Great Welding tutor and info

Rob Keeble

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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
I know some here are amateur welders and wannabes like me. I came across this guy during some research on you tube and thought some might get a lot from his videos. It's an enormous pleasure to listen to a real pro that can explain things in what I consider to be a sensible practical manner.

This is NOT some hobbyist with a camera and you tube channel.

This guy seriously knows his stuff.

I have been watching his Mig basics series it will start off slow for some of you but start at lesson 3 and I would be surprised if you a self taught hobby welder if u don't pick up loads of info you did not know before.

https://youtu.be/5KrwmK7df-s

Here is a wire speed chart calculator (scroll down the page)

it was a huge eye opener to me.

Hope this helps.....

The guy also has places in his videos where he shows how to do cross sectional tests on your welds just so you not judging penetration of weld by looks (which he demonstrates can be very deceiving )

All I think is he truly represents a real professional tradesman maybe a dying breed.
 
Jodi is fantastic. I've been watching his weekly videos for a couple of years now and they are very helpful. He sells an insulated slip on finger for tig welding that works great and you can also buy all his videos on DVD. Good guy.
 
He has a simple style of teaching. There are some very good welding videos on youtube. I took a 5 hour hour basic MIG welding class just two weeks ago. Now I am getting many ideas in my head. Also thinking of buying a MIG welder. What do you guys use?
 
Good videos. I have an older Hobart 135, 110v mig with c25 gas. Has worked well for most of my needs. It's only 4 heat settings, would recommend one with the variac control, which is more granular settings. Its good up to 3/16" in one pass, go with 220v for any thicker

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We had Lincoln 140c in the classroom. It is also a 110v. Probably a good starting unit.

That would be a good choice, most home supplies carry the model and the consumables for it. Might still check with the local welding supply shop though, I found mine about $100 cheaper with them and could get the tank at the same time. Most tanks come in small sizes to large ones. The smaller ones will cost you more for refill each time as you're leasing the tank. The mid size tanks will cost you a little more up front as you get ownership of it, but much cheaper to re-fill each time. Just depend on your usage of it, but worth asking what the price differences are.
 
I have been looking for ages. I don't want to buy twice or have regrets so my latest thought (lol this changes often depending on how cheap I am feeling) is an Everlast unit that will do multi voltage (220 / 110v )
http://www.everlastgenerators.com/product/mig/power-i-mig-200

This unit allows variable adjustment on both wire speed and voltage.

It has many other features that are way ahead of some of the traditional brands.

After watching many videos and much research I am more aware of the shortcomings of the cheaper units.
Have found some here were they cheap units but don't include all sorts or have short guns and plastic wire drives.
Getting close to pulling trigger in my case.
 
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Interesting series of videos, he does a real nice job of showing some of the basics in ways that make them clear and easy to understand (I'm only part way into video 3 but have already learned a few things).

I have a Hobart Handler 140 which I haven't used nearly as much as I should it but has been a pretty nice little lightweight unit. It doesn't have the duty cycle or penetration of the bigger units, basically its the baby brother of the one that the fellow in the video is using at around 1/2 the price it offers about 2/3 the capability (wildly rounding). If you want to do AL then buying up to a spool gun ready unit is probably cheaper once you add all the parts (although you'd probably be better learning tig for that or stainless), for lightweight sheet metal and not-to-thick plate steel this one does pretty ok. I think the Linoln 140c might be a slightly nicer welder in some ways comparing the specs, close but has a few options that look good. I've heard some good things about the Everlast Rob linked to and it does MIG/SMAW which is kind of nice to have the stick option in one unit. I've mostly used mine as a FCAW (flux core) welder, the flux core doesn't produce as clean of a weld (more splatter) but is a bit easier to use outside if there is any wind and deals better with dirtier steel..
 
