Learning to Weld

I’ve wanted to to weld for some time now. My best friend from High School  went through the pipe fitter apprenticeship program when we were just out of High School. He was such a good welder by the time he completed the program, that he won a gold watch with his final test. The “coupons” cut out of his welded pipe sections passed all the bending tests. Not easy to do. He was working in his Dad’s business, and told me job stories from time to time. One that stuck with me was working at a cement plant and how Bob had spent weeks swinging from a bosun’s chair inside a 200-foot silo while welding 21-foot lengths of 8-inch gas pipe together. I didn’t really want to experience that, but I was always impressed with both his welding skills and how hard he worked. Of course we each went our separate ways career-wise; he continued building the surplus electronics business we had started together while I moved to Austin and ran recording studios and an IT department for a college in Texas.

We’ve kept in touch and I try to make it back to Omaha every year or so. I mentioned my interest in welding from time to time, but the brief visits never really made learning it a realistic possibility. To my surprise however, Bob mentioned teaching me to weld a few months ago and even had a project in mind. He and his wife Danna have a beautiful acreage in Washington County where they keep a few animals. Miniature donkeys, chickens, peafowl, dogs, cats, and — the inspiration for the project — goats. You see, goats love to climb things. Bob had built a teeter-totter for them to play on  — which they loved, and he wanted to add a spiral ramp. A vertical 6-inch steel pipe with a series of spiral steel tabs with attached wooden treads. He thought this would be an excellent way for me to start welding. To sweeten the pot, he would throw in his Dad’s old Craftsman welder. So Marilyn and I made our way to Omaha.

We started with a trip to the supply house. A sweet welding helmet with auto-darkening window, heavy leather gauntlets, a chipping hammer and wire brush were tools I would need. I also bought a box of 6011 3/32 welding rod and a new stinger for the Craftsman welder. The original had seen better days.

We started about 9 AM the next morning. Bob had already gathered materials for both the goat ramp and welding practice. Cutting a 6-inch length off a piece of scrap pipe, he then tack-welded  it onto another length of pipe. He showed me how to make a “root” weld joining the two pieces around their circumference. As he had predicted, the principles were simple; strike an arc and then move the sputtering rod slowly and smoothly around the pipe while filling the 1/4-inch gap. Also, constantly moving the rod into the weld to keep a consistent arc length. Kind of the equivalent of rubbing your belly and patting your head while working with a puddle of 2000-degree metal and being showered with red-hot sparks. Child’s play.

He left to take care of a few things while I worked on my technique. Compared with his, my welds were messy and chaotic. Striking the arc turned out to be much harder than it looked because the welding rod would often become welded to the work and leave the welder grunting from a dead short. , Gradually I began to get the hang of it though. By the time he returned a little later, I had circumnavigated the pipe and produced a serviceable, if not pretty weld. Now it was time to fill it in. This involved going around the pipe a second time and welding over the top of the first weld. More good practice. Finally, he showed me a “lacing” weld — essentially a third weld on top of the first two done as if laced from side-to-side. It was time work on the project.

Using a “wrap-around,” he made a soap-stone marks at intervals along the pipe where the steps would attach. The wrap-around has another clever use though — it can measure distance around the pipe and divide the circumference into degrees. We decided on 45-degree spacing.

The steps were made of left-over angle iron. Bob made a curved cut-out using a cutting torch to match the contour of the pipe and then welded it on. After a couple of steps, we had a system. I would hold the step in place while he made to tack welds. Then he would hand the stinger to me and I would complete the welds. We each did some, but I got a lot of practice and it went pretty fast. By the time we had finished, my welds were looking a lot better, and were certainly plenty strong. The last step was to cut a circular piece for an end cap on the ramp. Bob didn’t want the vertical pipe to accumulate rain water. While cutting the circular plate with his cutting torch, Bob mentioned that I would be needing a torch setup soon — essential. “Well, let’s get one skill mastered at a time” I said.