Oh wow, I just found this site while sat at my desk feeling fed up on a Friday afternoon.
I gave up welding 15 years ago to follow a new line of work in IT, but I used to be a coded welder in MIG, TIG and MMA working on mining and gas tight fabrications as well and kit for the scrap industry. I did it for some 14 years before I got made redundant.
Reading this site has really brought back some strange memories and I was surprised to see that I could still give answers to most of the questions being asked.
Some of the things I got up to was a little stupid now I look back, such as making a flame thrower that shot a fireball 50’ into the air one night (lloked good though), and the plastic bin liner full of Oxy-acetylene (50/50 mix) that split my eardrums, broke windows and had us all on our backs laughing for days when I lit it (It also hurt and almost cost me my job)! There where other things but I think I could still be arrested for them (but I was shocked at just how many half inch stell balls you could shoot out of a length of stack pipe, and just what damage they did to a 45 gallon drum)!!
Very interesting to see the use of Plasma Cutting, when I gave up it was just being talked about and VERY costly. I also had one of the first reactive masks in Nottingham which also cost a shed load of cash at the time. How times change.
Now days I sit in meetings, fly around Europe and tap on keyboards, the hottest thing I get to hold is a cup of coffee and I can no longer do my party trick of taking a tea bag out of boiling water and squeeze it dry with my fingers!! I did try recently and it hurt!!!!!
Have fun and just remember, old welders don’t die, we just cool down and rust over
D
I gave up welding 15 years ago to follow a new line of work in IT, but I used to be a coded welder in MIG, TIG and MMA working on mining and gas tight fabrications as well and kit for the scrap industry. I did it for some 14 years before I got made redundant.
Reading this site has really brought back some strange memories and I was surprised to see that I could still give answers to most of the questions being asked.
Some of the things I got up to was a little stupid now I look back, such as making a flame thrower that shot a fireball 50’ into the air one night (lloked good though), and the plastic bin liner full of Oxy-acetylene (50/50 mix) that split my eardrums, broke windows and had us all on our backs laughing for days when I lit it (It also hurt and almost cost me my job)! There where other things but I think I could still be arrested for them (but I was shocked at just how many half inch stell balls you could shoot out of a length of stack pipe, and just what damage they did to a 45 gallon drum)!!
Very interesting to see the use of Plasma Cutting, when I gave up it was just being talked about and VERY costly. I also had one of the first reactive masks in Nottingham which also cost a shed load of cash at the time. How times change.
Now days I sit in meetings, fly around Europe and tap on keyboards, the hottest thing I get to hold is a cup of coffee and I can no longer do my party trick of taking a tea bag out of boiling water and squeeze it dry with my fingers!! I did try recently and it hurt!!!!!
Have fun and just remember, old welders don’t die, we just cool down and rust over
D
sounds like you had some fun back then, shame the H&S brigade have put paid to most of it now.
