Bacon and Welding

[Subdeacon Joe]

On another forum someone asked how easy was it to learn to weld well enough for small and simple home projects.  I think this is a pretty good answer:

 

"Very easy. Contrary to the advice of others DO NOT start with MIG. Mig is “training wheels”, a hot melt glue gun for steel. It is “too easy” to get gorgeous beads that hold nothing. Instead, Get a yourself some scrap steel, a cheap “lincoln tombstone” off of craigslist or at a garage sale, a box of E6013 rods and a pound of bacon. The below is a lincoln tombstone. You can always pick one up for $100 to $150….

 

Fry up the bacon nice and crispy in small batches. Just the way bacon should be. LISTEN TO IT. Burn that frying bacon sound into your brain. Eat it. Now go out to the welder and make it sound like that…. If your rod is sticking to the plate and your arc is going out your arc is too short. If your BUZZING like an angry hummingbird and throwing sparks and spatter all over your arc is too long. You hear bacon frying your perfect in the goldiocks zone. Dont try to weld anything, just run beads on a single piece of plate. Turn a 1/4″ plate into a half inch plate by piling beads on top of beads. Go all the way across left to right one bad next to the other, Then front to back. Right to left. Back to front…. Build up that pad. Practice writing with the Arc. A B C D, 0 1 2 3 etc Once you can control the molten metal and get your speed and arc length right now try joining two pieces. First flat. Then one butted against the other in an L (fillet) . Then horizontal. Practice, practice, practice. Its all a matter of training your hand and eye. Then try with gaps. Burn a hole and try to fix it. Deliberately run a crappy bead and go back and fix it…. Thats how I learned. With stick,,, Just make it sound like bacon."

[Eyesa Horg]

Still have my tombstone Lincoln! Paid $50 used back in the 70s.

[Blackwater 53393]

I have my dad’s ol Lincoln buzz box! It’s one of the originals with all copper winding and wiring! I learned to weld with it.

 

It sits against the wall in my shop and I break it out when I need to weld cast iron.

 

I have two antique MiG welders that do most of my work and I DON’T have things often break when I weld them. I can also TiG and torch weld, braze and sweat solder!

 

My dad originally taught me how to weld and I took classes in shop in high school.  I did my first successful welding when I was about ten years old!

 

As far as sound goes, bacon frying is good, but a faint whistling sound gives you great penetration and super clean welds.

 

Edited December 12, 2025 by Blackwater 53393

[Subdeacon Joe]

26 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

I learned to weld with it.

 

It sits against the wall in my shop and I break it out when I need to weld cast iron.

 

I have two antique MiG welders that do most of my work and I DON’T have things break when I weld them

 

Kind of making his point...you learn ed stick welding first. 

 

I learned on a big old 1940s vintage trailer mounted Lincoln machine and a 1948 Lincoln textbook.  11 years old,  kneeling in the dirt where we worked on cars and did oil changes.  Dad came out after about an hour made a couple of helpful comments, went back into the house.  Came back about an hour and a half later told me that I was doing better. "How do you know? You didn't look at anything?"

"I listened to you.  You're not going ROAR...quite...ROAR...quite  now.   You start and it's steady for a  minute or so,  long enough to go through a stick."

[Dirty Dog Doug]

welding is Sewing with FIRE !!!'

I learned in  stick machine  burned 200 pound round at one hospital ...they love backing for everything

last year i was joking 4 homeschools needed  shop class ... even with all 10 finger  I was asked to do 

kids 13- 15 are very good with a wire feed in a few hours 

 

[Blackwater 53393]

BUT!! I taught my son to weld on a MiG welding machine! The only major difference is the hiss of the gas when you pull the trigger and that you don’t have to go back and chip slag.

 

When I learned to weld, MiG and TiG were new and almost unheard of, if they were even available!

 

Learning on modern equipment is quicker if you understand the principles and have someone to get you started.

 

I’d trust my son’s welding as much as I trust my own.  He hasn’t ever used the old buzz box. I might orta teach him about it sometime.

[Dirty Dog Doug]

now they make machines with run intershield wire  or  stick weldiing or tig 

I bought $160 plazma cutter with works  as good as my $900 lincoln 

[Rip Snorter]

I learned oxy / acetylene in the early '60's and a little Arc, as it was called as well.  Did the Oxy on and off till I moved to the ranch.  Movers wouldn't do the tanks even empty, so left them behind.  Thought of replacing them, but this is a fire ecology.  Up side, though I miss the capability, Safe is safer!

[Subdeacon Joe]

57 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

BUT!! I taught my son to weld on a MiG welding machine!

 

You TAUGHT him.  He didn't learn on his own. 

