A lot of the yard art stuff like that can be done with just those little simple tags no more than a couple of you know inch or too long at most. If a guy really is interested in doing what maybe and maybe then he has some projects at home he's going to want to work on.
In rural areas welding used to be a skill picked up in farms and in high school shop classes whether or not it led to a career. In industrial technology fields welders are in demand. And in the hobby of upcycling, a little welding can add some flair to yard art or other homemade projects. This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College. I'm your host, Steve fast. Today we're going to talk about welding for fun and profit with an instructor who teaches the welding bros of tomorrow as well as the hobbyists who want to pick up some fun things to do with scrap metal.
Hello, I'm Dennis Ludwig. I'm the weld trainer and part of the welding engineering team at Pontiac Caterpillar facility. And I teach welding crude for community ed and for accredited side of Heartland Community College.
Welding is obviously profession it's your profession. But why would people want to learn to weld for reasons other than trying to make a living? Well,
there is a possibility as as you see with the with the community ed class like are they willing to call for outs outdoors, there is a artistic value that can be go along with it. It's a one day class guy teaching, we're making stuff with scrap horseshoes, and washers and nails and rebar and all kinds of reclaimed stuff.
So when did you first start to explore sort of the artistic things you could do yourself?
Several years ago, I had a gal that I worked with there at Pontiac was she was saying one day well, I had we talk and she knew she knew what she exactly what she was doing. She was feeling me out but she's she said I need some I got some well known but I need somebody to I don't I don't know anybody. Nobody knows how to well. I said Cindy you know good and well I teach welding and heart when what do you got? So she brings on that she she gives me some pictures and shows me this is there's this little flower where you kind of tack horseshoes together and there was a butterfly. I made both of those four. And then we just kind of just kind of rolled from there one day get I think one of the community I went to community ed folks and I got talking I said I sent him a picture he said hold that'd be a good class. So kind of how it went.
If somebody is looking to do this, you know, for like a crafting an artistic purpose. I mean, how hard is it to get into? I know that there's different styles of welding, I know that there's a different level of expertise that you might need to but how quickly can somebody start to build up some of those skills to do those sorts of things you're talking about?
The as I said the core classes a one day class is four hours and all they're really putting down as a small tack. Little small tack weld. So I've got them doing that within you know, after hour after hour being out in the wild. So pretty quick. Yeah, yeah, it's not a hard process, we use the GMA ws or the MiG processes many people hear a call which is the most will say user friendly of the processes it's easy probably the easiest to learn so it's fairly quick it's a fairly quick and again and it just like in my weld 100 that I teach also for videos it's a that's a five week course but I tell them right there you're going to be able to say am I going to make a welder out in five weeks? No but you're going to be able to stick something together it's gonna hold well you can you where you go from there is kind of on your own you know after you
well what are some of the first things that you have to tell people are the things where people might go wrong with even you know making some of those quick tax
first thing they need to know and I'm a stickler on this of course I've been at this for quite a while first thing they need to know they need to know the hazards involved with safety is number one this is it's a hot we're obviously a hot work zone even a little tack you're shooting 6000 about 6000 degrees across that arc with the metal that we're that we weld on melts at about 27 2800 degrees so it's it's there's a lot of bad things can happen. I don't tell him these things to scare him. I just want to they don't know not to be scared but should be respectful no have knowledge and know what can happen.
Yeah, I imagine that somebody could get hurt pretty easily. If they are goofing around or don't know what they're doing around some of that.
Absolutely. And I won't tolerate any here they get goofing around. It's Thank you. See you later.
So tell me a little bit about at the beginner level, you can start to do things pretty quickly. And that's got to be exciting. But let's talk a little bit about what people can do after they start to build up some skills and Some ability I know you teach Industrial Technology students as well that might weld for a career or part of their career. What are the some of the things that people start to develop after a little while? And is it something where it's just simply practice? Or do some people have kind of more of a aptitude for it? Because it is, it's a skill. Some people have an easier time developing that and others don't?
