Ratty
Putting the She in Sheds
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Well just did the 'beginners welding' day at Easton College and come away with mixed feelings. Only 6 of us which was good but 2 were late so a bit of hanging around. So we started maybe 15mins late, this was supposedly compensated for by not having the two 20 min tea breaks but instead drinking tea 'on the hoof' and reducing lunch from 1 hour to half hour. This should have easily made up the time but the whole day seemed rushed and sketchy. We watched a video on safety when using gases (fair enough) and had comprehensive instruction on using the gas and shutting down etc - again fair enough. Then we listened to a whole load of anecdotes about people who had hideous deaths and dismemberments thru' NOT being careful. Hmmm. The instructor spent rather too long - I thought - showing us around the whole w/s area and telling us about all the tools (which we didn't use), the cost when new, how long they'd had them, what they would cost now, showing us previous students attempts, telling us all about how he rescues scrap etc etc. All sorts of useless information considering it was such a short day anyway. Then he had to repair 2 of the oxy/acet pipelines which were splitting...and didn't have the right crimp thingy for one of them so more running around while we all stood around. Finally - about 30mins before lunch - we got to do a bit of gas welding. I was told - after struggling for a while - that my flame wasn't right, had the torch taken from me and the flame adjusted without actually explaining what I had wrong - was it too much oxygen? too much acet? what? I struggled on and then he came back and said it looked as if my tip was dirty. So that was cleaned and wow! so much easier! Wish he could have noticed it earlier. Needless to say, none of the rest of the group were alerted to this possibility and how to sort it. After lunch it was straight in to arc - laying welds on a flat plate and several lap joints on very thick steel (so no chance of blowing holes) then rapidly on to mig where the machines were set up for us (with little explanation) after we were shown how good he was. If I wanted feedback I had to hunt him down as none was volunteered. When I asked for an explanation on why tig & mig were so much less tolerant to contaminates than arc was I got a very confusing reply involving why I wouldn't make mashed potato without first washing the spuds.
Will have to see what tomorrows 'Improvers' day brings. If I had only done the one day (as 3 of our group did - fortunately only 3 of us tmw so hopefully more welding and less anecdotes) I don't think I'd be very happy.
Anyway this was my first attempt at gas welding..(which I enjoyed despite the set-backs)
Will have to see what tomorrows 'Improvers' day brings. If I had only done the one day (as 3 of our group did - fortunately only 3 of us tmw so hopefully more welding and less anecdotes) I don't think I'd be very happy.
Anyway this was my first attempt at gas welding..(which I enjoyed despite the set-backs)