Welding!

At long last, I got brave enough to let Andy teach me a little welding.  The motivation was an assignment from the car club for each member to make a trophy to present to their favorite car at the upcoming show.  Well, the trophies we give out are made of random car parts found around our shops...and creating a statue from random metal parts is best achieved with welding!

Andy and I went through a box of unusable engine parts for a Nailhead he tore apart recently, and came up with our concepts.  Andyman welded his up in no time at all, and then patiently worked with me to figure out my slightly complicated idea and guide me through every tack weld to hold it all together.

Let me tell you - It was not what I expected! He plunked that helmet on my head and told me to watch the puddle.  Well, when you push the trigger, everything goes black except this really bright green blob!  And, with tack welding you don't hold down that trigger very long.  So...I really wasn't sure if I ever saw a puddle!  I thought I caught a glimpse of one forming on the last couple of tacks, but I sure hope it gets easier to see with some practice.

So, enough story.  Here are our trophies! (Andy's on Left, Teresa's on Right)

 I was still too chicken to do the welding to create my little bearings 'globe', and depended solely on Andyman's skills for that part!  How cool is that thing?

Not only did I finally weld something - I did not burn myself or my awesome coach, and I want to try it again!  So fun to start with something artistic and nonstructural...