Initial training as welder included welding various material types. I showed some cases of aluminum welding. This post however has some examples of tests I took as basic welder (C-class tolerances) and other test/works I took for certification (B-class tolerances) on stainless steel (SS). If I knew SS was such a pain to master, I would choose aluminum. On the other hand, I do not choose the easy ways.
While playing with my kids, I accidentally captured the essence of country-side Finland on one little piece of Hama-beads. I told my kids that I will put it on my CV as an achievement.
I worked for a month in Alucar as a practical trainee before joining SteelComp in Vaasa. My tasks were mainly related to MAG 135 welding process. Some of the examples of the projects you can see below.
Alucar is a small company in Pohjanmaa, Finland that specializes mainly in aluminum frames production and assembly for log trucks. This is one of the many projects.This is the beast I used for work. I cannot say that I liked the experience. Perhaps, the issue was in the cheapest wire that the company purchased and which produced so many spatters despite of setting (tried working on other machines with the same wire – no difference). Even when using the spatter protection spray, Esab AristoRod was a pain.
This is truly the essence of Finnish marketing. Took this photo in a testing lab, while working at Kemppi. Engineers are the gem of the company. They are the people who make “the miracle of welding” happen and they are the greatest mythologists/marketers.
The message says:
“There are no bad welders – some just have better machines. Kemppi”
The advantage of doing well in school was the possibility to try and practice various materials and welding processes. Here are some of the projects that I did in school. Some of the projects required cutting the materials on the machine. Others required designing parts in AutoCAD Inventor according to the verbal descriptions or pen&paper drafts, the 3D-design then was changed the .step format suitable for cutting machine reading, placement of the parts on the sheet of material and actual water-jet cutting.
This part is the most unpretentious result of my work, but I am the most proud of it and it has a funny story behind it. It was measured and cut, then welded by the arc welding process (111) using ESAB E7018-G 3.5mm electrodes.
I studied welding in Finland (Vaasa) in a school that was called VAKK at that moment and now it is known as Vamia. The welding training is mainly done in Finnish till these days. My Finnish was at the level of evening schools training – I could distinguish milk from piimä (kefir or sour milk) and manage very basic conversation.
When I started the welding school, we had the first meeting with an old welder-teacher. Before he started explaining anything, his first question was whether we were welding before. We were a group of 6 guys at the moment and all other guys have risen their hands. Hesitantly, I did raise my hand too though I have never touched an electrode holder, nor a welding gun. The teacher went in details about the welding machine, welding processes, currents and material thickness relations. He was good and very visual showing everything he talked about. After about 4 hours of his talk, he turned to us and said: “Now, that you know everything – go and make some welds”. I was shocked because I realized that out of all of his long talk I managed to understand about 20-25%. How do I weld with those fragmented ideas in a foreign language? After some trials and errors, Youtube guides, some stuck electrodes and flash burns, I produced this. The thing does not look anything special, but for me it means the risk and reward of exploring the new, ability of subduing the rudiments of the world and stepping in the unknown yet being able to produce something useful. Magnificent feeling! Continue reading “First finished welding project – 111 Arc welding process”
One of the test project in welding school was to roll a big radius tube from a sheet of metal 3mm thick and welding it. The main attention was paid to the root of the weld. The welding was performed using MAG 135 welding process and evaluated according to the ISO 5817:200 welding class C specifications. The welding was performed mainly in the PA position. Given that the C-class allows quite a lot of flexibility in terms of weld tolerances, the work was within the requirements for the root and has got the highest evaluation. Continue reading “Thin-wall tube rolling and welding – welding school project”
Did you ever hear a barely audible moan at your work place and wonder where it comes from? This is the sound of Gen-Z’ managers. This is a hyperbolic take for humor – Gen-Z brings fresh energy, innovation, and much-needed change to workplaces! But yeah, it’s an adjustment.
Managing Gen-Z is like herding cats
Managing Gen-Z can feel like herding cats – if the cats had TikTok/Twitter attention spans, zero patience for corporate BS, and an allergy to outdated processes. They demand flexibility but expect promotions yesterday, thrive on collaboration but ghost meetings for DMs, and want “purpose” in every task while rolling their eyes at anything resembling hierarchy. They’ll fact-check your words with a Google search mid-conversation, call out inefficiencies loudly (often on Slack for everyone to see), and prioritize “mental health days” over last-minute crunch time – forcing you to actually, you know, plan ahead. Their digital-native confidence is impressive until you realize they’ve never addressed a client without an emoji.
Adapt or perish, boomer!
The idea that Gen-Z are “unmotivated” and “lazy” is rooted in a stereotype supported mostly by the companies with a rigid organizational culture. They are not poorly motivated, but rather they are motivated differently. The problem with Gen-Z is not the lack of motivation, but rather weak mythology and unappealing meanings shared, for instance, within an organization. This short article aims not at solving the problem once and for all, but rather at exploring the alternatives, rather at taking a look over the generational fence. In doing so, it makes sense to briefly consider what Gen-Z is, what motivates them at work, what meanings they get exposed to, and honestly looking back in the mirror to what companies offer.
It is surprising how far a human can go to deny the undesired but evident. All of the discussions about meaning and absurdity by Camus, Sartr, Russel, Becker and the likes are the stubborn denial of the evidence and the obvious. Nevertheless, they go in depths in order to justify their poor choice with complex and rigorous reasoning, which once and for more proves that we are the product of the stories we choose to tell to ourselves. Their stories though sound sublime and heroic wrapped in solemnity in essence are empty. In the words of Andersen’s fairytale punchline, “The emperor has no clothes.”
Continue reading “Stainless Steel TIG 141 – school projects”
