re: Any place around BR to take a welding class?

quote:

---

Go buy a a little $300 entry level Lincoln wire feeder, I recommend a flux core machine with gas. Then go to a scrap yard and buy some scraps, watch some youtube videos (welding tips and tricks is a good one) and get after it. A monkey can weld with a wire feeder. If you want to learn how to TIG or weld with stick its a little harder and you would need someone to show you.

---

Decent recommendations, including the YouTube vids, especially this series and this series, but I wouldn't worry about flux core to start. I suggest you do the following:

1. Buy this welder.
2. Go to Tractor Supply and buy this helmet.
3. While you are there, buy 1) a 10# roll of ER70S6 wire with .024-.025 or .030 diameter, a jar of nozzle gel, mig pliers, a doo rag, welding gloves, wire brush, 4.5" angle grinder, 4.5" grinding and cut-off wheels (and a couple of 40-60 grit flap wheels, and a few pieces of steel to practice on.
4. Go to Harbor Freight and buy this cart.
5. Go to your local welding store (Airgas, Red Ball, etc.) and buy an 80cf cylinder of 75% Argon/25% CO2.

Once you have this stuff, watch the two video series linked above and start practicing.

When you are ready for a project, it's time to visit your local steel supplier to stop paying the 100%+ retail markup for metal anywhere else. It will also be time to consider buying a decent plasma cutter if you want to work with sheet or plate or pay the supplier to cut it to size first.

When you get ready for larger projects, like building that trailer that you have always wanted, you will realize that you needed a 180-230 amp welder and a good metal cutting saw.

When you are ready to make a crawfish boiler, it will be time to purchase one of these.

Whatever equipment you choose, don't just buy the cheap stuff. Read the reveiws. It's hard to go wrong with Miller, Lincoln, Esab, Hobart and Tweco/Thermal Arc.

Pretty good advice all layed out there. I do like a little more machine though and some of the other stuff is not needed unless he goes into doing some fabrication on at least a semi regular basis. A cart would be a great first project.

Oh and please no doo rag. Get a lapco or similar welding cap.

I definitely got sunburned from welding over the weekend. Forehead was peeling for the past two days