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April 2, 2009 6:43 p.m. peter New Reader

I just signed up for an oxy-acetylene beginning welding class at a local art school. Seven three-hour classes starting in a couple weeks.

I don't have much faith that the course will be directly applicable to future car projects, but it does allow me to step up to the MIG welding class next term.

To get to the questions - anything I should particularly pay attention to in this class? I'm sure the class will be very fundamentals oriented, but are there specific topics I should spend extra time to master?

Any sage advice from folks here?
April 2, 2009 7:11 p.m. mblommel New Reader

Oxy-Acetylene pays off when you get to TIG. The hand motion with the rod and torch is pretty much the same, but everything happens a lot slower with Oxy-Acetylene and you don't have the foot pedal to deal with. My advice is don't blow off the course. Learn as much as you can because you'll be surprised how much it will help later.
April 2, 2009 7:54 p.m. ronbros New Reader

where are you taking the class? and what he said , go slow and learn. all of it is important. here in austin there is this young guy 22yrs, he is an absolute wizard with a TIG ,stainless and aluminum, his ability to fab custom stainless headers would make F1 envy!
April 2, 2009 8:18 p.m. peter New Reader

http://www.edalliance.org

I don't plan to blow off any part of the class, far from it, just wondering if there were any techniques or subtleties I should pay extra attention to in class.

Interesting to hear Oxy pays off with TIG, definitely looking forward to doing that one day...
April 2, 2009 9:26 p.m. Schmidlap New Reader

Tell the teacher what your interests are and what you hope to do in the future and see if it's possible for him to use automotive repair/fabrication applications in his demonstrations. If it's your first welding class it will probably be pretty basic stuff like butt welds and lap welds in a flat position, but depending on how quickly you progress he may be able to give you tips on welding thin metal, or welding tube, etc.

Bob
April 2, 2009 9:45 p.m. motionsick None

brazing cast iron is the thing you'll use most in automotive. fixing cracked exhust manifolds. atleast till you start building your own roll cages and headers then you'll want the tig....
April 2, 2009 11:18 p.m. amg_rx7 Reader

http://www.techshop.ws/

This place is local to me. They have memberships to their fab facility - Welding equipment and classes, CNC machines, Presses, metal fab, powder coating, solidworks etc etc
April 3, 2009 4:50 a.m. foxtrapper SuperDork

The thinner metal you can weld, the more usefull you'll find that torch.
April 3, 2009 5:51 a.m. ncjay New Reader

I've been welding for over 20 years and believe if are good at welding exhaust tubing with an oxyacetylene torch, everything else becomes very easy. The most important thing to learn is technique. Once you get the rhythym/timing down, it translates over to MIG and TIG very well. The best thing to pay attention to is everything. You can't learn too much, even if you never use it again.
April 3, 2009 8:37 a.m. cwh Dork

One side effect of learning to weld is that you will have a lot of new, needy, friends. Most people think welding is a mysterious pagan art. We know better.
April 3, 2009 8:55 a.m. kreb Dork

Good advice above. I've taken welding at art schools and trade schools, and while the trade schools had the better equipment, the teaching sucked. Basically it was a cheap way to get access to equipment. At the art school, the teacher was more available, but didn't care about things like full penetration. Bottom line is that you may get lucky and score a good teacher, but probably not. Take your own initiative and you'll learn plenty, but don't be passive relative to the learning process, or it'll be a waste of time.
April 3, 2009 8:56 a.m. kreb Dork

cwh wrote:

One side effect of learning to weld is that you will have a lot of new, needy, friends. Most people think welding is a mysterious pagan art. We know better.

I've been welding for 25 years and I still get a little thrill manipulating a puddle of molten metal. Don't believe this guy, welders are gods!
April 4, 2009 11:00 a.m. IWELDIT New Reader

They still teach that E36 M3.......I thought that was almost a lost art... I remember learning that when I Took Grade 9 welding back 23 years ago. We had to learn that before we could do stick welding..then we went to mig then tig.... Lets just say I perfected them all
April 4, 2009 11:48 a.m. minimac Dork

IWELDIT wrote:

They still teach that E36 M3.......I thought that was almost a lost art...

It was and still is a good place to start. It will teach a newbie how to watch the puddle, overlap,hand-eye cordination, etc., all good things to have when you really start to fuse metal. Some people never get it and some are naturals. I had to learn that before stick and tig as part of my apprenticeship. Surprisingly, I still run into a situation occasionally where I'll have to gas weld something.
April 4, 2009 12:06 p.m. cwh Dork

A whole lot of airplanes were put together with oxy-acetylene. Still flying.
April 4, 2009 1:54 p.m. kreb Dork

Some of your very best panel beaters choose Oxy-acetylene over Tig. The weapon of choice seems to be one of those Meco mini torches. That would enable one to get a DC only TIG setup for a lot less $$$ than AC/DC and still be able to weld Aluminum.
April 4, 2009 2:16 p.m. jamscal HalfDork

I would like to do more OA welding, and think it's cool, BUT:

I've taught at least two people how to tig who had previously OA welded, and

I don't think it transfers as well as people think.

They wanted to wave the tig torch over the work, pull it back, etc. to control the puddle. Tig doesn't work like that.

I also think it takes more technique, experience and practice to do OA on all metals, all for results that are sound, but not as pretty as tig. (I know this isn't a concern for some people).

There is still a place for OA welding, but it's going to be speciality applications, high end restorations, and budget restricted people.

Learn as much as you can, it won't hurt.

-James
April 4, 2009 6:29 p.m. vazbmw New Reader

I would say that rythm and weld pool control would be something to focus on. Also learn to understand metal. This will help your TIG later. The hand control and actions are very similar. I think good OxyAc welding is more difficult to master that TIG, since there is heat control like Tig. It is all speed and observation of the weld pool to control heat

I had an instructor that did some aluminium with OxyAc. Very impressive. The sheild was not gas, it was carbon soot he applied with the torche before the welding.
April 4, 2009 6:37 p.m. vazbmw New Reader

minimac wrote: Surprisingly, I still run into a situation occasionally where I'll have to gas weld something.

Although don't forget the benefits of brazing and soldering. Once you learn the OxyAc torch the world will be yours.
April 4, 2009 6:58 p.m. Opus HalfDork

Class I took at a local JC started with OxyAc and progressed to Arc welding with a stick followed by wire feed. After the class, I purchased a Tig and have fabricated a lot for my car.