How to Learn to Weld as a Hobby

Whether you are young or even elderly, in Italy most training institutions offer welding courses that you can attend. These lessons are very cheap if not even free, as they are subsidized by community funds.

Go to training centers and schools and ask for a timetable that lists all the different courses they offer.

Take a walk around the school and check out the welding equipment to see if you might be interested.

Find out when the daily welding lesson ends to talk to the trainer who teaches it. Usually, they are more than willing to answer questions and give you a basic description of the lessons and what you can do after completing them.

Learn on your own. If you have access to a soldering iron and some metals, try to learn welding on your own.

Buy, borrow or rent a welder. For simplicity, we will look at a standard AC arc welder using welding electrodes.

Obtain welding rods called electrodes. They are sold according to their intended use, and are usually identified by a coded number.A 6011 rod is a mild steel electrode, designed to use alternating current (AC) or direct current electrode positive (DCEP).It is a great choice for learning basic steel welding.

Find some mild steel to practice with. It should be clean, unpainted, ungalvanized, and thick enough not to burn easily during welding.A good piece of steel to start with is a flat piece of 15x15x1cm, but any scrap flat or angle plate will do.

Place your piece of steel on a clean, dry, flat surface that is heat-resistant and non-flammable. A welding table, if available, would be ideal.If you end up working on the land, clear away any nearby flammable objects.

Connect the ground terminal. This is usually an uninsulated copper clamp that is part of the soldering iron.Make sure it makes good contact, grips the metal firmly, and is away from the welding process.

Wear welding gloves. You'll practice without the soldering iron turned on, but getting used to the feel of the electrode holder (stinger) with gloves on will make the transition easier once the soldering iron is turned on.

Insert the "clean" end (without the coating dust) of your electrode into the electrode holder. The stinger is a high-amperage insulated clamp with a handle that you will hold in your hand while welding.It should have grooves to hold the electrode at 180, 90, or 45 degrees to the handle.

Practice "striking" the electrode against the workpiece. The end of the electrode should hit the metal and move back about 3 mm, after which the arc will ignite or start.By practicing with the soldering iron turned off, you will need to "feel" the metal and control the tip to understand how much to pull it back after contact with the metal.To sustain the "arc flame" you will need to stand very close to the metal at the end of the electrode without touching it, which will take some practice.

Set the temperature range (or amperage) of the soldering iron to approximately 80 A (amps).

Put on your safety glasses and welding hood (or helmet, as it's sometimes called), with the dark lens upside down so you can see. Some hoods don't have a zipper, so you'll have to take the entire helmet off.Most helmets also hinge at the headband to allow you to hold the helmet in place while you replace the electrode or work on metal.

Turn on the soldering iron. The electrode is now charged with 80 amps of electricity at approximately 28 volts and is very dangerous.Do not touch uninsulated parts of the stinger while the soldering iron is active.You can install a new electrode with a dry gloved hand by gripping it where it is coated with a continuous flux.

Lower your dark lens or full helmet before holding the electrode against the metal for practice. You will see a flash when the arc has formed, and you will most likely tend to snap back:it's a natural reaction that you will soon be able to manage.You may need to practice striking your bow and moving the shaft backwards rapidly several times before you are actually able to sustain a stable bow flame.This is the first step to start welding.

Move the electrode along the surface of the metal slowly, watching for the pool of molten metal under the arc flame. You will get a more consistent weld bead if you twist or move the electrode back and forth as you move the electrode along the weld path.Typically, the finished weld is about the same width as two electrode diameters.If the electrode used for welding was 3 mm in diameter without the flux, the finished weld should be about twice as wide, i.e. 6 mm.

Create the weld bead a couple of inches along the metal, then pull the electrode back to break the arc.

When you raise the shield to look at the weld and evaluate it, you must wear your safety glasses. This is the typical time when people get a hot splinter in the eye if they don't wear glasses under the shield.Looking at the weld seam, is it straight?Is it uniform in width?Is the thickness uniform?

Use a scraper (or other similar tool) to loosen the slag (the oxidized metal and molten flux) from the bead to see the new metal deposited by the welding rod. Safety glasses are essential when scraping slag, and it's best to cool the metal—or wait for it to cool—before doing so.On your work piece you need to get a weld bead (the path of the new welded metal) with a smooth, flat surface.If there are bumps or places where little metal is deposited, it probably means that you have transferred it at an irregular speed.

Continue practicing on pieces of scrap metal, using the same electrodes and amperage setting, until you get a smooth bead.

Try joining two pieces of metal with welding. You need to "prep" the surfaces to be joined by filing a corner on each side to form a "V" where they meet and tape them together to hold them in place while you weld.

Experiment with other electrodes and amperages to see the different effects you get. Thicker metal requires more amperage and larger diameter electrodes, while thinner metal requires lower amperage and smaller diameter electrodes.Special electrodes are available for welding certain steel alloys, cast iron, ductile iron and aluminum.You can find electrodes at your local hardware or welding supply store.