I am taking welding class. Help with which type please.

[Lucky]

I am going to take welding at a local community college. The class is 96hrs. They teach you what you want to learn. So my question is what should I take first? I am planning on taking MIG TIG and Stick, but am unsure of which would be best to take first. Which would you and, and why?

[jwsrep]

Lucky,
If you are going to take them all I would say start with SMAW (stick). Then MIG and finally TIG. There is a reason vocational schools start out teaching beginners stick welding first. Think of it as learning to crawl, then walk, then run.

Good luck I hope you do well.

[dabar39]

which class

Me personally, I would go for the stick welding first. Once you learn stick, everything else is pretty easy. One thing for sure, stick can be done anywhere, but you are limited as to where you can mig and tig, you are not always going to get an indoor job, try tigging out in the field with 30 mile an hour winds blowing, ain't gonna do it. I think learning stick first you will open yourself up for more job opportunities as well. Dave

[Lucky]

That makes sense to me. I appreciate the information.

[swamp donkey]

I dont know if they offer oxy fuel welding where your going but i think you should take that first. I know when i went to collage thats what they taught first that way you got to learn the basics about setting proper heats, and contolling the heat affected zone, and welding techniques such as travel speed etc. they also taught brazing. I know when we took it we hated it cause its rarely used now adays but now im glad we did cause i do the occasional brazing and when tig welding rolled around it was a snap because if you can master oxy fuel welding tig will be no problem. After that then i would take stick, mig and tig in that order cause like Dave said your not always gonna be able to weld in doors and it opens yourself to a lot more opportunities

[man of steel]

re welding scool choices

I would recommend you learn how to stick weld first,it is the most versatile of the processes,then if you are any good at stick i would go for tig.it takes the most skill..mig (and im entitled to my opinion)is an electric caulking gun,and is the lowest paying type of welding job youll get with the least amount of skill needed.it is the easiest,point and shoot,so if you are doing well with the stick ,i wouldnt waste your time or money learning itcause you can pic it up anytime after you learn how to lay beads with the stick.good luck in school.

[Lucky]

I have chosen to take the Stick welding first. After that, I will take a quarter of a semester for MIG, then the rest for TIG. After that I will go back to perfect all. The college course at The College of the Mainland is better than that of the other community colleges. They allow you to learn what you want in a semester. They are in Texas City, Texas by the way. Thanks for all of the great advice guys, I really appreciate it.

I do plan on using MIG at home, for a few projects. I have a Millermatic 200, and never used it.

[fun4now]

if you already have a MIG at home why not start out on it?? so you can start playing at home. as long as you still go back to learn the rest the order wont hurt any. i started with O/A then MIG then TIG and now am on stick. a little unorthodox but hey???? as long as you can chose, chose the way that best fits your needs. odds are good you will do 90% or more of your home projects in MIg anyway. are you looking to weld for a living or just as a hobby at home ??

[Lucky]

I will be welding a bit at my job. We use a stick at work. That's why I wanted to start on stick then MIG. If I ever change jobs, I want to make sure I have Stick down.

[fun4now]

ok then stick, MIG, TIG would be the way to go.