Welding 101

[andygates]

My present to myself this year is an introductory welding course.  Two lessons in and I'm pleased to report that the hand that carves a foam sword is steady enough to lay down a nice consistent weld too; I seem to have an aptitude for it, which is nice.  We start on funny stuff like verticals and curves and thinner metal after the holiday break.  Things wot I have learned so far:

• Welding is like climbing in that it is disruptive.  You know how after you've been climbing, you can't walk down a street without looking at the buildings a little differently, planning a route up the Cathedral and across Primark?  Like that.  It's a new superpower.
  
• It's like wheelbuilding too - changing the game when it comes to bike fettlin'.  A whole extra bag of tinkering opportunities are opening up and verily doth this rock.
• A slow steady tune in your head helps with a slow steady weld.  The Blue Danube is better than anything Trent has done. 
• Gloves are good.  The nice purple burn on one hand and swollen UV sunburn on the other are a handy reminder here. 
  
• The arc tearing up the surface impurities as it melts the joint metal is really, really pretty in a furious, destructive, power-of-physics wild magic Tesla plasma apocalypse kinda way.  But don't stop to gawp or you'll melt right through your piece.

I'm going to make such horrible, twisted funnybikes now. 

Comments

[alacerus.livejournal.com]

You doing the arc welding? I passed my basic City&Guilds in MIG, which is also apocalyptically bright. Getting the power through your rod (sniggers) is the most important thing, otherwise you end up blowing a hole straight throuh your piece of metal and getting the welding rod stuck to the desk below. Not good, fuck, Power, Power!....

[andygates.livejournal.com]

I'm doing MIG too. It's very light on theory so I'll get all the terms wrong, but it's bloody bright. My hand is still pink from the UV exposure on Monday night!

The "Introduction to Welding" course they do here is basically the first half of the C&G, with no tests. About half the people on it are there for their C&G, the rest seem to be there because they've tinkered enough to scare themselves and they (or their boss) want to get it right.

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

:-) It does indeed change how you look at metal. Welding is everything that glue is in the Road Runner universe.

To add to your list:

- Gloves are good, and in summer sleeves are equally neccessary.

- Water Jel burn jelly is very handy first aid for minor burns. Makes then hurt a lot less and heal better.

I guess you're doing stick now, and MIG will be coming along later ?

[andygates.livejournal.com]

MIG from the start. I have a small MIG rig which I don't know how to use, and after arc-eye fun, I figured it was time to get trained.

Question is, do all newbie welders immediately go off and make funnybikes and masks from scrap and just weld junk togther because, basically, it's their new hammer and wow look what it can do?

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, yes. If you can weld, you must weld. And there's an awful lot of junk out there that's weldable.

And there's a whole other raft of new fun when you get to plasma or flame cutting. If MIG is glue, plasma is scissors.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Gas-axe sabotage here I come! >:)

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

It's not just the sabotage, though, it's the opportunities for freehand fabrication of randomness. Stuff like this:
http://jarkman.co.uk/catalog/furnitur/kitty.htm
or this:
http://jarkman.co.uk/catalog/furnitur/cylpod.htm
becomes suddenly very, very easy.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Hello Kitty strikes again! Someone better stop me before I start making things.

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

Hah. You wish. You'll be lying in bed at night, trying to get to sleep, and things will float across the surface of your brain demanding to be made.

That is your fate.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Oh, that happens already, and it's at least part of why I never seem to finish anything. I'm just adding welding to the list of options (which, to be sure, has created mad-project-plan sprawl inside my poor tortured skull).