TheBanyanTree: Welding

[Spoonoid at cs.com]

Spoonoids:  

Our local community college offers classes that anybody can sign-up for. They 
call it "continuing education," to distinguish it from the college courses 
where real students are seeking an accredited degree. When I got their catalog 
in the mail after the holidays, I looked through it to see if anything looked 
interesting. 

Welding. Now there's a subject that conjures up images of manly pursuits. 
Construction, heavy machinery, bridge building, high steel fabrication. I think I 
need to take this course.

I asked The Princess what she thought. "Oh, yes, do it," she said. "You could 
make me some yard art for the garden. Metal sculpture for the back yard. A 
gazebo. Fancy iron filigree around the house gables."

I was thinking more along the lines of a bird sculpture for the patio, like 
an egret or a flamingo. "Yes, yes, yes. I want one."  

So I took the course. We learned how to cut metal with an oxy-acetylene 
cutting torch. We joined steel plate together with stick welding, MIG, and TIG, 
with the options of learning how to do butt joints, lap joints, and T joints in 
the flat, horizontal, vertical and overhead positions. We were given 
instruction in how to operate a metal shear that can slice through three-quarter-inch 
thick steel plate, if you can figure out how to lift the stuff onto the machine. 
We used a metal cutting band saw, and three types of grinding wheels. If you 
like loud noise along with a great plume of sparks, try carbon-arc gouging. 
And we sliced through half-inch thick steel like it was butter with a plasma arc 
torch. During every class we made sparks fly through the air, and flung 
red-hot metal globules down the concrete floor. Arrrgh! 

Welding as a profession is hard work. It's hot, dirty, noisy, sweaty, 
hazardous labor. If you want to take it up as a career, you better be young, strong, 
tough and resilient, and not close to retirement age. But wherever you are, 
and whatever your age, I would definitely recommend taking the welding class at 
your local community college.

Oh, yes. You can see my effort on metal bird sculpture at:

ourworld.cs.com/spoonoid/bird.html

Later, John.