Welding course

I will be starting a beginners welding course this coming week £47.25 for a 6 week evening one night a week. Just what I need as it is apprentice time since I did any. Just thought it is usefull to know that these are available localy even for 71 year old's.

David

When looking at evening class courses like this and for Model Engineering check what instruction is actually being given, if that is what you need. Some such 'courses' are run in order to give access to the equipment rather than actual instruction. They are very good for getting use of a big lathe for turning those Striling single wheels or 4in traction engine parts, or use of oxy-acetylene.

The one linked does however look more like a structured course.

Let's hope that their welding is better than their spelling! Unless they're going to introduce some cookery, too. Braising, indeed!

John

YOu are lucky to live somewhere where such courses are still available. There used to be all kinds of such hobby welding, machining, woodwork etc etc classes run in local high school and tech college metalwork and woodwork rooms. But schools and tech colleges seem to have got rid of metalwork shops etc and used them as computer "workshops" instead.

Our local tech collage has a new mechanical center with loads of new kit. A car training center, welding, machining with lathes and milling both manual and CNC, design center with CAD - CAM drawing and programing, plumbing and general building with its own computer design center. Why not use the new welding center with multiple sets of TIG, MIG, STICK and gas.

David

Very handy for showing you what's available

Hopefully they will introduce you to all the different types of welding

Yeah! I too spotted the cookery in between welding! Don't burn it!!

I did a local welding course many years ago and cannot now remember how much it cost but darned sure it was a 3 figure sum. Reckon that one could be very, very good value for money.

I have just looked to see what might be available in Flintshire

… and was very disappointed !

MichaelG.

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https://www.adultlearning.wales/en/courses/course-results?&area=flintshire&subject=all&time=day,evening

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 23/10/2022 14:43:38

It's to do with jobs. Employers want different skills. A quick check locally shows 28 vacancies:

• 2 degree level engineers
• 3 CNC
• 1 CAD
• 1 Computer
• 1 Network
• 1 Components Assembly (This is the only technical job that's not paying above average wage and doesn't require qualifications.)

The other 18 vacancies are for drivers, painters, bakers, handymen etc. No call for welders at the moment which is a bit unusual.

In this area there are no jobs for manual machinists, so why expect local colleges to run courses? Conversely, 8 of the engineering jobs listed require significant computer skills, which the college does support.

When I did metalwork at school, the local rag was full of opportunities for machinists. Pretty much all long gone. Instead my local machine shop advertises having about 30 CNC machines, plus one manual lathe and milling machine, I guess the latter two are for quick jobs too simple to justify CNC.

It's sad but there isn't much call for manual machining skills. Jobs do exist, but in much smaller numbers than before, and training tends to be done by specialist colleges or employers.

Local colleges have shifted emphasis. Mine offers full-blown courses in Mechanical Engineering, but at my age I don't fancy: 'The course studies the use of new technology in engineering but also relies heavily on the academic study of maths, science and materials engineering.' It doesn't offer hands-on metalwork, or access to manual machine which is what I want. I'm self-taught, and thank god for forum friends!

Dave

I have just done two welding courses at Burslem College. Did 10 week (one night week) TIG and then the same for MIG. These courses were free of any charge. All tuition, gas, electric, consumables and material were free. Officially 2.5hrs sessions but we were able to start extra hour earlier and made it 3.5hr sessions. Came away with Level 1 NVQ in both TIG and MIG.

Waiting to see if they do any other courses.

Colin

When you get there, remind them that joining metals is BRAZING, and BRAIZING is what you do to beef.

Cheers, Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 23/10/2022 17:05:16

When I took 30 pieces of silver to leave my employers at the end of 2016, there was an allowance available for 'vocational education'. I took advantage of this to its very limits to pay for City&Guilds level 1 and 2 in arc welding at Northampton College. When I'd finished that I did the same for TIG welding with my own cash. Because my lad was unemployable at the time, I paid for him to attend at the same times. He did MIG and TIG. He got the level 1 courses cheap and full price for the level 2.

That was one full day per week for 10 weeks per course.

I regard it as a very good investment. I'm now confident that I can do good welds with only a little practice for each project to get my eye back in and know how to saction and inspect my practice welds to ensure that they don't just look pretty.

Edited By Mark Rand on 23/10/2022 19:26:43

There are courses available via Llandrillo college. Looks like they’re delivered in Llangefni though.

**LINK**

(No idea of costs)

Thanks for that, Andy … I will have a browse

MichaelG.

Michael - if you want welding courses in Flintshire then Deeside College do quite a number and at various levels.

Keith

I've often wondered how well these courses translate back into the world of hobby machines.

I've owned a new hobby Cebora 30-135A MIG for car work and now have a 2nd hand base model old school copper wound professional Kamanchi 30-170A and the difference between them is night and day even at the bottom end.

I think these days if you shop around, you can get an adequate quality inverter type welder for a reasonable price, which will offer broadly comparable performance to running the kinds of machines most colleges have for their main welding workshop.

(I happen to have been to the workshops at Vision Center / West Notts College, and they run pretty nice Parweld inverter mig and tig units, and whilst good units they're not *that* different from much cheaper copies available via the net.)

​

Thing is if you have the space, and/or know you'd use it frequently you can get really good second-hand industrial welders on the cheap because the market is less active than for small units which will run on a 13A plug.

For example, there's a LAR500 Mig/ARC power supply with Separate Feeder and overhead support arm going for £300 on ebay at the moment, and it is a very tempting offer, but it doesn't have some of the sheet-metal welding features of my current welder, so would end up wanting to keep both.

That said, my MIG unit is an old-school ESAB Smashweld 180 (wonderful name, and good description of how previous owners treated it) which will (mostly) run on a 13A plug (it's better off on a 32A plug if you want to use the full 180A) and cost £90 "spares or repairs" with just the contact tip and nozzle missing off the torch (which is a nice Binzel MB).

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Thanks, Keith … I will have a look there, too

MichaelG.

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https://www.cambria.ac.uk/our-courses/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/10/2022 12:00:14