[Dirty Dog Doug]

12 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

I learned oxy / acetylene in the early '60's and a little Arc, as it was called as well.  Did the Oxy on and off till I moved to the ranch.  Movers wouldn't do the tanks even empty, so left them behind.  Thought of replacing them, but this is a fire ecology.  Up side, though I miss the capability, Safe is safer!

my uncle showed me how to fill  pint milk cartoon wit gas and blow them up 

 we did 33 gal trash bag it  was very loud 

..welearned stay with milk cartoons 

[Blackwater 53393]

55 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

You TAUGHT him.  He didn't learn on his own. 

I TAUGHT him because I didn’t want to waste time or material and he didn’t want to fool around with a bunch of messed up stuff!

 

Anyone who doesn’t seek advice and knowledge when it’s readily available shouldn’t try to do something that they don’t know anything about!
 

That’s especially true when something or someone’s safety depends on doing the job right.  We make a living repairing things for other people and their convenience and safety are our primary concerns.

 

For those who want to fiddle around on stuff that’s not essential or not as important safety wise, it’s all well and good! Some of the things we do and work on are used in situations where life or limb can be lost or damaged.

 

I learned to weld by doing it. My dad was there to supervise and critique. He critiqued my work with a hammer!! There were no books or classroom.  When I figured out that I wanted to use the things I’d learned, I went and found knowledge and honed my skills.

 

Edited December 12, 2025 by Blackwater 53393

[Sedalia Dave]

Learned in Jr high. Started out learning puddle control with gas. Vo-tech Ag did a lot more stick arc. Built up a 6"x1"x.125" steel strap Bead after bead until it was 3" square. Then cut in half and counted flaws.  

 

Didn't really learn stick arc until I was in the Navy. Went to night school at the local college. Plan was to learn tig but had to do a semester of stick arc first.  Started with the same 1/8" steel strap and built it up until it was 3" square doing horizontal welds. Then added 1/2" vertical up and 1/2" vertical down. Then an additional inch of overhead.

 

The instructor learned to weld in 1942. He had enlisted just before Pearl Harbor. Became a Navy Welder because he was brave  enough to put on a hard hat dive helmet and weld patches on the Oklahoma so she could be refloated. After the Navy made a career of welding in Newport News Ship yards. 

He could tell by the sound of the arc how well we were doing and was very good at telling us how to correct our technique.

 

I never got to learn Tig as I changed shifts and never got the chance to go back. Still mad about that as he was one of the best welders I've ever been around.  Retiring in January and plan to go back and learn Tig at the local college if I can.

 

[Dirty Dog Doug]

welding and  fitting pipe skills we all need 

[Stump Water]

12 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Built up a 6"x1"x.125" steel strap Bead after bead until it was 3" square. Then cut in half and counted flaws.  

 

A few years ago a girl at work was taking a welding class and that's what they did.  She said "good welding" was when you couldn't see the individual beads when they cut it in half. 

[Cypress Sun]

Sorry, you guys lost me at this.

 

Fry up the bacon nice and crispy in small batches. Just the way bacon should be. LISTEN TO IT.

[Rip Snorter]

Speaking of bacon - there was a guy sitting between me and a buddy at a long bench.  He could not get the gas mix right, kept getting pop, pop and spattering us with slag.  We talked to him, offered to help him, no interest.  He got up for some reason, we used our torches to lightly heat the seat on his metal stool while he was gone. He came back, sat, very briefly, and moved to a different position.  I suppose cruel, but no creatures were harmed.

[Trailrider #896]

Had a welding class in college, back in the late 60's, but was mostly oxy/ac and some stick arc. Just enough for familiarization. If I had stuck at it instead of aerospace, I could have made a bunch more money, especially now that SpaceX, et al, are welding special stainless steel. In the Air Force. ran into a young EM who showed me some things he had done with Mig, on aluminum that was as thin as foil! His dad was brazing rocket engine nozzles and taught him. He would have been great for the USAF, but they wouldn't qualify him because he hadn't gone to Air Force welding classes, and they needed him for missile maintenance! He could have fixed some broken aluminum elevator work cages on base, instead of having to send them back to depot!  

[Jack Spade]

I grew up on a farm and we didn't hire anything done.  Learned to use cutting torch and stick welder when I was about ten.  My dad wanted one of those big round bale spikes for his truck.  I think I was 12 or 13 and I secretly built him one for christmas.  Designed it, used all scrap steel from old farm implements and built it.  I am 60 now and he still uses it, not one weld has broken.   Both of my sons are welders, the youngest just graduated welding school with certs in sanitary stainless.  Interviewing for jobs right now.  I can run a bead with a stick with my eyes closed, just listening to the bacon fry!

[G W Wade]

On 12/11/2025 at 8:10 PM, Dirty Dog Doug said:

my uncle showed me how to fill  pint milk cartoon wit gas and blow them up 

 we did 33 gal trash bag it  was very loud 

..welearned stay with milk cartoons 

Have blown up a barrel full of snuff cans since the 60's       GW