I Very Much Enjoy MIG Welding

I didn't think I would because there is no open flame and you have to wear a really dark helmet. But it's great!

I have titled the final workshop in the series: And Then There Were Four. It was down to me, Kyle, Brendan, and our instructor Dan.

L-R: Dan, Kyle, totally rad metal skull on a pike, Brendan.

Dan told us that the final workshop is our chance to just expand on whatever techniques we wanted to further explore. The fellas decided they wanted more forging. I decided I wanted the use of my forearms for the rest of the week, so screw forging, and since I hadn't had a shot at the MIG welder yet, Dan set me up over there. Here's the mighty beast:

[Dear OSHA or whatever: That's my plastic bag hanging on the hook because I brought cupcakes to celebrate the end of our welding journey. I took it with me, don't be a jerk.]

I set to work welding various scraps together. Here's a POV shot of the tip of the MIG on the left with my pile of scrap:

I think the second weld from the right is the one that caused Dan to remark, "That is a shockingly good weld for a beginner." SQUEE!! I'm pretty sure that falls under the category of "Women Follow Directions." You should have seen some of the bullshittery getting forged last week. You tell me what to do and how to do it, and then I do it. The End.

I quickly worked my way through the shop's pile of scrap, because unfortunately they had just taken a load to the scrap heap. So I welded my leftover bits from Week One into a janky bench. Hooray, I made something!! Then I said, "Dan, there HAVE to be more bits." He pointed me to the bucket that collects the scraps and I welded every single bit to my bench.

Bow to your new leader, the MIGHTY DRAGON BENCH:

Here's the Dragon Bench relaxing at home after a hard day of being fucking awesome:

That shot shows the last part of tail that I welded on. I cut none of this except for the square bench parts -- all those shapes are just as I found them in the bucket. Later Kyle wanted a shot at the MIG and there were literally like two pieces of scrap metal left. Ha. Sorry, Kyle!

After the shock of my amazing Dragon Bench wore off, Dan, in a bid to reestablish shop dominance, banged out this knife in like five minutes:

Okay, that was impressive. YOU WIN THIS ROUND, DAN.

I had a blast and now I am ready to explode the house.