Never have weld anything

[happyman]

I have never weld in my life. I am 15 and really excited about building my own go cart. I dont know if i should just go out and weld, or hire a welder. i dont have a huge buget, so any tips on welding would be great. Thanks anlot

[Kenny_McCormic]

just get some scrap and play around till you get the hang of it, what are you welding with?

[happyman]

well... i dont even know, do u know whats the best to use? im literally just starting

[AutoMX]

well i can say a few things, being that i never took classes or got training, but rather bought a simple flux core gasless welder and did a bunch of reading then taught myself.

a. do reading online, search for welding tutorials and safety tips, this will help you pick the welder you want to get

b. go and look for sources of metal [tube], you can go cheap but try to avoid heavy or weak metal, like water and gas pipes (heavy) or conduit which bends so easy. i've occasionally used fence post top bars since they're decently strong and only $10, but real square or round tubing is the more professional and stronger material, which is about $10 to $15 for a 10 foot piece (1" square tubing 16 gauge)

c. look for a welder within your budget. your best bet is a flux welder since you dont need gas and it's the cheapest kind of welder. mine was $80 at harbor freight. the most handy is the wire feed, but the stick welders work fine too. these weld STEEL, NOT ALUMINUM, and iron also doesn't work well nor is it good for vehicles.
alternatively you could get a welding torch but it's way harder to get the hang of and may be way overkill (and $$$) for beginners.

practice on

basic safety things:
- get good gloves
- always wear a mask
- dont breathe the fumes, they can cause cancers
- welding creates strong UV light and flying molten metal so cover up your skin
- be careful what you touch, never be in a situation where you can get zapped

remember that being cheap or lazy can only go so far, you only have 1 set of eyes or hands or whatever other body part. improperly welding can be dangerous, even deadly (30amps @ 115V) and just as important, a crappy design or bad build quality can be really bad in an accident. people die in car crashes at 5mph.
if its a question of spending $50 or $100 more for safety, do it.

[athif]

well i can say a few things, being that i never took classes or got training, but rather bought a simple flux core gasless welder and did a bunch of reading then taught myself.

a. do reading online, search for welding tutorials and safety tips, this will help you pick the welder you want to get

b. go and look for sources of metal [tube], you can go cheap but try to avoid heavy or weak metal, like water and gas pipes (heavy) or conduit which bends so easy. i've occasionally used fence post top bars since they're decently strong and only $10, but real square or round tubing is the more professional and stronger material, which is about $10 to $15 for a 10 foot piece (1" square tubing 16 gauge)

c. look for a welder within your budget. your best bet is a flux welder since you dont need gas and it's the cheapest kind of welder. mine was $80 at harbor freight. the most handy is the wire feed, but the stick welders work fine too. these weld STEEL, NOT ALUMINUM, and iron also doesn't work well nor is it good for vehicles.
alternatively you could get a welding torch but it's way harder to get the hang of and may be way overkill (and $$$) for beginners.

practice on

basic safety things:
- get good gloves
- always wear a mask
- dont breathe the fumes, they can cause cancers
- welding creates strong UV light and flying molten metal so cover up your skin
- be careful what you touch, never be in a situation where you can get zapped

remember that being cheap or lazy can only go so far, you only have 1 set of eyes or hands or whatever other body part. improperly welding can be dangerous, even deadly (30amps @ 115V) and just as important, a crappy design or bad build quality can be really bad in an accident. people die in car crashes at 5mph.
if its a question of spending $50 or $100 more for safety, do it.

O crap i never wear a mask cause i cant see. And the fumes always seem to get into my nose. Ive only been welding for like 2 days now straight.

I wonder if thats enough to cause cancer:mad2:

[jr dragster Tyler]

Are you blind? if so you should at least wear a transparent shield just to stop the spatter from getting to you.

[crazycart]

Oh man,WEAR A WELDING MASK! You can go blind and also get very bad sunburn from the rays.Not fun.

[jr dragster Tyler]

Yeah I know to wear a mask I was talking to him if he was already blind to wear at least a spatter shield. I dont know ANYONE crazy enough to NOT wear a welding mask. I forgot to turn on my miller auto shade mask once and it tingles my eyes even when welding sheet mettle. And when I got flashed the mask was set to atleast shade 2 even when not shaded. so if you weld without a mask you are INSANE!!!!!!

[oscaryu1]

Are there certain "brands" or "types" yall would recommend? I'm thinking those kit masks are just too crappy...

[crazycart]

I have an autodarkening mask from northern tool and it works perfect,isnt the prettiest,but the battery lasts a long time and is durable.

[I like karts]

I have an autodarkening mask from northern tool and it works perfect,isnt the prettiest,but the battery lasts a long time and is durable.


Dude I love those things!

