random_tuner

Ive been looking around for some schools to refresh my welding. I went to WyoTech out in Wyoming a few years ago, but since then has been Iraq, lots of drinking and quite the up and downs.

Anyways, is there any big schools people have been to that teach beginner to advanced classes for MIG and TIG? Im not looking for the community college type of schools, more the trade schools and even better the automotive/racing schools that specialize in tube chassis, roll cages, headers, exhaust, etc.

Ive looked into the Lincoln Electric Motorsports Welding School (http://www.lincolnelectric.com...l.asp) a little bit, but it looks kind of advanced. Ive also seen schools like the Welders Institute (http://www.wtti.edu/)

I guess Im looking for more first hand experience or where most guys are getting their beginning knowledge!



Modified by random_tuner at 11:04 PM 2/15/2008

jonsayre

I think alot of it is just trial and error along with a true passion to want to learn and having the patience required to devote the time. Not all results are instant and not all results are easy or cheap. Do it the right way the first time. Websites like this one sure help! Go out and start burning some pipe, and get your hands dirty! To me if I were to pay out of my pocket to take a class I would want it as advanced as possible to put me outside of my comfort zone so that I would learn at a faster rate.

coll9947

I'm in a welding school right now. It is the Welding and Metals Fabrication program at Larry G. Selland College of Applied Technology at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho.

This is the best thing that ever happened to me, I have to say. And my instructor is the best I have ever had.

I did three years of normal college and realized it just wasn't for me at that point. I plan on going back to school for business after my welding courses are done.

This program covers almost every process, from oxyfuel and brazing to tig on titanium in inert gas chambers.

My instructor has welded stuff that has gone into space, and welded for the nuclear industry, bridge building industry, and ship building industry. You can't get that kind of experience just working at some little fab shop making concrete mixers or semi trailers or something.

There are only 15 students in my section so we all get lots of one on one time. We have every tool you could ever want, a huge machine shop across the hallway, the automotive program on the other side of the building with a dozen bays with lifts, a huge tool room, all sorts of computer aided design and fabrication abilities.

This is a community college, but the welding program is taught from a scientific perspective, and you learn that most people in the welding/fab industry don't know ****. you learn a lot of metallurgy and science and theory. We also cover print-reading and some drafting/CAD work. We study what happens in a weld on the atomic scale.

Next year the program will be a two year Associates' Degree program, and at BSU you can actually get a Bachelor's of Applied Sciences in welding and metals fabrication after getting the AAS.

The program is self paced and results-driven in that to get an A you must master at least 65 different welding processes over the course of two semesters out of 135 or so total options. I'm personally specializing in TIG on aluminum and stainless steel, while others are working on stick welding with structural steel, and others are more art-oriented.

The instructors are not only certified welders, they are certified welding inspectors with the American Welding Society and can certify students. I'm in the start of my second semester and I already have my 6G certification. Between the welding instructors there is over 100 years of welding experience to learn from.

Hood time hood time hood time hood time! And this program gives you all the time you want!

Sorry to ramble, I'm just damn proud of my school and my program and what it's done for me.

jonsayre

Wow! That sounds like one hell of a school. Well I guess the OP should move to Boise.

random_tuner

That does sound like one hell of a program. Im not really into Idaho, Wyoming was enough open land for me.

We had a lot of welds we had to complete to graduate from Chassis Fab when I was at Tech, but nothing that involved the science.

Im looking into Mechinical or Automotive Engineering right now but Im going to look for a Welding and Metal Fab program like what you found for sure. Especially if its 1-2 years.

Thanks for the info, coll9947, that was very helpful.

coll9947

No problem!

Oh and by 65 welding processes I mean (for example):

GMAW 12ga mild steel flat
GMAW 12ga mild steel horizontal
GMAW 12ga mild steel vertical
GMAW 12ga mild steel overhead
GMAW 3/8" plate mild steel flat, horizontal, vertical, overhead
and on and on and on through all the combinations of processes, base metals, and positions.

And for each of those you must do a T joint, Corner joint, Lap joint, and Butt joint. So you do a LOT of welding.

yoRt

another techer on honda-tech, i went 2 wyotech too but the one in blairsville pa. i took street rod and we learned all that **** in there. good stuff, crappy teaching

random_tuner

Man you shoulda went to the source. Wyoming campuses. We had some hardcore teachers = total wealth of knowledge.

Oh and Ill never be a "techer" I was a WTI student.

The "techers" I knew were street racing, going-no-where-in-life fools wasting there life away.

But hell man, good to see a "local"


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Alright, as for the schools, heres what Ive come to. Im in want/need of something shorter than a 2 year degree.
Im more in want of a refresher course or some addition to what I know now. Im looking at a big schedule this summer/fall and I like to cram time! (Im in the military so being deployed again and again is always a time issue)
Id like to find some classes that are only a couple weeks long that I can go in at nights or what not and its pretty laid back.

Ah hell, Im not sure what I need anymore...