OMG welding is cool!

[LORENSWIFE]

Loren got a wonderful welding helmet for Christmas complete with flames and skulls! He let me put it on last night and watch him do some welding. It is so much better when you can actually see what is going on with all the lightning and heat! I told him to make me out a lesson plan...

Anybody into Steampunk?

[TheSilverBuick]

Haven't you ever seen Flashdance??

[LORENSWIFE]

Haven't you ever seen Flashdance??

No I am so un-cool

[squirrel]

Anybody into Steampunk?

Nope.

But welding is fun, go for it!

[brandontinley]

Welding is fun and a very undervalued trade and skill. When people ask what I do and I say I am a welder they kinda seem let down? I dig it and love fabricating things up.. The best way to get good is practicing or takes welding class

[milner351]

Take a class - one of the best things I've ever learned how to do - not sure how I got along working on cars for so long without it.
Loren is surely all the teacher you'll need - but if you're really into it - a class may be a good thing.

Some of the best student teacher weldors in my class were women - and they were very very very good weldors, especially for TIG which requires fine motor skills.

[LORENSWIFE]

Loren just showed me a bit for a few minutes last night but I have seen welds that he does that are just a perfect bead for several feet or so. I know if I try it I will be making big bloppy yard art out of stuff from the recycle pile... It just seems like the ultimate glue!

[Thumpin455]

Steampunk stuff uses lots of brass and copper, so it will be brazing and soldering too, since you cant weld them with a mig. Working with copper is very easy and it can be polished to a nice shine, you only need a small propane torch and some solder/flux to stick copper together. Think of it as industrial arts and crafts, no wimpy country duck or scrapbooking here. Been trying to get Cat to put on a helmet and watch, she is quite artistic and makes interesting sculptures, welding would be natural to her. Get some gloves, a bit of scrap and go weld! Classes are great too.

[Bob Holmes]

Steam punk is cool.

Welding is a great skill. I wish I was better at it.

[milner351]

I recently fixed an earring for Rhonda with acid core flux and a soldering iron with regular wire solder.

Working with copper is very cool - I actually enjoy sweating pipes together - the problem is - copper is rapidly approaching the price of silver and gold.

[Brian Lohnes]

Fusing metal with electricity = WINNING

[Barry Donovan]

Welding is fun and a very undervalued trade and skill. When people ask what I do and I say I am a welder they kinda seem let down? I dig it and love fabricating things up.. The best way to get good is practicing or takes welding class

I am finding it is is primitive enough where thousands of books read will not get a numb skull into great welding.

I am certain people are offended by naturals. Welding is never just welding. the person at the helm of the supercoil is the einstein.

if you discuss an entire year to settle one project...here comes some damn good welds.
have fun to learn, think like the sun...and for more than a day. <- if to write a welding book, my own is one sentence long.

[TheSilverBuick]

Fusing metal with electricity = WINNING

The power of Gods!

[Loren]

Dad had a stick welder I sorta figured out as a kid, and then he would go so far as to bring home an oxy-acet outfit from his work some weekends and I'd try to do oil pans or exhaust stuff with that. Believe me, I sucked to start with.

Did you know you can get an electric shock while gas welding? I did it... A hot summer evening, shirtless and shoeless (hey I was like 20 y.o.) and covered in perspiration, I was doing some gas welding in the car port and a bug or something bit me in the upper back. I couldn't reach the spot so I took the welding rod I was using to try to get it, and BLAMMO, something shocked the crap out of me...like grabbing a spark plug wire. For the life of me I wasn't able to figure that one out. How do you get electrocuted with a gas torch rig?

Eventually I realized that when I reached up with the steel welding rod, I inadvertantly stuffed it into the end of the flourescant light fixture over my head, right where the tube contacts go into the receptacle. Barefoot and sweaty, I really got a whallop from that one.

Anyhow I've been super-fortunate to have worked around some of the most excellent welders that could be, starting with a guy named Bob Boon when I was in my early-twenties. The guy could weld .015 steel sheet parts to .005" tolerances and do it consistant a thousand times...and was always ready with a helpful comment if it seemed like you needed one.

If she chooses to persue it, Gail's gonna have to start with the gas torch like I did. I really think it works better with your normal human intuition, like where you need to keep your Hot-Equals-Ouchie thing straight.

Once you can gas weld, TIG is a snap.

[LORENSWIFE]

... A hot summer evening, shirtless and shoeless (hey I was like 20 y.o.) and covered in perspiration,

Wow! More welding stories honey!