Welding Resources and Tips

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.

 

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. 

TIG vs. MIG Welding in “Jay Leno’s Garage” [VIDEO]

The man has over 100 cars, about 90 motorcycles and enough “Benjamins” in his pockets to continue buying more. Treasures aside, what Jay Leno doesn’t have is extensive welding knowledge.

In a bid to learn more about MIG and TIG welding, Jay hooked up with Airgas engineer Ken Kosiorek on Under the Hood, an online video series with Bernard Juchli, Leno’s top guy.

This video is one of many on Jay Leno’s Garage, a website featuring articles, blogs, photos, videos and more on Leno’s extensive auto collection.

*Transcript follows

 

 

Jay: Hi. Today’s Under the Hood segment is going to be about welding. This is Ken Kosiorek from Airgas. There’s probably more misconceptions about welding than almost anything else, and I start a lot of them ‘cause I know nothing about welding; Bernard is our expert welder.

Why don’t we explain the difference between TIG welding and other types of welding.

How to Get a Good Welding Ground [VIDEO]

In the video below, welding artist Kevin Caron – we first introduced him in the blog post MIG Welding Tip for Beginners: Push or Lead the Puddle? – gives us some tips on how to get a good welding ground. The self-taught welding artist has a website featuring many more welding tips and tricks for welders of all skill levels. Check him out: KevinCaron.com.

 

Kevin shares how to get a good ground while welding aluminum as he works on a public art sculpture. In addition to a magnetic ground, he talks about how to use a spring clamp ground.

 

9 Welding Project Videos to get you Inspired

Whether welding is your passion, your occupation, or both - sometimes a little inspiration is needed when you get in a rut. Check out these welding project videos for pictures, how-tos, and live action shots of welding projects. Some are done in home shops, others at their place of business, but they're all pretty cool.

Bill Bry's Welding Projects from billbry.com show more on-location welding projects than I can count. It's even tolerable to watch without sound. And be warned, freelance welders, you might just covet his welding trailer.

Here is a short video, homemade chopper, East Elgin welding project Part 1, that shows a bike that started in a high school class.

As a gift MrMldillman builds a podium in Home Welding Projects For Beginners: How to Make a Teachers Podium.

Best Welding Video How To – Workbench by RC Experimental is a simple project. He shows you what materials are needed, tack welds the frame, shows how he grinds down the welds, and attaches the legs.

Jason Hobbs Welding projects video is more of a slideshow of projects, but features a pretty impressive snow basket that attaches to a CAT.

Wyogabe's Fire Pit Project has a very cool swivel option and you can also cook over it! It has a grate holder that you can adjust just like an oven rack.

Bobby's Farm welding projects video shows a patio table, rack for behind the camper that is large enough to carry three coolers, and corn hole tables (like bean bag toss).

Welding artist Zann Jones' Welding Project - Little Guy is a creative project.

Here is a simple pencil holder project Art Home Welding Project by ArtStdTransylvania. It is a longer video, but includes basic welding tips, techniques, and tool info.

If you've done a project that you'd like to share, make sure to link to it in the comments below.