Learn to weld proficiently, in 1 Day

About Deon van Rooyen, the creator of 

Learn to weld proficiently, in 1 Day. 

www.Weldin1Day.com 

Weld in 1 Day welding courses

Arc, MIG & TIG aluminium and TIG stainless steel welding courses. 
 

I was bourn in South Africa. My family and I (my wife and 2 daughters, 10 and 12 at the time all went on an L.S.D trip �� Look. See. Decide) went to LA, then England. 

Sold my highly successful business in Johannesburg and we decided as a family to move over to England beginning of 2000 and settled there. 

This teaching course started by pure chance back in 2010.  

I received a phone-call from the car manufacturer Vauxhall, in Luton, north of London in 2010. 

The manager in the spares department called and asked me. 

Do I teach welding courses? No, I replied. 

Will you consider it? Well, yes. But why don’t you send your students to night classes for 16 weeks after hours? 

No, I need you to come to us here to teach them. 

How much experience do they have? 

No experience at all. 

Okay, shall we start with a week? 

No, he replied. I day. 

�� Whaaat! Okay, I’ll have to put some notes together and will see you next week then. 

This is what got me started. I never say no to a challenge. But this one was crazy. Really! 1 Day. 

I must be honest, when I was asked to do just that, to teach 2 students, who had no previous welding experience at all. I did not think it was possible. 

The secret to my success, teaching students to weld proficiently, in just 1 Day. 

(I have been teaching 1 Day welding courses since 2010)

I went through thinking to myself. I learn far better, from my own personal experiences in life learning something new, when it is fully explained to me, in detail, step-by-step, so that it makes perfect sense to me in theory, before I start doing whatever it is practically. 

Cause and effect. Techniques. Tricks. Do’s and don’ts. 

If you perform this movement, then I get this result; 

If you do that, I get a different result, and the reason behind why it turns out different. 

The effectiveness of teaching in this manner, by starting with the theory, explaining it all in great detail to get a full understanding of all the techniques, tricks and strategies behind becoming a good proficient welder is the key to my success in conveying my knowledge over to my students. I get the most amazing results. 95% of my students weld far better than on site welders I’ve seen on construction sites around London, and that’s after just 1 days training. Soo satisfying for me, to see their results.

Once you get started, you will be able to work out, by yourself, why something is not working by applying the very logical steps and techniques I teach on the course. Correcting yourself. Correcting your own mistakes by remembering the reasons behind the logical steps/techniques. 

Plus, you will have videos to refer back to each time you get stuck. 

My very first welding course 

Well, my first ever welding lesson, teaching total newbies to weld proficiently in 1 Day was a total success. Their task was to weld/repair wire cages on wheels. 

The cages were about 600mm (2 feet) square by 1800mm high (5’11” high) 

These cages had a latch-able door to close them up and were used to pack car parts in them. A forklift truck would come along, lift them up and load them up onto a lorry to be delivered all over the country. One would go to Oxford, another one to Cambridge and so on. They would get bashed around on the back of the lorry and the welds would break over time. 

That’s what my 2 students were expected to do, to keep these cages in perfect working order. 

My 1 Day welder training course was Bourn in 2010 

The next day I received the most amazing compliment and review from the management team at Vauxhall car manufacturers. Wow. I was super impressed and pleased at my amazing achievement. I really did not think it was possible. 

But, proved myself wrong. 

That was such a sense of achievement for me. Very pleased with myself. 

I created my own website plus I learned all about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) over many years of learning and courses I went on. SEO is used to secure a website on first page Google and other search engines. That is how I receive enquiries every single day since 2009 when I first became a mobile welder in London. 

So, my immediate thoughts were. I may just as well add this to the list of expertise on the list of things I do for companies/people out there on my website looking for my welding services.

I then created an additional web page on my website explaining what I have to offer, teaching people to weld proficiently, in 1 Day, no matter what your previous experience. This didn’t take long and I was on first page Google for welder training courses in England and took off immediately. 

