Last Updated on November 19, 2021 by Antonio H. Johnson
Those who love welding and wonder about the versatility of welding often ask a question. Is welding hard? The straight answer is, Yes, it is somewhat tricky.
For that, you must know what do welders do? A welder joins metal parts using equipment that expels intense heat. Welding requires years of practice and resilience to master. Practice, patience, and expertise are needed as there are several risk factors involved with this.
Contents
Types of welding and what’s best for a beginner to learn:
There are four types of welding. They are,
- Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW/MIG)
- Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW/TIG)
- Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW)
- Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW)
Suppose you’re a beginner; it’s better to learn MIG/GMAW welding first. It’s comparatively easy to understand and very beginner-friendly.
➤ Read Also: Different Types of Welding Positions
This article will brief different factors that impact how quickly or slowly you’ll learn to weld, why it is hard and some other aspects. But still, with the proper guidance, you too can become good at welding.
Why is welding hard?
First of all, welding is dangerous if you don’t take the proper steps and precautions. Since it includes working with hazardous and risky components, proper safety has to be ensured.
Secondly, welding is not a skill that can be learned simply by knowing about it. Welding requires a lot of practical experience and proper guidance. Besides, one cannot hope to learn welding in 1-2 months. It takes about 6-8 months at least, and that too under adequate direction and supervision.
But fear not, although welding is regarded as a somewhat tricky skill to master, it actually will get easier once you start practicing.
Factors that affect the learning curve of welding
Simply put, to learn how to weld efficiently and relatively quickly, multiple numbers of factors need to be taken into consideration. They are as follows:
Adequate Information:
Since chemistry is at the core of welding, you will need to know the chemistry that concerns welding processes. You’ll also need to know the well-known practices in the field of welding to accelerate your learning.
Practical Experience and Application:
The key to learning welding lies with practical experience and application. The more you exercise welding in real life, the more quickly you’ll learn what the instructions or any manual doesn’t tell you.
Proper Safety Precautions:
As we all know, “Safety First.” Ensuring your safety and also the people around you is the prerequisite of welding. Welding can malfunction too dangerously if the proper precautions aren’t taken. If you injure yourself in the process, you’ll not only endanger your health; you’ll also slow up your method of learning.
Proper Guidance:
There is a saying – The better the master, the better the student. A good instructor will significantly lessen your time required to learn to weld. So, try to make sure you have an excellent instructor guiding you.
Proper Equipment:
The role of excellent and polished equipment is an indispensable factor. You should invest a generous amount in ensuring that you have top-notch equipment for welding. Good equipment greatly impacts how effectively you can weld and how fast you can learn to weld. So you have to be sure to make it a priority.
Resilience and Perseverance:
Keeping other factors aside, it is vitally important that you remain extremely resilient while learning to weld. You might feel frustrated at times due to a lack of expected results; you might feel like giving up. But remember that you have to go the extra mile, and you have to be willing to work hard. If you can’t be resilient, you can’t learn to weld. Keep hanging to it!
Beginners Friendly MIG/GMAW Welding
The most comfortable welding and the most beginner-friendly welding of the four types is MIG welding. In Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), an electric arc forms between the MIG wire and the piece you want to work on.
In this process, the equipment can be assembled easily; the weld pool can be observed excellently, easier controls can be optimized better. MIG welding offers burn-back timers, a memory preset system, 2T/4T switches, and so on. It can be used to weld Carbon, Aluminum, Stainless Steel, and MIG welding can be used to weld across metals of variable thicknesses.
Hence, MIG welding is the path to choose for beginners. If mastered correctly, you may not have to learn any other type of welding!
Join a Good Welding school!
A good welding school should teach you the basics and advanced welding levels and help you earn practical welding knowledge. But before that, make sure you’ve decided correctly that welding is the path you want to pursue.
As a welding school will cost you decent money, be sure to clear things in your head first. A good welding school should teach you:
- Metallurgy
- Blueprint Reading
- Proper safety measures
- Understanding the proper tools and learning how to use them
- All the well-exercised welding methods
- Controlling the weld pool both horizontally and vertically to make you comfortable with working anywhere
- Welding multiple things of multiple thicknesses
A right welding school is likely to take you up to 18 months, but no less than nine months. So, make sure you have that amount of time on your calendar. If you can come out of a welding school with a certificate, you can be sure that you’ll be in high demand, and you can kick-start your career from there.
➤ Read Also: 10 Best Welding Schools in The USA
Get ready to be rich!
Frequently Asked Questions:
What’s the hardest type of welding?
Answer: The most challenging type of welding is Tungsten Inert Gas Welding (TIG). The surface needs to be clean; the process itself is slower than other classes; both hands and feet have to be used for this process.
How much time does it take to learn to weld?
Answer: It usually takes up to 6-8 months to attain good welding skills.
Is welding hard?
It is a somewhat tricky skill to master, but with proper training, one can learn to weld with time.
Which welding process is the strongest?
Answer: TIG welding is the strongest of them all. Producing cleaner and smoother products with comparatively less time and effort than other types, TIG welding is the favorite form of welding amongst welders.
Are there any metals that cannot be weld?
Answer: A combination of metals like Aluminum and Steel, Aluminum and Copper, Steel, and Titanium cannot be weld due to their metallurgical properties.
What is the hourly-wage of welders?
Answer: The average hourly wage of welders in the USA is $19.00 per hour. The rate may fluctuate depending on a variety of factors.
Can welding be the right career path to choose from in 2021?
Answer: Yes! Undoubtedly welding is an excellent career path to pursue in 2021 because it doesn’t require a degree to become a welder, and the training times are relatively short, and welders are paid well. So, a concrete path to pursue!
Does welding have health risks?
Answer: Welding fumes contain contaminants and the UV radiation from welding might cause melanoma and lung cancer. So proper protection is indispensable.
Which is the best welding rod in the market?
Answer: 6011 welding rod is considered by the best welding rod found in the market. Having 1/8 and 3/32 rod sizes on hand, the 6011 gets most of the jobs done with ease. It’s also user-friendly and runs on both AC/DC.
Conclusion
So, based on what we have learned from this article, is welding hard? Like any other skill, welding is also a difficult one to master. But all of it depends on how you approach the learning procedures, how you control the various factors that determine the learning curve of welding. “Perfect practice makes perfect,” so the more you practice and apply, the more efficient you will become at welding.
Welding is an excellent career choice, and if you become good at it, you’re looking at a pretty successful and wealthy future.
Hi, this is Antonio. I’m a welder. I Love welding and writing blogs about welding. I know, choosing the best welding tools is very difficult. That’s why I have created this blog to teach people the basics of welding, what the best welding tools are, and where they can find it at a cheaper price.