Scared to weld ? Need help

[iso50]

Ok, the day is upon me. I am enrolled at a technical college in a fabrication / welding program. Tommorow we strick our first arc, in stick welding class. I must confess to being scared out of my mind about doing this, so much so that I am considering dropping out of the program. Can any of you give me some advice to get over this fear. I feel that once I start I will be fine, but its the fear of not knowing anything that got me.

HELP

[arcdawg]

dude if i can weld.......anyone can! even if you dont use it everyday its a great skill that a lot of people tdont know/ or are to SCARED to do

GO FOR IT.........

DAWG

[paulrbrown]

arcdawg, and don't be surprised if you do STICK your first arc. The instructors know what to expect, just be patient and it will all come together at some point, maybe not as quick as you would like, but hopefully the instructor will be there watching you and will be able to guide you the proper way. Good Luck and hang in there, remember, we all had to start out not knowing anything, even if we thought we knew everything, let us know how you are progressing tommorrow, Paul

[arcdawg]

paul, you must have misread my post..........i have been welding for over 5 years now......i have 1100 hours through the state of ct and i have a chrome moly cert.....

dawg

[walker]

Yep, ditto everything that was just said. You will stick some rods, but it is all part of the fun. Just remember, those machines have survived many bad starts and stuck rods. You will not break the machine, don't panic.

[iso50]

I have MIG on Monday's, Stick on Thrusday and Flux Core on Friday. So even if its not tommorow, the day is comming.

[fun4now]

lot's of fun ahead

jump in and get you some
oooop's is just a part of lerning. go for it and dont worry about looking bad if you stick a stick everybody dose
even the great poser on OCC lil paule stuck his when he fixed the trailor at the firestation and even he gave himself sh-t about it just injoy the ribbing if you get any you will get your chance to give
jump in and lern you will never regret lerning a new skill especialy one as fun as melting and burning steel

[df5152]

ive been mig welding ofr years and i still suck at stick welding i can tig weld better than i can stick weld so by you r second class you will already be better than me. good luck have fun. remember dont sweat the small stuff

[Steved]

Scared about what? If you follow the safety procedures that will be given in class you will have no problem at all.

Don't drop the course, welding is not hard at all although welding well is difficult.

Relax and enjoy learning a new thing.

[RHutch]

Welding can open a lot of doors when it comes to career opportunities. I’m a 3RD generation welder, my grandfather was an incredible gas “oxy/acetylene” welder. My father was a welder and welding engineer and I’m now a technical sales rep and a Miller certified repair technician for a welding distributor.

By the way lets don’t leave out the ladies, my mother and her sister were both certified Navy welders during WWII and built LST ships in Evansville Indiana.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[HAWK]

iso50,,

Don't quit know! You have too much invested in time and equipment. Hang in there it will be just fine. Think of your future.

[INTP]

I love learning new things, especially things that seem so mysterious. I remember when I printed my first black and white photo, and I watched the image appear on the paper as it sat in the chemicals. Very neat.

Welding is the same way. It is pretty amazing that you can use an electric arc to melt steel. Especially when we've been taught our whole lives to fear heat, fire, and electricity. But it's really a pretty controlled, predicatable event, and that's what you're going to learn. I am sure that before you get your hands on it, you're going to see it in action. If your class is like mine, you'll have an instructor doing it while you and the other students watch (through the helmet, of course). The demystification process will have started before you have touched a thing, and by the time you do it, you'll have already seen it and will already know and practiced good safety.

After you melt your first steel, you're going to say to yourself, "hey, I can weld!" and you will have crossed a line that will take you great places.

[Sberry]

I have seen lots of guys fumble their way thru life not knowing anything about anything and welding is such a vast and useful skill that I cant even imagine being without it. A weldor can just do so many thinga a non weldor cant. I have seen some pretty fair mechanics that would have benifited greatly in a little time learning it. And to add,, its one of those things that there are a lot of people that THINK they know something about it,,, this is where the school helps to get some basics and learn to speak the language of the trade. Like auto mechanics,, I can tell the difference between a lot of backyarders and someone that has been to some school. There is another thing that may not come into play right away but does tend to down the line, guys that been to the school can teach it to the next guy so much better later on, they have the background in the fundamentals that a guy that just "learned the tricks" doesnt have. Kind of like a guy that can play the piano by ear but never learned to read music.

[FM117]

Hi All,
Not to far off topic with this but the thread reminded me of
a funny story ( well it was funny at the time). I was taking
a basic stick class at a local collage in the evening from
a real "crusty" old instructor. One of the students was having
problems with stating the arc and rod sticking and
the instructor told him he would help him after he tried some
more on his own.
Well we took a flat plate and "stuck" about 30-35 rods
to it at various angles, looked like a big spiney mess.
We put it in the student's booth and waited for him and the
instructor to go in.
You can't believe the explosion that came out of the old guy!
It was great!
Dave P

[iso50]

I have decided that right now welding is not for me. So I have dropped out of school. The emotional toll isn't worth it.