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Welding 101 for Hobbyists (and Nerds)

Welding 101 for Hobbyists (and Nerds!)

JANUARY 23, 2017

I got something fancy for Christmas this year: a new TIG welding machine,
which I’ve already christened in the typical Practical Engineering fashion. I’m a
welding newbie and currently absorbing anything I can on the subject, so while
I learn, I thought I would take the time to boil down some of that new
knowledge and share it with you. Now, this is welding for the guys and girls at
the front of the class who never set foot in the machine shop. You know who I’m
talking about: the marching band members, the geeks, the nerds. We’re not
going to obfuscate things with bumblefudgery and Canadian syllogisms. In
other words, if you already nail the keyhole on your root pass, if your stringers
are dime high and nickel wide, and certainly if you’ve ever kept anything in a
vice, this video might just be a bit elementary.

1. What is welding?

For our purposes, we’ll define welding as a way to join metals using fusion. That
fusion is what makes welding different than brazing or soldering. When you’re
joining metals, you have two parts, the base metal (the part you’re welding), and
the sometimes optional filler metal you use to reinforce the joint. With brazing
and soldering, the heat is only enough to melt the filler metal and not the base
metal. This is the metal equivalent to how most glues work. With welding, on
the other hand, the base metals are melted so that fusion can occur. The two
metals actually become one. Set your spirit free, it’s the only way to be… little
spice girls reference for you.

In general, and compared to other common building materials, metals have

excellent mechanical properties. They are hard, tough, strong, and durable. As
someone who, and I hesitate to say it on a welding video, occasionally works
the wood, even I can admit that metals are a superior material in many regards.
So you can see why it would be advantageous to have a way to connect them
together, especially if you can do it in such a way that joint isn’t the weakest
part of your assembly. That’s the goal of welding, and luckily, this is not
something reserved for industrial factories and machine shops. From my own
experiences so far, welding is something you might be able to do yourself as a
hobby. And stay tuned till the end for some tips for getting started.

2. What are the kinds of welding?

Welding requires two essential ingredients: heat and protection from the
atmosphere. The heat, of course, is necessary to melt the pieces of metal being
welded so that can fuse together. The shielding is necessary because molten
metals easily oxidize and absorb atmospheric contaminants. These impurities
will weaken a weld or prevent good fusion all together, so some kind of
shielding is usually required. Now, there are a lot of ways to make heat. That’s
actually a fundamental law of the universe, but it’s also true in the more specific
sense here. And surprisingly enough, there are a lot of ways to protect a weld
from contamination as well. So, as you can imagine, with only those two basic
requirements, a litany of welding methods have been developed using different
permutations of heat and shielding. Luckily for me as the writer of this video,
only a few of those methods are widely accessible to hobbyists. Today we’ll talk
briefly about five.

The first is oxy-fuel welding, also known as gas or torch welding. In this method,
the heat comes from the combustion of a mixture of pure oxygen and some
other gas, usually acetylene. This combination creates an extremely hot flame
which can exceed the melting point of most metals. The shielding comes from
the flame envelope and gases generated by the combustion (mainly carbon
dioxide). With oxy-fuel welding, you use the torch to generate a puddle of
molten metal. With your other hand you add filler metal to the weld. It’s a very
simple process and one of the oldest methods of welding. Advantages are that
it feels really awesome to hold an oxy-acetylene torch, it doesn’t require any
electricity, and the torch can also be used for other purposes like cutting, so
you can get a lot of uses out of a single tool. Disadvantages are that you have
to have two high pressure tanks of flammable gases nearby, and the torch is
kind of unwieldy which leads to slower and less-consistent welding.

For the next four types of welding, the heat comes from generating an electrical
arc between an electrode and the metal. You’ve got the short I sound
nicknames: Stick, MIG, and TIG, and I’ll sneak flux-core in next to MIG, since you
can usually use the same machine for both processes.

