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.

A Forging We Will Go

I just finished Week 2 of a welding workshop at Phoenix Metalworks Atlanta. It's awesome. This week we did forging, and I can hardly type because my forearms are killing me. Here's a shot of the forge:

That's Jake mostly holding up the assclownery portion of the evening. Here's Kyle perfecting his taper:

That hammer looks small, but that junk is heavy. Incidentally, this is also a shot of me hugging the forge because it was somewhere around 34 degrees outside. As the night went on we decided we were getting kind of warm, but we couldn't take our jackets off what with the molten debris flying through the air. (Except for Jake, obviously.) That's when I decided that anyone that forges in a temperature above 34 degrees Fahrenheit is completely insane, end of story.

This nights' projects were a hook:

and a leaf, both of which we drilled holes into with the drill press for the purpose of hanging:

My leaf is anorexic, mostly because I kept forgetting which rod was being used for which project. Kyle's leaf is more robust.

The first week of the workshop covered oxyacetylene welding and cutting. Here are the bits that I cut and welded:

I have decided that I like this very much, and plan to purchase a torch, turn my backyard into a scrap heap, and explode the house at my earliest convenience. After attending Week 2, which I also enjoyed, I have decided that maybe I don't have the Popeye forearms required to make forging a full-time hobby. But I'm having a blast and can't wait for next week!