Welding 101

Michael and I learned to weld today.  One of Mike's long time customers owns a welding shop in Benicia and he told Mike about a year ago that he had a like new welder to give us and if we wanted to come down and learn how to do it, he'd have some of the guys teach us.  We just never had the time to do it until today.

The owner, Mike, is such a wonderful and nice man.  He gave us everything we need to get started:  the welder, several pairs of heavy duty gloves, the face mask to protect your eyes with a dial on the side to make it darker or lighter to see while welding, they gave us a shirt and all the little special hammers and tools needed.  How sweet!!  Now we need to go scrounge up some metal things to weld and make our new creations.  

This is not a small welding shop, it's a large and impressive industrial operation they have going on.  Take a look at the huge equipment and machines and parts.  The steel they work with is very, very thick and heavy with some of the sheets being up to 6 inches thick.

They make parts for many companies, some of which are the refineries.  You know the tall stacks that come out of the refinery?  They make those.  Inside the tall tubes that stick out of the refineries are intricate parts, layers of trays, etc., so that when the oil or whatever goes through, it's all separated and refined.    

Metal bits and pieces.

They made this huge cylinder thing.  It opens and is hollow and is meant to have men go inside to do what, I do not know.

They made these.

Humongous ceiling cranes move heavy equipment and parts.

A part they made.

Large, heavy, flat sheets of metal.

Are run through this machine to roll.

Into these super huge tubes.

Every single piece of metal is labeled and tracked.

Laser machine.

Our instructor, Tom.

Mike and Mike.