General Air classes and safety training information

All of our classes are four hours in length with roughly the first half in a classroom setting learning from the instructor. The second half of the class will be spent hands on in our welding lab trying the techniques you learned in class with our instructor available for demonstrations and to answer any questions you may have. Practice your techniques on the latest Miller and Lincoln Machines. And remember, the more questions you ask the more you will learn!

Hover over a class title below for a class description.

This class is the most basic and recommended for those brand new to welding. You will learn the definition of GMAW, basic MIG principles, the basic set up of your MIG welder, and some hands on basic MIG welding techniques. In basic MIG class you will be welding on mild steel with and without gas, with both flux cored and solid core wire.

Basic MIG

In this class you will build on the MIG welding principles you learned in Basic MIG. Similar equipment is used in this course, with the addition of a spool gun to feed wire to your machine. Additionally, you will learn the techniques for more exotic metals, such as; aluminum and stainless steel.

Advanced MIG

Basic TIG begins with the definition of GTAW, basic TIG principles, the basic set up of your TIG machine, and some hands on TIG welding techniques. In this class you will be welding on aluminum and mild steel using argon gas, and learning how to hand feed your wire.

Basic TIG

The advanced TIG class builds on the principles you learned in Basic TIG class with the addition of stainless steel. Similar equipment is used along with argon gas.

Advanced TIG

In this class you will learn basic plasma cutting principles, basic set up of plasma equipment, and various techniques for cutting mild steel, aluminum, and stainless steel. Both Thermal Dynamics and Miller plasma equipment is used in the hands on portion of this class.

Plasma Cutting

This class uses a flux coated wire and both oxygen and acetylene gas connected to a Victor torch outfit. You will learn how to start your torch, how to maintain a neutral flame, how to set your gauges, and how to clean your tips. Additionally you will learn how to use the equipment for welding, cutting, and brazing. These techniques can be used on various metals.

Oxygen/Acetylene Welding, Cutting, and Brazing

It is recommended to take the basic course first followed by the advanced in order to gain all of the knowledge necessary to begin welding on your own.
Denver Class Schedule

Greeley Class Schedule

LPG Filling and Storage

The primary purpose of this training is to remind people of the upcoming hot months of summer and the problems of overfilling LPG cylinders. This Bulletin is not meant to provide all the details of proper filling and storage of LPG cylinders.

Hot Summer Days The extreme heat of the summer months will cause overfilled cylinders to begin venting product and this venting product can be liquid which expands 270 times the volume when going from a liquid to a gas. Provide an ignition source and you have the equation for big trouble.

Key Mistakes A very common mistake is an employee putting a cylinder on the scale and then sliding the weight on the beam or adding weight to the electronic scale to add the weight of the product to the weight indicated on the scale. This doesn't take into consideration any residual in the cylinder. If product or any foreign substance is inside the cylinder, the result is an overfilled cylinder.
You should be taking every opportunity to check the weight of the cylinder prior to filling. There are times that residual product will still be in the cylinder, but many times the cylinder is empty and this lets you check the tare weight. I know of one major gas supplier that has found brand new cylinders with tare weights off 5% from the actual cylinder weight. Filling the cylinder using the stamped tare weight would have resulted in a 5% overfill. An alert and well-trained employee found this problem. This company has made the decision to fill all LPG 5% less than DOT permits just to have an extra safety factor. Remember, that if you do this, you need to take off the same amount from your advertised and invoiced volumes.
Another common mistake I find is the employee not taking into consideration the weight of the filling valve and hose assembly. This results in under filling the cylinder. Not a safety issue but certainly a weights and measures issue and a customer satisfaction issue.

Filling and Storage There are many sources of information available on the proper procedures for filling and storage of LPG cylinders. Some of these sources are:
NFPA 58, Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code; www.nfpa.org
National Propane Gas Association; www.npga.org

Some other storage issues to consider are:

Empties upside down on trucks and docks: The regulations require that the safety relief valve must be in contact with the gas vapor and not the liquid. Placing forklift style cylinders upside down on the truck or dock to denote they are "empties" is violating the regulations. If the safety would start to vent, you could be releasing liquid which expands about 270 times from liquid to gas.

Cylinders in racks at customers (not pin indexed): You should consider training your drivers and customers to place full or "empty" forklift cylinders into a storage rack with the safety relief valve pointed up. The index pins take care of this orientation while on the forklift, but the storage racks do not have the pins.

Too many together in one place: You should consider not storing too many flammable gas cylinders in one place or large groups. If you would ever have a problem, you will have a very big problem fast. Smaller groups and spread out between the groups will let you deal with smaller problems should you ever have a leaking / venting cylinders or a fire.

Training OSHA requires employees to be trained in the jobs they perform.
DOT requires employees filling cylinders to be trained, tested and certified every 3 years. This falls under the "Function Specific" training requirements in 172.704.
There is an excellent DVD training program, "Dispensing Propane Safely", available from the Propane Education & Research Council, that includes a test that along with an employer certification will satisfy the DOT requirements.

Final Thoughts One of the most important items is the correct filling limit.
Tare Weight + Product Weight + Filling Assembly = Full Cylinder Scale Weight. Check the full cylinder weight prior to removing the filled cylinder from the scale.
Another important item is proper storage. Keep the required distances in mind and think about your cylinder storage. Think about the worst scenario and ask yourself if the way you are storing your cylinders would be a problem if you had a fire situation.
Finally, are your employees properly trained on cylinder inspection, cylinder selection, filling procedures, proper marking and labeling, handling and storage, and what they should do in emergency situations?