Welding is all about practice and technique. Use the right materials and have fun, oh and when beginning lots of grinding discs, lots of grinding discs...

gunna have to start calling you "Daddy Cadogan" teaching me all the things my absent father never did

I love that even though this is a sponsored video you're clearly giving us your actual unfiltered opinion on the quality of the machine and parts, and even in some cases telling us outright to get aftermarket upgrades. Love the integrity and intellectual honesty.

In another former life, I worked on a demolition site as a steel cutter/dismantler. It meant I could be 30 or 40 metres high, cutting roof purlins and beams. The building was a former gold ore crushing mill and had a LOT of rust. I wore shorts and boots with wool socks. Sometimes while cutting, a lump of rust and steel slag would fall between my sock and leg. The first few times I'd madly try to remove my boot to get the hot metal out. However, I came to realise that there was no point in doing that. By the time I got the boot and sock off, the slag had cooled. So, I just let them sizzle and kept working. I did end up just wearing Dunlop Volleys after a while as they were grippier than boots and I could get rid of the big hot lumps easier. As a result, I have an extremely high tolerance for heat burn pain.

I've always loved welding. Used to play with my dads little mig machine when I was 10 yrs old lol. Melting steel 2 feet away from your face never gets old to me. Maybe if i did it for a living, it would lose it's magic. Idk, probably not.

Brought back memo when you talked about cylinder handling. Back as a 1st year in 1968, guy delivering a load of industrial size oxy cylinders, dropped a full one and the valve broke off. The cylinder took off like a sidewinder rocket down the loading bay across the street and straight into the side of a parked car. Absolute carnage. Would have killed had you been in the firing line e.

Hey John - I concur. I beleive anyone who wishes to learn how to weld should watch many videos just like this before they enroll themselves into a welding course.

JOHN In other news, I took delivery today of a bluetti EB70 What a fabulous piece of kit. Unfortunately I didn’t get it from you. I got it online delivered to Victoria for 789 landed, but the purchase was on your detailed recommendation. Thank you very much only top-quality products put up by yourself I can see that….. I’m gonna use it for camping fishing for various things my 10-year-old messes around with remote control cars, so I can charge them from that. I also have sleep apnoea so I will use that to run my machine while camping and at home as a backup for medical equipment It could be a good sales angle for you. Im also aware people at home have oxygen concentrators. You don’t want to go without them for very long could bump up sales if you point that out……!!

After many years of welding off and on (machinist welding), finally treated myself to a Miller helmet with air flow respirator. Quite a treat to have fresh cool air on the face whilst welding 😊 It only cost $4000. Helmet is a double shield construction that allows for raising the autodarkening welding lens out of the way for viewing while grinding, but still has a clear lens protecting your face.

The welding blanket is really good for protecting vehicle glass from being burnt by welding splatter and grinder sparks.

Thank you John for this exceptional video. I’ve learnt more from your video than all the welding books and other videos I’ve watched put together. Looking forward to episode 2.

A long time ago, I completed an apprenticeship as a Sheetmetal Worker in a mixed engineering workshop. I learnt to weld with everything, MIG, TIG, ARC, Oxy Acetylene. Each type of welding device has a place, but for pure versatility, you can not go past a good MIG welder. That said, I love ARC welding as I find the beauty of a perfect weld laid by an electrode is as close to religion as I will ever get. Thanks, John... Great video.

Wear board-shorts and flip flops is best 💯 also standing in a puddle of water gives best results 😊

I bought a welder earlier this year. It still sits in the box. It is flux core and gas capable. Thanks, just what I need.