Yeah something I learnt through visually seeing it in his videos was the difference the type of gas makes to the weld. It's huge. He recommends a mix of argon and co2 and what I particularly like about his way of teaching is he shows the differences. There is no agenda on his part other than getting you to understand.
The other big wake up call for me which had me thinking back to days when my dad and I were working on home reno which involved welding and he had a stick welder. Trouble was neither of us knew a thing and I distinctly really remember me having cleanup the weld with a handheld grinder and then we thought mmmmh nice weld. But I would put 10 000 dollar bet that we never penetrated either side of those pieces of steel, hey but it looked good and solid.lol
His showing of the resulting section of steel which really takes very little effort to do seriously gives one confidence that your weld is sound and to what degree. He is the first on the Web that I came across demonstrating this. He also mentions buying cheap metal kits that one can use to practice butt welds and joins etc and mentions a site www.jflf.org which has loads of data and books on the topic .
The various kits are only around $7,50 Inc shipping and are listed under "build it",

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Darren, there has been a lot of discussion on welding forums about the welding machines sold at the Home supplies. Some say that even though the model numbers are the same as the ones sold at welding supplies stores, they are of inferior quality.
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.ph...Pak-180-HD-at-Home-Depot&highlight=home+depot

I guess that is somewhat where I was also going with recommending to check the welding supply house, but consumables should be the same and the local home supply will carry those. Honestly I'm still on my original roll of wire and maybe have changed the tip once or twice in 8 years or so, but YMMV. :)
 
Darren, there has been a lot of discussion on welding forums about the welding machines sold at the Home supplies. Some say that even though the model numbers are the same as the ones sold at welding supplies stores, they are of inferior quality.
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?54012-Lincoln-Weld-Pak-180-HD-at-Home-Depot&highlight=home+depot

You know I have heard this for years but just don't believe it. Think about it it's the "brand name" the manufacture is trying to protect and I can't really believe they would chose to mess it it up like that. Now there may be a lesser model with the same max amperage or something like that. I have a cheap 110 Mig unit that I bought a a big box store and added the gas to. Has worked as well as expected and I talked to the engineer at Century when I first got it and he taught me a lot of things. Like on thin metal you really want gas. I would like a better unit but if I would have waited there is a bunch I wouldn't have been able to do that this unit let me do. I know. It's kinda like my metal lathe. Al I did by waiting was do without a lathe for 50 some years... Your first house wan't your last house why does your first welder have to be your last welder? I just last week used it to fab a bracket for the rear exhaust on my motor home..
 
Yeah something I learnt through visually seeing it in his videos was the difference the type of gas makes to the weld. It's huge. He recommends a mix of argon and co2

I have to say, Once I got my 220v Lincoln 180hd with welding gas (argon/CO2) I've really enjoyed welding more. I still suck at it, but the welds look better and I feel like they have got better penetration :rofl:

But seriously, having a nice little welder is fun to have and has really come in handy a lot around the ranch.
 
Well Brent after hemming and hawing for ages, today I managed to get HD to price match an unbelievable deal where the store that had the deal had no stock left at the "con man price". HD did not know this so I pulled the trigger on a 180 HD might Lincoln welder.

Now I got to some gas, a helmet, and put a temp subpage in the garage.

Had to do fair bit of persuasion of the store manager fortunately I went prepared with printouts from Lincoln website.

On way home I popped into Lowe's to check on cable price and at same time looked at their 180 on shelf. I was particularly interested to see if the wire feeder housing was plastic or metal and sure enough it must be old stock as it was plastic.
Then took off in a hurry to check on my unit. Got home opened box and took a huge sigh of relief my unit has the metal wire drive housing which is as the spec on Lincoln website.

Happy chappie. :)
 
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From what I have seen the 180 has the plastic while the 180 C is metal... And the C usually runs 2-3 hundred US more than the plain 180. So if HD is selling the 180 with a metal feed system for the price of the plastic unit you got a very good deal..
Garry
 
Gary I think the unit "C" is the version that was dual voltage in that category as in able to do 115/230.
The whole 180 range now is metal what I came across at Lowes is the old stock version when retail units were plastic.

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