Hello,
I've been watching Jodi's videos for well over a decade. I can't remember when I first started, but I'm glad he's done so well for himself, and I hope given his recent news he is able to keep in good health.
I started welding around 2002 when I took some adult courses at a (then) local vocational school. It was open curriculum, they would teach you whatever you wanted to know, and the instructors were part-timers. I met three of them.. a guy who worked in maintenance, a guy who was a pipeline welder, and another guy that mostly sold art pieces made from scratch who seemed to be retired and definitely needed to lay off the drink.
I didn't know a thing about welding. At the time I wanted to learn to do body customization and restoration on my vehicles. I bought a harbor freight flux core only welder for $100 like a lot of us did back then, and "practiced" on an old fender by making some metal turds thinking I was welding. I also thought if I could use welding to get out of my dead end retail job, it could be a good thing. I reasoned that if I got as many certifications as I could, I could get a job in the field. Boy was I wrong.
I took 3 classes in said vocational school. In the first class I earned a (worthless) 1G cert in stick welding that qualified me up to 2". I then earned a 3G in MIG Steel wire, and lastly, a 3F in Aluminum TIG, and a 3F in Stainless TIG. I was working on a 6G stainless cert on 2" (I think schedule 80) pipe, but they had no setup for purging the pipe and we were trying to basically use duct tape. I never was able to get a sample that hadn't sugared on the inside. I don't remember more specifics than that except that I got a free class because one of the instructors couldn't TIG in the advance class (the pipeliner) and the other kept showing up drunk (the artist.) I never used the free class.
I got one job as a production welder, but quickly realized I was going to get hurt working in that sweatshop after I got electrocuted several times from my own sweat. (true story)
I went back to my retail job for a bit and eventually landed in the trades. I mostly do sheet metal now, MIG, and hadn't touched a TIG welder for nearly 10 years after getting those certs. I lived in an apartment where welding was out of the question and it wasn't until I got a house in the last decade that I was able to get my own TIG. Ironically, welding/fabricating for a living really soured me on it, and I hardly used it.
My hands aren't getting any steadier, and despite getting Lasik, I'm now starting to get night blindness, which is great for a welder. /s
Recently, however, my foreman remembered I had a TIG welder at home and decided to spend $4k on a TIG welder for the shop and I'm the only one with any prior experience. I'm having trouble with my home unit (a now older 2016 AHP machine), and here I am.
I'm really out of the loop on some things, and of course I've been watching videos, but I was hoping to introduce myself and get "first post approval" so I can ask some more specific questions.
Thanks for listening.
Mathius
PS. As a side note, I appreciate being able to use an old school forum, instead of this discord everywhere stuff.
I've been watching a lot of videos trying to figure out the gas problem with my TIG. Should I just post the information here, or start a new topic in an appropriate subforum?
