I always wanted to learn how to weld. Well maybe not always but at least since I was in high school and developed an interest in low-rider’s (mid 60’s Chevy Impala’s). 
I knew that if I ever wanted to get one to restore, I would need to reinforce the chassis if I wanted it to hop. Making it ‘Hop’ involves installing hydraulics and putting as much as 500 pounds of batteries in the trunk to power the pumps.
Even if I don’t get that dream car for awhile (2 college educations to pay for still), I want to use that skill for repairs and for some personal art. I started doing stained glass in high school and wanted another more permanent, industrial, creative outlet.
Another reason for wanting to do this is fear. I had an accident in Catholic grade school that has caused me to have a fear of high voltage electric. We had no showers in the school so we would wear our gym clothes under our uniforms on gym day. We would have gym and then put our uniforms back on over the sweaty clothes. Good thing we didn’t really care about girls back then. For game nights, we at least go to change in and out of game uniforms in the locker room.
As members of the basketball team at St. Francis, we had volunteered to clean up and repaint the lockers in the boys locker room in the basement. One of the dads had brought in or rented a big electric grinder to get the rust off the lockers before painting. Being an old building, the outlets were not properly grounded (you can see where this is going). Not knowing any better, I was using the grinder to remove the rust without the protection of any gloves. I had used the grinder for a few minutes before stopping to brush the dust off the locker with my bear hand. Grinder housing – metal. Locker – metal. All that was needed was my hands to complete the circuit. Luckily I was not leaning forward when I touched the locker, but rather had a bend in my knee so when I did get the shock, it only lasted a few seconds before I fell back and broke the circuit. No one noticed me until the grinder hit the ground and I muttered something (I am sure I did not swear as I was a good Catholic boy).
Ever since then I have not liked to perform any electrical work because I had not know the proper preventative measures to take to be safe at that age. I know they stress safety in this welding class so I intend to use this opportunity to learn all that I can about the proper precautions that will get me comfortable with the technology. We will be learning not just electric based but also gas based techniques as there are advantages to each and situations where one is better to use than another.
I am looking forward to the next 16 weeks at the College of Dreams (that is the nick name for College of DuPage), and who knows, if the economy tanks and the zombies attack, I will have a useful skill to use in the wasteland.