I think you have nailed the process overview for the home welder, I've never seen a better one. You've really opened my eyes to the possibilities of flux core. I had a few things to say about electrodes, at least in North America. If you have an industrial DC welder, you use 7018 (and 6010 for your root pass), but for a buzz box(AC transformer) or a cheap DC inverter welder 7018AC is essential. Also, 6011 works brilliantly on either of these (buzz box or cheap DC). 7018 and 7018AC are stronger and tougher than anything, but if you have dirty metal, or restarts you get porosity and have no end of trouble. The stick has to be dressed perfectly, with no bare metal except at the very end of the electrode, no cracks or chips in the flux. I have two favorite electrodes that I think are ideal for the home shop. 7014 in the 1/16", 5/64" or 3/32" (1.6, 2.0, 2.4 mm) sizes. I do a lot of small stuff, so I get the smaller sizes if the price isn't too much higher. 7014 has iron powder in the flux, so you can usually strike an arc even if there's blob of flux on the end, makes for easy tack welding. Restarts are never an issue. If you hold it at almost 90 degrees to the surface you can get a very flat bead with less need to grind. If you hold it at 45 degrees you get a bead that makes a prominent rib (like 6013) if that serves your needs. I'd start with 7014. 6011 is my favorite. I usually get the 3/32" (2.4mm), the two smaller sizes are usually hard to find and more expensive. This is the most widely available electrode in western North America. This is a very aggressive/ deep penetrating electrode, but it is also a fast-freeze electrode. It can be used for overhead welding. 6011 is very tolerant of paint, rust, grease, and conditions that can't always be avoided in the field. It has been called the farmers friend and mud electrode. If this is all you have and you need to weld sheet metal, you can strike an arc, and as soon as you get a puddle, you break the arc, and the metal will freeze instantly. A copper block can stop burn thru it that is a problem. There are some copper pads with magnetic feet that give very quick set up and take down. You make these 'spot welds' spread over your work, stop if over heating, and eventually build up a bead of spot welds. 6011 penetrates so we'll, that unless you have a big blob of slag, you may not even need to wire brush between welds. I don't think 6013 gets any respect in North America. There are a couple KZfaqrs from Indonesia and the Philippines who use almost nothing but 3/32"(2.4mm) 6013. That seems to be what they can get. It has a ceramic flux, and obviously can survive in the tropical climate. They use a dab-dab technique, on light metal, strike the arc, break it, and strike again before the metal goes dark. You must hold the electrode at 45 degrees and use the arc force to push back the slag. You can criticize, but they make it work in the real world. The slag is easy to remove, but with 6013 it is possible to make a slag weld which may look pretty good, but will not survive the first light blow of the chipping hammer. There is one situation where I love 6013. At Harbor Freight (a discount/ import tool chain) I can get 1/16"(1.6mm) 6013 in a two pound box. The smallest electrodes are always more expensive, but they usually keep it in stock. Using a dab-dab process on sheet metal, or just running a bead on something a little heavier, the 6013 bead will bond to the underlying metal, but it will tend to sit up on top of the base metal. It's great for putting your initials on something or a short message (up/top ). A parallel use is to make reinforcing ribs on sheet metal. If your wheel-barrow is rusting out and you weld in small 1/8" (3.2mm) plates at the bolt holes, you will soon find cracks all around your new inserts because the sheet metal will flex while the plate will not. It you run beads (reinforcing ribs) out from the joint you can spread out the flex untill there are no more cracks. You could even make a spider web pattern or something nice. 6013 makes great reinforcing &/or decorative ribs. Apparently availability is an issue. These are some things I've learned, if you find them useful. Thanks again for your video.

Thank You so much for sharing and caring so much about us. You are THE DOCTOR of Science.

Bad ass video. My dad, god bless em, has been showing me how to weld, so this has helped fill in the gaps on the applicability of other techniques & best practices. Thank you so much

Good info! One important point about using a wire-feed unit for FCAW (gasless process) is to use the proper drive wheel for the wire. If you use the typical V-groove wheel it will crush the flux core wire and slip. It will drive you crazy. Make sure to install the round-groove wheel. Most makers include both groove types on one wheel; you change the drive by simply flipping the wheel and reinstalling it. Cheers!

What an amazing video, I hope this will get a couple of million views over the next few years, can’t wait for part 2.

Love your intellect and teaching skills and also your sense of humor! I am new to welding and I'm looking forward to starting my journey! I have learned so much from your videos, Thanks for your channel Sir!

Excellent idea, excellent content!!!! I just got my MIG welder. You're the man, thank you!

Easily the best welding video I've ever watched.

I just found you. Did not take long to be convinced to subscribe. You, sir, have style.

Thank you so much for this video, I have been salivating for ages over a mig welder for the shop, and I had so many doubts if I 'd be able to use one without casualties. You give me hope.

