Welding Tips and Tricks

i have not posted in here for a while mainly because i took the advice of one the board "elders" and got into my studies. while book work in schooling was never a strong hand of mine, on hand learning was, so i took to my strong suite and ran with it......i have completed intro in the lab (yea i guess i can be called a "booth welder" now).... and i passed the labs with a "B" avg....some may be saying so what ...big deal... but for a man of my age going back to school was a big enough deal in and of itself (Carter was in office the last time i was in school) and then to have gotten a grade that i never got in any form of schooling well that just blows me away...my welds all passed AWS standards ..... for what its worth im kinda proud of this ole dog....i just hope i can get the ole noodle wrapped around the book work and up the grade....next up.....mig

Congatulations!

I'll take a "B" any day. Remember the lab grade is subjective, and because you're not an eighteen-year-old, the instructor (who you may well be older than) has higher expectations for you than "some kid" he's used to dealing with.

You probably left school during Carter's presidency because you couldn't afford gas! (Showing a bit of my age...)

Steve

Congratulations semihemi! Way to go!

hey Steve my instructor is 10 years my junior ..... he bounces his parenting questions off me he just had his first kid ,or is it his second?,...good trade off ide say ....and a lil laugh for us elders.....my car tag started with an even number...and now the youth on this board are scratching their collective heads.......

the grades were posted and i realy dont know what this means but my gpa was a 3.0 ...... so i guess i passed basic stick...now its on to mig and tig..... this should be fun

On a four-point scale, that is, of course, a "B" avaerage.

Methinks your companionship with the instructor (soliciting parenting advice, etc.) along with the higher expectations he may have of you for your age, may make his grading a bit subjective.

If the other students witness any mature adult conversation between the two of you, he may subconciously be adjusting your grade to appear NOT to play favorites. Since you're old enough to buy the man a beer, I'd do so, and ask him. "Am I being judged on the same performance standards as these kids? Or do you expect more from me? Where do my skills actually stand?"

Steve S.

is your thought that i might ,perhaps, be doing better than a "B" and im landing at that for appearance purposes? ...if even that was the case im ok with it. being the other students are in there as a school course and i am trying to learn a skill although i could be wrong, I doubt that say Cat, Toyota or Kubota (all who have ,are or planning to come to this area) would differentiate from an 18 yr old "A" student or a 50+ "B" student....but like i said i have been known to be wrong before and am in no way opposed to being set straight when i am.......i am, however, loving this stuff to death....i was so intimidated by TIG prior to doing it but after a few hours on the stool its not quite the monster i made it out to be in my mind. and these vids on this site are a real world help .....a beer with the teacher?...time is an issue there he has a new baby and i have 1 now in college and 2 in high school flunking algebra ..... BUT the younger one is acing geometry and the middle one is acing US history so theres hope... lol

well thats my password...... damn i thought i got booted off the board....i forgot my password.....so i fought my way thru intro to stick and basic MIG and TIG in 4 positions and did it in 6 months.....so i went and signed on for some more abuse ... Advanced TIG ....basically its just TIG on Aluminum and Stainless .... idk why but im having trouble walking the cup on the stainless....i wonder if i have cleaned the metal good enough and its sticking to the adhesive that i didn't fully grind down ....

I find when "walking", that I tend to focus on arc length and direction, (and, on a root, the keyhole) to the point that I sometimes overcompensate control by bearing down too hard on the torch. A nice, even walk requires a very light touch; The cup should barely be kissing the pipe. I knew a guy who could walk on aluminum without leaving cup-prints in the soft hot metal behind the weld.

I now rarely walk the cup on anything but a socket weld or large pipe, because my hands are not so steady as they once were. I've gotten pretty good at freehand, usually with my torch-hand propped in some way.

Steve S

Hey, semihemi,

Happy Birthday!

Semihemi. Why did you choose welding to study? Alexa

hey steve thanx for the reminder that i managed to turn another calender year on this side of the dirt....i HAD forgotten %$#@$#...., the further i look into my ability to walk i find the same thing .... i bare down into the work and stomp the pedal and leave train tracks clean down the piece so untill i find my skills better in controlling arc, puddle and speed ill leave the walking to you pros Alexa my reasons for taking welding are many but first and formost the trade i spent 27 years in came to a grinding halt and i have one kid now in college and 2 more to go so i cant dip into the savings and call myself retired just yet.....from that field many of my friends told me that welding was not too far off in theory and that might be a direction for me to look for retraining hopping i can get 10-15 more years out of this old body and then call it quits god knows dipping into my savings for the schooling for welding is starting to hurt but i see the end and my instructor sees potential in me so things are on the go!!!