My main profession is; 

I am a coded mobile welder, in and around London and sometimes far beyond London. I have shifted my preference of welding choices over to specialising in aluminium welding because I enjoy aluminium welding and there are not many mobile aluminium welders in London. 

If you look on Google you will find me on the first page for “Coded mobile welder London”  Under my business name www.AllMetalWeldingServices.co.uk 

That is my full time profession/occupation. 

Teaching 1 Day welder training courses is a sideline business but picking up steadily from month to month. 

So I am passing on my first hand experience of how I master the art of welding proficiently, in any position or conditions. I teach more in my 1 Day welding courses than you will learn in 16 weeks at night classes at a college in the UK. I can say this with confidence, because I’ve been there. Experienced it first hand. Plus numerous students of mine went to college night classes and walk out. Said they weren’t learning anything and came to my 1 Day welding course instead. 

This next list may look and sound complicated but no, once you understand it all after I’ve explained and demonstrated it to you, it’s really logical and straightforward. 

Welding is actually not that difficult if you follow all my steps and techniques. 

I come up with sayings and jokes. “Do exactly what I do, and you will achieve the exactly the same results” Just copy me, and you WILL become a very good proficient welder, in a very short time-span. 

This is the secret to why I have achieved such remarkable results from my students since 2010, and that’s through the detailed explanations in order to give you a full mental picture and understanding of the principles behind my welding techniques, before you start physically welding. 

• I teach perfect upside down welding techniques and the relevant amperage settings to use. 
• Vertical up welding techniques and the relevant amperage settings. 
• Vertical down welding techniques and the relevant amperage settings. 
• Knowing what amperage to set your welding machine to based on the thickness of the material. 
• Material preparation. Besides cleaning the surfaces before you start welding but the importance of grinding the surfaces to specific angles to achieve maximum strength. 
• Welding techniques using a mirror when you can’t see around a corner
• Welding through water. Where a water valve won’t close off on a water pipe
• Welding over oil on a hydraulic cylinder that is leaking oil, to get it to seal off
• Welding notched beams on construction sites. Techniques that structural engineers don’t specify.
• Triangle or Christmas tree vertical up welding technique. The strongest vertical up welding technique available. 
• How to achieve maximum penetration and strength in a weld. Making the weld stronger than the material itself. 
• How to identify and recognise, just by looking at a weld, if it has good penetration strength or not. 
• How to Arc or MIG weld thin, 1.6mm (1/16 inch) material successfully 
• How to weld/close big gaps successfully while still achieving/maintaining maximum strength in the material. I call this my, “smiley face technique”
• How to prevent/counteract distortion in the material while welding. 
• How to prevent undercut while welding. Plus how to fix undercut welds. 
• How to master the art of perfect, smooth looking welds. 
• To know what gap ratio to have between metal plates, based on the thickness of the material, to achieve maximum penetration strength. 
• How to ensure your welds are evenly spread over two plates. Not to have more penetration on one side only. 
• How to ensure, when welding two plates together from opposite sides, to get your penetration overlapping each other, achieving maximum strength in your welds. This will result in your welds being stronger than the material itself. 
• Dissimilar thickness material welding technique. 

I drive all over England from London to Manchester, Liverpool, north Wales, south Wales, Cornwall, Ipswich, Canterbury, Dover ….. solving various welding problems. 

From aluminium car welding repairs to bicycle welding to motorcycle welding repairs. Motorcycle modifications (TIG Brazing) Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi R8 and even welding a cracked aluminium transmission casing on a Bugatti Veyron. Worth over £1 million. 

Structural welding and welding notched beams for loft conversions. Welding inside lift shafts. Escalator welding repairs at midnight (once the shopping centre has closed) all over the country. Construction earth moving equipment. Welding oil, water, gas and steam pipes. 

My charity donations to the public.

Welding broken wheelchairs is something else I do too for the public, but there I do not charge for my services at all. Giving back something in return to the public. Anyway, how can anyone charge for repairing a wheelchair. 

