Light Aircraft Association

Thanks Nick,yes it was very informative.
Regards John McKenna

PESSIMISM ALERT!

There: I've been up-front about it.

I'm not a welder, but I have worked as labourer / 'boy' / assistant to fabrication welders, did 2/3 of the first year of a City and Guilds welding course (don't ask!) and have a MIG welder that I occasionally join bits of metal together with. I know enough about welding to know just how much I DON'T know.

If I was going to build a chrome-moly steel fuselage frame I'd consider either TIG or oxy/acetylene gas welding it together (assuming the latter is still acceptable these days). In either case I'd settle for just cutting the tubes, tacking it together and then working with a CAA approved welder to finally weld it all together, the welder doing the welding and me assisting / aligning etc.

Wouldn't let it put me off building a steel tube fuselage though, if that's the aircraft I wanted.
Mind you, the subsequent fabric work might put me off!

I did the one day welding course with Robin James. It was an excellent introduction and Robin is a fine and patient teacher. We mostly did gas welding, but did touch on MIG later in the day. I was an absolute beginner BTW. After I had blown lots of holes in the metal I was trying to weld with the MIG, Robin commented that if he ever went into business making colanders, I would be first on the list....