Friday - Welding - Week 4

Today was a really interesting day! The kids have gotten a handle on the positions that make them comfortable, how to use tools with giant leather gloves on, what patterns they need to move the welder in for certain types of welds. Today everyone was doing complicated set-ups and a lot  of creative problem solving!

Violet's Bat Wing was getting a round two on two bones that had fallen off.

Raj's Chandelier had a bunch of tiny pieces that need some creative clamping.

The house that the Chandelier will live in.

Jackson was proud of his vertical welds to attach his bridge supports.

Ava completed her Pyramid!

We also made some fun mistakes today!

Violets bat bone got welded to the table! Classic mistake - It's so hard to see those tiny pieces!

One of our welders got stuck at the tip and then also inside the machine! It took all of us working together to figure out what was wrong and then set everything aright.

Karen made a really beautiful mistake when the round piece she was cutting wasn't clamped tight enough and instead of the blade cutting it spun the piece around and marked a spiral down it's length.

At the end of the session we asked everyone what they did that they were proud of today.  Some kids were proud of how many welds they had done or how complicated the weld was. Rajan, for example, did a blind weld that was inside of a piece of metal, so he could see what he was doing at all - just feel!  Alex was proud of finishing his tank welds and then making wheels for it! Ava was proud that she finally didn't weld her pieces to the table!