Welding school to Graduation and stuff in between!

7024 better known as Jet wire .

Try the stinger in one hand with another electrode in your other hand in days past in shops on piece rate they could really make some money

you can also try the same thing while mig welding great for filling holes in the field that are in the wrong place.

 

Best of Luck !! It is all a learning experience even if it is not quite what you want.

Fess up the rest of the story??

 

Hold your horses!







We had class today to make up for last Thursday being Thanksgiving.

The guys in class were excited about the news and one of them even suggested I do a technical test-so-to-speak.

Open root weld, 60 degree, 1/8" landing with an 1/8" gap. Weld must penetrate the backside but not exceed 1/8" and after the hot passes, must not exceed 1/8" from the top.

Those pics were of my first attempt.

I cut out 3" wide pieces as well so we can run on the bend test but didn't have time to do so.

The guys wanted me to keep my MIG welding up so that was really cool.

The main instructor was impressed and will be leaving the official WPS for me Monday so I can test if I want to.

 

And to whoever has been keeping up with the thread and my progress; I WORK AT A FABRICATION SHOP AS OF YESTERDAY

Pretty awesome to have been picked up right on the spot after a short interview. I won't get into all the specifics but here are some cool pics of the shop -



and the big Miller I expect to be using -



the brackets I worked on yesterday running holes in each one (there's another larger stack I didn't snap a picture of) -



and the legs I drilled holes in and grinded down -



and the many legs I have left to do -



Come Monday or Tuesday, once I'm done with all the legs, we'll be making a jig to weld all those brackets I drilled up.

 

Congrats - Well deserved! Keep the pics coming …

 

Thank you!

And definitely, I mean I still have what....7 more months of school left?

 

Week 12, what a busy 2 days it's been already!

I promise I didn't forget my own thread!

Monday was a nice surprise, both in and out of class.

For starters, since I missed a module of stick welding (since I started school 3-4 modules after everyone), the instructor is having me do T's and the sort with stick only.

Doing a 6010 pass, then running 3 passes with 7018 and so forth. I'm about posting my welds, not just the good ones but the bad ones too -





Stringers, stitch, I'm messing with multiple rods too.

Today I laid some nice ones after yesterday's runs -



Now, about that busy schedule.

Monday, rather than having to work on those legs I started on last week, they had me weld some 18 bench frames together -







And today, another 6 not to mention 20 (10 done) benches without the bottom plate since they get attached to the ground -





Let's see what's in store for tomorrow!

Most likely finishing up those legs that need drilling and grinding.

 

your fab shop work will put you miles ahead than where you would have been without it at the end of school

 

You are so right; due to the odd curve/shape of these things, I'm slightly out of position welding the seat bottom portion.

After doing a few, the rest come easy. Nothing I would've been practicing at school really.

For now, I'm just trying to get my stick welding to look like MIG

 

I feel like this thread is slowly going from 'what I'm learning at school' to simply 'what I made at work'

Did some more stick welding, similar to the above.

When I got to work today to check out the other shops, I was surprised to see this -



Those are the benches I made Monday night.

Was told we had another order soooo...







Always something to do at the shop

 

I have to say, I want to give a shoutout to @GHOST SHIP cause really, seeing his work in person and what he can build inspired me to want to do the same for myself.

School was the first step, in hopes that I'd land a job in a shop just like the one I'm at now.

Well, the job came 7 1/2 months early so I'm taking this as a means of gaining as much experience as possible.

Hoping that I can over time, open up my own 'shop' at home and just go from there.

 

I’m self taught man. It took me years to figure out what you’ve learned in a few months. The rest will come with experience which you’ll soon have plenty of as well. I have lots of people I look up to as well both on here and elsewhere. It’s always good to keep challenging yourself to get better with every project.
Keep it up man!

 

Speaking of!

What about them ghost slips?

They're leather so....I can weld in them and not worry as long as I've got FR-rated socks right?

Oh and I just ordered myself a better welding hood.

 

I’ve welded in sandals a few times. Would not recommend.

 

Yeah but were they ghost slips?

Probably not

 

They were. But the webbing between my toes isn’t.

 

Man, it's just awesome learning each and everyday...especially at work.

