thewoodgnome
New Member
- Messages
- 5
Hi Folks,
I'm Paul, from Oxford. I've never welded anything yet, but always fancied learning some basic welding skills. Yesterday I was in our local Aldi when I saw they had a Workzone 80 amp Inverter welder for sale, reduced down to £40, which seemed cheap to me! I had a quick Google and found a couple of threads on here that basically gave them a "thumbs up" for beginners, so that was reassuring. The box had been opened by some ratbag before me, so I had a quick check through and established all the main components were present. However the glass for the faceshield was awol. I'd already read on here that the advice was to bin the cheapo faceshield anyway and get yourself a decent helmet. A quick chat with the store manager resulted in him offering to knock another 50% off, bringing the price down to £20! I can't resist a bargain, so I'm now the owner of a basic Inverter. I still need to pick up a helmet, gloves, sticks and anything else, but I feel I'm now underway at something I've wanted to learn for a long time.
I see there's some great advice on here. I feel I'll really need some practical guidance in the early stages, to get me confident and prevent me damaging myself too much! Anyone know of an introductory course available? I'm not looking for a "City & Guilds type of thing" - I just want to be able to do some basic "back-yard" welding without killing myself or burning the garage down!
Alternately, if anyone around the Oxfordshire area feels they could guide me through some basic introductory stuff, just to get me on my way, that would be much appreciate - have car, will travel!
Anyway, great to find this forum and good to become a member.
Cheers all!
Paul
I'm Paul, from Oxford. I've never welded anything yet, but always fancied learning some basic welding skills. Yesterday I was in our local Aldi when I saw they had a Workzone 80 amp Inverter welder for sale, reduced down to £40, which seemed cheap to me! I had a quick Google and found a couple of threads on here that basically gave them a "thumbs up" for beginners, so that was reassuring. The box had been opened by some ratbag before me, so I had a quick check through and established all the main components were present. However the glass for the faceshield was awol. I'd already read on here that the advice was to bin the cheapo faceshield anyway and get yourself a decent helmet. A quick chat with the store manager resulted in him offering to knock another 50% off, bringing the price down to £20! I can't resist a bargain, so I'm now the owner of a basic Inverter. I still need to pick up a helmet, gloves, sticks and anything else, but I feel I'm now underway at something I've wanted to learn for a long time.
I see there's some great advice on here. I feel I'll really need some practical guidance in the early stages, to get me confident and prevent me damaging myself too much! Anyone know of an introductory course available? I'm not looking for a "City & Guilds type of thing" - I just want to be able to do some basic "back-yard" welding without killing myself or burning the garage down!
Alternately, if anyone around the Oxfordshire area feels they could guide me through some basic introductory stuff, just to get me on my way, that would be much appreciate - have car, will travel!
Anyway, great to find this forum and good to become a member.
Cheers all!
Paul