City & Guilds 3268 Level 1 Award - Introduction to Welding

[gazmutd]

Hi All

Newbie here. I'm looking to restore a mini soon and with that in mind i need to learn how to weld!

I've found a course run by a college local to me but was wondering if any guys on here have taken this course and have any feedback as to what it's like?? Would it be the right course for me considering what i'd like to do with the skills learnt ?

Hopefully you'll see more of me on here, apologies for all the questions in advance!

Cheers

 

[rkde]

Maybe not what your looking for but I found that practise is worth a lot when I learned. Best thing is to get the welder then watch the how too sections here and give it a go, you will soon get it right!

To help get a good gas welder and a good mask and it will make the learning much easier, I learned with a stick welder with a hand held mask, now wish I had started with a auto darkening helmet and mig.

Like most college courses they show you want you could find anyway and then you still need to practice.

There is tones of help on here to hone your skills and you will soon be a dab hand. Some good videos on youtube too

 

[Quickthorn]

Hi

I'm new here too, and also thinking of doing this course at night school, then going on to level 2. I'd be hoping to use it to get a job, but I've read a few posts saying C&G don't count for much with employers. Is that true?

 

[Mad Mick]

C&g

C&G will always count with good employers,but not with low quality outfits who have low standards,no pride in the product and just require cheap disposable labour.You will probably find that most of the folk who say there is no point in having C&G etc are only trying to justify their own lack of credentials.Qualifications(ie improving yourself probably at great cost in time and money) have got to be good,along with practice equals an ever growing fund of knowledge and experience.NOTHING WORTH DOING IS EVER EASY!Regards to all,Mick

 

[rkde]

I agree with the above but for a hobby? I think its not really required. Though it depends on how hands on your are already. I can easily learn from watching videos but appreciate not everyone is like that

 

[NigelAylesbury]

Introduction to Welding

I will go along with Mad Mick above; nothing worth doing is ever easy. I did it last year at night school at Langley, I just wanted to learn how to MIG weld properly (to a decent standard anyway), and the gear they had there made me realise my little Clarke welder was never going to do the job.
To be honest, I could have found better things to spend my £400 on. No matter how you see it though, qualifications are qualifications. HOWEVER, if I had known the course was only going to be 21 weeks instead of the advertised 33, and the amount of tuition was as low as what it turned out to be - then I would have approached someone local off here, found a massive pile of off-cuts to practice on, and with suitable quantities of beer tokens, asked them me to teach for a day.
Practicing is still the best way to learn.

 

[syborg]

hi

i know this is totaly off the subject but after about 13 yrs of sheet metal working in factories i got so sick of it i put myself on a C&G 2280 mechanical prodution course, milling, turning, drilling, reaming and general machine shop stuff. i bloody loved it, learnt so much and passed all my exams at the end even though 22 of us started and 9 of us were left at the end, i had to work every saturday for 2 years to make up the hours at work and ive not once regretted it.

At the end of the day mate, that qualification will be with you for life,
obviously theres nothing better than experience but once you get really good, you,ll have the papers to prove it, and the knowledge that youve acheived something that a good percentage of our dole blagging society will never do.

if you do it and regret it i will gratefully take all the abuse you can dish out...lol

go forth and make yourself and your family proud....and your mates jealous..

peace

syborg

 

[Quickthorn]

Hi,

Well, I've signed up for the C&G course, at level 1. It looks like I'd have to pick one process - any ideas which one would be best from a career point of view?

Most stuff I've done before has been MMA, which seems the cheapest process for my little projects, given I nearly always have to work outside;
The tutor fella tells me MIG is the most common within the industry;
personally, I'd like to do TIG, but I'm not sure how employment opportunities are.

What do you think?

 

[NigelAylesbury]

The choices on the course I did were, MMA, MIG and TIG.
About a third of the lads on the course were doing it for the "bit of a paper" to say they could weld. I can only repeat what one lad in particular said.
“Arc pays the cheapest, MIG work is much more common, and TIG pays the best.”
Not much help really, but at least half of the people there were learning TIG to get the qualification and /or better work opportunities. This could well be just for the South East, West London, Heathrow in particular. I would be interested to know what it’s like elsewhere in the UK.

 

[Quickthorn]

Well, I'm starting in a few weeks in the east midlands, so I'll post any details I pick up. I'm going to do Tig myself, I've heard it's a common process in food handling machinery industries, especially in stainless.

 

[backpurge]

Any qualifications are good to have as a point of reference but to be honest the ones most companies looking to employ welders are interested in are ones that show your skill level and ability to do the job such as BS 4872/EN 287/ASME IV etc etc

 

[Tangmere]

I have been doing the C&G courses and have done OXY1 ARC1 MIG1 and halfway thru MIG2 and then going to do TIG1
Have really enjoyed it and learnt alot.
Yes for me it has been an evening out each week (hobby) but my son has come along with me and we have been enjoying the evening together.
Got our camper and beetle thru MOT this year by doing it ourselves, well worth it.

 

[Jackel]

Have nearly the full set of 3268 MMA,MIG,TIG (low carbon and stainless) and heading back in 2 weeks for the Tig aluminum all level 2's

Courses gave me a good grounding but practice practice practice and if you get bored practice

 

[Marty2005]

I've done the C & G level one and two in mig and level one in arc at night school. Definitely the way to go imho. For a start you've got a pro looking over your shoulder putting you right and stopping bad habits etc. It's not a case of 'that's near enough'. I didn't have to do the qualification on my course but decided to do so as I then had set test pieces to complete to a set standard rather than spending my time pi**ing about just sticking any bits of old junk metal together that might look ok but fall apart when a fly landed on them. It's surprising how small changes in technique, set up etc can have a huge difference in the finished result. You get all that info, tips and so on from a proper tutor. No doubt there are loads of members on this forum who could teach someone to the same standard, but there are also plenty out there (not necessarily on this forum) who think they know what they're doing and are quite chuffed at their pigeon poo efforts and might teach you to be as well!

 

[Ratcatcher]

My thoughts on the likes of City and Guilds and NVQ's........
These day's an awful lot of places won't accept C&G's,why?,very good question.........
NVQ's i've never been a fan of them because i'm a dinosaur and i've got City and Guilds....
From mooching about on the site there's an awful lot of diyers and car/vehicle repair enthusiasts which is fine,i've done it but i've also been right through to the petrochemical industries as well....
When i got given my first stick set as a kid i was also given each week a weld sample and a lot of off cuts,my mission was to replicate the same weld by the friday night.On the friday it would be inspected by the welder on me fathers contracting team.
I learnt that having a welded piece there and generalised guidance was great and it's proved to be the case.
My advice is:Try and get hold of a welded piece of scrap from a fabby yard in the thickness you are using and practice.
Also amps are a rough guidance,listen to the sound and watch the weld and it's a far better indicator than giving a rough amperage out as what amps work for one set probably won't work on the other.
When i originally signed up on here i mentioned that it would be a good thing to have a few pictures of various welds themselves from different thickness's to positions to different metals even,this would give newbies an idea of what to aim for.
As for codings like the EN287-1/ASME etc,most on this site will never even see the welding for it so don't worry about it.
Hope this helps a little..

Rat.