Welding

Every new school year brings new things to learn and new challenges. This year the new challenge in my autoshop class was to learn how to weld. The second week of class I was already using the MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welder. My teacher taught me three types of welds, a tee joint, butt joint, and lap joint. At first it was pretty hard because I wasn't accustomed at looking through the mask and wearing such thick gloves. Within the next couple of weeks I began to get better but it still wasn't enough. I wanted to become proficient at it until the point where I made little or no mistakes.

Lap Joint

Tube Roller

In December my shop teacher, Mr. G assigned me to a project two of my fellow classmates were working on. In the alternative fuels class one of their projects called for tubing to be bent. They needed a tubing roller in order to fix several chairs in the auto shop. As we do not have a tubing roller, my two classmates decided to design their own. The first step was to research as much as they could and look at several different designs and come with one of their own. The second step was to draw out their design and see if the teacher approved. After that they made their design out of cardboard and tested for any flaws. The process of testing took several weeks just to make sure everything was well supported. Finally after they finished everything on their prototype model, I was called in to take all the necessary measurements to put it into solidworks. Their original cardboard model is below.

Side View

Front View