As everyone has noticed, I have been trying to teach myself how to weld and had thought that I was doing a okay job. Thanks to everyone's help here at the FIX I got some very good advice when I had posted a photograph of my welds on the shock towers. Thanks again everyone for speaking up and letting me know what I was doing was not safe.
At this point, I really didn't know what to do, I was watching a TCP welding video Craig lent me, I was looking all through the WWW and youtube and couldn't seem to figure it out. Shocker, :shrug I know! So, I reached out to John(opentracker) who also runs an amazing establishment everyone here should be familiar with http://www.opentrackerracingproducts.com for some help. He figured since we were all getting together in two days at Baja Cantina we could speak in more detail there. John was nice enough to weld up some sample pieces right before showing up at Baja so he can explain the technique and how to achieve such welds of beauty and strength.
As dinner progressed John mentioned that he would be happy to make the drive over to my place and help provide me with a good foundation to grow and learn from. I stated that I would also drive out to his place but educated me that it would be best to for me to learn on my machine with my power/gas setup. I was speechless and didn't refuse.
10 am yesterday John was able to make it, and the weather allowed Craig to cruise Red on over the bridge for some much needed lovin'. John was able to fit and entire welding station in the back of his car which we slowly unloaded and set up along with my welder and we got started.
The first thing he made sure I knew were all the safety precautions, next step was teaching me proper setup and prep before starting to weld. He introduced me and showed me how to use a lot of different tools that I had never had first hand experience with.
Here are just a few:
Once I understood the basics and demonstrated that I could retain what I was learning in my brain John felt it was time for me to watch him lay down some welds.
I learned a ton just from watching him weld and being able to ask questions while he was laying it down. I swear, I really was learning a lot and loving every minute of it, I especially enjoyed taking a couple of practice welds with real time feedback of what I was doing wrong like holding the tip to close to the material :char (bad habbits I taught myself that I am trying to break now). After a couple of practice runs it was lunch time. Oh yeah, I had gone to the store and since John had gone so far out of his way for me I had to go all out.
Carne asada, beer battered Shrimp, beans, rice, pico de gallo, chips, home made salsa, the WORKS. :yah
After lunch it was back to welding where some of the wisest welding wisdom was imparted. "Before you start to weld on the car, set up some practice welds replicating the exact type of welding scenario your going to be performing on the car". Totally makes sense! No point welding on the car without kowing what the end result is going to be.
Craig had to go but before he did John had to reveal some goodies he had for us.
Some material for both of us to practice with
Some cool stuff to prep our welding surface and clean up the welds after if necessary.
Here is an example of what my welds looked like at the end of our welding lesson.
My welder was getting the job done but it was missing some features like the pull back feature on the Lincoln's where after you release the trigger it retracts a little of the welding wire which was huge when we practiced welding verticaly. John then offered to leave behind his welding station that he had brought with him for me to continue welding with. I usually have something to say but this time I really couldn't find any words other than thank you. :thu
Today, I played hooky from work and finished up my welding table by adding casters and a vertical 2x4 to givce some more gifts John had brought over a home. Simple yet genius tools.
The hook is obvoiusly to have a easy quick place to house the gun, and the bolt welded on to the bracket that still needs to be screwed in so I can unscrew the nozzle and easily clean out the slag that builds up inside.
The pliers welded to the bracket for a easy almost hands free way of cutting the excess wire after a specific weld has been completed.
Here was my first horizontal practice weld of the day.
Here is my first vertical weld of the day where I started from the bottom and worked my way up. (Vertical weld is the weld on the right)
:bowdown
At this point, I really didn't know what to do, I was watching a TCP welding video Craig lent me, I was looking all through the WWW and youtube and couldn't seem to figure it out. Shocker, :shrug I know! So, I reached out to John(opentracker) who also runs an amazing establishment everyone here should be familiar with http://www.opentrackerracingproducts.com for some help. He figured since we were all getting together in two days at Baja Cantina we could speak in more detail there. John was nice enough to weld up some sample pieces right before showing up at Baja so he can explain the technique and how to achieve such welds of beauty and strength.
As dinner progressed John mentioned that he would be happy to make the drive over to my place and help provide me with a good foundation to grow and learn from. I stated that I would also drive out to his place but educated me that it would be best to for me to learn on my machine with my power/gas setup. I was speechless and didn't refuse.
10 am yesterday John was able to make it, and the weather allowed Craig to cruise Red on over the bridge for some much needed lovin'. John was able to fit and entire welding station in the back of his car which we slowly unloaded and set up along with my welder and we got started.
The first thing he made sure I knew were all the safety precautions, next step was teaching me proper setup and prep before starting to weld. He introduced me and showed me how to use a lot of different tools that I had never had first hand experience with.
Here are just a few:
Once I understood the basics and demonstrated that I could retain what I was learning in my brain John felt it was time for me to watch him lay down some welds.
I learned a ton just from watching him weld and being able to ask questions while he was laying it down. I swear, I really was learning a lot and loving every minute of it, I especially enjoyed taking a couple of practice welds with real time feedback of what I was doing wrong like holding the tip to close to the material :char (bad habbits I taught myself that I am trying to break now). After a couple of practice runs it was lunch time. Oh yeah, I had gone to the store and since John had gone so far out of his way for me I had to go all out.
Carne asada, beer battered Shrimp, beans, rice, pico de gallo, chips, home made salsa, the WORKS. :yah
After lunch it was back to welding where some of the wisest welding wisdom was imparted. "Before you start to weld on the car, set up some practice welds replicating the exact type of welding scenario your going to be performing on the car". Totally makes sense! No point welding on the car without kowing what the end result is going to be.
Craig had to go but before he did John had to reveal some goodies he had for us.
Some material for both of us to practice with
Some cool stuff to prep our welding surface and clean up the welds after if necessary.
Here is an example of what my welds looked like at the end of our welding lesson.
My welder was getting the job done but it was missing some features like the pull back feature on the Lincoln's where after you release the trigger it retracts a little of the welding wire which was huge when we practiced welding verticaly. John then offered to leave behind his welding station that he had brought with him for me to continue welding with. I usually have something to say but this time I really couldn't find any words other than thank you. :thu
Today, I played hooky from work and finished up my welding table by adding casters and a vertical 2x4 to givce some more gifts John had brought over a home. Simple yet genius tools.
The hook is obvoiusly to have a easy quick place to house the gun, and the bolt welded on to the bracket that still needs to be screwed in so I can unscrew the nozzle and easily clean out the slag that builds up inside.
The pliers welded to the bracket for a easy almost hands free way of cutting the excess wire after a specific weld has been completed.
Here was my first horizontal practice weld of the day.
Here is my first vertical weld of the day where I started from the bottom and worked my way up. (Vertical weld is the weld on the right)
:bowdown
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