So this week in my course was dedicated to welding with oxyacetylene.

I was seriously scared to start this, seeing as compressed oxygen and acetylene cylinders are literal bombs if you knock them down or fuck up in any way.

First day, we do our safety test--if we didn't pass, we don't get to do any welding until we do. I got 100%, but still lacked any confidence to do anything. We get out there in our fancy smancy coveralls, beanies, workboots, and goggles, looking TOTALLY sexy. We don't have to attach regulators or anything--basically everything was set up, except for attaching the cutting tip and setting our area up.

I didn't get ANYTHING done the first day, because I was a nervous wreck who didn't want to get explodededed. I even fucked up the shutting down process. >_>

Second day, we're doing a full day of cutting, from 7-1:30. I gain a ton more confidence, I crack open the cylinders, purge the lines, and am ready to get my ass in gear. I light my torch up, and honey, it was satisfying to be able to have 6000 degrees of heat in my power to melt metal. I learn to cut, to bevel, and to do a shit-looking radius/rounded corner on my metal. Woo. We worked outside near the ironworkers, which was interesting-ish. Got a lot of looks from the guys, seeing as we're an all-girls class, and we're *gasp* DOING MEN'S WORK! :P

Third day, we're inside doing oxyacetylene welding. Learning how to properly do a fusion weld, a weld with filler rod, and brazing with brass alloy. Fusion welds are so much easier to do than properly heating up and waiting for the fucking metal to puddle, and then adding filler rod SLOWLY, but making sure we didn't space it out, or use too much filler rod, like I learned on Friday. Brazing was fun, seeing as we only had to make the steel a cherry red before melting the brass filler rod. I still got my pieces that I welded. :) Didn't do anything more spectacular than 90 degree corner joints, but meh.

Fourth day, we're doing SMAW (shielded metal arc welding), which is the shit you see where the guys in shows like American Chopper are sending sparks everywhere, and have the fancy welding helmets on. This is the seemingly scarier shit, and I'm more scared than I was doing the oxyacetylene cutting--this is where electricity comes into play, and I'm completely gung-ho on not getting electrocuted. Me and my partner are standing in our booth, standing around because we're both scared shitless to start. Our instructor comes along, kind of pushes us to go, and shows me how to properly strike an arc.

It was absolutely beautiful, and awesome. I started off doing some shit beads, but the more I did, and the more used I got to trying to hit the steel in the dark (the filter glass of the helmet makes it near impossible to see what's going on when you're not welding, so as to protect you from getting arc flash, which is nasty), the more comfortable I felt about it. We started using bigger electrodes, and I got that down fast, doing wonderful looking beads like how the instructor was doing.

When I got home, I was decidely interested in getting my C-level welding ticket--in Alberta right now, in the oil sands, a person with a c-level welding ticket can get paid $110 an hour to do arc welding, and they get free high-quality room and gourmet food. So I'm like, FUCK YES.

So the last day came by, and it was time for my practical exam. We had to do a lap joint, as well as a corner joint. We had a different instructor since our usual instructor had a day off. We did several practices before getting our "test" pieces done.

This was fucking frustrating. I'm trying to do my lap joint, and the filler rod's going fast, and I can smell the burning leather of my gloves, sparks are hitting my neck, and my hand's getting a cramp from holding the torch. bleh. I finally got a lap and corner joint that I was finding acceptable in the beading, and I handed it in, glad that I was done that fucker.

Next week: two days of forklift training, two days of piping (I'm missing two days of piping to go to forklift. >: ( ).