If you’re planning on going to welding school, you may be wondering what equipment you need to buy in order to be prepared to for your courses.
This article is written to give you a general idea about what equipment you’ll be purchasing. However, you should check with your particular school before you actually buy anything.
They may have more specific recommendations, or may ask that you hold off buying anything beside gloves and goggles the first week. They also may have equipment for you to try out before making investing in the equipment you’ll need.
In welding you need protective clothing and various tools.
Along with the items listed below, don’t forget to bring a notebook and pencil to take notes in your classes.
Protective Clothing and Equipment.
Wearing proper clothing and protective equipment is essential for welding safety.
Injury to the skin, ears and eyes can result from neglecting the right kind of clothing and shield. To protect yourself while welding you should have:
- Safety glasses
- Safety lens
- Cutting goggles (which should fit over your safety glasses).
- Leather gloves.
- Tight-woven cotton clothing (no polyester or any other type of fabric which may melt).
- Straight legged jeans with no frays or holes, which may catch fire.
- A cotton high necked tee-shirt and long sleeve cotton, button-up shirt.
- Leather cape sleeves or a leather jacket (some schools may let you use a heavy cotton jacket).
- A leather apron for some jobs.
- Leather work boots (steel toed are required by some schools).
- Ear plugs.
- A welding cap.
- A welding helmet.
- A welding respirator (may not be required by all schools).
Hand Tools
This is a list of hand tools you may need for your class.
Again, it’s important to check with the school you’re attending, because they may have tools for students to use in the first classes or they may have particular types or brands which they prefer for you to purchase.
This list doesn’t include a welder, which will most likely be provided in class, although you will need to plan on purchasing one at some point.
Here’s the list of hand tools needed:
- Fuel tip cleaners.
- Soapstone with holder.
- Wire cutters.
- A chipping hammer.
- Wire brushes.
- Channel locks or Crescent wrench.
- Vise grips.
- Tape measure.
- Speed square.
- Fillet gauge.
- Flashlight.
- A mirror that extends.
- Metal heat tape.
- Micro fiber cloth (to wipe lenses).
- Needle-nose pliers with side cutter.
- 12” combination square with steel blade.
- 2 lb ball peen hammer.
- A bucket or backpack to carry all of your tools in.
Once again, many schools do not have the students purchase their tools until after their first class, while others provide an online list for you to have when you come to class.
This can’t be overemphasized; you don’t want to spend money on the wrong tools, so follow the instructions you find for the schools.
Below are some examples class information and tool lists from various schools:
- https://northeast.edu/Degrees-and-Programs/pdfs/WELD.pdf
- https://www.wwcc.edu/CMS/fileadmin/PDF/welding/welding_tech_tool_list14.pdf
- http://sites.austincc.edu/welding/required-supplies/
As you can see, the lists are similar with some variation.
If you familiarize yourself with these lists and take a look at some of the links provided here, you should be in a good position to calculate a rough budget for the equipment and tools you’ll need to buy to be prepared for welding school.
