Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: bertie1.8vectra on 26 June 2012, 23:02:25
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now ive got the disco i want to learn how to weld... any tips on where to go or look into learning about it??? :y
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Sills, body/chassis mounts, bottom of the b pillars. Pretty much anywhere thats steel as opposed to ally.... :) ;) 8)
Or try your local techy college. Normaly good for night classes.... :y
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if you lived near me i would teach you
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if you lived near me i would teach you
Dito :)
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if you lived near me i would teach you
Dito :)
You don't know what kind of welding he wants to do! ::) ::)
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Here is a good site:
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php
Tutorials across the top.
For vehicle welding, MIG and TIG are the most appropriate (but TIG is pricey) as ARC is not so good on thin sheet and Gas is expensive.
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Here is a good site:
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php (http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php)
Tutorials across the top.
For vehicle welding, MIG and TIG are the most appropriate (but TIG is pricey) as ARC is not so good on thin sheet and Gas is expensive.
thanks for the link :y
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I would second the recommendation to go to your local college. For me, it was worth it just for the practice as I must have used many times the course fee in metal and consumables alone. ::)
Then again, we had a good teacher. He just let us roam free in a workshop full of MMA,MIG,TIG,gas and spot welding kit and do what we wanted, offering advice when it went Pete Tong. ;D
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I did a couple of City and Guilds as a night school years ago. Good as a basic introduction, but it was all about welding thick plate so not particularly relevant to cars. But, once you know the basics you can adapt your skills to suit. Also a good tutor should be able to help and advise outside the boundaries of the course, and I would say it is invaluable to have some one with experience there to help and advise rather than learning from a website/book. You should be able to get the hang of mig fairly quickly to patch stuff up to MOT standard, the art is in fabricating good repair panels if you want it to look nice.
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Most colleges do courses in vehicle restoration too. Might be more appropriate than just the welding aspect perhaps?
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Most colleges do courses in vehicle restoration too. Might be more appropriate than just the welding aspect perhaps?
Restore? A Disco? Nah, just bodge it together with bailing wire and gaffer tape ;)
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Most colleges do courses in vehicle restoration too. Might be more appropriate than just the welding aspect perhaps?
Restore? A Disco? Nah, just bodge it together with bailing wire and gaffer tape ;)
Much like Landrover did then !,And I'm not taking the piss,I own one :-[
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I should add that I am totaly self taught, starting with MIG and then ARC and TIG.
Can weld most things, done alloys and steel with TIG, large steel stuff with ARC and most things with MIG (from thin plate Fiats through to 20mm platework).
Once you understand the basics you soon pick it up. :y
I should add that I found it very hard to find courses that teach welding etc of an evening in this area
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Not a welder myself but i do have a brand new mig welder never used , is aluminium welding more difficult than say steel :-\
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the on;y advice i would give is invest in a good set as the cheap ones if you have no experience are crap and are not starter friendly(bird shit lol).i always said with a good set i could teach anybody to weld in 10 mins....well the basics anyway ;D
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the on;y advice i would give is invest in a good set as the cheap ones if you have no experience are crap and are not starter friendly(bird shit lol).i always said with a good set i could teach anybody to weld in 10 mins....well the basics anyway ;D
I fully agree with all of that.
A small DIY machine with a disposable cylinder is an awful thing to use and makes worse welds. And that is with practice; if you've not had any, you will be on a hiding to nothing.
I did the part time restoration course at Maidstone college as I wanted to be shown various panel beating procedures, use their bigger machinery and get some proper tuition for oxy-acetylene welding with which I was really struggling. Doug sorted my problem in under 5mins(too much oxygen, and using the wrong part of too big a flame for anyone who is interested) whilst the others played about with MIGs. The instructions for that were "It's set up for the thickness of metal you've got, hold it like this and pull the trigger. Move the torch about as quickly as you'd draw with a felt tip, and I'll see you in a minute". In that time, some of them were astonished to learn that they'd welded 2 pieces of metal to a 'standard' that would pass an MOT! Basic MIG welding really can be that easy.
Most people who struggle with it are not using/don't have enough power, or are moving at the wrong speed. Fixing such problems is seriously counter-intuitive, especially on thin sheetmetal. Having someone who can demonstrate a better way/settings will save hours of grief. And lots of consumables! Using a proper cylinder with CO2/Argon is essential. Cheaper in the long run too.
As for TIG, it's the last type to buy. Oxy acetylene is much more useful for general workshop use, and far cheaper. Being able to get fasteners redhot first saves hours of messing about drilling retapping etc, especially on things like exhaust manifolds. I have had a decent AC/DC machine for several years, and have never found a use for it for anything actually on the car. The metal has to perfectly clean and fit exceptionally well everywhere, before you start welding. Doing floors, sills and other structural repairs with one are purely vanity jobs in my opinion.
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For me, I have a different view to Nick W.
Mainly because there are some hobby MIG welders that are pretty good and very useable.
I personaly would go gas last due to the annual charge on the bottles and the initial purchase price, you need to be using it regularly to get it to be cost effective.