Reddit mentions of How To Weld (Motorbooks Workshop)

I found this book a great intro to welding. It's a good read and gave me the basics to where I had a foundational understanding of the different types of welding and felt confident buying a decent mig welder and doing some projects.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076033174X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=076033174X&linkCode=as2&tag=sg09-20

I read this book before I started. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076033174X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For only about $20 it's a good start. I'm in welding 101 and feel like I'm able to understand where I went wrong faster then others because I read ahead of time.

TIG welding is... kinda like riding a unicycle on a basketball. Steepest learning curve of the lot and frustrating/fatiguing due to lots of stopping and fieldstripping the gun to re-grind the tip of your tungsten. Unless you are going to be doing bike frame or aircraft welding or plan on doing really thin wall work or titanium and what not (and are buying a spensive machine) you'd probably be better served with MIG.

There are flux-core wires that don't use gas, though shielding gas makes less noxious fumes but nothing worse than comes off stick. I was self taught and even picked up a few semesters at a community college but honestly though until I took one good (highly structured, blend of academic and hand on with really experienced instructor) welding class I never realized how much I didn't know :p

There's an awful lot you can pick up from Youtube videos once you find people with good practices. One thing I can highly recommend is this book. It's well organized by category, has great visual aids, condensed reference charts and covers the entire gamut of basic welding. How to Weld



https://www.amazon.com/Weld-Motorbooks-Workshop-Todd-Bridigum/dp/076033174X