|
|
 |
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2007, 10:38:29 PM » |
|
What kind of welding do you want to do? Oxyacetylene welding, TIG welding, arc welding?
When I was 20 I thought it would be fun to take a welding class so I signed up for a course at Santa Monica College. I had no practical or rational reasons behind taking welding, nor did I know the first thing about welding; I just though it would be a fun skill to learn. Since then they have closed all of the trade school classes at SMC. I remember one other girl and myself were the only girls in a class of about 30 boys/men and she wanted to make me into her boyfriend. (Really, she had a thing for me and i once made the mistake of letting her "trim" my hair...she chopped me so short I actually had to have the back shaved to repair it... It was so awful, as soon as my hair grew to a 1/2 inch i let it dread.) Anyhow, the shop was shared with the auto mechanics department and I remember I use to get into these grease/oil wars with these two brothers taking auto shop. We would try and get used oil/grease in each others hair, faces, ears -- brilliant shit I tell yah. I think it was 20 year old, shop style foreplay. Heh heh heh. A slightly upgraded, though no less enlightened version of throwing rocks at each other.
At the time parking meters weren't yet electronic and you could scam a full meter if you fed it a penny shaved down to the top of Lincoln's hairline. There was a HUGE electronic grinder in there and I used to bring in hoards of pennies and grind them down in seconds. When my teacher caught on, instead of chastising me for my lack of safety or staying on task, he brought me a huge bag of pennies to grind down for him!
It's a wonder I learned to do anything in that class but miraculously I exited with the ability to string a beautiful bead with an oxyacetylene torch, welded a gaggle of funky metal ashtrays with quasi wire men offering their hand as a butt perch, and I only destroyed 3 shirts in the process. My skills (?) have remained unpracticed and i did not progress with my knowledge after discovering I would have had to take three more welding classes to be able to really do anything useful. That was way more of a time commitment that I was willing to invest in something i took just 'cuz it seemed cool.
What the hell this ramble has to do with bikerowave, bikes, wire safety screens or anything of that persuasion is way beyond me. It's late, I'm tired, I've ingested entirely too much coffee and I'm procrastinating some assignments that are due tomorrow. I guess the result is this mental diarrhea on Gern's blog. Hey, I didn't force you to read this shit.
|