Absolutely, you're absolutely correct. It is a skill, man, some people pick to it quicker than others. Yeah, it's practice. There's three things anytime you do anything new, there's three things you got to do. Practice, practice, and practice. It's just repetition. And some days, the welding Gods just don't appear to like, you know, many times you strike an arc and weld long and nothing seems to be working today. And the next few men, maybe the next class, you come in and homeboy, where did where was this? There's nothing to live.
I'm wondering, you know, I learned some welding in high school. I wonder if that's changed. Have you seen that with younger people coming into the workforce? And maybe your experience in the workforce over the last couple of years? Are we seeing fewer welders than we used to?
Yes, absolutely. The it's almost seems that you know, I was a farm kid, I grew up on a farm. getting dirty today apparently is not cool anymore. Like it used to be, my dad would just run we'd run me out of the shop, because I was out there mess around tearing down something or trying to many times, it may not get put back together. Maybe that's why he ran me out. But it's starting to turn back. But a lot of a generation I think they'd rather be programming games than working with their hands.
Is that causing a problem that you can see in the workforce? Is there a real demand for people that have developed that skill? Because it's not like that is something that isn't needed in a lot of varieties of manufacturing, agriculture and other places?
You're absolutely absolutely correct. The AWS is saying the American Welding Society, who uses the acronym is predicting because of attrition and things like that, you know, people just leaving the industry, by 2025, there's going to be 400,000 available jobs, all within welding. Now, that's not always one striking an arc. It could be, you know, a welding inspector, such as myself and educator, a supervisor, you know, in a manufacturing facility, but they're expecting 400,000 welding related jobs available by 2025.
I mean, that's pretty impressive. When you look at things that are growing in industry, you have a lot of different manufacturing things that are changing because of automation because of technology. And I wonder, if you are talking to potential students or some of your students, how quickly can they move from having not a lot of skill at all, not a lot of experience to building up that level where they could get a job? How long of a process would you say generally, as soon as I know, you say that there are people that have a greater aptitude for it. But as far as getting to a level of certification, and level of expertise, how long does it generally take?
On the accredited side at Heartland? There's a welding skills certificate, which is 16 hours. So one semester, so pretty quick, really? Absolutely. They could have a they would have a skill certificate now. They're going to have a taste of oxy fuel welding and cutting, stick welding, and MIG welding. They practice them again, it's back to a repetitive thing.
Well, no, you mentioned kind of growing up in the farm. And I think that is an element in practice, you know, as we see fewer people that are growing up in some of the rural environments, you could practice by, you know, helping out with farm stuff that needs to be fixed with just having some scrap metal around, but probably some of your students other than the opportunity to be in the shop there. Don't get a lot of extracurricular practice. Do you see that being a bit of a of a concern?
Yeah, I would agree with that. Their their practice time is when they have their four hours a week or whatever, four hours or eight hours a week, whatever the scheduling is for that class is many times they're only welding for the week. Well, yeah, you need to quit. The schools are bringing it back though. Now. I'm sorry.
I want to go back a little bit to the CEE side of things. And I wonder as far as the accessibility of people that want to do this as a hobby, how hard is it to get access to equipment or buy equipment if you wanted to develop some of this stuff on your own after you take some of these skills and you can make as you say, like maybe a something out of horseshoes or the like maybe yard art, but other people want to take it a step further, how difficult is it to get the gear and the equipment is too pricey?
Again, it will depend on how big and how big of stuff they're wanting Well, a lot of the stuff you can buy at some of the local retailer shops. You can buy you can get some you can get some 110 powered welders. You're not going to weld much of the you're not going to be able to weld much thicker than anything within a quarter inch, but sometimes you can pick up some of those are running 100 bucks 100 150 bucks, guy has to get some gas or some other some consumables involved with it also. But you could get the gun, or the actual the power supply and the lead and everything, just have to buy, I have to get something for shielding gas, and then probably under a couple 100 bucks.
So really that is affordable. When you think about people that are getting into a new skill or hobby, they easily sink that kind of money into it. I've seen people spend that much money on new fishing rods, so Oh, sure. So absolutely. Can you talk a little bit more about as you got that initial interest to figure out how to do some of the simple projects? Have you explored any personal projects yourself? You've completed that we're not in all work related, but we're an opportunity to explore different things you could do with welding.
