ShopTalk Forums | Aircooled VW Tech & Restoration Help

All these posts are great, easy to spot, wait a couple months, year or two and do a search. Or better yet just start on page 1 and keep looking

Be nice to have all welding in one area just for welding, questions on welding and things welded.

Leatherneck wrote:All these posts are great, easy to spot, wait a couple months, year or two and do a search. Or better yet just start on page 1 and keep looking

Be nice to have all welding in one area just for welding, questions on welding and things welded.

I hear you Leather, I am surprised that there wasn't a Welding and Fabrication Forum started a long time ago. Or at least a sticky. I have done a little searching the internet on welding and have found some very good info that shows how to weld and diagnose problems like a birdnest in a mig. I was doing a lot of things wrong by being self taught. My lens was too dark for one thing, that helped me out, now I can see what I am welding, and not just listening to the machine make music while I am guessing where I am laying a bead. Just think of all the HOW TO's we could have at our finger tips. Like how to narrow or widen a beam, or how to make drop or raised spindles. All over the STF members are Fabbing up something. The way everything is spread out now, would like be going to the grocery store and everything being in alphabetical order one dayand then the next day it being in numerical order as to how much it costs.

David58bug wrote:

helowrench wrote:i voted for the welding forum but only ask for one stipulation, that we keep it vw related.
I could sure put up some pics of my first welding project--360 feet of steel fence-- but y'all would rather see the vw projects I know
Rob

Rob I agree we should keep this as VW related as we can, but it should be ok to post a weld or two of something anyone fabed up and welded, also. Just like your fence I wouldn't mind seeing let's say the first weld and one half way thru and maybe the last weld. Do they all look the same?

Yes, all my welds look the same, UGLY..
but, i have a fence that i can climb my fat butt on and not worry about it falling apart.
the welds are all on the underside, so they cannot be seen unless you are on the ground. That is why I put them there.
i also made a rotating jig to fab the panels by myself.
from cutting the material to finished 12' panel 45 minutes.

Rob

I will say that the biggest improvement to my welding was buying an autodarkening lens, and spending some extra time setting the machine before i start.

Rob

edit: oddly enough, I just got my tank filled to do some home projects.

Living in the north east finding any VW that doesn't need some welding is rare. I would personally enjoy finding out anything I could about rust repair on a VW. I've already got the 2 Bugme videos on rust repair, read John Henry's site religiously and have several sites bookmarked but could still use more.

what year is it wrote:Living in the north east finding any VW that doesn't need some welding is rare. I would personally enjoy finding out anything I could about rust repair on a VW. I've already got the 2 Bugme videos on rust repair, read John Henry's site religiously and have several sites bookmarked but could still use more.

Glad to have you aboard The Shoptalkforums. Feel free to post any question you may have.

I voted yes to the forum.... but I dont 100% agree with the idea of a new forum, but have an idea...

In the tool/tricks/...... forum, we can have the first post being a sticky that links us to a welding forum.
Then we dont have to add a new one to the STF main list, but keep it as a sub division of the forum that it should fall under....

Thanks for voting Tony Z.

I wish you guys would vote look at this.
991 veiws and 39 votes.
YES [ 35 ]
NO [ 4 ]

Total Votes : 39

We really need some more exposure on this thing.Maybe if we start a thread in every forum linking over to this thread we will get some more traffic.

Is that called the "shotgun" approach?

Rob

Just F#@$%^&*g great, INTERNAL SPAM!

allsierra123 wrote:We really need some more exposure on this thing.Maybe if we start a thread in every forum linking over to this thread we will get some more traffic.

It seems mostly the same guys are posting in here but you know once there is a forum the majority will be using it. Kinda like the count, yes some of that is from others seeing what was posted but a lot of people just sit back and watch, listen and learn. I have a lot of info in the Off-Road forum that will be moved to the welding forum and have questions to ask but I know it is going to get lost in the shuffle if it is not put in one place. Come on Doc, ya know you want it

Count my vots as yes. I am just starting to learn to weld and I am sure I will need some guidance the first time I blow a hole through a panel...

I voted NO.

I am a welder. School trained - TIG, MIG, stick, pipe, all positions.

And I am here to tell you that welding cannot be learned from a book, a forum, or experimentation.

To learn welding you must have the facilities to do something called Bend Testing.

You also need the proper equipment which can be expensive.

Then there is something call SAFETY.

I realize most people here on the forums just want to do occasional welding for sheet metal work on their cars, but they don't (usually) know what they are getting into.

Best advise: take a welding course at a local community college or trade school so you have a good instructor handy to answer all your questions and even demonstrate what he means.

The frustration level can get quite high in beginning welding, and you will want some "hands on" help and encouragement.

Not everybody can weld. Its an acquired skill. Best to find out before buying any equipment.

So, my opinion is not to waste the bandwidth on a thread that is bound to turn into an exercise in verbal masturbation at best and wrong, misleading, or unsafe advise at worst.