welding; goth fash

[sistawendy]

I took the five-hour intensive MIG welding class from Rusty at Hazard Factory on Saturday. The bullet points:

• gfish was right that the metallurgy part is a little too elementary. If you have an engineering background, you can skip that part.
• When Rusty says to dress for the outdoors, he means it. Goddamn Raynaud's syndrome.
• The hardest part for me by far was getting the window in my welding helmet in the right place after I nodded it down to start welding. I really need practice at that.
• I welded at least three pieces to the tables; see previous item about being sporadically blind.
• The gloves I was using were also the heaviest & cruddiest in the class, and therefore the stiffest. I kept pulling the trigger by accident, which on a MIG welder means you then have to snip off the excess wire you just fed out. Once I pulled the trigger while my wire was near some metal and started welding without my helmet in place. Here's hoping I didn't permanently burn a hole in my retinas.
• I want to practice more with a MIG welder, but that means renting equipment unless somebody's willing to let me bum time on theirs. [*fluttery eyelashes*]
• Speaking of equipment, Rusty volunteered that he found a 110V stick welder too hard to use to be useful. Guess who owns a 110V stick welder that's gathering dust.

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Had a nice evening at the Merc afterward with L, wife of a cow-orker whom I met at the holiday party, and Emily Szarek, designer and sole proprietress of Vexx Wear. She's a big fan of cupcake_goth; you two should talk amongst yourselves. Yes, of course Emily's cute. She's also straight. Now hush.

Comments

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

LOL! I've done all those things, too. AND managed to weld the wire to the side of the side of the tip, hopelessly clogging it for some time. I did that at LEAST six times in 2 hours.

I'm actually thinking about trying the stick welder, because I figure that with two hands aiming shit I might have better luck.

Oh, and don't put any silicone shiny sprays on your hair if you're going to weld. Fucking helmet won't even think about staying on.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Just get an autodarkening helmet. They're really not that much these days (~$70) and would be worth it at many times the cost.

If you want to come play with mine sometime, you're quite welcome to. The consumables are consumed so slow (still on the first spool and tank a year later, fairly regular use) that it might as well be free.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

1. Thanks for the offer! I'll take you up on it sooner or later.
2. I've heard discouraging words from both Rusty & Shandryl about how fast autodark helmets go dark. Have you had that kind of problem?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Not that I've noticed. I think old curmudgeons who learned with flip-down helmets are just annoyed that skill is completely obsoleted now.