How hard is it to learn to weld?

[Rough Hewn]

I learned arc welding at school, 30 years ago.
Ten years ago I was working in heavy industry and the boss asked if anyone could weld.
Fifteen minutes later I've got a 300amp 3phase mig in my hands [emoji106]
6 weeks later after a lot of pink eye the doctor told me my eyes are too sensitive and if I continue welding I will go blind.
Even with a really expensive mask.
Shame as I really enjoyed the work.

[Daniël Bos]

I learned arc welding at school, 30 years ago.
Ten years ago I was working in heavy industry and the boss asked if anyone could weld.
Fifteen minutes later I've got a 300amp 3phase mig in my hands [emoji106]
6 weeks later after a lot of pink eye the doctor told me my eyes are too sensitive and if I continue welding I will go blind.
Even with a really expensive mask.
Shame as I really enjoyed the work.

Weird?
A good welding mask will filter 100% of the UV light.
The darkening is only for the sheer brightness of the arc, not damage limiting.
Another thing a welding mask should do is filter the infrared light, this'll slowly cook your eyeballs, irreversibly.
But a good mask will do just that? I know a 72 year old professional welder who's been a welder for over 50 years continuously, no eye issues?

[Rough Hewn]

Just the way it happened.

[Daniël Bos]

Bugger, hopefully you've sustained no further damage?

[Rough Hewn]

Haven't welded since.
Eyes still work,
Would love to get a mig for projects but I know
I won't.

[PeteB]

Pidgeons seemed to roost above my bench!

[GA Groundcare]

With mig its all in the welder setup and that does take some time to learn. I know our mig in the workshop roughly where it needs setting up on 2mm metal, 4mm metal etc before pulling the trigger. Sometimes needs a tweak once started but usually there or there abouts. Once setup mig is a doddle. One of the best things I bought was an auto welding mask. Makes life so much easier and you can still see the gun at point of pulling the trigger keeping it accurate with a hand still free.

 

Make sure your surfaces are lovely and clean, no oil residue etc. A "flapper" sanding disc on a 4.5" grinder does a great job at prepping surfaces.

Get two lengths of 3-4mm metal, sit one on top of the other and just have a go. The rewards of a good looking weld is awesome.  

[GA Groundcare]

Also there is a bunch of welding forums you can browse and get inspired..

[richy_B]

I did an evening course at my local college (Richmond at the time). It was 3 weeks each of arc, mig, gas and then one week taster of tig. Cost £300 but it was useful to learn with good quality kit and have an instructor.

It also will help you determine if there is a branch of it you would prefer to learn. I would have initially though of mig but after the course found arc was best suited to what I needed to do.

[Canal Navvy]

Starting with a stick welder (MMA, manual metal arc) makes a lot of sense to me. You can use any old scrap to learn on and if you don't control the arc

it will let you know by the slag inclusions. Once you've learnt to watch and manipulate the weld pool then try a MIG (metal inert gas, or more accurately MAG , metal active gas also GMAW) . That will teach a good lesson in cleanliness of materials and keeping things dry, which will feed back into stick which also prefers things clean & dry. That should set you up with the skills to weld most of the items you are likely to come across.