I really value good teachers and constructive criticism and I live too far away from a welding school to take a course there so I’m looking at Weld Coach. It’s not cheap, but I would really love to get some quality instruction and I don’t mind the cost if it’s going to help me improve my TIG welding.
Before I pull the trigger on a $250 session, have any of you used it? How was it? Is there an alternative that offers higher quality instruction?
250 bucks is cheap when it comes to education in my opinion. I vote do it. There wasn’t Youtube or internet classes when I started welding. I had to go to trade school or read a book to learn all the tricks. (FYI class of 2000 millwright trade school North Idaho college). We live in a pretty awesome time now that people want to share information for practically nothing. I’ve meet Justin before and he seems pretty knowledgeable on TIG welding. I’m not sure he’s the instructor but I’m sure he has some skilled teachers that can help advanced your skills. The ability to show your work to someone and get feedback is a real time saver. Report back if you decide to do it.
Here’s the class that is in question
I really appreciate the feedback. I plan to do it, will just have to wait until my new machine comes in and I financially recover from part of the purchase haha
I went to welding school for blacksmithing and fabrication for 4 years. It cost me around 46 thousand dollars in total. I learned a ton and was a blast. Now I have a business where I teach my employees everything I have learned over the past 15 years for free. This is, in my opinion, the cheapest and fastest way to learn. Learn and make mistakes on someone else’s dime!
Another one to consider is Dusty James at Pacific Arc TIG Welding Inc. https://www.youtube.com/@PacificArcTigWelding I’ve not taken one of his classes, but have been impressed with the videos of his that I have watched. He appears to be fairly skilled and seems to have a passion to teach.
–Larry
I don’t think he does classes but Jody Collier at Welding Tips and Tricks has lots of video’s.
Another vote for Jody with weldmonger. He has books for tig and mig you can obtain for free. His videos have greatly helped my elementary tig skills.
I’ve gone from zero to being solidly on the path to where I want to be with a combo of a year’s worth of community college courses and YouTube content from the folks already mentioned in the thread. I’d add weldHagojibi to that list. It’s in Japanese with English subtitles, but the video and arc shots are so well done that you can follow and learn without any description of what’s going on. I’ll echo Jason in that there’s really no substiute for someone knowledgeable critiquing your work, so $250 seems like a reasonable sum to invest for some good feedback.
Absolutely Jody!!! 
Also his other platform “Welder Skills” 
One more to think about is 6061.com he has a YouTube channel and lots of god videos. No classes that I know of.
There is nothing like having someone looking over your shoulder and pointing out what you are doing right and wrong. I used to be the guy tasked with teaching TIG to new hires, and that proved to be the best way to get someone up to speed in the shortest time. Are there any community colleges near you? Or maybe some kind of maker space?
No maker space, community college is too far to be able to attend classes at unfortunately.
You can try Weld Coach. Justin has taught a lot of people so he might have found a remote way that really works. Later you can always fly in and take one of his weekend classes in person. Every person is different. I’ve met a few who were mostly self-taught and were pretty good. I also had one guy who had worked as a welder for 10 years and had so many bad habits it took forever to break him of.
The big problem is that I can look at a finished weld and see that it is cold with lack of fusion, but without seeing it being done, I would not be able to say if it was from too low power, too fast travel speed, too long an arc, etc. Someday that might be solved with VR like Lincoln is doing at their training center, but that could take years to trickle down. At least there are so many good welders on YouTube that also can shoot some amazing video that really is like looking over their shoulder. I wish that had been around when I was learning. If you can replicate what you see, and practice, you can probably get pretty good. But if you struggle or are unable to see what you are doing differently from what you are trying to copy, you might need at least a little in-person instruction to get on the right track. I was able to teach my fiancée the basics of TIG on carbon steel in a few hours and she was doing passable welds having never welded before. I don’t think any video could replace that.