Welding Tips and Tricks

I first welded at 13.

I've a college education, yet I still weld for my supper.

I love where welding has taken me. I may have one of the most interesting jobs on the planet. Rocket science? It's close!

I work with liquid hydrogen, NASA's "rocket fuel"

I have worked every aspect of welding, from structural and plate welds to the pipe and pressure vessels I do now.

I enjoy what I do every day. My co-workers may whine about Monday, but I don't.

Steve S

Steve,

I've read several of your posts and find what you do interesting if not a bit crazy bro. Nothing like working on a rolling bomb to keep the blood flowing huh?

Great attitude

My favorite job while coming up (even though it paid poorly) was building and repairing boat docks on Lake Of The Ozarks, in Missouri. All summer, my "uniform" was a pair of cut-offs, tennis shoes, gloves, and hood. The boss' son was my age (early 20's), and we were both "cut", with long black hair (his straight, mine curly) and deep tans. Picking up women? Naw... They'd stop and hit on us! We'd bang out our work as fast as we could (worked very well together) and take the work barge to the nearest party dock for the afternoon.

@ FatBob,

Yeah, I did the math once... Five of these trailers would fill the Hindenberg. Amazingly, they've never had a catastophic failure. One actually was in a fire, and damaged beyond repair, yet did not fail.

@ Markus,

Yeah, the attitude is important. I didn't learn this until I was 30, and taking sales training. Until then, I believed (as most do) my negative thoughts, bad moods, and crappy days were the result of how I felt. After 30, I realized that how I feel is governed by what I chose to think, to tell myself. Ever since I fully understood this, I've not had a "shitty day". I've had challenging days, but my wife cannot remember the last time my answer to "how was your day?" was, "it sucked".

Steve S