He's a maniac.............maniac!!!!

Yesterday was the my first lesson on welding metal. I'm so excited to learn this skill in preparation for building my own custom smoker. I was a guest of metal artist Gary Boyce who is famous for building the 30 foot double helix that stands outside LabCorp's corporate office. Gary wanted to start me out building a small table. He certainly had more confidence than I did. I asked to run a few practice beads first. I wanted to practiced a little before diving into a small project. Started to get the feel of the motion for laying down a bead on my practice pieces and the welds came out pretty good.

This is my work station



I started in on the table by cutting the stock on the band saw. This thing is cool it cuts by using gravity. There is an adjuster on the hydrolic arm that regulates the speed at which it "falls" onto the metal.


Once I got the stock cut I had to grind off any burs.



At one point as I was welding I noticed a strange odor. It turns out that it was my hair burning. I was like...."this is awesome." One strange observation I noted was as I progressed in the project my welds were getting worse instead of better. I suppose that is what happens when you're new at something.


While putting the pieces together I made sure they were square and level. I like to measure twice and cut once so to speak. Gary on the other had likes to eye ball it. He says "I'm an artist not a fabricator." That was funny to me because it reminded me of Star Trek.

Here is the base of the table that I made. Gary said that He'll/We'll make a top for it after I grind down my pillows of metal that I call welds.



Gary said that I did well for my first time. I find that after my first time welding that I'm inconsistant but have great potential. One thing is for sure I'll be spend a ton of time grinding those welds down.