How did you learn to Weld.

[aametalmaster]

My grampa was one of the founders of Tee Nee Boat Trailers and i hung around with him at the shop. My dad owned a welding company that was in the backyard so i was there alot. By the time i was in high school i was a great stick welder and i helped teach the other kids. I took vocational Machine Trades and my senior year i tested out so i had to go get a job. I went to my dads trailer shop and started building trailer axles he made for another trailer company and equipment trailers. Then we started building woodburners when the energy crunch hit in the late 1970's. By then we had 6 mig welder machines to use and they were pretty rare in a home shop in 1977. I never formally had any training but i had some good teachers. The next 20 years i worked as a welder by day and a machinist by night. I worked 2 shifts for about 10 years. I now own a welding company and will gladly teach/show/let use any resource i have to help someone out. So just ask if you need anything...Bob

[youngsmith]

I first learned to weld while working on an old horse trailer with my dad. I was pretty good so he let me do some of the work on the lesser projects in the shop and now I'm the #1 welder/metal fabricater at Aardvark Performace.
Where we mainly work on road racing car, but specilize in C5 corvettes.

[Quenchcrack]

I was about 25 years old and the metallurgist in a plant in Midland TX that made drilling tools for the mining industry. I decided if I was going to write the welding specs, I might want to know how to weld. Every Friday, I came to work in work clothes and went out the welding shop and let those old rod roasters show me how it is done. In the end, we all learned some respect for each other. Now, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear so I am still more of a puddler than a welder. However, I can make a workable weld with stick or wire thanks to those real welders in the shop where I started my career.

[welder19]

My Dad taught me when I was 7 or eight, he owned a body shop in town at the time so he would take me to the shop in town in the morning and a woman who lived in town and had kids would then pick me up on her way to take her kids to school and then she would pick us up after school and drop me back at the shop. In the morning before school and after school I would help out at the shop, so it wasn't long before he taught me how to weld, ox/ac then arc and spot welding, there were no mig or tig back then, those I taught myself, well mig mostly not too much tig,

[11echo]

When I got out of the service in early 76 I decided to take some refresher classes in drafting so I could start looking for a job (already had the AA degree in drafting ONLY because it was easy for me ...no plans to work in the profession). Any way 3 years in the service MAKES you think about what you want to do afterwards. So I decide to try this drafting stuff and decided to take afew drafting classes on the G.I. bill, you get paid money to go to school, so I started looking at other classes I could take. And there was an introduction to arc welding at the local high school not 1/2 mile from my house. Started the evening class, and really liked it! So much so that half way thru the class I got my first credit card and I went down to the local welding supply store in Santa Ana, Calif. and my first purchase was a Lincoln AC welder. I still have it to this day! Now I'm not a pipeline welder by any means, but my welding doesn't look like bird cxxx either! *G*

[Jmercier]

well, a blacksmith shop i bought out last spring came with an old Lincoln tombstone AC arc welder, which i plan on using to teach myself to arc weld with this next spring, after I make myself an 8/3 SOOW extension cord to run from my dryer out the walkout basement door to the garage >_< I can forge weld, but I havent done more than stick 2 pieces of metal together with a blob with a real welder yet.

[markb]

was 30 (1980) running electrical conduit up 10 stories, and had an apprentice who could weld and a buzz box, he showed me how. I bought the welder in the photo below.

After that job the union dispatcher called on a friday and asked if I thought I could certify for a power house job. I spent all weekend reading and burning rod. Monday three of us showed up to do coupons, spent most of the day trying weld vertical with no luck when one guy gets a fitter to show us how. He said just watch what I do. I did and it worked. They did a bend test and I got the job. They had me certify later (kind of a hokey deal)

I love to weld but don't have the talent to be real good at it.

[Speeddy]

My dad taught me at the age of 12 at 16 I went to tec school to learn the rest to get my certs 1 year later I was hired by the school to help teach welding.I love teaching.

[tompdw]

When I bought my house in 2001 I had the garage wired for 220 and I bought a used lincoln tombstone. I then got an ac dc stick, mig and oxy aceteline. My girlfriend's dad is a retired welder and he gave me my leather apron and some tips. The rest I learned on my own.

[j@j metal works]

I learned to weld through welding school. I was junior in high school we had the oppertunity to attend a tech to learn a trade.