Welding Resources and Tips

Five Tips for Creating Your Own Home-Based Project Welding Workshop

Whether you’re a professional welder, welding student, or just a handy-around-the-house project kind of person, setting up your own home project welding workshop is a fun and functional way to work on your own projects, improve your skills, in addition to making home and automotive related repairs.

Before you fire up your welding torch and dig into your first project, there are a few important questions you need answer, as well as a bit of strategic planning you should undertake before striking out with your new endeavor.

Your budget, the space available to house your welding project work shop, and your skill level are all important factors to keep in mind as you formulate your plans for your new home welding workshop.

The following is a list of five tips that will guide you in creating a home-based project welding workshop tailored to your particular needs:

Budget

If money is no object, well hey, this project just got a whole lot easier – you’ve probably got an extra, un-used garage or large work shed you can dedicate to your new work shop, and you can undoubtedly stock your new welding project headquarters with all the best, top of the line equipment – brand new Miller and Lincoln welding machines all around!

Chances are, however, financial independence is not a reality in your life. In that case you need to sit down and evaluate your finances to determine how much you can realistically afford to spend on your new welding workshop. The amount of money you can spare will ultimately guide most of your decision from this point on.

Location

If your like my grandpa Russell (a farm born raised in Western Michigan now residing on 80 acres with a pole barn larger than his house) and you have the luxury of a pole barn or some other large structure detatched from your home, then you’ve already got the perfect spot for your home welding workshop. If your not as lucky as good ole Russ, you need an alternative space for your project welding workshop.

Though appealing because they are a separate space and detached from your home, small structures such as garden or utility sheds are not a good idea. Hazardous, toxic fumes (a byproduct of the welding process) can accumulate in small spaces very quickly, even with better than average ventilation.

Basements are another bad idea. Your average basement is almost never well ventilated, and just as in a small shed, toxic fumes can build up very quickly, with no where to go. Or even worse, toxic fumes from your basement welding workshop make their way upstairs to your main house, which is obviously a detriment to your roommates, spouse, children, pets or whoever else happens to be present.

Generally speaking, a garage with bay doors (preferably detached from your house, or with at least a breezeway between the garage and main house) is your best bet. Whenever you weld, keep the bay doors open, and invest in some type of fume extractor – you can find a number of low-cost do-it-yourself fume extractor options.

Basic Tools

There are three essential tools every home project welding workshop should have, in addition to a basic welder’s tool kit that every home-based welder should have.

The Home Welding Workshop Essentials:

• Handheld Grinder
• Cordless Drilling
• MIG Welder

Welders Basic Tool Kit:

• Combination pliers
• Adjustable locking pliers
• Adjustable wrench (preferably chrome)
• Ball pein hammer (preferably hardwood handled)
• Wire brush
• Cold chisel (preferably alloy steel)
• Center punch (preferable round head)
• Combination square (preferably cast iron)
• Steel ruler and folding steel ruler
• Solid spring nut
• Tape measure
• Swiss Army or multi-purpose utility knife (the more attachments, the better)
• Welding helmet
• Heavy duty tool box with tray (and you may want to consider a padlock)

Welding Machine

The section above outlining a home-based welder’s essential tools references welding machines but as your welding machine is your home welding workshops most important and most expensive tool, it commands its own section.

A MIG welder is the best welding machine for a home project welding workshop. You can definitely pick up stick welding and oxy-acetylene welding setups for less money than a MIG welder but the degree of difficulty with both of the afore mentioned options is much greater than MIG welding, and oxy-acetylene welding presents a number of safety issues a home based welder should simply just avoid. The relative ease of use in working with a MIG welding machine far out weights the cost benefits offered by any other alternative welding process.

Education

Welding is serious business and can be extremely dangerous, particularly if you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you’re totally new to welding or only possess limited knowledge or experience, I strongly suggest you at least take a basic welding course at a local continuing education program, community college or trades school.

You can also find tons of invaluable welding related resources online. If want to grow as a welder and improve your technique, I recommend you check some of the resources out!

Top 10 Welding Video Tutorials

Hey all you student welders and aspiring home project welders out there, did you know that you can learn (or at least bone up) on just about any kind of welding process, technique or project you can imagine – all in one place?

That’s absolutely right! And guess where? Hu-huh – YouTube!!!

