I found the best way is to just do it and practice. If you don't want to
spend the money on a wire feeder, go to a welding supply house and get a
Lincoln or Hobart AC/DC buzz box and a welding handbook. If you buy it
from a welding supplier (as opposed to Home Depot or Harbor Freight)
chances are good they will spend some time showing you how to set up and
get started and when you come back and ask questions they will be a lot
more willing to help; a lot of welding suppliers have a welding table set
up so guys can play with the new equipment. DC welders are a lot easier to
use than AC only, make nicer beads, don't spatter as much and give you a
lot more variety in rod. Go to the salvage yard, get a bunch of angle and
flat stock and spend a few weekends just running beads. You'll learn soon
enough. If you can afford it, get a good name brand wire feeder. I have a
220 volt Lincoln (will get the model number if you want) and all I ever run
is dual shield wire (flux core) so I don't need shielding gas. It is more
messy than with gas, but less fooling around; just grab the gun and
weld. I'm self taught, but I made a pretty nice motorcycle lift from
salvage yard angle iron, and I'm always making something for one of my
tractors.
Dave C
At 07:27 PM 9/6/2004 -0500, Patton Dickson wrote:
>like the other ideas, but the best one is learn to weld. None of the high
>schools or Jr colleges with 25 mile teach welding, or I would take a class.
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