Courses

dubtom

Anyone know of starter courses in the Dublin area for car restoration/welding etc.

Abelloid

Not sure if there's anything specific but welding courses are easy to find, often thought about this myself, just can't get off my arse :rolleyes:

Justin.

green-blood

dont suppose you can point out any of those welding courses - I'd be interested meself. Could you let me know if you find anything out dubtom, I'd be very interested

Abelloid

http://www.dit.ie/DIT/engineering/manufacturing/metal/courses.html

Good place to start.

Justin.

manta mad

Re dubtom.

go out & buy a welder, & a few bits of steel to play around with.
get a good manual on welding(haynes) & you will soon get the hang of it:)
thats how im learning;) oh and a good grinder for all the blobs the
first few times:D

Irish-trucker

manta mad wrote:

Re dubtom.

go out & buy a welder, & a few bits of steel to play around with.
get a good manual on welding(haynes) & you will soon get the hang of it:)
thats how im learning;) oh and a good grinder for all the blobs the
first few times:D

I'd recommend doing the same thing ! i'm on 17 and taught myself how to weld last year .
Got a very cheap 80 euro arc welder in McQuillan's , and messed about with old pieces of flat steel and soon got the hang of it .(Welder is still going strong by the way ,has paid for itself by now;)
Every time you weld you get better .

Good Luck ,
John

dubtom

Welding frightened the bejaysus out of me in Tech, could never get the hang of it. My brother inlaw actually has a welder, the type with the roll of wire, and I could mess about with it, but as well as actually learning how to weld properly, I would like to learn how to break a car down and replace any parts that may be rotten, for instance I have absolutly no idea how to remove a sill from a car, I'd like to know the process of breaking a car down properly, I would rather not trust to try it and see. On the welding front, a few years ago a few mates and I were doing banger racing and needed to put roll cages in the car, one of them had welded before and proceeded to weld away, very pleased with himself he was. A guy who lived close by and happened to be a welder actually broke my mates welds with his bare hands, that thought me a lesson, that welding isn't really about just sticking 2 pieces of metal together, there is a process and I would rather learn it properly rather than find out when I'm driving down the road that I did it wrong.
I will certainly check out DIT Justinoval, cheers.

dubtom

For anyone interested, Fas do a night course on Welding, monday or tuesday nights,in Ballyfermot, 10 weeks in duration, 300 euro, I may give that a go.

Abelloid

You should check out the volkswagen forums, they love to show all the gory details of a resto, this thread is popular at the moment;

http://restowagenuk.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2319&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I'll post more later, put the kettle on and check that one out first;)

justin.

dubtom

Yea, that's what i'm talking about, haven't a clue what he's doing though.Check out page 7 where he's cut out rotten bits and replaced them, makes em look like original. Brill. Mind you I was lost on page 1, that's why i need a course:eek:

junkyard

I'd have no problem showing anybody the basics if their interested as I repair cars and have restored a few over the years. I do painting, welding (mig and gas), filling and lead loading.
I'm in Co. Cork.

dubtom

That sounds interesting Junkyard,mmmm,I'm not asking for a specific date but when would suit you, weekdays or weekends.

junkyard

Probably a Sunday or over the Christmas holidays as I have to work the garage during the weekdays.

Abelloid

I might take you up on that offer too, Junkyard

dubtom

I'd like to take you up on that offer also Junkyard, i live in Dublin so may have to organise a weekend in Cork sometime.

MercMad

I'd be interested here too !

I did this all before in Tech but since I havent actually had to weld anything in about 15 years I'm a little rusty (no pun intended)

Also I never welded car bodies so I would be unsure about the methods used !

Thats a very generous offer Junkyard, pity I'm in Dublin. One question cn you actually still buy the neccesary items for Lead Loading ?

junkyard

No problem everybody, I probably go with some time between Christmas and the New year if that suits. Yes Mercmad you can still get the stuff for lead loading but it's not cheap!

MercMad

You should check out the volkswagen forums, they love to show all the gory details of a resto, this thread is popular at the moment;

http://restowagenuk.com/bb/viewtopic...er=asc&start=0

I'll post more later, put the kettle on and check that one out first

justin.

............that link was dangerous !

I started reading and couldn't stop........................now its 2 1/2 hours later and I read every scrap of it!!

It fantastic what that guy did.................very talented !