My daily routine 

The list is endless. Doing something different every day. Interesting work plus I get to see the country at the same time. 90% of my work is in London. I worked out the other day, I spend on average, 3.5 hours a day just driving to get to my customers every day. That part I do not enjoy. But, a very successful business at the end of the day and very satisfying helping people solve their welding problems. 

I learned to weld back in 1972. 

In South Africa we have technical schools where the children go through a variety of different trades on 6 week courses throughout the year. Learning a little bit about each trade from plumbing to motor mechanics, electrical, electronics, catering, carpentry, fitting and turning and of course welding skills. That’s where I learned to weld in 1972 at the age of 14. I still remember my teachers weren’t very happy with me because my welds were better than theirs. I had already figured out the weaving weld technique all on my own without being shown how to do it. I instantly took to welding right away. Loved every minute of it. 

I ended up buying my own welding machine and started my own welding business on weekends and school holidays working on neighbouring farms welding gates and building pig styles for the farmer around us. I grew up on a farm for a number of years as a child. Loved it. But eventually moved to the big bad city. 

What happened at technical college once you finished going through learning a little bit about each trade subject was, they would look at your marks and performance and you had to choose which trade you were going to specialise in to the end of your college years. 

I strangely enough didn’t choose welding as my career. As a child I thought I would go crazy doing the same repetitive thing every day of my life. I like variety. I get bored very quickly. 

My step father influenced me to choose fitting & turning/ tool making which I pursued as a carrier and qualified. 

I went off to the army in South Africa. Conscription, so I had no choice but to go. I fortunately only had to go for 1 year. Right after my intake year they increased it to 2 years. 

When I came out the army I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I decided to go travelling but my father stopped me. He convinced me to sign up for an apprenticeship in heavy earthmoving equipment. I did that for 3 years. So I am also a qualified diesel mechanic working on Terrex GM heavy earth moving equipment in South Africa. 

All these different qualifications help me tremendously in later life. I briefly worked for an auto engineering company and that’s where I learned to weld aluminium which is the most difficult of all welding techniques to master. They asked me to take over the welding division. 

The welding rep delivered the aluminium welding machine. This is how you switch it on. This is how to change the settings and control the amperage. 

He spent the sum total of 2 hours with me and off he went. Really!!

That was back in 1991. 

I mastered welding cracked engine cylinder heads where the cracks went through from one valve seat through to the other. We would remove the valve seats. I would gouge out crack and build it back up again. Then machine it out. Pressure test it first then make new oversize valve seats and reassemble the heads. 

Strangely enough now, aluminium welding is my favourite. I seem to have a natural ability and flair for it. Just love aluminium welding. 

I started a business after I registered 2 patents related to conveyor equipment for the coal mining industry in Johannesburg. Really good business. I had 17 staff members and doing remarkably well. But, we decided to leave the country. 

I went into the construction industry building 6 factories for my father plus I built a magnificent house for my sister in Cape Town back in South Africa which gave me the experience so when I arrived in England in 2000 I went into business with a friend. Bought some land in Peterborough and built 10 town houses up there. 

Then later on I became a site manager on a small building project in London. Staff, responsibilities, plus doing the welding on site myself until the engineer asked, are you a qualified welder? No, I replied. The engineer suggested I appoint a coded welder to finish off the welding on the project. 

This is what got me started to become a coded mobile welder in England 

I was running this site with all the responsibilities and this mobile welder comes along, did what he needed to do but he was earning twice as much as me. I was doing exactly the same welding he was doing but I didn’t have a qualification certificate needed for the work to be done. 

I went home that evening moaning to my ex wife. She immediately said, why don’t you enquire at CRC (Cambridge Regional College) if they don’t run night classes to get your qualifications that way. (we were living in Cambridge at the time. What a lovely city) So I did just that. I signed on but, because I had a lot of previous welding experience, I was allowed to skip Level 1 and go straight to Level 2. They have subsequently introduced Level 3 now. 

16 weeks later I was a qualified welder. I finished off the building project in London. Bought myself a van, kitted it out with shelves and all the tools I already had acquired over the years. 

