Scooters first welding test

[Diverbill45]

Today I gave my grandson Nick (Scooter) his first welding test.

About three weeks ago my grandson ask me if I would be willing to teach him how to weld. I told him that I would and my son was surprised that he wanted to learn. This came as a surprise to both of us because he had never done any welding before and never said anything about wanting to learn.

Wednesday was his first day in the shop. I went over a few things with him such as: proper travel speed, different types of welding rod, how to strike an arc, what to look for while welding a bead, arc control and so on, just a few things to get started. We ran a few beads and he asked some questions. This lasted about 2-1/2 hrs.

Today I had him over and decided to give him a little test. What I did, before I picked him up, was run a bead with 6010 (5P), a bead with 7018 and a bead with 7024. after we got done with him running some more beads and practiceing striking arcs, I told him that I wanted to give him a test.

Now all the beads that he has been running for the time he has spent with me have been in the flat position. I wanted to start him off welding in that position before moving on to the vertical, horizontal and overhead positions.

I handed him the plate, turned off the machine, unplugged the leads and turned the amp dial all the way up. The machine that I have is a Miller Dailarc 250 AC-DC. He was told to reset the machine to weld 1/8" 6010 (5P) run a bead then reset to run 3/32" 7018 and finally reset to run 1/8" 7024.

To my surprise, he went over and hooked up the leads, turned on the machine, set the amps where he thought it would be close to where it should be, for the rod he was running, ran a practice bead and reset the amps where it should be. All 3 of the above mentioned rod run at different amp ranges, but when he got done he had run all these rod at the correct amp range and he didn't ask for any help.

The enclosed photos are pics of the test plate and a few of him welding. On the test plate the weld at the top, the 3rd weld from the top and the 5th weld I made. They were made with; weld #1- 1/8" 6010, weld #3- 3/32" 7018 and weld #5- 1/8" 7024. He made welds #2, #4 and #6 with 6010, 7018 and 7024, in that order.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention that he is only 11 years old and has only got about 4 hours of welding experience behind him before making these welds. Comparing my welds to his, I'd have to say that I might have to go back to school and take a refresher course in welding.

His dad was really surprised at what he had done because he use to weld for a living before becoming an electrican. As for me ..........., what can I say, except that I'm a very proud grandpa.

Bill

[Blade]

Looks great, the welding genes must run in your family . It is always Great to teach someone a skill that they can use in real life.


Take care

Blade

[oldsandman]

Tell the young man Great Job! Both my 21 year old daughters weld...It was pretty funny through high school when the girls could weld and the boy friends could only watch! One of my daughters is a fine arts major at the University of Califonia and amazed her sculpture professer when she could cut and weld better than him. Heck she's a better TIG welder than I ever could dream of!

[Rorty]

Great stuff! I wish I had a Grandad like that. Good to see he's being taught safety too.

[Plastic Fork]

I agree with Rorty when he says:

Great stuff! I wish I had a Grandad like that. Good to see he's being taught safety too.

I am in the process of teaching myself to weld. I got a wire feed welder, but would love to learn to arc and tig weld. I am thinking of taking the welding class at the community college.

Great job Scooter...

Duke

[diirk]

Bill, my congratulations to you and your grandson. He's done an excellent job and kudos to you for spending some quality time with your grandson.

Duke, the local community college is a good way to learn. I've done a few semesters locally and have learned a great deal. My classes covered gas, arc, mig and tig. If you're going to take just one, take the mig. If you want to cover several, do gas, tig then mig.

[Plastic Fork]

Diirk, I checked with the community college and found out that our local community college does not offer night courses in welding..go figure. I just moved from Houston to Spokane and found out that the demand for night classes is not that high. They do offer Machinist at night though. I think that is what I will take. I want to take a couple of classes so I can get my Army money. I figure that I can use the knowledge I learn in the machinist course.

Duke

[diirk]

A machinist course would be cool. Plus, talk to the other folks taking it, if you can find enough interest, you might be able to get the school to have a welding class in the evening. Make sure you put the request in to anyone you can, and talk to your teacher and see what they say. There's always a way.