I TIGged today! (OT for s.e.d, but you guys know I'm an idiot)

OK, cards on the table time. I got fired just a few days before last Xmas, and have been scraping by on charity and a little help from my friends. Well, it seems that the outfit that fired me needed me to do a little couple of things, long story short, I'm back, working for free, sort of indentured, until I repay in sweat what I cost him for my fuckup that got me fired.

Well, historically, I've been a computer geek, but there hasn't been much computer work; but he's in the middle of making a huge weldment, about the size of a cement mixer, TIGging together 2.5" slabs of aluminum. At 300 amps AC. Today, the office manager was at his welding area, and he was trying to show her how to weld stubs of filler wire together so they didn't have to throw away pounds of aluminum filler wire; stick it together and use it like new filler. Duh.

She wasn't able to get a good bond, and gave up in frustration, and when I looked at the boss wistfully,he let me try.

I did it!

The task was to lay two 8" to 10" stubs of filler wire end-to-end, and just fuse them. Lying on a steel table. Well, I wasn't lying on the table, the pieces of filler wire... Well, anyway, I was a real featherfoot on the pedal, and found that there's no (or imperceptibly little) pressure feedback on the pedal; but I got enough of a feel for it that I actually succeeded in joining a couple of pieces of 1/8" aluminum filler rod into a longer piece of filler rod. :-)

And he let me watch him use it, and it was beautiful. At 300 amps, it buzzed loudly as any well-behaved AC arc is wont to do, and the thing that kind of dropped my jaw was how he fed the filler rod into the puddle, like six inches at a shove, and then just held that perfect arc there, the puddle unchanging, while he choked up another six inches on the filler rod, and gave it another shove, making another little ripple in this perfect

3/8" fillet bead.

I think if I'm very very polite and subservient and toadyish, there's a possibility he might teach me to weld. I think that would be totally awesome - he's won awards for being the best welder on the west coast for certain tasks; watching him weld is like watching poetry in motion. After a pass, he said, "Looks easy, huh?" I said, "You _make_ it look easy." Anyway, it was way kewl, and I did, in fact, join two pieces of metal together today. :-)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise
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Maybe he'll let you rub two pennies together some day.

Reply to
Buddy Beavers

On 10/2/2010 7:39 PM, Rich Grise wrote: (...)

Congratulations on your first TIG welds!

I like TIG a *lot* because it is so effective, quiet and controllable.

(...)

You can improve that situation by a huge factor. Adjust the maximum current on the welding power supply.

The foot pedal will then range from zero to that set value.

You can dial it so that 'full pedal down' means only a few amps at the torch, for example.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Congratulations! Try stainless. It is even easier. Pack anther skill under your belt.

-- Boris

Reply to
Boris Mohar

Let's keep our fingers crossed! ;-D

Thanks! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Congrats at being back at work. Hopefully you can make it a paying position. If possible, try to take a gas welding course, possibly vo- tech or trade school. My welding training went: soldering (propane), gas welding (taught by my step-father), then gas welding/brazing/ cutting/&c/&c at vo-tech, then on to MIG welding (steel/alum), and finally TIG. Never had training in stick welding, but learned a little on my own. Was fun teaching grad students to solder up copper plumbing this last year w/MAPP gas (and never set anything on fire!). If I wasn't into electronics/tech, I'd want to be a welder (most of the training was just for hobby).

Reply to
lektric.dan

Congrats Rich. I find TIG (or any kind of welding) a great mental relaxer for me. If I need to get away from the electronics and computers for a while I go to the shop and TIG weld scrap together. I always keep some scrap on hand.

See if the boss will let you practice on scrap during breaks or such when the machine might be idle. If he does and they happen to have a band saw weld up some scrap then cut the weld and see how you did.

Hell, learn how to stick weld and you may be working in the oil field one day :)

--
Joe Chisolm
Marble Falls, Tx.
Reply to
Joe Chisolm

[snip]

Or on gas pipelines in San Bruno, CA. :-/

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

There aren't supposed to high-pressure lines in residential areas.

Natural gas can be mean stuff. In the mid-70's, a "street" mall (Sundown Plaza for those of you who would know Scottsdale) about a mile from the old house, went kablooie and there was gas flames from cracks in every street in that area. Flattened my favorite Chinese take-out :-(

At my house, I added a 300K Btu pool heater. The provided pressure was so low I had to run 3" specially-coated _iron_ pipe from the meter to the heater... about 120', 18" deep, in Caliche :-( Fortunately a neighbor was a sprinkler system contractor (*) and loaned me his trencher.

(*) Same neighbor that I tutored his kid in Algebra. Came home one day to find he'd installed a complete sprinkler system in recompense! ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

The pipeline was there first. So move the houses.

Of course that's not going to happen. So utilities are burdened by the costs of having to deal with growth around their facilities that some con artist developers and crooked inspectors saddle them with.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Don't allow anyone to build there. The right-of-way should have been large enough that that couldn't happen.

Airports are another one that makes me laugh. People complain about the noise. Well, duh!

Reply to
krw

Politicians must have changed the zoning. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

EEEk! I'm way too old and feeble to be a roustabout!

Thanks, Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Algebra is so simple - it's just arithmetic, rearranged. I have a kind of fantasy of being in front of a classful of kids, and saying, "If you have three apples and I hand you four, how many apples do you have?: "seven?" "OK, great! Now say you've got three apples, but your pie recipe calls out seven, how many apples do you need?" "Four?" "Congratulations! You have just done algebra!" ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Unlike the neighbors who just piss in your yard and blame their dogs? ;-)

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Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there is
enough left over to pay them.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

And racetracks.

--
Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there is
enough left over to pay them.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Easy as apple pi.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Mmmmm warm apple pi......

Reply to
Dennis

Now your off on a tangent.

Reply to
amdx

Well, Rich did start the thread...

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Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there is
enough left over to pay them.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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