Probably the most common type of welding is shielded metal arc welding, also
known as stick welding. This process uses a power supply to maintain an arc
between the electrode and base metal. In stick welding, the electrode is also
the filler metal, and it’s surrounded by flux which melts during the welding
process. When an arc is struck, the heat generated melts both the base metal
and the electrode, causing them to fuse together. The flux coating also
disintegrates, generating both a shielding gas and slag which absorbs
impurities and creates a protective covering over the weld as it cools. Stick
welding is so popular because of its simplicity and versatility. Constant current
power supplies are fairly inexpensive compared to other welding machines, and
stick welding can be performed in almost any environment, including
underwater. Disadvantages are that it only works for certain metals (mostly iron
and steel) and that it can be a fairly messy process with lots of molten spatter
and fumes.

Next up are the two wire-feed welding methods. Gas Metal Arc Welding, also
known as MIG, and flux core arc welding. Both MIG and flux core welding use a
constant voltage power supply to generate the arc, and a wire feed mechanism
for the electrode which is also filler metal. Just like in stick welding, the arc
melts both the electrode and the base metal, allowing them to fuse together
into a weld. For MIG, the shielding comes from an inert gas (that’s the IG in MIG)
that surrounds the arc during the weld. Usually the gas shield is a mixture of
argon and carbon dioxide. As its name implies, flux-core welding uses a tubular
electrode with flux in the center. The flux shields the weld by generating gas
and slag just like with stick welding. You can use both an inert gas and flux-
cored wire, a process known as dual shield welding. Gas Metal Arc and Flux-
core arc are two of the fastest welding methods in terms of deposition rate,
since you don’t have to stop to get a new rod. MIG and flux core welding are
also considered the easiest methods to learn because there are fewer variables
to control during the process. MIG is generally an inside process, since wind
can blow away the shielding gas, but flux-core can be used in most
environments just like stick welding.

Finally, we have gas tungsten arc welding or TIG welding. This process is much
like torch welding. In fact the business end of a TIG welder is also called a
torch. It consists of a non-consumable tungsten electrode and a ceramic cup.
When TIG welding, the arc passes between the electrode and the metal, but
unlike in the other processes we’ve discussed, the electrode doesn’t melt since
it’s made of a tungsten alloy. Instead, filler metal is added to the weld puddle
with your other hand. The puddle and arc are shielded from the atmosphere by
the IG in TIG, usually pure argon gas, which is focused around the weld by a
ceramic cup. TIG is the most precise of the techniques we’ve discussed,
because you have much greater control over the length and current of the arc,
the rate at which filler metal is added, and other important variables which can
affect weld quality. That control also makes TIG the most appropriate method
for welding thin materials and non-ferrous metals like aluminum, magnesium,
and even titanium. For the same reason though, it’s probably the most
challenging process to master, and usually the slowest.
3. How do I get started?

To get started welding requires some equipment, most importantly a welding

machine or oxy-fuel setup. Many machines on the market today can perform
more than one welding process, so you don’t always have to choose a single
one. However, like many hobbies, there is some rabid brand loyalty when it
comes to arc welders, so make sure you choose the right color. You don’t want
to come home with a Lincoln only to find out that your wife only goes for Miller
guys. And don’t forget safety. Like any hobby that involves searingly bright
lights, molten metals, and high voltages, welding can be hazardous. Consider
the dangers before welcoming one of these machines into your home, and if
you’re budgeting to get started in the hobby, don’t forget all of the safety gear
you’ll need as well.

Like I mentioned at the start, I’m new to welding as well, so I’m far from your
best resource on the subject. Luckily for all of us, there are a few people on
YouTube putting out incredible educational content for free, two of whom were
kind enough to share footage with me for use in this video. Jody from Welding
Tips and Tricks makes awesome videos about welding including beautiful arc
shots so you can see exactly what’s happening when he welds. This Old Tony
makes extremely well-produced machine shop videos that are big on
fundamentals. Do yourself a favor and go subscribe to both of these channels. I
promise you will not regret it. Huge thanks to both of these guys for letting me
use some of their footage. Thank you for watching and let me know what you
think.

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Sunil Nayyar A year ago · 0 Likes

Can I do TIG Welding to repair a cracked brazed joint. What can be the
repercussions and What precautions to be taken. Vice Versa Can I do
brazing on a cracked TIG welded joint
Sunil Nayyar
[email protected]

david lokosang james 2 years ago · 0 Likes

How do we learn practical and easy skills in kakuma refugees camp

SAM TAYLOR 2 years ago · 0 Likes

Awesome! Thank you!!!