Transcription
[MUSIC PLAYING]
REED: Hi. My name is Reed, and this is a day in the life of a welder. Follow along with me as I heat things up, fire up the forge, bend some metal, throw some sparks, and give you a taste in the life of a welder.
The first step on today's to do list, we are going to forge out some orange mental vines for a fence panel. We got to start this forge by turning on our gas, which happens to be propane in this one. Now, we're burning.
As a welder, I'm fusing two pieces of metal together, usually, in a large object that somebody wants. That's anything from drive gates, pet gates, pergolas, shade covers, handrails, pretty much anything that you see made out of metal has been welded by somebody. It's a really rewarding job for me just because I like to work with my hands. So on a daily basis, I use flux-cored and MIG welding. But you can also choose TIG welding, STICK welding, and oxyacetylene.
So now that we've done all of our roughing out, we can do more detailed work and make it look more pretty before we start adding texture to them. With welding, you really got to pay attention to details. You really want all your edges smooth. Because at the end of the day, it's something that you put your name on. And if you're not proud of your own work, why should somebody else accept it?
Hey, guys, I have a question for you. How do welders advance their careers? Stick around to the end of the video to find out.
This forge is around 1,000 degrees. It's only a propane forge, so it's not crazy hot. The cold forges can get up to about 2000 degrees in the center. Some of the challenges that a welder will face is definitely with dealing with the environment. Really dealing with tight spaces or probably heat is the biggest, biggest factor, especially with doing work like this on a power hammer or dealing with a forge. You're talking about 1,000 degrees. It's just constantly radiating at you. And especially in this situation, we're working pretty close to the forge to where it's definitely important for us to drink water and stay hydrated, take rest breaks when we need to, just to try and keep ourselves in good working order. Good old water bottle works every time.
Now that those materials are cooling down, we're going to go get started on an entry gate. Looking at my gate, it's going to swing out. Yeah, at this point, I'm just going to start cutting out a whole bunch of materials that we need for this gate. It's going to be a whole bunch of loud noises, super cool.
Being able to visualize where you're putting something in a space is a really good skill for building in any form, especially with metal. Because once you've welded something together, it's pretty hard to get it back apart. As a welder, it's important to have perseverance because most of the time, if a problem comes up, you don't fix it the first time or you don't come up to a answer right away. You got to be able to work hard. Lifting a lot of heavy stuff is definitely something that comes with welding. Sometimes the job is really tough. And you've got something over there that your arms are getting burned up against the forge. And it's just really not wanting to go your way. Yeah, just keeping a positive mindset.
Now that our panels have been cleaned, we can go over to the table and start fabricating them. All right. Our entry gate is all done. We just got some final aesthetic touches to do. And then it's ready to work in the field. All we do is spray on our nice liquid rust and watch the magic happen.
To get into the position that I am in today, I did take some classes in high school about welding. And I did take a class in college. But you know what? It was a lot of trial and error by myself in a garage just practicing with a welder. That really got me to the position I'm today. If you're interested in starting in a welding career, first off, I would go talk to a college counselor and see if they have offer welding classes. It is nice to have a certification. But from there, it's just practice. Find a company that you like to work for. Time at the bench is really the only way that you're going to get good at it. So best of luck to you.
Welding definitely comes with its downfalls. But you get to create something that is true to you. And you get to have something that's imperfect because no weld is perfect. And each weld is different every time you do it. So to be able to have something that's not replicatable is really a cool thing.
Hey, guys, thank you for watching again. We really appreciate it. Don't forget to leave like and subscribe to the Indeed YouTube channel if you haven't already. And we'll see you in the next one.
There's also oxyacetylene welding if you so choose. [LAUGHTER] That's good. If you so choose. [LAUGHTER] If you so choose. Yeah, like I have something against oxyacetylene. [LAUGHTER]