I spent my life as a Carpenter but have been a car guy even longer. Quite awhile ago I learned that you really limit yourself if you have to rely on others for welding things.
Old cars with crash damage or rust will need repair. You can get on the list and wait your turn or find a way to do it yourself. There are numerous times that having a welder here has saved me money. For almost 30 years, I’ve only done MIG welding. Most automotive stuff can be done with the MIG. I’m not a great welder but I do okay. This past month I started a welding class with another FABO member. This week we did some stick welding, a type that in my opinion, is obsolete for what kind of stuff that I do. I took the class to improve my MIG skills but this class is geared to exposing students to all the common welding techniques. SMAW, GMAW and even TIG. My skills at stick/arc welding are not good but improving. It was so frustrating , I would have quit but I heard that next week (week six of eight) we focus on MIG! The first four weeks were spent learning terminology, symbols, techniques and fabrication. They had us build mini-Hibachi grilles….
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They had “plans” we had to follow to cut and shape the sheet metal. The designs of the bases were up to each student to come up with.
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That was fun. The welding booths there were often busy so I MIG’d them together at home.
This week, all the work was done in the shop at the college, that brings me to the point…..
As we age, as our eyes age, first we need more light to see….then we need glasses, then thicker/stronger glasses.
I’ve found that even still with strong glasses, I often need more light than I did before. The booths at the college have a fluorescent lamp behind the work that barely lights up the stuff you’re working on. I struggled with the work today….
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We all struggled with the stick welding but for me,
welding blind sure made it a pisser. The younger guys didn’t have a problem with the lighting.
I stopped at the local welding supply to see about a welding hood mounted light. They had nothing. At home, I made this:
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It is fairly simple. Back when I was still working in construction, we often started work before sunrise and needed light to see and work. We al started wearing those LED lights attached to an elastic band with power supplied by rechargeable batteries. I just cut the bands off and screwed it to the hood…
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Once welding starts, the lense darkens for protection but before and after, a dim area makes it hard to know where to get started.