Mechanical? Chemical?
(I’m neither.)
aerospace - mostly bad aluminum welds in fluid tubing or friction stir welds in some cases, though the latter is usually done by a machine.
2 Likes
That’s cool. I was CS but worked with a bunch of mechanical and aero folks on our FSAE team.
And I’d never heard of friction stir welding. That’s pretty neat. Not the same thing at all but I had a friend working on control systems for laser metal deposition. Lots of work on controlling the vortex of various powdered metals.
My steamfitter coworker welded for NASA back in high school. He would’ve gotten a full ride to Ohio state, but a pedophile history teacher failed him in the class due to attendance, and then he lost the scholarship.
That pedophile teacher apparently committed suicide off of the key bridge in Baltimore, when he got caught messing harassing high school girls.
One thing you’ll probably notice when you fully step into the adult world is how the number of fucked up stories like that continue to add up over the years.
Be sure to stick around to learn about them, not be one of them.
4 Likes
As an older man, what is something you wish you knew or did at 21 years old that would have benefitted you in the future?
For all of its flaws, the Catholic Church gives some of the best and most consistent advice about how you should conduct yourself as an adult in society, at least when you compare it to other sources of advice.
Learning the value of compound interest, the value of surrounding myself with better people (preferably one with a pickup, one who knows more than you about computers, someone you can trust to watch your kids/pets, the friend who always knows how to find deals, and the morally grey one), taking a longer view of life since you’re only at the 21% mark, how to under-promise and over-deliver, mechanical/construction skills, classic fashion that isn’t chasing a trend, booze is bad.
I’d add more to a comprehensive list of things to know at 21, but these are the valuable ones I had to learn later.
2 Likes
Thats good. There’s also a ton of very high quality teaching videos available for free on youtube, the top ones being Welding Tips and Tricks from Jody Collier, and Weld dot com.
The market for machines that are of good professional quality has also never been better. Harbor Freight’s Vulcan and Titanuim lines are very very good, and extremely economical compared to the professional grade brands.
Materials for all but the most advanced processes are commonly available and relatively inexpensive. Steel & aluminum sheet, plate, and tubing can be found almost everywhere, and there are also pre made projects like dice and dodecahedron that can be found for skill building and whatnot.
Well rounded skills in the 3 main processes- stick, mig, & tig, are ideal, and can be built with time & dilligent effort.
Commercially, higher skill=more money. “Code shops” are shops that require testing to certain engineering quality standards determined by ASME, AWS, API, and various other governing bodies.
Personally, I’ve had a good time with it. It has paid the bills and then some. Even as I’ve taken a hard turn healthwise, I can still stay busy and take care of my family moderately well working about 12-18 hrs. per week. If I had the energy for 60 or more hrs. per week we’d be just dandy.
Its never too soon to get started. I occasionally bring my son since he was 9, to help with prep work (no dangerous tools) and just so he can start to understand the basics- safety, measuring, cutting, drilling, cleaning, fitting, etc.
The basics will get you a long way.
Anyways, thats my take. Hope it gives a little insight. 
Edit: @flipcollar comes to mind as having a good take on fabrication too. He’s on the employer/business side of it, and I’m sure has a lot of valuable insight on the subject.
3 Likes
This is cool, thank you for sharing. I’ve thought about transitioning either to welding or fire science at some point.
1 Like
Its a strange field. If you have a particular focus, like a line of bbq equipment & accessories, a little bit can go a long way. Like emphasis on stainless steels. Custom builds vs. production. It sort of bridges and plays a part in a wide set of disciplines & trades.
We gotta follow-up on that grill idea.
1 Like
Ok. I’m not the brightest business mind, but I have pretty decent metal working skills. I’ll share what ever I have.
If you ever start a line of kitchen equipment, count me in as a customer
Fire science is interesting and completely misunderstood by so many people. Part of my job/skills as an engineer is fire protection/fire safety in aerospace. In aerospace we put most emphasis on not completing the fire triangle. Or making ventilated compartments that are to lean to support continued burning…or many other things. It’s an interesting field I am pushing into as there aren’t many engineers who specialize in it and my mentor literally wrote the FAA rules on fire protection.
3 Likes
You mean someone from New Jersey.
1 Like
You get it.
I actually know a guy from NJ who couldn’t sell his car, so he set it on fire to use the insurance payout to pay for college.
He would also go to parties and sell those mini-vials of cologne as acid because he didn’t like drug users.
He got the shit kicked out of him after doing that one too many times.
We ended up being roommates and he sucked ass. Like only listening to 50 cent and Thrice, or hiding my wallet in the freezer, or pretending he was “out of town” when any authorities came to check anything.
I got him back though.
I think morally grey is some one who will help you bury a body, but won’t call you to bury one.
Jersey Man vs. Florida man?
What did you do? Replace his speed with your Ped egg shavings?
That just means that he’s your morally grey friend, but you’re not his morally grey friend. One of the advantages of a morally grey friend is that he has other friends who are even darker grey and can act as an emissary when you need it. If you’re the greyest person he knows, he’s unqualified to be your morally grey friend. That’d be like hiring a lawyer, but you know the judge better than he does.
1 Like
No, but clever idea.
The difference between Jersey man and Florida man is one wants to brag about what they got away with to impress people, and thebother wants to be able to disappear and have culpable deniability.
So I just played dumb and added to his stress.
He had an important work event one night, and had pissed me off so I dropped roses and a card from him inviting his girlfriend to dinner that night. I don’t know how it played out, but he showed up looking angry and “didnt want to talk about this shitty night.”
Slightly unscrewed his headlights so he wouldn’t notice driving to work, but got pulled over coming home.
I tried sprinkling powdered milk on his sheets so it would sink into his skin and get rancid, but he wore so much cologne, so I dont know if it worked.
Played intermittent NIN remix samples when he was trying to watch sports.
Took some of his fancy suits and put them in a garbage bag, smoked a cigarette and exhaled in it, then hung them back up so he flipped out and had to get them dry cleaned.
Petty shit like that.