Wayne the farrier again, John. Great idea for a vid. My competency is fire welding in a forge and I'm good at that, but my arc welding truly sucks through lack of training/ knowledge. So thanks and looking forward to part 2.

Thank you so much. No BS, straight to the point, and no guessing. I started looking into learning to weld a few years ago, and I was overwhelmed with the choices to make. I wish your advice had been available sooner! I just want to make practical repairs and fabricate parts that aren't made anymore. I don't care about pretense and snobbery. Just give me something that works! Greetings from 'merica, land of weird fractions and freedom units.

For me, I've learnt just how similar we are. Four grinders, must have every tool, must weld and owns the exact same Rover 5hp mulcher. Experience in molten metal entertainment as it finds that open door is yet another tick.

Welding Tips and Tricks on you tube is a go to.

Fantastic, I wished I had seen this vid before I started welding. Keep this content coming. Cheers, Geoff.

John you had me pissing myself with your molten spatter in the boot and in the ear hole! Yes it's happened to me, in the boot once only but in the ear several times! Yes it's certainly memorable. You comments about UV-C has gotten me worried now. I'm nearly 70 and when I bought my first mig in the early nineties, I didn't use any protection at all for years. Not even a helmet, yes I know it was stupid, but I wasn't welding every day or even every week unless I was on a usually car project, or repairing someone's failed MOT car test( here in the UK ) welding patches on sills or bottoms of wings etc.( I do have gloves and a auto darkening helmet now, but no jacket elect. I usually wear a big leather apron which wraps round my ample girth, it's actually two aprons one cut straight down the centre line and each piece stitched to the sides of my original apron. It covers me nicely if I have to get under a car to do any welding and protects me from the big globs of splatter lol) but as for UV protection I rarely covered right up especially my arms and I suspect that I may have skin problems in the near future. So thanks for the video, you advice is sound and sensible. Cheers from the auld country!

I went to a evening welding class at the local Agricultural College (now closed) in the UK about 40 years ago and have only stick welded since mainly making / repairing gates and similar farm stuff , Thanks for the video.

Enjoying your informational DTE videos... down to earth!

Following an incident where a chap was welding up a trailer in mid-summer, set light to his dry grass and burnt out about 20 houses, the shire council where I live have made a rule: Thou shall not arc weld or use a grinder unless you have radius of 5 metres around the welding location clear of all flammable material. It matters not whether you have covered anything flammable with a welding blanket.

This should be a good series from someone who knows and cares.

This was just the thing I needed to take the first step. One additional safety thing my pop always did when welding to prevent any skin burn from the uv was the good old 30+ sunscreen. No substitute for the actual welders apparel, but accidentally having a patch of skin exposed on the side of your neck or face can happen really easily, and if you don't discover that soon enough you are gonna have a really crap time the next day....

Just found you on the tube... Well done and most informative for beginners like me Thanks, from California!

Very interesting. About 7 years ago I wanted to get into welding (sheet steel to ~6mm plate) and took the same basic approach as you advocated here. I also bought almost the same welder as you have there. Mine is a PowerMat-IMG-220T and I’ve been happily using flux-cored MIG (-11) and stick (6013) since. It didn’t matter that the instructions were all in polish. YT or asking friends who weld for a living or for a hobby has taught me what little I now know. Vevor here doesn’t stock that 270. I like that mine (and yours) takes a standard torch that can be taken off for stick welding. It’s fairly easy to swap between the two. Flick off the wheel and wind back the spool. Just be ready to catch it before it unravels everywhere! I just subsequently upgraded to a gassed system and ‘Hobbyweld gas’ is the way I went. You rent the 7L bottle for a one-off fee and get ~2h for a refill, which is quite a lot of welding. I do think I need the fire blanket as I’m about to start doing some welding on a vehicle and it’d be handy. Having a bucket of water handy and a damp cloth for cooling is also very useful. An auto darkening helmet is complete no-brainer; it needs to go to at least #13 and have the largest screen size you can afford. I’d like to get a ventilated hood and I see you have a torch on your helmet. A handy tip, too. I like the jacket you have. I use a long-sleeved, very heavy cotton thing that zips up tight around the neck, but it’s not meant for the purpose. I also like the cap. Anytime I use a wire wheel I always use a full face shield / weld helmet. They are savage. Looking forward to p2!

