Welding Advice

[jmichaelis]

Thank you all for the incredibly well thought out and thorough responses and advice. I think the best advice has been to reach out to an experienced welder locally. I'm currently hunting down a few leads with area colleges and pros, but if you have suggestions for someone from the Chicago area I'd be grateful. Again thanks for the huge response, its been really very valuable.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by jmichaelis

Any feedback on whether this would be worth the investment, and feasible to learn how to use effectively would be fantastic. Keep in mind that we have one staff member who has a small amount of stick welding experience, and that's as far as our welding knowledge goes.

Hmmm.....I'd spend some time thinking about what equipment you could use with your current knowledge/skills/abilities? There's a kind of steep learning curve with TIG welding, or maybe I just say that because I never got very good at it, and have found plenty of other ways to build robots.

Without knowing what other stuff you have in your shop, it's kind of hard for us to help you prioritize.

[AndyH]

I am kinda the head mechanical mentor for team 1098. That is exactly the welder I bought personally and let the team use it. I have taught about 8 students how to use it. They have been training new students each year. I supervise this process but that welder is quite forgiving and works very well. Our students do 100% of our design, fabrication, programming, machining as well as the welding. Our expierenced welders do not use auto helmets, they as well as I hate them, but they are good teaching tool.

As a welder I think there is lots of good info here.

[joek]

when you get a auto-darken hood, try to get a multi-setting one, because you will likely be using the hood for multiple welders that have different required darkness

[Dick Linn]

My son uses both fixed-shade and auto-dark helmets. He says if you're running a lot of long beads that the fixed-shade is nice and more clear. If you have a lot of short welds and tacks, an auto-dark is convenient. He also likes the fixed shade helmets with the flip-down lens. Less neck strain.