I wish I had one but they're expensive so for now I just have a standard mask

[AutoMX]

look for sales, i picked up mine for $30 at harbor freight, the autodarkening is a must if you plan to weld more than like 2 things per project (and if you weld that little, why buy a welder in the first place)

regarding the fumes, always have adequate ventilation. i weld in a garage, i open the main (car) door about a foot and the human door to the outside all the way, then i turn on a fan i have to blow toward me as i weld or grind (grinding smoke isnt fun either, black snot). basically if theres a source of fresh air and the fan is blowing toward me, i know im getting clean air.

i really doubt you could get cancer in such a short exposure time, but why risk it, it's like playing russian roulette, you lose and you die. most cases are from a lifetime of exposure, but again who knows, why risk it.

[I like karts]

I weld outside

[kibble]

Hey, if the welding fumes don't kill you, life will! :sifone:

[Kenny_McCormic]

Yea fumes from flux welding are horrible, I about passed out helping with welding in the garage (no ventilation, cold out side).

[risto]

when i worked at an air conditioning shop, they had me do some welding. I met this guy Mike who had skin cancer because he didnt wear his shield while welding. This guy looked terrible. His eyes were constantly red and watery and his skin has burn holes all over it. It was enough to get me away from that job.

Seeing him has kept me very safety conscious while I weld.

[athif]

lol i never seem to be effected by the weld light, Im not blind, and i never get splatterd to the point it hurts.

Besides im tooo dark to get sunburned. LOL i should start using a mask.

[Kenny_McCormic]

You people dont like vision do you? this isnt like wearing the goggles when grinding something this is like wearing gloves in -50* weather.

[jr dragster Tyler]

lol i never seem to be effected by the weld light, Im not blind, and i never get splatterd to the point it hurts.

Besides im tooo dark to get sunburned. LOL i should start using a mask.
how do you not wear a mask?? You can look directly at the arc with no troubles? By the way we bought a MILLER auto shade for 200$

[crazycart]

200$!?!?! Man someones got some cash lol mine was 50$

[SloS13]

You'd be amazed what you can do with the harbor freight flux core. Mine's a tank. Got the $50 harbor freight auto-darkening helmet. I couldnt imagine working without it.

[jr dragster Tyler]

200$!?!?! Man someones got some cash lol mine was 50$

Well when it comes to my dad its "go big or stay at home" He also has safety in mind for me. He wants me to be as safe as posible.


http://www.brweldingsupplies.com/images/MILLER%20PH%20Flame%20Red%20231408%20MED.jpg Thats the miller I have.

[rockstomper]

I would not recommend looking at an arc with out protection!!

I used to work in a race car shop narrowing rear ends,The boss had the shop painted and the walls were white.
The way it's set up is a long bench down a wall that had black dividers between each station the rear end was passed down the line and I was working at the station that did the assembly witch was about 5 stations down from the welding.
I did not know what had happened to me in tell I went home for the day and went to sleep around 2 am in the morning it started I woke up with so much PAIN I could see right away my eyes were glued shut Got some help to go and put some water and get them opened, It was crazy if I closed my eyes they hurt and if I opened them the hurt and the tears just rolled out of my eyes no stopping it.So I went to the hospital to find out I had burnt the retina in one eye and a good burn in the other.

All this and I was not even welding??? It was the white walls in the shop!!!! The reflection from the arc bouncing off the walls and in to my eyes.

The boss had the shop repainted and paid for all my bills.My eyes are all healed now but I had to keep a patch on one eye for sometime.

I could have easily lost my eye site over that!! Use a 10,11,12 lens for arc welding or a auto darkening helmet is the way to go!!!

Rockstomper

[kibble]

Ugh, I've heard about that, just like you, they've said it's painful even though you can't feel it right away! :eek:

So, be safe. ALWAYS wear protection. :cool: :bannana:

[AutoMX]

it's good to get some of these stories out, it's easy to get carried away watching those guys on TV who wanna look 'bad' or whatever u wanna call it, and how they weld by just blinking or covering up with a hand. well yea do that all you want but at some point you're gonna have to face the consequences...

[sayre315]

would it be a bad idea for a little 13 year old to start welding and could i use like a charcole gas mask to keep from breathing the fumes?

[Kenny_McCormic]

would it be a bad idea for a little 13 year old to start welding and could i use like a charcole gas mask to keep from breathing the fumes?

No a welding mask if your worried about fumes just have a 20" box fan nearby set on low to pull the fumes away. You can weld fine at 13, just takes brains, dont do something stupid.

[ryf]

for someone who is new to it, I'd tell them wear the mask, period, I don't mind my risks in life, but curiosity can cause blindness, you are working with the closest thing to the sun available at home when you are welding, and you shouldn't do anything close to staring at it, if you are new and learning where the wire goes, you need to be able to see what you are doing or it will look like pooh at minimum or you will weld something you can't afford to replace...

that said...I TACK without a mask all the time, I agree no one should weld continuously without a mask, (have several flip downs since there seems to be an audience and help around alot)to be fair I do wear safety rated sunglasses and turn my head with my eyes closed when I tack, which isn't enough for welding, but it is enough to do 2-3 seconds of tacking IMO. its not a "looking bad" thing, its a mix of laziness and being hurried to get as much as I can done when I can get to work on it.