Thinking of taking a welding class | Page 4 | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

Well didn't get a chance to take a class in 2015, so decided to do it this month.

Would like to take this one but it runs from 6-9 and is about an hour and a half away, not really excited about that with snow still coming.

https://maineadulted.coursestorm.com/msad52/course/welding3

Think my brother and I are going to take this class together

https://maineadulted.coursestorm.com/midcoastadulted/course/machining-i2

my first line!

I suck 🙁

Well I withdrew from the welding class after some thinking Wed. 

I did for several reasons.

1. The class being two nights a week.

My wed's are pretty shot anyways because my wife works that day so I usually end up babysitting the puppies all day or else they are locked in the crate. With the classes on Tues and Thursday I usually get out of work around 11 am and would have to leave around 2:30 or so to get to the class on time. So those days are pretty shot as well.

2. The drive.

Even though it is 30 miles closer than the one in turner due it still takes about an hour and a half to get there due to back country roads, same as the amount of time it would be to turner. But the road conditions are much better going to Turner since it would be a straight shot on 95 versus potholed and gravel roads. The drive home was pretty sketchy the other night since it was starting to freeze.

3. The biggest issue though is some safety concerns.

The instructor is a nice enough guy and got along well with everyone, he has been welding for about 10-15 years.

We spent the first hour or so watching a safety video, went down to the shop and the instructor gave us a 15 minute break while he set the machines up. When he was ready he told everyone to put on their safety glasses, well not everyone had them, half had brought welding helmets and half had brought safety glasses.

So he told the ones without safety glasses to go to the office and borrow some and he had extra helmets for those that don't have them.

After everyone was set he sat down, showed the ground and positive, explained scratching, did a weld line and said alright split up into teams and you try.

One woman asked if he could explain what he did and technique, so he repeated it and mentioned you can rest your arm on the welding table to steady yourself and explained it a little more.

I asked what would cause you to get shocked, he replied that everyone gets shocked sooner or later. I replied so it's okay to weld with wet gloves and bare feet? Trying to make a point.

No, you don't want to do that.

So we broke up into teams and he walked around with some welding stick. He came up to me and I picked up a stack from his hand and immediately dropped them, they were hotter than hell.

Don't grab them with a bare hand he said, we pre-heat the sticks. Uh, thanks for the warning.

So I practiced with a stick and when I was finished set the equipment down to let my partner try. He sat down put on his helmet and said I can't see.

What I asked?

I can't see.

I asked him for his helmet, put it on and it was a fully darkened helmet, where mine is a auto darkening. I gave him my helmet to use and went and asked the teacher if he had any auto darkening helmets.

A what?

An auto darkening helmet.

No why?

Well all these are darkened and people are trying this for the first time and they can't see what they are doing, my partner almost just welded the welding table instead of working on the metal in front of him.

So he hollered if anyone else had auto helmets and pretty much everyone that had brought them did, so he instructed us to share them within the workgroups.

There were a couple other things but these ones stood out to me.

At the end of the class we cleaned up and he said see you next week!

Uh, we have class thursday night, classes are twice a week.

They are? Alright see you thursday.

So I thought about it Wed and they had said if we were going to drop out of class and wanted a refund we had to do it before the second class.

Newsettler had asked what I had thought of the class and I told him my concerns.

He said you know, I am a certified welder, I could just teach you.

Now newsettler has offered this in the past which is great of him, but finding the time for the 2 of us to sit down for several hours each week would be difficult. I figured it would be easier to just take a class.

He said that he would set aside three hours on Wed or Sunday if I wanted.

I thanked him and told him I would think about it. At this point I was still debating just finishing the class but said that if I did not then we would try it for two weeks, if I didn't feel comfortable with what he was showing me then I would sign up for the class in turner which doesn't start for 3 or 4 weeks. No hard feelings.

He was fine with that.

So a couple hours later I was in the house and my arm was killing me, I thought I had scratched myself in the workshop or something, so I looked down at my arm.

I know about UV protection needed for welding but it had totally slipped my mind the night of the class and it was never even mentioned. I guarantee there are 12 other people with varying degrees of burned arms because he told us all to rest ourselves on the welding tables.

So Newsettler and I are going to be practicing for the next couple weeks and I will decide from there if I want to take the other class.

I sincerely hope the machining class is better.