Welding training.

At last! Time to don our overalls, gloves and helmets and begin learning the vital skills needed to build our metal structures. A great morning spent with the universities in-house welding tutor Ben, who showed us the basics on the workshops MIG welder.

And so, once we had become accustomed to our strange new work uniforms we began practising our tacking, spot welding and even tried our hand at plasma cutting. There is definitely a knack to working with these machines and acquired gear. The dark visor, essential for protecting your eyes, can be disorientating at first and the thick leather gloves feel clumsy. However, as you adjust to your tools and altered senses you can focus on the bright light, point of contact and the glowing flow of liquid steel that will eventually harden and form your weld.

Over the next few weeks we will practise our newly learned skills by making 1:5 scale models of our structures. This will allow us to further assess the designs angles and joints, whilst refining our welding technique. Can't wait!! :)

#welding #workshop