Really enjoyed the video. Welding is something I have wanted to learn for years although realistically I don't think I will ever get to it. Explaining all the things that will go wrong if you aren't prepared was enlightening.

This is gold and I thank you.

Hey John, i guess maybe not to confuse people but we call 6013s in Australia 4113s and they are the same thing. 410mpa is the 41.

Great video John, looking forward to part two.👍

John, I think this has been your best video to date, thank you. I have been procrastinating for sometime on the ins and outs of buy my first welding unit and appreciate you taking the time to make this video. Appreciate it!

Thank you so much, proper practical advice. Just what I needed.

Great video mate, I was a welder years ago in England ( now retired) ..great content on health and safety.

Wow. Another great instructional video. Thanks John.

Great vid John, very helpful

Thanks John. Another great, informative vid. Looking forward to next week.👍

Many thanks John. Very helpful John and in my case. very timely!

Fantastic tutorial great job

Great video John, Cheers.

Fantastic video. Certainly did help. Many Thanks.

Literally 1 of a handful of videos I've watched wishing it was both parts in 1. You're insight is extremely appreciated especially in regards to the cans!

Excellent video, well paced, clear and full of detail...Thankyou John...

A slight correction on the sale of individual gloves: you can get left-only gloves (great for right-handers, who wear out the left glove first, but too bad for lefties - find a righty mate who does as much welding as you do and split the bill for a set of gloves, then take one each). However, lefty gloves come in multiple packs, so you won't want to buy them unless you're a professional welder (in which case, you probably already have a pack somewhere). Edit: By the way, good video, John, and thank you. I don't hit "like" for many videos (no matter who does them), but I did for this one. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Excellent John thank you. You've saved me a lot of time.

Lol harbor the desire.... My first welder was a Campbell hausfeld flux core and I still have it 35 years later! And works fine ... I wouldn't call my self a pro welder but I now own three welders including a tig. All self taught and I do a decent job of it... As Mr Sanchez says school is not for smart people!😂😂😂.... Espicially when you rule the learning curve!... Know many people with PhD's that are crap mechanical fabricators.

Thank you John excellent explanation on welding and safety and fantastic price on the welder and gear.

Thanks for sharing your impressive knowledge and insights

Once again John, extremely useful. I embarked on the black arte of joining metal about a year ago. Lots of good and crap on YT. Wish I had the vid you just posted. I did this to build a lift to get my motor bike into the garage attic. Job completed (pics on demand). Surprised myself on the quality for a rank amateur. Thanks again for the great insights you provide. Will keep singing your praises (at karaoke). Notice that I resisted the use of am imogi. 😅 Oops

Thanks for such a great video

This is great! More like it please.

I weld ss with stick at home. Pretty cool.

Great intro to the topic, with a touch of humour thrown in. I have some Vevor products and generally they are good value for the money. Explainng the different types of welding and their best applications for the home DIY guy, covered many essential topics, especially the not about using the correct polarity for the two welding methods. Looking forward to part 2. Also built a decent sized poly greenhouse with all welded steel construction-using basic equipment. I do have four or more cheap angle grinders for the reasons you described, it becomes a real pain changing the type of wheel to suit each job in the process when there are hundreds of small welds such as my tubular steel poly greenhouse. Cut the tube, clean off paint/powder coating/ galvanising, weld, wire brush the slag off the weld , tidy up with the flap wheel. Greetings from the Southern Cross Observatory's (x2 all home built)-Tasmania 42 South.

That was awesome!

SUPERB revision video for the occasional DIY welder ... and as usual some things I did NOT know.

On the subject of Gas bottles: I do automotive rust repairs as a bit of a hobby, i rent a D sized argoshield bottle for $108 per year, and in that cost you get 1 refill per year included. For my usage it works out almost perfect, as i seem to use it at a rate that i only use the 1 included refill.

Thanks for a really good video John. Thoroughly enjoyed it and it was quite timely as I have just become sort of friends with a similar welder to what you have. Self darkening helmets are definitely the way to go I reckon. Can’t recommend them highly enough. It’s a few things less to worry about when attempting to weld something up. I have found they give you really good protection around the neck area. Thanks again 👍🇦🇺

Excellent video. ✌️

Brilliant....thanks John

Hope you mention or demo a carbon arc..... You can use them to do pretty quick brazing on thick steel ...or thin plate... I actually brazed a screw style radiator clamp on a motorcycle silencer to create a custom mount....they push out a flame that looks like a dirty oxy acetelyne feather.

