First Project

admin

So, I have recently acquired my first welding job,  I'm attending the local tech school for the welding technology program offered, only in my second semester however. I figured I would apply for the heck of it and see what comes of it. I was hired, by TTX, it is a local rail car company that completes repairs for all things train cars. Upon my pre-employment paperwork, I was sent for a training course for Flux Core training. They said it would take three to six weeks however it is a self paced course. I finished in about 5 days. We work 4 10 hour days. So about a week and a day and I qualified to weld flux core in 2g, 3g, and 4g, all per AWS 15.1 (Railroad code). At any rate for the last 3 days of the week i have just been helping everyone else and doing BS around the shop. Today my instructor came to me and another guy and asked us to help him whip up (read : do all the work while he watches) a new grinding station as the old one is 40 years old-ish. He gave us an idea of what he wanted, told us what was required and we went to town. All of you who were too lazy to read all of this, long story short, I got a job with the railroad and I got to build this sweet table. Attached Images
Reply:They made me get on the table to make sure my welds would hold, so that's me in the red shirt heres the rest and a small welding man I made for my instructor for being so awesome. I look forward to hearing all of your feedback. I do apologize, I didn't get any photos of the welds, however they were all done with 7024s,  so not much to see. Attached Images
Reply:Haha! I love the welding man!!
Reply:Thanks! I got the idea from someone here. I feel like I've seen a weldor sculpture here, however I know for sure I have seen a baseball player. Which is what I had in mind when I started. The hood is my favorite part, it started as a piece of 1/4 inch flat bar I'm not sure if you can tell there is a bend in it. I heated it up with an propelene (sp?) oxygen torch and beat it flat with a hammer and used the edge of the table to get the shape.
Reply:Man thats a great job you did IMHO. I remember getting hired out from tech school and I had to hod mud, brick and block for 2 years before I got to do anything that seemed like work I wanted to do. I like the welding guy!Learning one rod at a time
Reply:Like I said before, I'm actually still in school. Just really getting started I suppose. I applied for a torch operator position but when I called my contact to follow up he said "Wouldn't you rather weld?" I explained that I had little to no welding experience except that of stick welding at the college and he said "No worries, we will send you to the career center and teach you to flux core weld. We will pay for the course and pay you while you're there." Mind you, I didn't get paid much while in training but I don't know of any other company that would send you and pay for it.. Let alone pay you while you go.
Reply:Good job, great enthusiasm!As long as theres guys like you comming out od school America will do allright.no im not an old fart, not even a professional weldor.  Your attitude toward work in general and learning is what impresses me.
Reply:Looks good !  You guys twins ???   Now you gotta build a table to build tables on. Working on the floor sucks ! Your young so it'snot too bad yet. Just wait until you get older.
Reply:Thanks for your kind word, I'm very motivated, II love to learn. That's why i like this forum so much, there's so many knowledgeable people here and so much to learn from. There's something about designing and building something that has the capability to outlast all of us.No kidding.  It sucked  building this one on the ground! I was really sweating about noon and my jeans were soaked. I knelt on that plate, it sure let me know it was there. It tingled a little, but it definitely let me know it was there.Last edited by Synenberg; 07-13-2012 at 03:01 PM.