Those 120 brackets I drilled last week?



Well, I have to weld them up either starting tomorrow or next week. So I got one together and decided I need to make a jig -



Bare with me as I've never done this sort of thing. I'm sure there are better ways to have done this with less steel.

Here I laid some pieces out after having pictured it in my head -



First pieces laid out -



All done -



Because the cuts aren't perfect, I'm hoping this jig would help me keep everything square.

So far so good -

 

jig/fixture tooling is an artform in and of itself! from what i remember, that in the fixture you designed, your part would probably be technically considered "over constrained". this refers to the axis of possible motion of the part and the degrees of freedom available to the part. "over constrained" means that you have redundant means in place of limiting movement along one or more of the degrees of freedom.
some will say there are six degrees of freedom, i usually tell myself there are 12 so i dont forget the negative direction of each one.
https://www.enerpac.com/en-us/training/e/the-321-locating-principle
https://www.mecholic.com/2017/11/3-2-1-principle-of-location-six-point.html
https://learnmech.com/3-2-1-principle-used-for-jig-and-fixture-locating-method/



at first observation, one may think "well if i have it clamped down and it cant move, thats good, it will prevent/limit distortion" and while this may be true, warping and distortion are always present. its just a matter of how much and where it presents itself. and an operator can use clamping/fixtures to their advantage, it is something to be aware of and to do it on purpose. it is possible to predict/anticipate where the distortion/warping will be, and use that to your advantage by leaving a gap on one end, welding the other end, then the gap closes up for a perfect fit-up.

another option for you could have been just to make one corner and rotate the part into the fixture after each tack.

also you are probably already aware of this, but it is usually best practice to tack weld in the fixture, then remove the part for final welding so the warping doesnt lock your part into the fixture.

but the important thing is that your parts are coming out to spec. realistically on benches and table frames, what i mentioned about over constrained probably isnt going to matter much. but maybe sometime in the future if you ever run into issues in fixturing and a part just will not come out consistent, this comment will spark a thought and you can do some more research on fixturing/locating a part.

i am curious tho about the shop's process selection. are you using short arc? if so, on final pieces is the mill scale removed before welding? some mill scale can be pretty thick and inhibit proper fusion/cause discontinuities and defects. dual shield has higher success of proper fusion without removing mill scale. but many shops use short arc to tack and dual shield to complete the weldment.

this is all my thoughts and opinions, i hope you and anyone will take it and glean the useful information and productive parts and disregard the other stuff.

 

Wow, where do I start and where do I end.

It's been an exciting 46 weeks and all I can say is, I'm so glad I made the decision I did.

It took me awhile to really put it into words but all of this was for 1 main reason - personal growth.

Big thank you for everyone that has only encouraged me and helped along the way.

As of June, I was no longer needed at the fab shopped I started working at in December. It's still available to me, and if needed they will call me. But work is so slow they've let others actually go whereas I volunteered my absence. Flat out said I appreciate the opportunity to continue having me here but I cannot morally stay here, on the clock, and get paid to do basically nothing.

With that out of the way, onto welding!

Work provided me with quite the experience...though I'll let the pictures do the talking -



























Working in a small, family owned fabrication shop with jobs that vary from mild steel benches to aluminum light poles and everything in between, I sure as hell learned a lot.

 

But let's not forget what I was doing at school too!

I had quit posting pictures of MIG because really, anyone can do it. I mean it, if you want to learn MIG, you will.

Mind you these are older pics and are just a recap from when I left off 8 months ago up until now.

Stainless MIG -



Stainless stick -



Stainless stick, but vertical -



TIG on mild without filler -



TIG on mild with filler -



TIG on mild without filler, but vertical -



Aluminum with filler -



Aluminum with filler -





Professional development -







Skipped cutting some of the pieces, at this point I already had them cut per my blueprint and it was time to weld it all together -













And an extra credit project that I took on cause apparently my time management is far above and ahead of the other students

Only 1 other student and I were able to do the Infinity Table -







I was able to experience several other things, such as spray transfer but I don't know where those pics went.

I'm glad I really waited out buying anything for awhile because that really gave me an opportunity to figure out not only what I want, but how to use what I wanted.

Which leads to my last post, my garage and side work!