Great video! It is like you made this just for me.

Excellent video

Very helpful video John - from a dude with a pretty new circa $1K BossWeld multi-process unit, no formal training, and lots of metalwork project ideas in mind.

John, the fact that you can get a multi process welder WITH a TIG torch for under 400 bones is amazing value, you were totally on the money starting with flux core, its so handy and versatile. Arc/stick with a dirty old transformer welder used to be the gun choice for the home welder, the mini sized flux core welders are so damn handy!

Yeh I'm a child of the 60's and started welding in the late 70's and early 80's, when the only options for normal people was oxy /acetelyne and arc. About 8 years ago, I baught myself one of those combination machines that will do MIG, Stick and TIG. I would not do that again, I have never used that machine for anything but MIG. I now own a stand alone inverter stick welder in addition to the MIG /combination machine. ( I always owned some sort of stick welder) There are some realy good realy light inverter stick welders around these days. They are so small and so light, AND a you can run a 140 amp welder legally off a 10 amp outlet AND for under $200. The inverter stick welders will deliver more actual welding current from a given mains supply than anything else. Likewise there are some gasless/flux core only "MIG" welders that are quite affordable and quite adequate for home use. . Nearly everybody in the welding training business will tell you to start with stick welding, because it teaches by default a number of skills that make the other processes easy.. . I definitely agree with the multiple grinders idea. Just being able to pick up another grinder with a different wheel already fitted is great thing. Buying all the same brand and model is also a good idea, one tool to rule them all. You buy one set of accessories to fit one grinder model. . Yeh on the matter of anti-spatter. Yeh it is a great thing and a time saver. I've tried cooking oil ...... it works but nowhere near as well a a good quality anti-spatter. A good anti-spatter also prevents corrosion in the short term. . As for learning. there are some great welding learning resources here on youtube. I've learned things I wish I knew 40 years ago. weld.com is the best.

My grinder and my paint, make me the welder that I ain't!

Hands down the best intro to welding vid ever. Years ago, I paid twice as much as this VEVO for a combo TIG MMA inverter welder, ignorantly believing that MIG was inferior. 🙄 I've only stick-welded with it & luckily didn't get around to getting gas for the TIG & wouldn't now after hearing about the initial & ongoing cost. I'm very safety conscious, so a welding blanket is on the shopping list. Really looking forward to the follow-up vid.

Tried arc welding. I was terrible at it. Gas welding is fun! Try brazing copper or brass, or cutting steel, with an arc welder. A TIG would be nice!

Great vid

Hello John, great stuff for fist time welders. Equipment, PPE etc, Not ragging on you dude just One thing i would like to say being a welder for 30 yrs is the fact of welders flash. First most people wont realise they have it until they have sand in there eyes "very painful". but to relieve this pain is , make a cup of tea with 4 tea bags, put tea bags in freezer for 10 min. lay down on the couch putting bags on your eyes and change every 15 mins, this will draw out the heat so you can see, and then go to the doctors if you have no one to help you. just a small tip for those who don`t know about that." First aid rules", Thx like your vids lots. stu.

I am 67. Now I know, where my 6mm big melanom over the left collarbone may have come from! Did some hobby stickwelding at about age 30, probably not wearing the right clothes in hot summer. This June I took a strong plastic clamp, pulled it over the skin with the melanom and let it sit there for a week! Then went to a doc to let him cut off the dead skin; he wasn't really happy about this, but I didn't need anesthetization and the cut did not hurt. (the clamped skin area was already numb). I hope it helped to get rid of it completely, but I am not sure.

As always a great video, funnilly enough I'd been coveting a Estwing chipping hammer for ages and bought one off amazon earlier in the week! (I do have a penchant for hammers, which helps)

Thanks John

The father in law has a never used uni mig welder for sale. I think I'm tempted to buy it. I've done a few mins of stick welding at best. Absolute beginner.