Where to buy your welding machines from

I then went off to my local welding supplier in Cambridge where I bought all the welding machines I needed. They were really helpful advising me which welding machines were suitable for my application as a mobile welder. They even helped me pay the machines off every month. 

I would advise anyone who wants to start welding as a hobby or if you want to start a business. Don’t go looking for the cheapest machines available. There is a lot to choose from but, if you buy from let’s say eBay, and something we’re to go wrong with the machine or you can’t quite get it to work correctly, there’s no one to contact to assist you. You’re on your own. Whereas, dealing with your local welding supplier you get full support. 

How I started off finding customers

While setting up my van I immediately created a website for myself describing what my skills were and what I had to offer plus the areas I wanted to work in. 

I’m fortunate enough to be able to design my own website but these days there are such easy software packages to design your own, so give that a try. It doesn’t have to be the smartest website out there. 

I’m also fortunate to have learned the art of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to be able to optimise a website to be on the first page of Google as well as other search engines. This is very helpful in finding customers plus it is free. 

There is also another, very easy way to use Google facilities to get yourself on first page Google, also free, which I include in the course material. It takes about a week or 10 days and you will appear on the first page for your business. 

Free traffic

My phone does not stop ringing every day. In fact, I have friends who are also welders who I pass on surplus work to when I can’t cope with the amount of enquiries. 

A few years after I started my mobile welding business they brought out a law whereby you have to be a coded welder to be allowed to weld structural beams on building projects. I could see the necessity for this recommendation because the amount of bad welders out there, calling themselves welders was frightening. And still is, because there are a lot of cowboys still out there taking chances. 

Becoming a coded welder 

I went off to be tested in becoming a coded Arc and MIG welder in all the welding positions. Passed first time. Thank goodness. Cost me £2500 and if you fail you have to reapply. 

Horizontal welding certificate 

Vertical up and down welding certificate 

Upside down welding certificate 

I show in my advanced welding course how to prepare for this test. Plus, how to be tested for all three welding positions in one test, rather than sitting the test 3 times. 

Called out to repair failed welds

I can’t remember how many times I have been called out to fix up welds which have been failed by building inspectors in and around London, Cambridge and surrounding areas. Where I have been called out to repair/fix other welders mess ups. Witnessing how disgraceful their attempts were at trying to be a welder. 

Welder Training Videos

As time went by, in 2018, I thought of finding a camera to video and capture the movements and techniques of my welding methods to convert my 1-on-1 welding courses over into video welding courses instead. I just feel a video welding course would be far more beneficial than a 1-on-1 course. 

At least with a video welding courses you are able to go back and refresh your memory, finding a section you are not quite up to speed with. 

But, in my search looking for a suitable camera I kept finding cameras in the range of £8-£9.000 for a suitable professional camera. Wow. That was not something I was prepared to do. To invest that kind of money into a camera. 

As time went by, I kept buying cheap cameras and experimenting. Until one day I found what I was looking for. The perfect camera. Lenses. Filters. Software to change light and aperture settings etc. Camera stands. 

I excitedly started filming myself welding. Turned out absolutely perfect. One can see the liquid molten metal welding puddle but most importantly, being able to see the movement of the welding rods to see and follow my techniques. 

That was a very exciting breakthrough moment for me. 

That was back in 2020 but I got distracted and stopped the development. 

I discovered, the filming was now the easiest part of creating the welding courses. 

I now had to sit down and write the script with pin point accuracy to be able to convey my learning methods which I have mastered over the past years since 2010,

over into a video courses. This proved to be the most difficult and time consuming part. But, I am totally determined to finish the course now. This is now, 2024, 5 years later. I must stay focus this time round. 

I am determined to make the best welder training videos on the internet. 

I know and I’ve proved it, that I am extremely successful at teaching welder training courses 1-on-1. Teaching students to weld proficiently in just 1 Day. Now the challenge was to convert my knowledge over into a video format. 

I have a very close friend Majo who has already helped me so much to learn all the tricks in creating and editing the videos with software he suggested I use. 

Confession:

It is now beginning of 2024 and I’m back working on my video courses. Again. Not staying focused is a problem. Too many distraction.