Signed up for a welding course

[Toltec]

I work with one of the members on this site and he has persuaded me to sign up for a welding course at the local college. Not that he had to try that hard, I run a track day car and will be starting a kit car build soon, added to that I have a general interest in things engineering. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

So for a couple of hours a week over 26 weeks I get to use mig/tig/mma & O/A and see what I can learn. I am also hoping to get a good idea what the processes are best at and what to look for in the various machines if and when I buy one.

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome and good luck!

 

[zzr1200]

Toltec welcome to the site, your should learn loads of the basic welding stuff while on the course, but its only a very small part the knowledge your'll pick up over the years. I hope you enjoy the course, also noticed your in NW Kent, wheres the course being held???

 

[Toltec]

Toltec welcome to the site, your should learn loads of the basic welding stuff while on the course, but its only a very small part the knowledge your'll pick up over the years. I hope you enjoy the course, also noticed your in NW Kent, wheres the course being held???

Yep, I see it as a start into the craft, a good basic grounding that will let me develop to the level I need/want without taking too many wrong turns to start with.

The course is being run by Mid Kent college at one of their Rochester sites, starts tonight. I work in Maidstone so quite convenient to go up there after I finish for the day.

Edit: Wrong name for the college

 

[jugs]

Wellcome
Lots of good info on this site, spend some time looking at old threads, you never know where it may lead

 

[Toltec]

Welcome and good luck!

Thank you.

Noticed you are in Sheffield, I lived there for seven years myself, loved being able to walk into the center for the shops, pubs etc. or down to Hunters Bar and out through the park to the Peak District.

 

[Toltec]

spend some time looking at old threads, you never know where it may lead

Had a good read of many threads already, at the moment they keep leading me to £2000+ welding machines

Old enough and wise enough to know I need learn how to walk before trying to run - not to mention I am a Yorkshireman so do not like to spend more than I have to.

At least I managed to restrain myself and buy a Parweld mask rather than a Esab Eytech, that isn't to say I won't in the future just that when I do I will hopefully understand the benefit, the same goes for the machines.

 

[Toltec]

First session of the course last night.

After a bit of paperwork and a safety briefing we spent an hour on gas welding.

Maintaining a weld pool
then adding filler
then I had a go at an overlapping joint

Great fun, think I am hooked.

 

[jugs]

Thank you.

Noticed you are in Sheffield, I lived there for seven years myself, loved being able to walk into the center for the shops, pubs etc. or down to Hunters Bar and out through the park to the Peak District.

Where were you ? we lived in Snaithing Lane & used to have a workshop in Rosedale Rd, near the Snuff Mill (behind Eccleshall Rd Tesco). Used to go through the park / Hunters Bar twice a day for years, the traffic fumes & congestion got so bad we moved out here in 2000. Still go back to see friends (& look for bits in skips)

 

[Toltec]

Where were you ? we lived in Snaithing Lane & used to have a workshop in Rosedale Rd, near the Snuff Mill (behind Eccleshall Rd Tesco). Used to go through the park / Hunters Bar twice a day for years, the traffic fumes & congestion got so bad we moved out here in 2000. Still go back to see friends (& look for bits in skips)

For the last four years before moving down to Kent I lived on Bowood Road between Psalter Lane and Sharrow Vale Road. Used to walk down Rosedale to go shopping. Been down here nearly 20 years, though I visit every couple of years to get together with a group of old uni friends and have seen how the city has changed.

 

[rtbcomp]

........used to have a workshop in Rosedale Rd, near the Snuff Mill (behind Eccleshall Rd Tesco).

Not Snuff Mill Garare I hope. I bought a Range Rover tested by them. It had an undersize setscrew instead of the proper bolt holding the panhard rod in place and it still passed.

 

[jugs]

Not Snuff Mill Garare I hope. I bought a Range Rover tested by them. It had an undersize setscrew instead of the proper bolt holding the panhard rod in place and it still passed.

No we were Pearl Works in Rosedale Rd; Snuff Mill Garage was behind us, at the rear of Tesco.

Pearl Works, in late Victorian times produced mother of pearl items such as buttons, razor handles, pen-knife sides, brooches etc (when we dug up a drain we found loads of oyster shells), in the 2nd world war they made aircraft parts.
When we bought the place, they had been precision machining for motor racing. We “downsized” from a 4000sqft modern shed on Barbot Hall, Rotherham to 1300sqft (couldn’t swing a mouse let alone a cat), and did precision engineering + some fabrication & sheet metal work.

When we moved out here, we sold to……. Snuff Mill Garage !

It has now been converted into student accommodation.

 

[cybergamma]

welding college course

is the course stil being run , cannor see it on the mid kent college website?

 

[Toltec]

is the course stil being run , cannor see it on the mid kent college website?

They are closing the City Way campus at the end of the year. I cannot find the course next year so it looks like it is being dropped.

Must be because it is unpopular what with there only being 20- 30 people on two evenings...

Having worked for a different college and seen the space the engineering department has whittled down year by year I am not totally surprised. That all of the students are mature ones whereas the government are only really interested in funding 16-19 year olds now may also have something to do with it.

If you are really interested I suggest you get in touch with the college and see if you can enrol for the remaining part of the course.

 

[madkayaker]

All the funding as rightly pointed out go 16-19 these days there is a bit of train to gain but only if you are working in a factory about to be shut realty (or so it seams) plus it seams to be the softer skills getting the most funding

 

[Toltec]

PCs are relatively cheap compared to an engineering workshop and IT skills can be taught by any tolerably competent tutor. They do not really have to be particularly good at a wide range of IT just know the particular applications/s they are teaching well enough. At least that is the majority, some tutors do know the subject and are genuinely interested in it.

When it comes to engineering you need someone that really knows the subject and also has a flair for passing the knowledge on. Engineering courses need high equipment investment and specialist skills.

Though the college I was at is slowly loosing its mechanical and electronics courses it is still strong in built environment and motor vehicle courses as they are still attractive to the more practical youngsters. The practical courses are not entirely dying, but there is little interest in the higher disciplines as the more academic students do go for the softer subjects.

I was not a tutor btw.

 

[excossack]

Ive just signed for a welding course. C&G Level 1. Its only a 12 week course and you need select what you want to do, MIG, TIG or ARC.