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Hey there guys, so I landed this job (I posted about it a while back) in the metal fab industry and it's been about 4 weeks since I started. All the knowhow I have about welding is from 1 month of summer school (about 2 months ago) which consisted of 3 days a week (back to back) MIG class started at 8am and ended at 2:30pm, then TIG class started at 4:30pm and went until 9:45pm in between classes I picked a bench and napped on it. Shortly after school I landed a job. I was upfront with the people and told them I was a NOOB and that all I wanted was to start from the ground up, be it sweeping floors whatever.
On my 1st day I was grinding welds all day, on my 2nd day they threw me in the welding room to TIG weld Aluminum lockers, on the 3rd day I was welding and grinding, and since I've been welding here and there both MIG and TIG. Then I got a project to build a chair.
I understand this may seem easy to you guys, but remember I'm a noob and transitioned from a desk job behind a computer and with a phone stuck to my ears. I hardly know how to pull a tape measure and even worse the 1/8th 3/16th etc thing has me going nuts... The other day I told my co-worker 14/16th and he said 7/8ths, I replied, NO 14/16th, he looked at me confused and then I realized... oh yeah, 7/8ths... Geez, I guess I'll get the hang of it someday.
So I built a chair, nothing fancy, but, I had to build a jig etc, and my welds had to show, no grinding them down. (it's how the boss wanted it). The chairs are for the Navy. Then I had to make a total of 27 chairs all the same...Now I'm sweating... ALL THE SAME? Uh, okay.... It took me a while, I had to do some bending (fix some distortion issues) and I had to do some grinding and rewelding. And then I had to redo a total of 4 because they weren't square and level. Anyhow, they are done now and got sent to powder coating. I may get a chance to take a pic of the finished product once they return and get some padding on it.
I'm skeeered... I hope they look good once done. My jig sucked and it could have been better but I got little guidance on the project and whenever I did ask for some help I got some lame looks... but I don't cave in easily so I just ran with it. I learned on the way and the next time I build chairs the jigs will be better and I'll be faster.
Here are two pics of the chairs before they went off to powder coating. One still has a jig on it for the holes that needed to be drilled in them. Anyhow, I'm glad the project is over and I have this experience behind me... can't wait till the next project.
The chair is made out of 14 gauge sheet metal and square tubing.
On my 1st day I was grinding welds all day, on my 2nd day they threw me in the welding room to TIG weld Aluminum lockers, on the 3rd day I was welding and grinding, and since I've been welding here and there both MIG and TIG. Then I got a project to build a chair.
I understand this may seem easy to you guys, but remember I'm a noob and transitioned from a desk job behind a computer and with a phone stuck to my ears. I hardly know how to pull a tape measure and even worse the 1/8th 3/16th etc thing has me going nuts... The other day I told my co-worker 14/16th and he said 7/8ths, I replied, NO 14/16th, he looked at me confused and then I realized... oh yeah, 7/8ths... Geez, I guess I'll get the hang of it someday.
So I built a chair, nothing fancy, but, I had to build a jig etc, and my welds had to show, no grinding them down. (it's how the boss wanted it). The chairs are for the Navy. Then I had to make a total of 27 chairs all the same...Now I'm sweating... ALL THE SAME? Uh, okay.... It took me a while, I had to do some bending (fix some distortion issues) and I had to do some grinding and rewelding. And then I had to redo a total of 4 because they weren't square and level. Anyhow, they are done now and got sent to powder coating. I may get a chance to take a pic of the finished product once they return and get some padding on it.
I'm skeeered... I hope they look good once done. My jig sucked and it could have been better but I got little guidance on the project and whenever I did ask for some help I got some lame looks... but I don't cave in easily so I just ran with it. I learned on the way and the next time I build chairs the jigs will be better and I'll be faster.
Here are two pics of the chairs before they went off to powder coating. One still has a jig on it for the holes that needed to be drilled in them. Anyhow, I'm glad the project is over and I have this experience behind me... can't wait till the next project.
The chair is made out of 14 gauge sheet metal and square tubing.
That didn't take long to look at!
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