Welding

[sarahandthebear]

Hi all been a while. So I have been thinking do I go back to collage and do a night course in welding? This is obviously for the van and possibly other uses as I am a countryside ranger working with lots of farming machinery that always needs work. Obviously I won’t learn it over night and it’s going to take a lot before I can just go ahead and work on the van. However any welders on here think it’s a good idea or is it more of a pipe dream? Is it a better option to pay someone else to do it or could it actually be a benefit for future work.

[colinthefox]

Learn to weld. Definitely. Being able to weld has saved me thousands over many years. I also now weld heritage diesel rail locos bodywork as a hobby as all my vehicles are done.
I went to welding classes then bought myself a MIG welder, helmet, etc. Sometimes frustrating, but always worth the effort.
Just turn down all requests to weld other people's cars!

[sarahandthebear]

Thank you That’s good to hear. And that’s exactly my plan would be study it at night classes and then get my own mig welder and do my own van. I know it will take a long time to learn but as you say saving thousands as welders cost so much these days. Not to mention trying to find one you can trust. And agreed I don’t think I will ever work on other people vans or cars but just my own. I think I’ll go for it there’s one for £300 a night course lasts for 8 weeks

[Stesaw]

Welding is by far the best skill you can learn when owning these vans. The thing with courses is they will teach you how to weld new metal to new metal. Welding new to old is a different ball game. Id advise getting a welder that has a gas option for it. While gasless wire is handy its not the best for bodywork, unless you like doing more cleaning up.

[cobblers]

Repairing bodywork (to a decent standard anyway) is probably 80% in the fabrication, 20% in the welding.

MIG welding some bits of 1mm steel together isn't something you really need to go on a course for, just buy some scrap plate, watch a few youtube videos and have a faff about on an evening, you'll soon pick it up. You won't be doing continuous beads of weld, just "tack tack tack" which is more forgiving. Get a decent welder that you know works properly and you're most of the way there, honestly.
Getting the welder setup with most of the knobs roughly in the middle and then modulating the length of time you hold the trigger down for each tack til you're getting towards but not quite blowing holes in the metal. The turn the wire feed up and down a bit, see the difference it makes, then do the same with the power.

Repairing machinery with 5mm thick plate requiring heavy structural welds is a different skill entirely, You'll be using a stick welder. In all honesty the two skills are like chalk and cheese!


Seeing a rusty hole, cutting it out and slapping a patch over will get you through an MOT, but seeing that same rusty hole and working out how to do a proper repair using the panels available, cutting / fabbing the panels to fit, and working out where to put the joins for a strong, tidy repair is where the real skill is!