What a first day… Today was 100% awesome.

I am sitting here felling my self falling to depths of slumber and it is only as I reflect on what we did today I realise how much we actually got through – and why I am so tired.

On a freezing (for a Sydney sider) cold Melbourne morning – we all started rocking up at the Plate Alloy office. Coffee from the machine in the kitchen (which were very good – and I am a bit of a barrister snob when it comes to my coffee) and a bit of chat as we started to get to know one another.

Right – game on. John – owner of Plate Alloy – gave us a run down of the week, a run down of the does and don’ts, a tour of the factory, an overview of all the different welders they use for aluminum and a look at some of the finished product.

With the formalities out of the way it was time to start welding – and weld we did for the rest of the day.

I have never welded before so it was all very new to me. We started of with straight welds – which is literally running the welder across a flat piece of aluminum, not welding it to anything, just trying to get a straight and even weld.

It is a lot easier said than done to get a consistent weld happening – over and over and over we practiced until the started to look good… and then we practiced some more.

With this mastered – on to the next stage, welding two pieces together. Baby steps..

To join two pieces together, first you use a tack weld (which is a very small weld just to keep the piece in place) and then longer welds about 5cm to hold it there permanently.

We were practicing on scrap metal, of cuts from the kits.

We had a lot of interesting shapes starting to form as we weld piece on top of piece.

And what did we get from the end of a day of continuous welding…

Some very tidy looking welds.

Tomorrow we start on cutting out the kit – after we do a quick welding refresher. 🙂

Hillboy