MIG Welding- not for the faint of heart...

Photo credit (Flickr) - neoplatonistking

     Hi there! So, I just took another class - this time in MIG welding.  It was at the same hacker space as before, but with a different instructor.

     I liked him a lot, but he wanted me to just jump into welding while having 5 ft. spark arcs shoot at me, which was on top of worrying about massive amounts of heat from
the welding tool and possibly getting UV sunburn on my eyeballs. Needless to say, it was a little hard for me to focus on just welding in the beginning. After all, our instructor did spend the first 30 minutes of class describing all the ways you could injure yourself during welding.

Get Organized

      This is a project we've needed for quite some time: Cleaning up the workbench. Usually, it's such a mess that you really can't find anything you need in order for it to be productive. So over time, it gets used less and less because it isn't easily accessible and you can't ever find the tool you are looking for.  My dad is a bit of a tool hoarder (sorry dad, the truth had to come out sometime)- even if it is rusty or doesn't work well, it is kept just in case "it could be of use someday"

Just look at the amount of tape I used to make all these labels! (To the left of the storage bin)

     He already has one storage bin for small pokey things (nails, screws, molly bolts, washers, etc.), but he still had more, overflowing from recycled butter tub containers. And, they were all mixed together, which just killed my OCD side. So when I saw another clear plastic storage bin at a garage sale, I jumped on it like there was no tomorrow. I gave it to him for Christmas- he wasn't as humored as I was. He put it in the garage, on top of the workbench on its side and eventually piled stuff on top of it rather than actually using it. I hinted that perhaps we should clean the workbench after the drawer planter project, but he was decidedly ignoring my pleas.

    Of course, I couldn't just leave it like that! So I busted out my favorite tool, the label maker, and went to work. We still have 50x the amount of tools we need, but on the special occasion that I am looking for a brayer, a cordless drill, and a level, I have 3 of each to pick from, which makes me happy.