Table Of ContentBEGINNING MIG WELDING AND METAL
FABRICATION BASICS
STEPHEN BLAKE CHRISTENA
Contents
Introduction
Part I: Welding 101
Chapter 1 Welding: Start Here
How Welding Works
The Arc
The Filler Metal
Flux and Shielding Gas
The Ground
Spatter
Why Learn MIG Welding?
Buying Tools and Equipment
Chapter 2 Getting Started
Your Studio
Electrical
Ventilation and Lighting
Studio Layout
Safety and Protective Gear
First Aid
Sparks Are Flying
Protective Gear
Equipment and Tools
The Chop Saw
The Angle Grinder
The Welder
Other Cutting Tools
Chapter 3 Selecting, Buying, and Prepping Your Metals
Hot Roll vs. Cold Roll
Filler Material
Decorative Options
Buying Metal
How to Order
Preparing Your Metal
Let’s Prep
Chapter 4 How It Works
Technique
The Puddle
Stance and Comfort
Vision
Hand Position
Angle of the Gun
Heat vs. Thickness
Clamps and Tacking
Exercise 1: The Draw
Part II: Using Your MIG
Chapter 5 The Basics
Basic Joints
Technique
Exercise 1: Butt Joints
Exercise 2: Corner (or Fillet) Welds
The Rest of the Joints
Corner Joints
Lap Joints
The Edge Joint
Exercise 3: Jigs
Other Welding Situations and Positions
Vertical Welding
Cross Body Welding
Chapter 6 Projects
Project 1: The Cube
Project 2: The Welding Table
Project 3: The Runner
Gallery
Glossary
Resources
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Index
Introduction
W
hile I was growing up in Flint, Michigan, my dad, brother, and I would make
and fix all kinds of things. My dad instilled his philosophy in me at a young age:
“Why pay someone else to do something you can do yourself?” We enjoyed
fixing everything from cars to bicycles, dishwashers, and TVs. We re-roofed
houses and rewired radios. We built wooden tool chests, skateboards,
snowboards, and hockey sticks. We were always working on a wide variety of
projects using everything under the sun and all kinds of cold connections like
nuts and bolts, screws, nails, glue, epoxy, fiberglass, solder, pop rivets—you
name it; we used it. I grew up into a confident handyman and consummate
tinkerer with an appreciation for three-dimensional construction.
By the time I started college I was no stranger to creating sculptures,
furniture, art, and all sorts of other things using traditional woodworking and
cold connection methods. But then in my first metal sculpture class, I cut into a
piece of 11 ga mild steel with an oxy-acetylene gas torch and I was hooked.
Metalwork and fabrication amazed me and became my passion. The way this
cold, hard, and seemingly uncooperative material was so easily cut, formed, and
manipulated still astounds me. As I learned how to weld, heat, bend, and cut
various metals, I could not believe how these incredibly durable materials
became as easy to work with as clay. Exploring the unlimited potential of metal
work became the compass for the rest of my life.
I never stopped welding. After graduation, I moved to Chicago and set up my
first shop on the south side, equipped with only a small 120 V Hobart MIG
welder and grinder. Over the years, I moved my shop around a few times,
expanded my gear, and worked in a wide range of fab shops, learning as much as
I could along the way.
By the time I started my first fabrication company, I had worked for some of
the top designers in the furniture industry and for world-class architects, and I’d
worked side by side with amazing metal artists, fabricators, and sculptors. Each
of them influenced my perspective and expanded my knowledge of metal work,
for which I am grateful.
“Exploring the unlimited potential of metal work
became the compass for the rest of my life.”
Then a few years ago some motorcycle friends approached me and asked
about learning to weld and chop frames for their race bikes. After a few basic
lessons in welding, they were asking me to teach them how to make their own
bikes lighter, how to weld and fabricate new parts, and how to build custom
components. Before I knew it I was teaching community welding classes at my
metal studio, Midwest Metalworks.
After a lesson recently, one of my students said to me, “You can pretty much
make anything, knowing how to weld.” He had an amazed expression of
bewilderment at the vast potential of this new medium that he had just learned.
He had realized the fantastic new world of possibilities that I had discovered
almost two decades before. Now you can too.
If you enjoy working with your hands, learning metalwork will give you a
wealth of knowledge that will expand and challenge your ability to create. There
are so many different techniques, styles, and methods to learn in welding, and in
this book, I hope to introduce to you the enormous possibilities that come with
each one.
The key place to start is learning the basics of Metal Inert Gas (MIG)
welding, which we’ll learn in the following pages. You’ll learn the basic rules
and principles of welding that can be applied to other processes such as Stick
and Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding. MIG is just the beginning.
It takes time and practice to become a good welder, but I hope through this
text you will soon instinctively recognize a good weld that is laid properly. Just
like an excellent musician knows when they are in tune or have played a bad
note, an experienced welder understands their craft. The more arc time you log
and the more projects you fabricate, the more the world of metalwork will open
up to you.
—Stephen Blake Christena, Chicago 2013
I
Welding 101
