Dedicated space

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So you’ve been seeing all this stuff I’ve been welding, and you no doubt have said to yourself, “Tom, why on earth do you continue setting random scraps of wood on fire and clamping fifty different things together while you’re welding on your general-purpose work bench? Why?”

You’re smart, smarter than I, actually…until today. It has been rolling around in my brain that I’m really making things harder for myself by working this way. In the beginning when I just started practicing, it was okay. I only needed a little space, and I was just sticking random bits of stuff together, plus I was just starting to get the hang of the machine.

Now, however, it occurs to me that the speed and quality of my work will go up if I have a real work space designed specifically for metal work. I didn’t want to take the time to do that first off, because I was simply too excited to be welding, and I didn’t think it would make *that* much of a difference. I’ve since changed my mind on that. Remember the edge weld photo from the other day? Yeah, that’s actually the way I had that thing clamped up on the bench, and that was the *easy* way of doing it. That box I made took a bunch of weird clamping using pieces of wood and whatnot, and it just occurred to me that I was spending a lot more time setting the work up than I actually was welding it.

So here we are. Something had to be done. It was time to move forward, make some changes, affirm that I’m really getting into this whole deal. I looked to my left, and there sat a steel-framed workbench that my dad had brought over one time a few months ago. It had been left in my folks’ house when they moved in. It was really rather crappy for a wood bench – too small, kinda wobbly, crappy presswood top. But I could change all that, though I. I could pull off that top, mount a steel one to it, stiffen the legs with some braces, and I would have myself a really good starting point for a dedicated metal working bench.

But first! (there’s always that “but first”) First I needed to make the entire area a little more conducive to performing work. There was no readily available electricity in that corner, and no decent lighting. These things had to be addressed first. Well, that and the fact that the workbench had tons of crap piled on it. So I went to work cleaning and prepping the area, and at the end of the evening, I had this:

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It ain’t much to look at, kids, but it’s going to be pretty friggin’ cool once it’s done. It’s going to become the basis from which some seriously kickass work will be accomplished. Stay tuned. Lots more coming on this.

Cagey

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I brought the little square from the day before into work this morning. We have a little plastic figurine that she got out of a gumball machine, and she stuck him in the box. She said, “It’s like a cage! You should make a cage for him!” and I thought, “Yeah, that would be funny if – hey! I can do that!” And so I did.

So square

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Holy crap! Tom welded something that’s *gasp!* a three-dimensional shape!

Don’t get all giddy, kids. I just got bored. This isn’t any kind of major deal. Really, what it is is I’m practicing my corner welds using the coupons I stuck together when I was practicing my butt welds. (Laugh – you know you want to. Butt weld. Butt weld, butt weld, butt weld. You’re welcome.)

Need a coupon?

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They call these things “coupons” in the welding world. They’re two-inch long pieces of eighth-inch thick steel. You just put two of them edge to edge longways, and then you weld them together. Then you frown at the result, throw it on the floor, and do another. You do this until you stop frowning at the result. It’s a little boring, but it’s kind of cool too. It’s a good way to consistently practice the exact same thing, so it’s easier to track your results and figure out what you might be doing wrong (or right!). This pile of coupons was made by yours truly from for pieces of four-foot long flat stock. I cut them up using a reciprocating saw one at a time. Oh sure, it would have been easier to use a band saw, but I don’t own one. For now long, noisy, and slow is the way I have to do these things. Fun, right? You’re jealous, admit it.

Mo Brown

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We opened for this band tonight, Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights. They were pretty cool. The sound guy told me they were kind of like the Black Crowes, and he was right. Pretty good show. Lots of times I’m too tired to stick around for anything like this, but they sounded cool, and the bass player was a real nice guy. This is their sometimes singer, Mo Brown, who works with them when she’s not doing her own stuff. This isn’t razor-sharp photo quality, but I liked the whole mood of the thing anyway.

Over, and over, and over, and over, and…

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I keep practicing. After screwing up a number of welds on the sculpture itself, I figured I’d do a test piece like this and make a zillion practice welds (okay, ten or twelve) on it and see if that helped. The reason I didn’t try to take a better picture of the welds here is because they’re pretty crappy. You get the idea, though, that I’m doing this repeatedly. It’s not pretty, but it’s necessary. This is progress. In years past I would have thrown this all out and been really disgusted, and maybe even given up on welding all together. This is the sort of thing that would have stopped me dead in my tracks, or would have kept me from just simply keeping at it for another hour or two that evening or the next day. It’s the sort of thing where I might have thrown it angrily in the trash (or on the floor), and just walked away for a week, a month, a year.

Well, I’m not overjoyed or anything, but at least I’m not setting unrealistic expectations for myself (maybe?). This is the way things are for me right now, and they will improve if I keep after it, and I’m going to keep after it!!!!