Back to Oxy today so I could complete a few of the labs that I skipped when the instructor asked me to jump ahead into Shielded Metal Arc (SMAW). Today I was able to complete the pad with filler and corner joint.
The pad with filler exercise is creating a uniform line on the piece of metal using a a filler rod. As the metal is melted with the torch, the filler is added by lightly pushing the filler rod into the molten pool of metal. The rod melts and bonds with the base metal creating a unified bead running across the plate.
The corner joint is created by leaning two metal pieces together to form a tepee then tacking the opposite corners together. After the corners are tacked, we weld the whole length of the joint so that both pieces form one curved piece of metal.
Today was a good day as I was able to complete both tasks in just a few hours, with time left to clean up and study for next weeks midterm. I will take the test next week and then continue on with the last Oxy task, the dreaded but joint and hopefully also complete the shielded metal arc but joint. If I can do that I will be way ahead of the game and can feel good about missing one class in April when I need to travel to Minneapolis for a volleyball tournament.
Two big games tomorrow. USA vs Canada in hockey, and Purdue vs Michigan State in basketball. The Boilers will be playing without Robbie Hummel who is out for the season with a torn ACL so the rest of the team will need to step up and fill that gap. Both games overlap so thank goodness for Picture in picture and the DVR.