go-to to school. There is different types of gas, size of wire and different types of wire, types of steel and more. There is setting the gas pressure when welding,the wire speed, and more.

How are you going to design your go kart? What are you going to build it out of? If you  use tube steel, who is going to bend it? It goes on and on.

Could also get a book from library and enhance your brain with knowledge and then have someone help you and practice.

If you plan on being a do-it-yourself type person, then learning to use a torch set, brazing, and welding is a definite plus.

Good Luck

Just a note, I learned welding from night school, then I learned from experienced welders. Also learned from many hours of welding and mistakes.

There's probably a book or two about it at the library at school, I won't get my hopes up though they don't have a whole lot of stuff, Tubular steel you need a device to bend it, what are those called I know I have seen them before!

I taught myself how to weld, my first project was a 1854 triumph chopper, I cut the fame and welded it back with torches, had it going on 9 years now and no stress cracks or anything and the bike has around 60000 on it so I must have done something right lol.  I wouldnt weld a frame or anything like that for someone else.  I now have a lincoln mig, much easier.  want to tig but cant afford one of those yet

I want to own my own mechanics shop later in life, knowing how to do this is a good step in that direction, may I ask on how you self taught yourself?

My son's high school offers a basic and advanced welding classes, he got the bug after watching me weld for years, today i went in for my interview at Keith Manufacturing, i spent 3 hours doing my welding postion tests which were 2G, 3G, and 4G for plate and my 2G,3G and 5G for Pipe, the interview i thought went very good and they want me to come back in 5 days when the structural weld test results are back for my welding samples i did today.

check out gowelding.org and read up on the profession, granted its smelly, dirty and can be very hard at times, but if you're a person that likes building things using you're hands welding is a great job and big bucks can be made depending on what field you enter, to bad you didn't live closer i would give ya one of my older MiG welders and within an hour i could teach you how to lay a weld down, its not that hard once you learn the fundamentals of how welding works, good luck to ya Lil dude  

Thanks for the link reading up on it now, I want another garage I can work in besides my parents, parents have 2 cars and I have one as well so theres most often 2 in the garage, biggest problem I can think of right now, can you rent garages?

Be careful who you learn from.

There are lots of guys out there who can "weld".  But some of the "welds" I've seen from these kind of guys are pretty scary.  Being a bad welder is easy, being a good welder is not so easy.

Like others have said your best option is to take a beginner community college (or high school if your still there) course.  That way you get real information and help from people who really know what they are doing, and you get to use decent equipment, and get to try various disciplines and materials.   It will be good to get that kind of broad overview, then you will learn what kind of discipline you want/need to become really good at, and also what kind of equipment you want to invest in, good welding equipment isn't cheap, and cheap welding equipment isn't good.  As a bonus if you take a HS or college course they may even let you weld your go-kart frame on their equipment as a final project.  When I took welding in HS way back, I remember all kinds of student projects from winch bumpers, to squeeze chutes to (what I built) a flatbed utility trailer.

What I really want to build is something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2-JE_Skdf0 the go kart will be something I do to get to know how it works and as I plan, 100% scratch build besides the engine which i'm currently looking for
Thinking about it I could probably get some help from my grandfather, he's to old to use his tools anymore plus their garage is full of nothing but junk so its hard to get over there to the tool side. I've never seen any welders in there but I'm sure he know's how to, he taught me how to solder wires when I got my first rc plane a few years back

[icepac]

Maybe the "industrial arts" class has the welder instead of the auto shop like most high schools do.

I chose the "industrial arts" class instead of auto shop yet still drove a 650hp car to school.

Choosing your type of kart is important as there are "general karts" and "specific karts".

It's best you find a basket case kart of the type you will be needing based on where you will be driving it.

Then you fix it to suit the task you require.

[olds442]

dont put your hand under what your welding.

thats hot.

dont even think about put your finger on that.

dont hold it in one spot.

its not broken you just suck.

[Shuffler]

When we hire a welder.... we go through maybe 80 to 100 applications to find one with a good hand. They are not up to our standard but they can be taught if they have a good hand.

Welders are a dime a dozen... good ones are hard to find.

[zippo]

Welders are a dime a dozen... good ones are hard to find.

  What he said...anyone can run a bead....I can run a bead but I'm no welder.

