Welding when you’re not 40 anymore…

nutz said

learned to weld in tech school ,before auto dimming welding hoods
one of my first cars was a vw ,before a had a mig brazed 1/2 the car together had to have 10lb of braze in it
becareful not to turn down the dimming to much
i always said welding is as much an art as a skill ....lots of practice makes purfect

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I took a welding class in high school in 2008 and they didn't have the funding for students to have auto-darkening hoods so I kinda got used to "starting blind". What helps me is laying a few practice beads first to get a feel for how the pool behaves with the thickness of metal and welder settings being used. Once I feel like I kind of have the hang of it I just go for it, imo there's a bit of a "leap of faith" starting out the first welds of a project but like another guy said, the more you do it the better you get. Idk if I could be a pro weldor doing high-level stuff with hazardous chemical containers and plumbing etc but it's still super satisfying. I haven't really done any TIG since that high school class, mostly MIG but some day I'll have one of those multifunction machines that can do both. Stick welding is super cool too, can't beat it for the thick and dirty stuff in less-than-ideal conditions. Hell we even were taught gas welding which is a whole other ball game in itself.