YouTube is totally jam-packed with helpful, informative and highly educational welding videos of all kinds. Just about any welding related question you can come up with – YouTube probably has a video with the answer.

The following is a list outlining 10 of YouTube's most popular welding videos:

How to Use an Arc Weld: Basics of Shielded Metal Arc Welding

Expert Village shows up quite a bit in the Welding Video Tutorial category, and their aptly titled How to Use an Arc Welder is not only one of their top ranked video tutorials, but also a very informative introduction to the Arc Welding process.

Basic MIG Welding

A 37+ minute video tutorial on the basics of MIG welding is actually a live recording of a welding course taught at University of Southern California at Irvine, conducted by real professor, using UC Irvine’s campus welding shop. To attend this course in person would cost you big bucks – so take advantage of this first rate tutorial's low-low cost of: totally FREE!

TIG Welding Technique

With over 632,000 register views, home project welding enthusiast Kevin Caron’s introduction to TIG welding is a great place to start exploring this tricky and difficult to master welding process. Kevin’s videos and overall instructional style is very matter-of-fact and easy to follow.

Miller Millermatic Flux cored MIG Welding

Both Lincoln and Miller post top-notch YouTube welding video tutorials. This video focuses on Flux Core MIG welding with the Millermatic welding machine.

How to MIG Weld: How to MIG Weld a Puddle Joint

Another Expert Village entry, How to MIG Weld a Puddle Joint, is a highly viewed video that quickly and easily demonstrates this common welding technique in an easy to grasp fashion, ideal for beginning welders.

How to Tack Weld

Kevin Caron chimes in again with another helpful and enlightening video, presented in his personal and intimate style, with quick lessons on one of welding’s most important type of welds: the tack weld.

Walking the Cup Technique for TIG Welding

One of Google’s top ranked welding blogs, Welding Tips and Tricks, has its own YouTube channel, and they’ve posted an incredibly informative video tutorial offering excellent insight into one of TIG welding’s most difficult techniques: walking the cup.

Welding helmets, standard and auto darkening

Delving into welding safety, Learn How to Weld offers an educational video on the ins and outs of welding helmets, with some excellent advice on choosing between an auto darken and non-auto darkening welding helmet.

Arc Welding with 3 Car Batteries (Tutorial & Demo)

On the more fun and unique side of welding, this top ranked and very cool (though off-beat) instructional video (boasting over 300,000 views) from off-road enthusiast Wheelie Pete, demonstrates how to wire together three 12 volt batteries and create a make-shift arc welding machine for those moments out in the field (off-roading or otherwise) when you don’t have a welding machine handy or access to electricity.

How to cut with an oxygen acetylene welding cutting torch

Credited only as Freddytk421, this guy has posted over 246 highly ranked videos, with anywhere from 25,000 to nearly 200,000 views. In this informative video, Freddytk421 offers some excellent insight into working with one of the more old-school welding processes: Oxy-Acetylene Welding cutting torch.

 

How to Read Welding Blueprints

Architects and drafters commonly include welding instructions in their designs.  This ensures that the welder will know exactly how the architect wanted the welding to be performed.  These instructions often include which type of weld to be used, the size of the weld, how many similar welds need to be performed, and in specific instructions they will tell the welder which joint the weld should be made.  If you are just staring out in the welding world, odds are at some point in your career you will be required to read welding blueprints in order to complete your job.

Image Source: therangerstation.com

The first thing you will need to do is to look at the back of the welding symbol.  It will contain either a symbol or an abbreviation used to describe the type of welding process that must be used.  This word or abbreviation will typically be located between two lines that enclose the reference line.  Once you have located the symbol you should then follow it into the reference line.  The reference line will inform you where the welding should be done.  Sometimes the symbol will end at the reference line while other will go beyond it and may even branch out into multiple arrows which are used to indicate the need for multiple welding tasks to be performed. 

Sometimes in welding blueprints the reference line may include a break.  A break in the reference line indicates that a joint preparation must be performed.  The appearance of a break shows the type of preparation that must be done prior to welding.  The next thing you should look for at the end of the reference line is the arrow.  Once you have located the arrow you should look for symbols on the arrow.  If there are any symbols on the arrow in the same side of the reference line this is an indication that an arrow side weld must be performed.  An arrow side weld refers to performing a weld on the side that the arrow is pointing to.  If the symbol is located above the arrow, the weld should be performed on the opposite side.  If you happen to notice a symbol on the arrow side and another break on top of it, this means that the weld must be performed on both sides of the item described in the draft.

