Welding Tips and Tricks

Huge fan of the great videos I've seen on YouTube. So I decided to join the forum.

Always been interested in welding and finally got my chance at my factory job to try it out and I have to say I love it even more than I thought I would. I haven't really made anything in particular yet mostly just picking up scrap and throwing it together. I have about 6 hours of mig under my belt and am planning to buy one myself in the future to really start practicing.

I have tried tig but am having trouble manipulating the filler rod. I can fuse pretty decent but I just need more practice.


I need to get myself a decent helmet and will start with equipment from there. I am not partial to any brand and don't mind spending money especially when it comes to protection. Any suggestions?

Whew! That was a long winded first post!

I will try to post some pics of my work thus far.

Welcome aboard!

Fusing metal is strangely addictve...

I can't be any help in the welding hood department... I'm one of those old-school dinosaurs. I use a $25 Jackson flip-down hood, and have for 30 years. I keep telling myself I'm going to get a good quality auto-hood, and it would be usefull for my work, but I also keep reminding myself, my #10 green glass lens has never had a dead battery, or "flashed" me because a sensor was in shadow... I suppose if I were at the bench all the time, it'd be an easy sell, but I spend a lot of time in awkward positions with crap in the way.

Steve S

Welcome to the forum.

I used my 20.00, school issue, Fibre-Metal hood for 25 years. Only has a 4" x 2" lens but I never needed more than that and the cheater lens fits right in there. It was one of the most leak free hoods I had ever used. Just butt ugly is all, but so was E.T., and all the girls still used to 'awwwww' over him.