booked myself on a course!

[pauld]

After getting a TIG machine last year, and hardly having turned it on (or the mig for that matter..... 3 young kids seem to get in the way!) I have finally got rount to booking myself on a welding course to learn how to do it!! I have booked in at Southampton City College for a 10 evening course (can do arc, mig or tig, but I am only going for the TIG really!). I will try to feed back how it is going

Anyone else done the "Introduction to Welding" at City College?

 

[Signs]

Ditto!

I've just done the same for the course in Bournemouth!, would be interesting comparing the quality of the classes, how much did you pay for yours?

I'm excited, this is the start of my career

 

[pauld]

I will try to write up a bit each week as the course progresses... but that is all time dependant! 3 children under 4 years old takes its toll

The course is 1 evening a week for 10 weeks, 2 hours each session. Total cost was £205, which was £190 course fee and £15 college fee (whatever that is!). There probably are cheaper around, but it is a convenient location for me, and it is quite rare that I am in the country for 10 weeks in a row without having to fly off somewhere with work, so I thought I would do it while I have a chance!

 

[pauld]

Forgot to say... I see you are new to the forum... why not drop by the Introductions section and say hello to everyone! Always interesting to know what new people are doing, what projects you are planning etc!

 

[Matt the sign]

Same price for the same course at Crawley College (although we don't get charged the £15 College fee and our lessons are 3.5 hours long) - Evidently, if you pass, the college get the fee topped up by the Government by another £400 or so.

I've completed the Mig 1 & 2 courses and i've been trying Tig for the last couple of weeks as I've got 7 weeks in lieu left over from the other courses.

Must admit i'm struggling a little. I'm finding it really hard to feed the welding wire in with my left hand !!!

Good luck on your course

 

[pauld]

1st night Tigging

Well, last night was my first night on the "Introduction to Welding" course at Southampton City College.

The first bit, of course, was taken up with the usual Health & Safety stuff, about 20-30mins of that... then we moved into the workshop. Bit more health and safety in there, but mainly looking at some of the equipment, like the bit sheet cutter. We then split up into 2 groups. There were 3 of us wanting to do TIG, and about 5 others that are starting off on MIG.

He showed us how to put the TIG torch together and then sent us off to setup our own machine (some Miller machine, not sure exact model). While we were doing this he went back to the MIG group. Once he was back he showed us how to hold the torch and just run a weld on a thin sheet. He got the 3 of us to practice together, before moving on to trying butt welding 2 sheets. No filler rod at the moment, just autogenous (is that what it is called). Managed to achieve some reasonable looking welds everything considered. Sorry, forgot to take camera, so no photos this week!

 

[pauld]

2nd Night Tigging

Short update on my second night on the course!

Started off as we finished last night, just doing a couple of butt welds.

Then we moved on to some 90deg outer edge welds... still autogenous.

He got us to tack the pieces at 90deg to create a tube, and then weld the edges, and then weld a piece on one end to create a little vessel! Then got to test it with water

First one wasn't brilliant, but I am quite pleased with my second attempt... I think the welds actually look half decent!