Hi All, looking for a few opinions on the C&G MIG welding course.

I started last Monday ( 3 & 1/2 hrs, 1 night a week). Spent the night just getting to grips with the welder & welding runs on some old scrap 3mm. It went well & I learnt a lot but mainly just through trial & error. The instructor was overseeing a few other students & I was pretty much left to get on with it.

Today I thought I'd have a go at home & managed to weld up a new workbench frame out of some 4mm square section using my kemppi. It's the first time I'd used it & was fairly pleased with the results for a first attempt.

Thing is, now I'm wondering if a 10 week course isn't a bit OTT for what I want to do. I'm not really bothered about getting a certificate, just want the knowledge to be able to do a half decent weld on different materials. Maybe I could just teach myself.

Those of you who have done the C&G course - what was your opinion of it. How useful was it ?

One week in and you can do what you consider nice looking welds........ but i bet if you do the full 10 weeks you will look at that workbench and think its rubbish!! Its not hard to make a pretty weld but the skill is ensuring it is as strong as possible. My advice - do the full 10 weeks and learn as much as you possibly can. Dont forget your life may depend on a part you weld sometime and dont think you're a good welder after a week. I know a professional welder who has done it for 20 years, worked on the rigs under the North Sea for 5 of those and he thought the welds on a commercially available chassis were "crap". That 10 week C&G course (level 1??) is to be frank very basic but should give you the skills to weld up a component you can trust. As for the certificate - well i'd want it if i was doing the course. If you cant pass then would you really trust something you welded yourself?? The weld might look good but only an experienced welder could tell how good it actually is after cutting it open to check penetration etc.

I did a 10 week course at the local Agricultural college and it showed me how much i needed to practice to do the job well, I also had a go at gas and arc with some cutting as well.
The really good bit for me was the ability to use as much rod and steel as i wanted.
One bloke on the course just sat at the gas table for 10 weeks until he could do the most beutifull welds.

Finish the course as already suggested !

Im currently on a C&G lvl 1 Tig welding course. it is around a 38 week course. i finished all of the test pieces in about 5 weeks, so jumped straight onto the lvl 2. the way things are going i should be done with that for xmas. once that is done im going to see if i can go onto the MMA course

Thanks guys, seems like sound advice.

I did a 10 week course...... in that time I had about 10 mins of one to one tuition..... and about 2 hours total of group demo... the rest of the time we were left to get on with it...


I could IMHO have learned just as much with a good book and a welder at home!

Getting toothpaste out of the tube doesn't make you a dentist!

They will have lot of very relevant things to teach you - I know, I used to teach the courses at Cornwall College.

I couldn't weld for toffee, but during the last recession I started labouring for a welder who used to make parts for my lambo replica.
Within a week I was welding....sort off, but after 5 years I consider myself to be pretty good.
Welding is more about knowledge of compatable materials, good welding equipment and lots of practise.
Even welders start new batch jobs and get better by the end of the run.
You just gotta keep at it!

As everyone has already said, keep at it. I did a 2 day course at the local college, got a bit pi**ed off that they looked like sh*t, locked myself in the garage for a month, posted a few pics on here when i felt abit more confident, was told they were still a bit sh*t and kept practising until they improved.

Now thats why my chassis took 1 1/2 year to make