Reading welding blueprints can be a very complicated and confusing task.  But after you have gained some experience in reading welding blueprints it will be second nature to you.  As with all welding techniques, with some time and practice you will soon master them.  Reading welding blueprints is no different, as complicated and confusing as they may seem in the beginning; the longer you read them the easier it will be to understand.  If, for any reason you find that you don’t understand the requirements of the welding blueprint you can always ask another welder.  There is no shame in not knowing what a symbol means; it could be more costly to perform the wrong type of weld in the wrong area.  Welding blueprints contain a lot of required information and you should never rush when reading them.  To ensure that the proper weld is performed take your time when reading a welding blueprint.

More About Welding Symbols and Blueprints

• Welding Refresher: Welding Symbols
• Welding Reading List: Welding Math and Blueprints

 

Tips for Starting and Stopping When Arc Welding

When you’re welding it is expected that you will run out of an electrode before you complete the weld.  It is important for welders to know how to start the weld again at the spot where they had to stop without forming excessive amounts of strike marks.  Strike marks are also known as welding defects and can cause the weld area to form cracks.

If your electrode runs out you should stop welding immediately, and change the electrode so that you will be ready to continue welding.  After you have reloaded the electrode and are ready to start welding again you will need to strike the arc.  To successfully start the weld again you will need to strike the arc at a point beyond the point where you stopped.  It is important that when you strike the arc it is going in the same direction that you will be welding so that it can be melted and covered by the new weld bead you will be creating.

Once you have the arc ready to go you will then want to weld back up to the end of the bead where you stopped.  Once you have reached the stop point you will now start welding at the point where you stopped and then reverse the direction of your weld and begin moving the bead forward until you cover your strike mark.  At this point you should ensure that your welds are going in the same direction as the original weld. 

When you reach the point where your strike mark is you will want to melt this area by applying the bead to the strike mark.  This will melt the original strike mark and prevent cracks from forming after the weld is completed.  Once the strike mark has been melted properly you should continue with the welding bead until you reach the end of the piece being welded.  Once you reach the end of the metal you should then backtrack approximately 1/4 inch in order to fill in the crater that was left at the end of the metal you are welding.  The process of backtracking will help prevent cracks from forming at the end of the weld area and make the weld stronger.

Welding requires specialized knowledge on how to properly stop and start when welding.  To achieve the best result possible you should practice stopping and starting on pieces of scrap metal.  This will help you get the feel of starting, stopping and striking the arc. 

Can You Save Money on Shielding Gas for MIG Welding?

A few weeks ago I was watching a welding video where the guy actually talked about hooking up his welder to a tank of oxygen to use as a shielding gas. The comments, as you may expect, exploded. He thankfully didn't, as he'd only mispoken. He wasn't MIG welding with oxygen. He meant to talk about CO2, the gas that welders use as a shielding gas for MIG welding. Sometimes welders mix CO2 with argon, and that's what we're going to discuss today. 

At Welding Tips and Tricks, Jody put together a MIG welding video that compares how CO2 and argon stack up. Though CO2 is sometimes avoided because it may cause more spatter, it is usually cheaper than a CO2/Argon 25/75 mixture. Check out this video for more than a lesson in shielding gases. You'll also learn a lot about MIG welding in the process. 

Jody's test concluded that both gases performed quite well and that the test didn't show a clear winner. He wrote, "if the voltage and wire speed are balanced to find the sweet spot, CO2 gas can actually run very smoothly with little or no spatter. Especially when using inverter power sources that have an inductance setting favorable to Co2 shielding gas."

Throughout the video the one thing that stood out is that a welder's technique, metal prep, and welder settings can make a significant difference. For finer work on thin metal a CO2/Argon mixture may produce a cleaner weld, but if appearance isn't as significant a factor, then CO2 works just fine for experienced welders who know how to position their torch, run the wire at the optimal speed, and travel fast enough to penetrate the metal without creating a crown on the weld. 

Besides teaching good welding techniques, this video also teaches welders how to cut apart their test welds and to examine them to ensure they're prenetrating the metal properly. Learning how to diagnose problems in your weld with these tests make this video especially valuable for beginning welders who may need to work on their technique.