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”
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”
Recently, came across the ‘Happiness’ cartoon by Steve Cutts (2017). The genius of this art piece is in its blunt message. It makes one see the rat race routine from a side to realize something. Have you wondered, where we all are than much in a rush? For what good (if any good) we run?
How much the rush for happiness is imposed (prescribed) and how much is self-initiated? Can it be both?
Working from home brings own challenges. For me, this translates in shaping the productive working environment which usually was arranged by someone somewhere. An efficient use of space on the desk surface is a part of the problem I imagine many of us struggle with.
With distance work, I noticed that I use three different types of headphones and most of the time they are laying somewhere on the table or hanging. NOT NICE! It would be great to have a designated place for them – a headphone holder. Finding one online is not a challenge and they cost starting with $25. Some are really cool too, but waiting for their arrival is more painful. Having Soldworks and 3D printer at hand, there is no excuse to producing one by myself.
So, first, drawing some basic shapes, shelling, patterning, and the model in Solidworks is ready. Since the headphone holder takes some table space, I shaped the bottom in such way that it can hold some smaller parts like a paper clip or MicroSD card. The holes on the bottom of the top part is for hanging headphones on small hooks I will print later. So, being happy with the design outcome, I go to the next step – printing.
Assembled
Next are the few steps in Simplify3D to set the printing parameters. For printing, I used the white PLA material. The flat vertical surface of the top part led to some overhangs inside, but for the function, I am ready to give up some of “the pretty” for now.
After aligning the shapes in Meshmixer, they come to the Simplify3D for the positioning on the 3D printer’s bedSimplify3D calculates the necessary paths for the printer and the concept is ready to go to the printerCreality v10 at work
…and after 32.5 hours, here is the outcome.
Printed parts
Assembled parts
This is how it looks on the table:
After half a year of happy using the holder, I cannot stop wondering how I lived without it.