These are offered at a local community college but, there are various courses offered and I don't know which would be the right course for metal fabrication:


Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) Course length: 600 hours.


Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Course length: 600 hours.


Metal Arc, Oxy & Flux Core Course length: 600 hours.


Shielded Metal Arc & Pipe Course length: 600 hours.

 

Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) Course length: 600 hours.[/b]
This will just be mig. It will be good if you want to get a cheap little mig machine for home usage.

Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Course length: 600 hours.[/b]
Just tig. Good for anything automotive, except for body work.

Metal Arc, Oxy & Flux Core Course length: 600 hours.[/b]
Metal arc? I dunno what that would be but it's got to be either mig ot stick. The oxy-acetylene welding is a thing of the past. It's just not hardly ever done anymore. In all my years of professional welding, I have not once done it. I only did it in high school. It's useless to waste time and money learning this. As for the flux core...if you want to learn that part, just take the mig class. It's close enough to teach you how to use a mig. Mig and flux core are very similar, and the other class will avoid having to do these other unnecessary things.

Shielded Metal Arc & Pipe Course length: 600 hours.[/b]
This will be stick welding and likely stick welding pipe...which is likely the least needed of all, if you're just wanting to do some automotive work.


So, in the end, it depends on what you plan to be welding in the future. Unless you plan to be a professional pipe welder, don't bother with the pipe welding class.

 

600 hours? my classes were 36 hours for stick and oxy-acetylene. then 24 hours for mig and tig. mig i spent about 30 minutes on. i finished stick/o/a in about 20 hours then did tig the rest of that class. 600 hours seems like a ton of time to practice on something you wont be using. i used a syncro 350 at class. now i have a syncro 180 at home. its a huge difference. i dont see the point of learning on a much more superior machine than you will be using (unless you have a ton of money to spend on a machine). i would suggest just going to a community college and taking a smaller class first to make sure you enjoy welding. its probably a lot cheaper

 

600 hours of mig? damn.

if you're going to spend the money learn gtaw or smaw. more applicable theory in those two than gmaw (mig)

 

thanks for all the replies and background

 

is there a age thing on those courses