Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello community,

I have long desired to learn how to weld - although it is not my career, and likely will never be, I still want to learn.

I have purchased a Miller Multimatic 200, and still tooling up my garage to get everything out of it that I can.

I have struck an arc with a friends TIG machine, and did some really ugly welding on a race car seat. Other than that day, I have never run a welding machine, short of a few flux core MIG beads just to test out my new rig.... I was too giddy to wait on gas bottles and the likes to think about being patient.

So I'm here to learn... I'll be looking for help on how to get started, the sort of thing I won't hear or see on YouTube...

Its great watching really skilled people lay really beautiful beads on YouTube, but that doesn't really help me understand what I'm doing wrong, other than, I know I'm doing something wrong - It would be nice to see video reviews of someone else's less skilled work, and diagnose the mistakes.

Therefore, I'll be asking lots of really stupid questions - please be patient with me....

GarageHobbyGuy wrote: I have long desired to learn how to weld - although it is not my career, and likely will never be, I still want to learn.

Welcome.
I am not a pro either but I am addicted to plasma forever.

You and other new members have some good welding machines.
I better not reveal with what I weld with

Therefore, I'll be asking lots of really stupid questions - please be patient with me....

Stupid questions and beginner questions are not the same.

That’s a good welder! Honestly man the best thing would to watch someone run a bead. If you know anyone who welds. Tell them to let you watch them run one. That way you will get an idea of how the puddle should look. Then from there just practice practice. The main thing about welding is reading the puddle. when you going to slow or two fast, if it’s to hot or to cold. Watchin someone run one bead an seeing how it’s ran will have you running decent beads shortly after

And256 wrote:
Stupid questions and beginner questions are not the same.

Ha! You haven't seen my questions yet.....

Chedda93 wrote:That’s a good welder! Honestly man the best thing would to watch someone run a bead. If you know anyone who welds. Tell them to let you watch them run one. That way you will get an idea of how the puddle should look. Then from there just practice practice. The main thing about welding is reading the puddle. when you going to slow or two fast, if it’s to hot or to cold. Watchin someone run one bead an seeing how it’s ran will have you running decent beads shortly after

Yeah, I've been thinking about how to arrange something like that.

I've been playing with the flux-core MIG and Stick - and can already tell it's going to be something I do over and over, then at some point I think it's going to click and it all makes sense.

Once I strike an arc, its all feels like its happening at 100 MPH with 3 or 4 things to think about...

I agree, watching it done right will help. Also, I'd love to have someone to look over my should and tell me what I'm doing wrong.