I hope Father's day treated you all well. I wanted to share one of the
best times I have had on Father's day yet. My 16 year old son and I
learned how to weld panels (by the school of hard knocks). kinda
We stared Friday with an old sliding door from a van that we got from a
wrecking yard. Robbie used the grinder with a sanding wheel to sand
half a dozen 4" wide strips about 2 feet long to remove the paint. Then
we hooked up the compressor and got out the die grinder and cut slots in
the sanded areas to practice cutting and then welding.
After many setting adjustments on the welder and lots of sparks I got my
first cheek splitting smile when Robbie said " This is the greatest !
This stuff is really "man's" kinda work." I asked him why, and his
response was, "well duhhh look at all the sparks, this feels dangerously
exciting". I was quick to remind him that his Mom is an accomplished do
it yourselfer and can work wonders with a wood lathe. He acknowledged
she was pretty cool and we went on from there to measure and cut the
floor panel to be replaced.
Saturday we traveled to a roller hockey tournament (Robbie plays we
watch) in the San Francisco area about 3 hrs away. 3 games, 1 tie with a
shoot out, 1 one point loss and one blow out loss (we won't mention the
score ;-).
Sunday. Found out I won $77.00 from the lotto on Saturday. Wild hair
purchase that paid...., well at least a little. We welded in the floor
panel and ground off the welds. Put a bright light under the floor to
find out where we missed or had interrupted welds and re-welded and
ground a few missed spots.
Took some of my winnings and bought some rib eye steaks for dinner to
cap off the perfect weekend.
Lessons learned:
1. While you can fill a 1/4" gap with a wire feed welder it takes less
time to measure twice and cut once.
2. Even though it is 100 degrees out side .... Wear shoes not Tevas,
wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants, and no matter how hard you try
to cover up, a small piece of molten slag will still manage to find a
bare spot. (like that one small spot where your shirt came un-tucked
from your pants, or down your glove, or......
3. It is easier to weld a little than grind a lot.
4. A grinder is just as much a finesse tool as the welder
5. Sparks from the grinder seem to be magnetized to loose padding or
other flammable material even more than 2 feet away.
6. Undercoating burns..... and stinks when it does
7. How does Mom always know when it is time to take a break for a cold
drink an something to eat? (Sure couldn't have anything to do with the
language coming from the back yard ;-)
Cheers to you and yours,
Bob in Chico (norcal), CA
P.S. Can someone help us find the tar type caulk that they use/ed to
seal spot welded seams from moisture? Thanks.
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