Aloha John, thanks brother this vid is very informative. I was just thinking of getting into welding for projects, I've done gas weld as a youth but want to do arc and then you vid came up, thanks perfect. Aloha brother

Great presentation John, Thumbs up indeed. By the way folks, on the 3 or 5 mini grinders you should have, he's not joking, this really beats having to stop and change to a flap disc, to a grinding wheel, to a brush. Oh, speaking of wire wheel brushes. Just try using one of these on a mini grinder and NOT wearing proper long pants and heavier jacket/shirt,.. tell us how that went for you if you don't.

I haven't welded for years, but push has come to shove; got a combination welder as a retirement gift so I'm going to try it out shortly😊 The only thing I'd add is a mechanical hacksaw blade shaped with a hook on it for cleaning up root runs , but that's old school and frowned upon now.

Great PSA, I have thought about trying welding out, but I would struggle to find a use in my life... but handy to know if I ever take the plunge.

Thanks for your video. I have never welded anything in 66 years & maybe a skill I can try in my retirement & look forward to part 2

Excellent.

Damn you John - you're adding to the list of things I am resisting buying. I've always wanted to learn to weld and this is not helping 🙂 Really good video - one of the things most stopping me trying it was a clear and comprehensive list of what you need at a minimum to start. You have provided that now.

As if you heard me calling, just about to get into welding to DIY some rust on my 4x4. Thanks for the video John!

Argoshield light! great gas for thinner plate / automotive use, I have used it when working on cars for years.

I have never welded before but want and need to. In my research, I came to the same conclusion. It's best to keep options open. So, I bought a 3 in 1 machine, with MMA, MIG and MAG. The MMA can go up to 5mm electrodes, the MIG/MAG does wire from 0,6mm to 1,2mm, also from 450g to 5kg spools. It's an 180A machine with arc force, anti stick and hot-start functions, although I could have bought the 200A. I thought that 200A was too much power for me to have for shed jobs, almost an industrial machine, and that the 180 kept all my options nicely open. I wanted to buy electrodes 6011 for structural stuff and 6013 for thinner stuff. However, here in Europe, it's not easy to get 6011. The same with E71T-11. It looked like I was speaking chinese to the shop keeper 😂 I got the E71T-GS 0,8mm and 0,9kg because most of the stuff I have to start weld is sheet metal, so it will do. Same for the 6013. Bought long gloves, hammer, a professional helmet with 4 sensors, the wire and electrodes, a pack of 6 magnets, two of every size, welding plyers, a tap and die set, grinding disc and two types of wire wheels. About 500 euros. It's a big investment but it will pay itself of because I can do a galvanized struture at home and also do some repairs in my classic car and two gates at home.

Differences between portable and workshop units If using a MIG [wire feed welder ] for mild steel the smaller unit wire rolls can be double the cost for 1/2 the quantity . The hot lead on the wire feed often is not removable and so so expensive u throw the machine away . The hot lead detachable connection is called a euro torch connection ,,can be found in all quality small large units . Cheap units have poor wire feed control . 1000$ up for a quality name brand weekend warriors the vevor seems good

When choosing a mig machine do not buy one with a fixed torch lead, buy one as shown in Johns vidio with a detachable lead, this makes a huge difference when cleaning and changing liners. This may not happen very often to the home welder but will make the difference of a machine going to the tip or not.

Anti spatter spray is available in trigger packs and you can get refills in five liter jugs, rather than use nozzle dip a squirt of spray is better as it leaves less on the nozzle and is far easier to clean off. I find that the best tool for cleaning off spatter and removing flux is a carpenters bolster, been using one for that purpose since 1974 and the Record chipping hammer I purchased back then still hangs on the wall very little used. Those wire brushes on angle grinders are one of the if not the most dangerous things out side of the military as the wires come off the wheels like missiles and can go right though a leather welding jacket which is why I only use a hand wire brush these days.

I have a welding mask I got from ebay years ago, cardboard, decent dark glass, wooden stick for a handle. I put on some elastic string to make it hang on my head. And some cheap goggles that supposedly are just for gas welding. Good enough for now, cost almost nothing.

If you are wanting to weld to work on cars.. +1 on the welding cap. I spent a fair bit of time in the shower picking out weld spatter out of my scalp.

I have had a MIG welder under the bench for thirty years and an Arc welder on a shelf for over ten years. Teach me.