Re: What do you like most about welding, What do hate most?
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:36 pm
Most of my greatest joys in welding come from filling in quarter and half dollar size holes blasted into thin sheet metals by someone who has never welded before and figures that if a dimwit like me can weld, surely they must be at least 500 times better at it than me.
I was working on a show some years ago, and a lot of it was railings made from thin wall conduit. I got pretty good at arc welding thin wall conduit! During the build,we also had to fabricate some fog machines from light weight 55 gallon drums and Unistrut. My "assistant", a young upstart (read as complete asshole) wanted my job and told my boss that all my welds were no good, would break off during the run of the show, that he was the only one who could weld and finish up the show. My boss came down and said that my assistant would take over the welding of the fog macines. I laughed and said okay, knowing that he had never before welded in his life. I handed him the leads and went home.
All he had to do was weld Unistrut to the barrels to hold the control panels. When I came in the next day, there were huge holes in the barrels where he tried to attach the Unistrut. His first words to me was that my arc welder was a p.o.s.( it was basically all my fault that he had burned through).
It didn't take too long for me to figure out what had happened. The barrels were roughly 16 gauge, the unistrut was probably 1/8th inch, both were powder coated finished. He never ground off the paint so when he tried to strike an arc nothing happened. Since the arc never struck, he figured that my thinwall settings must be wrong so he kept cranking it up. He finally did get an arc to strike.......at high output and 240 amps!
I filled in the holes, the machines held water, the welds held way past the run of the show, he never got my job , I still have that old buzzbox and he never once said thank you.
I was working on a show some years ago, and a lot of it was railings made from thin wall conduit. I got pretty good at arc welding thin wall conduit! During the build,we also had to fabricate some fog machines from light weight 55 gallon drums and Unistrut. My "assistant", a young upstart (read as complete asshole) wanted my job and told my boss that all my welds were no good, would break off during the run of the show, that he was the only one who could weld and finish up the show. My boss came down and said that my assistant would take over the welding of the fog macines. I laughed and said okay, knowing that he had never before welded in his life. I handed him the leads and went home.
All he had to do was weld Unistrut to the barrels to hold the control panels. When I came in the next day, there were huge holes in the barrels where he tried to attach the Unistrut. His first words to me was that my arc welder was a p.o.s.( it was basically all my fault that he had burned through).
It didn't take too long for me to figure out what had happened. The barrels were roughly 16 gauge, the unistrut was probably 1/8th inch, both were powder coated finished. He never ground off the paint so when he tried to strike an arc nothing happened. Since the arc never struck, he figured that my thinwall settings must be wrong so he kept cranking it up. He finally did get an arc to strike.......at high output and 240 amps!
I filled in the holes, the machines held water, the welds held way past the run of the show, he never got my job , I still have that old buzzbox and he never once said thank you.