TWI Job Knowledge
TWI Ltd (The Welding Institute)
Free technical article library from The Welding Institute covering joint design, weld preparation, distortion causes and control, process selection, defects and inspection. Written by TWI engineers as concise reference notes with diagrams and rule-of-thumb shrinkage allowances.
More resources on Metal Fabrication
Metalworking: Doing It Better
Tom Lipton draws on four decades in job shops to show practical techniques for manual and CNC lathes and mills, welding, flame straightening, sheet metal, grinding, shop math and sketching. Readers learn faster, more accurate ways to set up and finish metalworking jobs.
Titans of CNC Academy
Free CNC machining curriculum from Titans of CNC, combining video lessons, CAD/CAM programming tutorials in Fusion 360 and Mastercam, and step-by-step project parts. Teaches learners to program, set up, and run CNC mills and lathes.
Practical Machinist
A long-running discussion forum where machinists, toolmakers, and shop owners trade advice on machining, tooling, and shop practice. Useful for practical answers about real equipment, feeds and speeds, and running a machine shop.
Design of Welded Structures
Engineering reference on welded fabrication: joint design, weld sizing, built-up members, stiffeners, distortion control and fabrication economics, worked through formulas, nomographs and design examples. Published by the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation; 832 pages.
Welding and Metal Fabrication
Trade-school textbook pairing process instruction in SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, oxyfuel and plasma cutting with fabrication practice: layout, forming, fit-up, fixturing, and more than a hundred shop projects built from working drawings. Written by a sixty-year welder-instructor. The one book spanning the whole topic definition end to end - read the drawing, cut and form the stock, prepare the joint, fixture, assemble, inspect - instead of covering only welding technique. Its project-per-chapter structure means a self-learner can actually build, which is what this trade demands.
Blueprint Reading for Welders (9th Edition)
Trade textbook that works through sketches, orthographic and auxiliary views, sections, dimensioning, and assembly drawings, then applies current AWS and ISO welding symbols to real fabrication prints. The ninth edition includes practice prints and structural shape callouts.