Performance Welding

This book came as promised, in like new condition. The book itself does not live up to its advertised claims I read on the internet. It does talk about and have photos of welding, but actually has very little useful information for someone trying to learn more about how to weld.

This was a well written book for someone with limited welding experience. The book contains a lot of very helpful information on MIG, Tig, and Gas welding as well as Plasma cutting. It is written in an easy to understand manner and gives the pros and cons for the different processes. It also tells you how to do some of the difficult processes. I found the book very informative and well worth reading.

I got this book for my husband who recently purchased a tig welder and needed a crash course in the basics of welding metals like aluminum and stainless steel. He really likes the book and found quite a bit of useful information. Some of the safety info was very much appreciated and it is easy to read. Good book for anyone needing a little direction.

I like the Motorbooks Workshop books. They are all well written, have very illustrative color photos, and are well organized. This particular book is a handy supplement to the Welder's Handbook by Finch (same author, and some of the same information). While "Performance Welding" covers some more detail about the function and technique of many welding methods, the "Welder's Handbook" has a few projects thrown in with plans. From this particular book I've learned a few tricks about jigging, and discovered a few things I didn't know. I made a few things out of sheet metal from duct work that one might find at the home hardware super duper mart. I tacked together a box made of this stuff which is all galvanized. A few days later I'm flipping through the book and learned that welding galvanized metal is bad - the ionized zinc forms a fume cloud of little nanoparticles that one shouldn't breathe. Extended contact leads to poisoning. Whoops. But I also learned that with proper ventillation, it's okay to weld galvanized metals but I should definitely be more careful. One thing I've learned a lot about, which I only vaguely knew until now, is what to look for in a TIG welder. I learned with MIG and continue to use MIG, but the control of a TIG welder would help dramatically. The extensive discussion of TIG, including TIG methods for stainless, aluminum, and magnesium, is very helpful. Also, I am now more interested in the other techniques that I passed by on my learning curve. For one, gas welding seems to have benefits that I overlooked. And I've also learned that much of the work I do could easily be accomplished by good ol' arc welding with better affordability. If you are a beginning to intermediate welder, you will probably find this book useful.

Aside from little details, a very practical book. His coverage of aluminum brazing omitted the fact that it has been in use since before WW2, and on many military aircraft. His aluminum welding and brazing references tend to mix, and might create confusion in choosing fluxes and fillers. The dangerous cobalt blue lenses he mentions are 40 yrs old, and have been superceded by TM Technologies' TM2000 lenses 10 yrs ago.