Welding For Woodworkers will be an ongoing series of videos. Any time I post another welding video it will get tagged with Welding For Woodworkers and be posted on this site (as well as YouTube) for easy access.
Why Welding For Woodworkers? Because I want to show woodworkers that if they can woodwork, they can learn to weld. It’s a skill that is very accessible. You don’t have to be a master at welding in order to really benefit from this fabrication technique.
I am not a professional welder, but I was lucky enough to have two very experienced and talented craftsmen show me some techniques and tips. In my Welding for Woodworkers videos I show these welding basics as they were shown to me as well as those I have learned by trial and error over the years.
I love welding.
It’s easier than you think.
Every year I find I am welding more and more. In fact, learning how to weld has put money in my pocket. I have realized so much value just in my own shop. I am able to make fixtures and tools and all kinds of other things out of commonly available steel. Wood is often a really inappropriate choice for many projects. But welding is simply amazing, and it does not have a steep learning curve. You can just put two things together, grind and bevel it properly, weld, and you are done. No other joinery required.
Welding has a mysterious quality about it. Until you really start doing it and realize how accessible it is, it’s seems more difficult than it really is. It almost seems like cheating, especially from a woodworker’s joinery perspective. It’s fast, permanent and unbelievably strong.
But once you start welding you will quickly realize that it’s much, much easier than woodworking. It takes far fewer tools and far fewer process steps to achieve a result.
I want to show how accessible welding is. It doesn’t matter what you are working on in a woodworking shop, you are going to be working around steel. Steel is an integral part of all kinds of tools and things in your shop. You will likely have to repair it, modify it, or build something from scratch.
It’s the same reason that most farmers know how to weld. Every piece of farm equipment is steel and it makes sense to know how to weld and and make a repair when necessary. But for me, the best part is, it doesn’t take much effort to get the result you want. If you weld something correctly, it’s never going to come apart, unless you decide to make a modification. You always have the option of cutting your steel, modifying and re-welding and it can be just as strong as the initial weld.
