Practical Mechanics [Tuesday, May 13, 2014]

[momslilassassin]

"Hello again," Ben said, waving from the front of the Danger Shop that had been turned into a metalworking shop. "Today we're going to play with stuff that gets really, really hot, so eyewear, a leather apron, and gloves are not an option. It's much better to look kind of stupid while you're working with metal than to be that guy with the burned face and only one hand. When you know how to weld, you can fix all kinds of stuff: cars, starships, droids--" he glanced at some of the students from less technologically advanced worlds, "--fences," he added a bit stupidly. "At its most basic, welding joins two pieces of metal using melted steel as the glue. Today we'll be doing that process with a flux-cored wire-feed welder. When the powdered flux inside the wire melts, it emits a gas that condenses to form a thin shell of slag. This protective layer prevents contaminants in the air from polluting the cooling molten metal and reducing the strength of the weld."

Just nod and pretend you understand what he's talking about, class.

"Most projects require five steps: prepare the metal; clamp the pieces in position; tack them together with blobs of metal; finish-weld the parts; and clean up the assembly. Get that down and you can handle a project: I've put two out. For people who haven't welded before, I've put out instructions on how to build a windchime.. For those of you with more experience, you can try to build a pulse jet engine. Don't set yourself or anyone else on fire, okay?"

Comments

Re: Suit up and listen to the lecture!

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia was more than a little intimidated by the fact that there was a special outfit to go with this activity. She carefully pulled on the gloves and apron, and made sure her hair was tucked in under the helmet.

She felt very glamorous, yes.