Why did you start welding?

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Why did you start welding? Or what made you want to weld? Just curious. I was thinking about it today. For some of us its just a hobby and for others its a line of work. But there was a point when something "sparked"  your interest and made you decide to become a welder. Maybe for some people it was just that you needed something welded and wanted to do it yourself.Laugh all you want, but for me I think it was the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away. In the beginning a FedEx delivery man delivers a package to a house with a workshop out back and there is someone welding away inside. It just looked really cool. Then at the end of the movie Hanks meets the woman who turns out to be the welder.I first saw that movie several years ago, and now am just now learning to weld.Lincoln AC/DC 225/125 Stick Linde HDA-300 MillerMatic DVI MIG Miller Dynasty 200DX Hypertherm Powermax 1000
Reply:I like creating stuff and I think I'm decent at it. Welding and fabrication was next. The movie note - I never noticed that, NOW i'll have to rent the movie and watch it more closely. John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:Yeah the attractive woman is driving an old pickup truck. I think there might have been a Lincoln welder on the back. I can't remember.Lincoln AC/DC 225/125 Stick Linde HDA-300 MillerMatic DVI MIG Miller Dynasty 200DX Hypertherm Powermax 1000
Reply:Watching my dad and my grandpa build dune buggies in the garage back in the early '70's.  Dad told me if I was going to hang out in the garage that I might as well make myself useful! So, he showed me how to stick weld so I could help out, I was 7 at the time.  Been welding since!
Reply:I always liked building stuff, I started out with wood.  My uncle had an old lincoln tombstone in our shop and I messed with it some when I was growing up and then took 4 years of welding in high school.  So I got a job at a welding shop when I graduated.  Been doing it ever since.  Gives you a good sense of accomplishment when you can say I built this.DewayneDixieland WeldingMM350PLincoln 100Some torchesOther misc. tools
Reply:I think someone axed about this before:http://www.weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=7660
Reply:Funny, it was my grandmother who got me interested in welding when I was about 7!  She spent several years during the war building naval ships here in Portland, OR.  I always wanted to learn, but I was too impatient at the time to learn how to weld (wanted to burn things more).  It was just last year that I decided to invest in this major goal...She's been gone years now, but I'm often reminded of the good days while on the farm.  Its really the smell of OA that takes me back to this day!  Still got grandfather/mother's truck (restomod).ThermalArc 185MillerMatic 180 w/ AutosetVictor Cutskill Oxy/AcetyleneThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 38and spite!
Reply:Originally Posted by denrepI think someone axed about this before:http://www.weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=7660
Reply:For me it was the love of working and creating thing out of matal. Miller DVI2Lincoln Precision Tig 225Thermodynamics Cutmaster 38Everything else needed.
Reply:To be honest, after a few years of building scaffolding & doing rigging and labouring for fabricators, (& others)I decided to give it a go, got stuck in & did an adult Apprenticeship..... & haven't looked back
Reply:seeing the garbage welds on the crush-bent exhaust i paid $250 for made me want to be able to do it myself. turbo manifolds clearing $1000 also added to that. and self-sufficiency is always great. :-Dwith full intent and better sense to recognize what is false and part with it.
Reply:I originally wanted to weld for automotive purposes and then by the time I went to college to learn how to do it I was over my fast car phase and wanted to learn how to do it for construction.
Reply:I started because I broke a driveshaft and a buddy welded it back together with a couple batteries so I could get home. Ever since I've been fully self sufficient on the trail.My Photos on Flickr
Reply:Because 4130 doesn't weld itself :-D
Reply:i wanted a light bar for my first truck and could not afford one so my dad and grandfather helped me build one and from then on i cant go for more than a few days without smelling burning metal. i think its addictive! i feel better for some reason knowing that i can make METAL do what i want it to do.63' Lincoln SA200 2008 miller trailblazer 302fibre-metal pipelinermiller camo BWEand all the guns and ammo a growin boy needs
Reply:Why Not??..zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:I was a construction electrician and always took any course on anything they offered. Welding would add to amount of jobs one could go out on so I took a night course the IBEW offered. Started out just for the money but kept it up for the love of being able to build/repair most anything out of metal now.Latest Toys Miller 180 Mig and Elite Mask!!Wright Welder 225ACShop OutFitters 20/20 Bending SystemHypertherm 380 Plasma30 Years of Sparking (Electrical & Welding)
Reply:My dad was a pipewelder.  It just seemed like what you were suposed to do.  He taught me on an old lincoln tombstone and i've been stick welding since.  Just recently i have been taking classes at the local JC to learn all the other processes.
Reply:Yeah...wanting to make all kinds of projects...from barstool racers to formula SAE´s... it started as a medium to make them. now it is way more than that...its so addictiveMy Babies: HF Drill pressHF Pipe Bender3   4.5" Black and Decker angle grindersLincoln Electric PROMIG 175that´s it!
Reply:I struck my first arc back in 1979 to work on cars (my own).  Necessity helped built lots of different skills because if I couldn't fix it myself, it just didn't get fixed.Lots has happened since then.  Seems like a million years ago now. But I still love the smell of laying down some 7014 in the morning.  It smells like . . . victory. Last edited by phila.renewal; 06-18-2007 at 09:22 PM.Favorite right now is a Miller Syncro 200.Tons of tools and I blame at least one of them when things don't go right.
Reply:Great replies! Originally Posted by elvergonits so addictive
Reply:I wanted to build a welding cart, but I needed a welder and welding classes You only need to be 2% smarter than what you are working on.Lincoln pm140hacksawa big hammer
Reply:Was sat under a tree quietly knitting & was struck by lightning.....
Reply:Because all the prep work was done and the ground clamp was ready.Seriously, I broke something. I think it was a pasture drag. Anyway, it was borrowed and I didn't know anyone who could fix it.
Reply:someone told me I couldn't do it.... sure showed themOriginally Posted by bigNATEsomeone told me I couldn't do it.... sure showed them
Reply:Flash dance.Miller Syncrowave 200Hobart Handler 140Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 38E-Z Tube BenderPlasma Cam DHC2
Reply:My mother made me take night classes at the local voc. school while I was in high school. I was and am first a musician but welding certainly has helped pay the bills when music gigs are light. Thanks Mom.
Reply:Just because I want something doesn't mean someone makes it.I almost have enough tools to make the things I want.PatrickLincoln 175HD
Reply:My mother wanted a metal fence for her yard.  The two local companies that can do what she wants quoted her an astronomical price.    She asked me if I could learn how to weld and said shure, Y not.   Need to fix my jeep anyway.   IT went from there.  Her fence is gonna cost 1/12th of the quotes we got with the same materials.Come try it out and stay a while.
Reply:when i came in to university , i wanna study something about computer, but my points is too low to assign material dept. that nobody want to learn it.but now i like it very much, do welding as my work, i decide to try play a key role in socity--welding engineer--in aws 's words~ hoho Last edited by alloy690; 06-24-2007 at 12:49 PM.
Reply:I'm just in it for the burns and poison gas.