[ajlskater1]

On outside corners and butts I am better with my sycrowave, I still like my dynasty a little better for t joints on really thin aluminum, anadized and magnesium. Although I have never tried to weld magnesium on the syncrowave. DC they both are the same to me, although my dynasty has been kinda arc starting weird lately.

[TamJeff]

I haven't had time to learn the Dynasty. The one drawback for me is not having an option for continuous high freq. which is a biggie on anodized. Iam the only welder where I work now so the lesson on the new machine ends up being more time than just adapting what I am used to,

I have siamesed together paper thin velocity stacks for a mopar race car with the SW on really sharp outside corner welds. I imagine DC would have been the way to go otherwise. The rep we got the machine with didn't have any knowledge of it after the fact, and I am just technically lazy these days. I compare such things to Windows software upgrades. The software developers see it as profound, but at the end user level, not as much a noticeable difference than the previous version, if that makes any sense.

[ajlskater1]

I like some of the features that the dynasty has for anadized. It has a new waveshape called triangle that help punch through the anadizing without leaving the frosty cleaning band around the weld. I usually par that feature with manually pulsing the foot pedal and it works for me.

[TamJeff]

If you notice, I don't have the frosting on my welds. I use the arc stream shape to project the weld path and it's borders. In simpler terms, I lay the torch down and use the undercutting part of the arc stream to define it. lol. If you imagine the shape of a typical arc stream on AC, you can kind of see how I achieve this, and on settings just around balanced welding.

[ajlskater1]

That is really cool I will have to practice now. Just need to get some anodized tubing. Your skills are really amazing I have never seen anyone that weld anodized on a transformer machine like you.

[TamJeff]

That is really cool I will have to practice now. Just need to get some anodized tubing. Your skills are really amazing I have never seen anyone that weld anodized on a transformer machine like you.

There's definitely better than me. I used to be really good but now I have cataracts in my right eye and it's making me a little impatient with the process. There's that saying. . ."there is always somebody better" and when challenged by others, my adaptation to that saying was, "nobody is better than me if I don't want them to be." You may know what I mean. It's not arrogant as one may think, but more along the lines of that I would be able to weld it as good as it can be done by anyone and with enough practice, and, if that really mattered to me by now, which it doesn't.

At some point, we come across younger guys that are really needing to feel their oats in such regards, and there is no other way to convey where we have been other than by just letting them have it. Anybody that has been around us thru the years, or that has been where we have, knows better and that ends up being enough acknowledgement. Pleasantly so, I might add.

It really is all about having passion and pride in your work. Call it a hunch, but I think you will be one of the exceptional ones just for that alone. I can just tell. I am sure anyone else here with experience can tell that as well for exactly the same reasons.

[ajlskater1]

Ya most people call me arrogant about my skills, I try not come off arrogant, I am just confident that I can do as good as job as anybody. Like the old timers at my work always talk down about me even though my parts as right, not necessaryily perfect but most of theirs aren't welded per procedures or have undercut or not enough build up.

[Otto Nobedder]

That's where the next generation of craftsmen comes from. It doesnt' start with a cocky "I graduated welding school, I know it all" attitude. Production shops are full of these kids. It comes from (and I still have this, thank God) "Wow! That's cool! I wish I could do that!", and moves on to picking up some scrap and trying until you can kind-of do it, then asking questions of those that have done it, and working at it until you understand it. Then putting it into practice until you're good at it. Then passing it on to the next generation.

That has always been the best way to learn a craft, and after, to learn a specific aspect of a craft.

[TamJeff]

To this day, I still give credit to the guys who helped me along. I remember when I first broke into the industry. He told me when I first started that I was the best person they had hired since he had been there, and for nothing other than asking the right questions and taking in the correct answers.

And in agreement with AJ. Some older guys do think they are all that and more and for no other reason than being part of some seniority club. It's usually you young guys with evident skills I will stick up for though when it is obvious. Most of us have also been in your place.

I went for years never speaking up for myself or my work. It was always the loudmouths getting unearned credit, just for being loud. At some point I got tired of it and started selling myself with the evidence to back it up.

[ajlskater1]

That's what sucks. Kids that just come out of school, give younger guys like me kinda a bad reputation. I am only 24 but have been welding as a job since I was 16. I may be young but I don't consider myself green and I don't think I know everything. I just want to be the best I can.

[ajlskater1]

That seniority club is tough to handle sometimes. That's ultimately why I quit my last job. I was hired there to be the lead Guy do all the prototyping and short run production and figure out and write procedures for the big production parts. After being there four years I didn't get a raise and I wad OK with that because the economy was bad. But when we hired on a Guy how had been welding for thirty years, they didn't even make him do weld samples for me, and he's was terrible. Well he slipped up and told me how much he was making. He had been there six months, his stuff was so bad the grinders wouldn't grind it and we had to add grinding operation because his stuff looked so bad and I would have to fill in wholes he would leave. He was making 10 dollars an hour more than me. So I asked the owner of the company why a.d he said cause he has been doing it for thirty years LOL. I said he is slow and messes everything up the owner I know LOL. I wish that seniority club didn't exist.

[Otto Nobedder]

That's what sucks. Kids that just come out of school, give younger guys like me kinda a bad reputation. I am only 24 but have been welding as a job since I was 16. I may be young but I don't consider myself green and I don't think I know everything. I just want to be the best I can.

Yeah, that's a tough row to hoe. At 24, I'd been welding (stick) 11 years, and got no respect anywhere, regardless of my ability. Even had a supervisor nickname me "sweetmeat", because I was the youngest. Didn't matter that I could perform as well as the senior crowd.

[ajlskater1]

At least there are others like me that have made it through these frustrating years. What age did you start getting accepted?

[Otto Nobedder]

I took a break for a while, and came back with a new attitude about 30-31 YO.

I demanded respect, and refused to accept less.

It didn't always go well, but at that stage in my life I knew I could move on until it did. I had the experience and the intelligence. Now I had the attitude to say, if you don't treat me with respect (not even for my skills, at that point, merely as an adult human), I'll take my toys and go home.

[Otto Nobedder]

Now that I'm in my mid 40's, my boss, in the morning, asks, "What are you planning to do today?"

My directives from the boss now consist of telling me which job has priority. The "how" is up to me.

[ajlskater1]

Well hopefully I don't have to wait six more years. I just don't get why people don't just look at the quality of work as opposed to age of the person doing it.

[Otto Nobedder]

Age isn't always required. At 21, I was well respected at a small outfit that build and installed boat docks. My respect was not for my welding skills, though, as at that stage they were average with my coworkers. I had math skills, and experience in layout. When we'd do an install, I could take a few measurements and lay out stairs and gangways to the floating docks, where before me it was trial and error. It was one of the most fun jobs I ever had, but it paid a quarter over minimum wage. (It could. It was a tourism area with few year-round jobs. Supply and demand.)

[ajlskater1]

I guess I have got a little from some the grinders I have welded for. Almost every fringe that would fringe my stuff would say I am the best at that particular shop. And respect istnt that important to me cause I know my work is good but at the same time it is still frustrating when a engineer brings down a little tack weld job and can't find any of other guys because they are all talking somewhere besides the weld shop and doesn't trust me to do it LOL.

[Aron]

For better welding services visit Bayview Metals in Toronto. They are good at metal fabrication and your money would be worth it!

[Otto Nobedder]

Shoulda had a read, Aron. Everyone here is their own welding service.