Done a lot of playing around with Kreinik became a little bit addicting. started making these things for Cindy. And I yeah, you find stuff all you find pictures all over the internet with different projects. I made this pretty cool. I thought I obviously it must have been really cool because my mother in law snagged it immediately when it went in the yard. A out of Shovelhead a circular saw blade cut in half. And like I had a couple horseshoes little washers and things like that made an owl, a metal owl that was kind of that way. And that was kind of neat. It's kind of fun, little challenging, because there were dissimilar metals. In there, the saw blade was stainless steel, and the Shovelhead which welded them to was plain carbon steel. Well, you can't because sometimes you gotta you gotta have the right electrodes and things. So I did I use look, take process on it. But what's going on made it made for a little bit of a challenge. It was kind of fun.
That's something that maybe a lot of people that are just coming into this as a hobby might not realize is they probably have to look at some of those materials, because I know people love taking the scrap materials like you talked about and creating something, but you do have to realize that you're working with different elements of metal.
Absolutely. And I'm tell you the truth. I didn't even think about that. When I was starting to make that one day, I started attacking I said what what's going on? Oh, it's a stainless steel, that's not going to make well with it because I didn't have the right electrode in for the MIG welder. Now, that's not going to work well. So it was kind of a learning that was part of the fun. It's a learning process for me then to say, Okay, now what am I going to do? We'll use a TIG welder on this. So
what's the next step you would suggest for people that go through the class, they go through the continuing education class, they make their first project and they want to move forward? What's the next skill that they should probably start to develop after they figure out how to make those simple tax,
a lot of the yard art stuff like that can be done with just those little simple tags, no more, a couple of you know, inch or two long at most, if a guy really is interested in doing what maybe and maybe then he has some projects at home he's gonna want to work on so he's got to step up and get a little bigger man to get a little bigger welder for some of this stuff. But they can always sign up and take one of the classes on the accredited side. I've had at least one student do that a state trooper who was getting ready to retire. And he's and usually they you know, he was he was I believe when he was when he came through the class. He was maybe 5152. Usually, they start early, they have their 30 years in so he could retire quite early. He took the community head class a five week class, ended up taking the yard art class was a great help to me, I didn't have a lab assistant for that he kind of he kind of helped me with it. Then he signed up and took I think he took the 110 and the mid class on the accredited side just because he's wants to do stuff at home. He's setting up a little little less shot little little weld shop in his machine shed he's got lives out and he got a foreign place. He lives and he's gonna set up a little shop in there and more for his own enjoyment success stories like that, you know, you make you feel good, too. Yeah, cool. This guy's you know, somebody's actually taking it the next step. So
it doesn't matter how far along you are in it, you can pick up the skill, even without a lot of experience.
Yep, you certainly can. On the five week class and I tell them by the time we get to make you're gonna say why did evil guy make us learn these other two processes when this is so easy? Man they do. So yeah, boy, this is this is much more fun. I'd say just you know, if you're interested, just just take the plunge. Everybody has done it. I've always have had a good time. Sign up, you know, sign up for a class, whether it be one of my classes, whether it be accredited class or whatever. take that plunge and try it. I strongly believe in if you're kind of questioning themselves, go with a community ed class. First because it's a little more low key. It's not as costly as the accredited side. So jump in and give it a try.
A good opportunity to get your feet wet in that C classes. Yep. Well, Dennis, thanks so much for talking about this stuff with me and good luck with your next class. I appreciate you giving us a little bit of an insight into welding for both hobby and the beginnings of learning a skill that could pay off for a career
Great, thank you for having me.
Thanks Dennis. Dennis Leadley teaches welding classes for industrial technology and for continuing education hobby classes at Heartland Community College. If you're interested in more topics on personal enrichment, history, art and more, check out our other random acts of knowledge interviews on Apple podcasts, Spotify, audio boom, or wherever you found this one. Thanks for listening