  And never ever weld while wearing sneakers.   It hurts when it burns through your shoe and kinda sticks there.  Still have the scars.

[saggs]

  What he said...anyone can run a bead....I can run a bead but I'm no welder.

  And never ever weld while wearing sneakers.   It hurts when it burns through your shoe and kinda sticks there.  Still have the scars.

   Everybody who's done much welding has those.  After working as a production welder for 4 years, the inside of my arms/inside elbow area are covered in burn scars.  And nope, I didn't wear leathers, the environment I worked in was already to blasted hot, and we had to move quick.   I wore canvas aprons and cotton pull-on sleeves which would be shredded after a week or two.

Since we're on to safety tips.  Never weld galvanized steel without a fresh air system, I learned the hard way about zinc poisoning, it ain't much fun...   

[Flench]

Need basics, I hear a person can self teach them?

I did but had help with what rods to use from the store I got them from . Stick welder that is .

[Reschke]

Flux core wire is good for certain applications. We use it when welding heat treated pipes to withstand burst pressures because the pipe we weld has to pump upwards of 18k psi concrete at a pressure of at least 250-300bar without bursting for a minimum of 20k strokes from a concrete pump.

We also use some really weird gas mixtures as well since the beads have to be almost like aerospace quality welds. The welders we had here in Alabama were good hands and one was a great teacher/welder. All three of them made $20+ an hour and worked 60+ hours a week till we shut down operations and moved it all to Wisconsin.

[saggs]

I did but had help with what rods to use from the store I got them from . Stick welder that is .

Just don't use --2- rod for vertical or overhead.  Somebody dropped a 7024 rod in with a pile of 7018 on me once, buzzing along an vertical weld, grab a new rod, then suddenly "what the heck?"  That's when I noticed the rod was a different color   .

What I really want is one of the fancy SMAW and TIG in one machines.  They're kinda pricey though.

[Flench]

Just don't use --2- rod for vertical or overhead.  Somebody dropped a 7024 rod in with a pile of 7018 on me once, buzzing along an vertical weld, grab a new rod, then suddenly "what the heck?"  That's when I noticed the rod was a different color  .

What I really want is one of the fancy SMAW and TIG in one machines.  They're kinda pricey though.

Oh no that would be a bummer . A SMAW and TIG in one machines would be nice but I don't have to do that much welding . I just welded a 5 foot piece of angle iron of the axle of my deck boat to help support the weight . Don't know why they did not put two axles under it with all that weight . I just did not trust it but do now .

[Shuffler]

  Everybody who's done much welding has those.  After working as a production welder for 4 years, the inside of my arms/inside elbow area are covered in burn scars.  And nope, I didn't wear leathers, the environment I worked in was already to blasted hot, and we had to move quick.   I wore canvas aprons and cotton pull-on sleeves which would be shredded after a week or two.

Since we're on to safety tips.  Never weld galvanized steel without a fresh air system, I learned the hard way about zinc poisoning, it ain't much fun...   

Our welders work in Air Conditioning.

[Shuffler]

Flux core wire is good for certain applications. We use it when welding heat treated pipes to withstand burst pressures because the pipe we weld has to pump upwards of 18k psi concrete at a pressure of at least 250-300bar without bursting for a minimum of 20k strokes from a concrete pump.

We also use some really weird gas mixtures as well since the beads have to be almost like aerospace quality welds. The welders we had here in Alabama were good hands and one was a great teacher/welder. All three of them made $20+ an hour and worked 60+ hours a week till we shut down operations and moved it all to Wisconsin.

My number one welder makes over 100K a year. We do everything from the farmer down the road to NASA. Mostly MIG and TIF... rod only when doing cast or some other material where you can't get wire.

[VonMessa]

Tube welding, if chromoly tube, cannot be MIG or stick welded.

O/A torch welding is optimal, but it can be TIG welded if done carefully and the welds must be normalized afterwards (by using a torch)

O/A welding tube is way cheaper than buying a TIG setup.

[Shuffler]

Tube welding, if chromoly tube, cannot be MIG or stick welded.

O/A torch welding is optimal, but it can be TIG welded if done carefully and the welds must be normalized afterwards (by using a torch)

O/A welding tube is way cheaper than buying a TIG setup.

We TIG it............

[Flench]

My number one welder makes over 100K a year.

Darn ! 100K a year . You need a welder . I would move for half that , lol .