Best $415 I've spent in welding

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The tuition for the community college GTAW134B class.  And on top of that my student AWS membership.  And I've discovered Sylvania tungstens to go with my Snap On habit.       We provide our own tungsten, PPE and brushes. Doing the Sat all day, 8 am -3:30 pm.  An hour lecture then the rest lab.  14 week class, 10 projects, steel, SS and AL.  Steel and SS are 2"x6"x 14ga coupons, AL is 0.095 thick.  Second week now, first lab day under the hood, first week was short.  Basics of gasses, waveforms, polarity, safety.  Short safety walk through the shop then done.Today, short lecture.  Flow meter, machine basics, parameters and descriptions of the projects.  There will be 3 written tests on lecture material, the rest on the projects.  When you had the project in, it starts at a 90 then goes up or down from there.  Only two submitted today, both 90s and both guys "ringers".  They've been welding for living for years.  They are there for the cert. The current project is a corner 1F.   The rest is a mix.  A few that are in the career track of the program.  It's an full AWS certified program for training welders.  I took it as a "personal enrichment" so no counselors, orientation, SATS, prior college records, career path etc.  I get graded but the credits, 6, can't be applied but it's not an audit of the class.  They don't allow auditing.  Here's a link to the program http://www.csn.edu/pages/1146.asp .  It's a busy shop.  We are there all day but mornings are the FCAW folks and afternoons are the GMAW folks.Most are hobbyists, many never picked up a torch before today.  Several very frustrated.  I learned more under the hood today in six hours than I have since I bought my machine last June.  Hell, I know I haven't used the TIG, errr GTAW portion (they are very particular about terminology)    of my machine for even two hours total, though I use the hell out of the Hypertherm and the 180 Lincoln MIG,  errr I mean GMAW. (I really do need to find a deal on a used 250 amp class MIG).  About half the machines are Precision TIG 225s and the other half Dynasty 200s, base model.  All WP17s.  Just running no filler stringers with the Dynasty and the Sylvania lanthanated electrode is a big difference between my Square Wave 175 with a CK red, err I mean thoriated.  In this shop the electrode is called by the composition, not the color.  The instructor's first line of the safety lecture "There will be no Orange County Chopper bull**** in this shop".  I don't know if he meant father and son suing each other, throwing things through doors and windows or meatheads welding in shorts and sandals with no PPE.  My guess would be the welding part....Speaking of shorts and sandals, a kid shows up at the end of the lecture dressed like that, in a t-shirt.  He's got nothing else.  He's enrolled in the class but missed the first week (which is really a full day).  He says he wants to build a turbo.  Instructor gives him the sylibus and name of the suggested text (Minnick's GTAW Handbook) and says he needs to find one of us to share notes and show up early next week to talk to the instructor.  I bet we never see him again.Here's my booth for the next few months...Skool Daze by Dave Stevens, on FlickrLast edited by dstevens; 02-05-2012 at 01:50 AM.
Reply:Looks like a very good class and and an excellent price especially for the number of hours you get in the shop welding. Keep us posted on your progress..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:About a month since the last post.  Falling a bit behind in class due to a short hospital stay.  Haven't been able to get much hood time at home due to other demands.  The ability though, to use a few different machines has been eye opening.  I've used a Dynasty 200DX (my fav so far) a Lincoln Precision Tig 225 and 375.  I've got a Square Wave 175 at home and it's most like the Lincoln transformer machines though they have different arc qualities.  Most everyone is starting on stainless, I've still got my mild steel 1G and T fillet to go.  Solid B grade in the class so far, much better at the metallurgy and technical side than what I score on my coupons.  I'm just too slow learning under the hood but eventually I get it.  It's a Saturday session, we've lost about half the class thus far.  Much more difficult than they (or I) had anticipated.   Shorts and t shirt guy stuck it out.  He's not bad, better than I.  Looks like he might get a shot at fabbing up a turbo after all.  What I considered a good GTAW weld at home, is considered barely a C even though it holds strength and passes the hammer test.  My main issues are too much heat and too much filler.  Though I'm slower one of the things I like is being able to be in a position to try some different equipment, use different tungsten and get a feel for different arc characteristics.  It's subtle but once you start doing it regularly you can tell.All in all it's still a good experience.  I plan to hang with it the rest of the class, no matter how far behind I fall or how poorly I do.  I'm not the worst in the class though I'm near the bottom.  At least I've quit going through a tungsten a day and for you purists, at home I still use a bench grinder to sharpen.
Reply:Keep at it. All it takes is one "Ah ha!" moment for everything to click together. While it's rare, I have seen at least one student who seemed hopeless suddenly have a moment when everything falls together and they sail on thru  banging out and passing coupon after coupon.As far as using too much filler, try to find out how much filler you should be using to do X inches of weld. Example if the instructor uses 4" of filler rod to weld 4" of weld, then you should use that as a gauge to work on. If nothing else give the instructor a full tig rod and when he's done simply measure how much rod he used, since I doubt he can give you an exact figure in inches off the top of his head. I usually use this idea with guys doing stick at the tech school. One rod should let them weld one coupon. If they finish the coupon and still have 1/2 the stick left they went too fast, and if they need 2 rods, they were using too much rod and going too slow..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWAs far as using too much filler, try to find out how much filler you should be using to do X inches of weld. Example if the instructor uses 4" of filler rod to weld 4" of weld, then you should use that as a gauge to work on. If nothing else give the instructor a full tig rod and when he's done simply measure how much rod he used, since I doubt he can give you an exact figure in inches off the top of his head.