Any tips on where to buy that Lead Loading stuff ? Also I've just decided that I'm buying muyself a welder as a Christmas pressie to myself !

dubtom

Look out B+Q, your in for a killing. While on the subject of welders, what sort is best for welding cars, my brother inlaw has the one with the roll of wire, is that a mig,do you need a different type for spot welding. I've seen a few different types advertised in UK mags, with gas, without gas, whats the difference.
Junkyard you may regret offering your services .
I agree mercmad,That link was fantastic. That guy keeps insisting it's easy:eek:

BrianD3

I'm just looking at an old edition of Popular Classics mag and there is a article on welding. It describes a few different types
Gas
Manual Metal Arc
Metal Inert Gas/Metal Active Gas
Tungsten Inert Gas
Spot Welding

It rates each one with marks out of ten for price, ease of use etc. The MIG welder gets 7/10 for use on thin metal (TIG gets 9/10, Arc and Gas get 2/10) It states that overall MIG is the most suitable budding car restorers. MIG is the one with the wire. So that's the theory but I wouldn't know where to start in pratice I might head down to Cork if junkyard is giving demonstrations

kyote00

I did the fas welding course. its very good for learning the correct technique but
focuses on 6mm and 10mm plates --- great if its a battleship you are restoring but not much use on cars. Technique is important to ensure strenght of your weld.

I agree with the other comments that practice is the key....

The other aspect is of course safety, modern mig units can give you a very false sense of security -- 'Just plug it in and off you go' --- the fas course will set you straight on the essentials to ensure you dont seriously burn yourself or burn you garage down or blind youself.

Aside from knowing how to weld, you will also need to know what the different types of joints are and when to use them. You will also need some tools such a jogglers to create nice overlaps, grinders and cutters etc

as regards welders, I got a Clarke gas Mig welder in the UK in machinemart -- its important to get a very good wire feed mechanism as this is the only real control you have on a mig when welding 1mm or 1.2mm steel

Squirrel

Get good safety gear, our teacher did a demonstration in metalwork, and the heat is unreal. Other than that I don't really have much more advice except my school-book, called engineering technology (that could be the junior cert 1 though, I don't remember), the leaving one anyway has a bit on welding

gn3dr

I'd recommend getting the best welder you can afford too. Years ago I started out with a cheapish mig and it worked OK but in hindsight it was not great because I now have a 195amp Sealey Mig which is miles better.

With the cheaper welders, when you are having problems getting a good weld you will never be 100% if it your technique or the unit itself.

Abelloid

kyote00 wrote:

I did the fas welding course. its very good for learning the correct technique but
focuses on 6mm and 10mm plates --- great if its a battleship you are restoring but not much use on cars.

Unless you are a member of the A-Team

Justin.

junkyard

From what I've heard the gasless mig welders aren't up to much. I use mostly mig welding, spotwelding, ( which is the best for patching door ends and general bodywork) brazing and gas welding. Its hard not to have gas bottles as the're used for gas welding, brazing and lead loading as well as just heating metal. The leadloading stuff is available from Frost restorers equipment. www.frost.co.uk

JohnBoy

Don't be so quick to knock the gasless mig, the cost a bit more for the wire, but you don't have to rent the bottles (or fill your shed with empty disposables) and you don't get as clean a weld, but if you have to work outside on a windy day it can be very hard to get a good weld cos your shield gas is blown away, gasless migs don't have this issue, and the welds are, if prepared properly, just as strong.

the key is preparation, always.

buy two or maybe even three angle grinders if you want to be fast, don't need makita ones either, get some cheapo argos ones.

keep one with cutting disks on it, for cutting obviously, one with a grinding disk on it, for rough shaping of parts, and one with a flap wheel for finish prep work, paint removal etc. there's nothing more annoying than constantly changing disks.

keep the specific grinders for their dedicated tasks and then you'll see where you need to upgrade to higher quality machines (flap work doesn't put much load on the grinder for example)

Buy your first grinders in argos or B&Q, keep the receipts, burn em out and take em back, just spend a few minutes cleaning up the grinder before you return it, so its not black with steel dust, and keep the box, "hardly used the damm thing and it died boss, honest"

do not, under any circumstances buy consumables from the big guys, B&Q, homebase etc are shockingly expensive for disks.

buy them in quantity, cos there's nowt worse than running out on sunday afternoon.

do any welding course you can, i did one in arc, on heavy plate as was said, but the point is it still teaches you the basics of forming and controlling a weld pool.

a 130+ amp welder should be more than man enough for any body/chassis work on anything up to a landrover chassis buy the best one you can afford.

check tool places, triace in fermoy for example as sealy, sip and draper always have special offers going so you can save a nice few pounds for yourself.

MercMad

Mmmm good stuff John.............ta for that !

dubtom

Cheers John.

junkyard

Thanks JohnBoy.