Want to learn to weld

Hi,

As a recent Landy owner I think it could be helpful to learn some basic welding techniques for down the line when I try to tackle some minor repairs to door frames or the bulkhead.

I must admit I'm pretty clueless about whether MIG or TIG 'best' to learn or how to go about it. I've done a quick google and there's night courses but they're designed for people that want to do it for a living.

Are there any kind of weekend workshops or other ways to learn some basic stuff?

Cheers.

A pal talked me in to borrowing his kit, so far it's gone well with a fair bit of youtubeing

Just get on with it, following instructions with set and a few videos on the net.
Bacon sizzling is the sound you want, clean and well prepared surfaces, clean feed wire and decent gas if a mig that uses it.
I'd start with a mig using gas by the way.
Oh and get a reactive lens welding mask, they are so much better.

Outdoors on a car....... MIG.
Gas is preferable, if you can shield yourself from gale-force winds. Else, gasless and a chipping hammer and stink and fumes and a permanent cough. LOL.
Indoors, MIG with gas for speedy & decent work.
Indoors TIG for precision work.

Just my uneducated 2-cents worth.
There's blokes on here what can weld a complete new D1 chassis out of 2 spools of MIG wire in an afternoon. ;-)

DanClarke said:

Outdoors on a car....... MIG.
Gas is preferable, if you can shield yourself from gale-force winds. Else, gasless and a chipping hammer and stink and fumes and a permanent cough. LOL.
Indoors, MIG with gas for speedy & decent work.
Indoors TIG for precision work.

Just my uneducated 2-cents worth.
There's blokes on here what can weld a complete new D1 chassis out of 2 spools of MIG wire in an afternoon. ;-)

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Be sure you know what you're going to try welding. Most Landy work will probably be on the chassis and that's steel, but some of the body panels are aluminium and that takes a whole new set of expertise.
Get yourself some bits of scrap, sheet and chunks and just start. Most welding is largely technique.

Bit of reading for you: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/
Mig on gas here - Clarke 151EN which I've converted to big bottles & eurotorch. Hadn't used it gasless for years & I don't know if it will even work now it's eurotorch.
Careful arrangement of sheets of cardboard or wood takes care of most wind-blowing-gas-away problems
Small DIY bottles are expensive & don't last. Argoshield is much nicer than CO2.
Auto darkening shield is an essential.

Self taught, practice, practice, practice.

All good advice, especially that bit about practicing on some scrap metal. I would add, try not to set fire to the car and know where electric cables are before starting.

Col

Thanks for the advice - I think I'd want at least some guidance before 'going it alone' but I'll check out the You Tube stuff. I'm not going to be doing this soon, more a project for next year. I've got a tatty old spare Safari door with a rusty frame so could practice on that part first!

IMHO... being a true welder you should be part scientist, part engineer and part artist.
I've seen some weld jobs that could be works of art and I've seen more that were globs of rusted sh*t.

jee said:

Thanks for the advice - I think I'd want at least some guidance before 'going it alone' but I'll check out the You Tube stuff. I'm not going to be doing this soon, more a project for next year. I've got a tatty old spare Safari door with a rusty frame so could practice on that part first!

Click to expand...

TBH, most of the members here who do their own welding weren't actually taught to weld but learned to do it by themselves. Maybe a friend might have said something like "I wouldn't have done it like that", but that's about all the "instruction" that they ever received. Maybe you could pick up a book to give you some ideas of the theory, currents, feed rates etc. for various thicknesses and give it a go from there. Mig is fairly easy to get the hang of.
I know that's the way that I learned to "glue" metal plates together with a stick welder.

practice, practice, practice......and don't worry, you will get plenty owning a LR. As said before, metal identification is important, but it needs to be clean metal. A mig will kind of weld "through" limited rust, but it isn't pretty. Most important issue I think if your going to use Mig/Tig is where you are going to get your gas !! look into that before you commit to buying a welder.

I get my gas from local motor factors. Adams gas, deposit on bottle and just pay for new gas refil when empty.

Get the biggest stick welder that will fit in your shed. Set it on nuke and spray slag all over everything. If you run out of rods use six inch nails.

Oh and wear a hat. All welders are bald.

Its worked for me.