Learning to Weld

Even though this project was heavily based on learning techniques and skill, I still had a lot of fun learning to weld. To learn to weld we started with the basics and we were required to make one square and one sphere for the project.

Though we were learning to weld, we started this project in the classroom instead of the studio. Learning about the different kinds of welding, how to work each time, the science behind it, and safety. From there we jumped into planning. This project put a lot of importance on planning, which although I begrudgingly did, I know looking back it was important.

Planning and measurements are not my strong areas so it was important that I was required to and got a lot more practice with it.

For planning, we started with maquettes made from cardboard and tape. The reason we did this before jumping in and doing the math was to show us why planning was important. Almost everyone struggled to make the sphere out of cardboard. Including me.

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From maquettes, we jumped into the math and figuring out how to create a sphere out of metal.

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After our math was figured out we made a template for our sphere pieces and cut our sides out for our square.

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Then we started in the welding studio. The first couple of days were just learning to set up and breakdown the welding torch and cutting tool. Then we started to practice welding.

After we had the feel of welding down and were able to keep the correct distance and speed. We moved to welding our cube. I actually found welding the cube easier than when we practiced because you weld the cube at an angle. This came to me way more naturally then welding on a flat surface.

Once we finished with the cubes we moved back to the sphere. before we could start welding we hade to shape or pieces. We did this by using a type of roller that slowly curves the pieces.

Then we trimmed our metal pieces so they fit together well. I struggled with this. A lot of my sides didn’t match up well. I had a lot of big gaps that left a big challenge later with welding.

Using an extra piece of metal to hold the pieces together we tacked welded the sphere, just like the cube, before we welded it completely. It was definitely a challenge learning how to get the pieces to line up while wearing big thick gloves, but the tacking went fairly smoothly for me.

Once everything was tacked we moved to finishing the welds. since none of my sides matched up well this was definitely the most challenging part of the project. I had big gaps towards the top and bottoms of my sphere which I had to weld in extra metal to patch up.

I will say the plus side of this was I got fairly good at patching and being able to weld difficult gaps. The texture also made an interesting visual.

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