The New Semester.

As summer drew to a close, I could not wait to get back into the shop. I was especially excited to see my new classmates, and if there would be any girls in there with me this time around.

I dusted off my helmet, pulled my tool bag out of the closet, fished my boots out from under my bed, pulled a long sleeve shirt from the closet and picked up my jacket off the closet floor. Each one of these little actions made the grin on my face grow wider.

I tossed all of these items into the trunk of my car, next to my welding text and workbook, hopped in the car and dashed off for school.

Frustration

I cruised through the next few assignments in record time and was way ahead of the class for awhile, the only people who were ahead of me were the students who already had welding skills.

And then.... we had to weld a 30 degree V-weld with the 6010 electrode. This had me bashing my head against the table everyday... for a good 2 months. I listened to Teach's tips and tried my best and still could not get it right. I even asked my classmates what they had done.. and still could not get it right even once.

I began to hate welding. By the time I had finished the assignment, with a measly B (all of my other grades had been high A's), I was the last person still on the assignment, and the semester was over! I was suddenly re-evaluating my desire to learn to weld.

Now it's summer vacation and I can not wait until school starts back up and I can get back in and start again, and learn a new application! I am really excited for TIG which won't be until the following summer, but I am going to get someone to show me ahead of time.

It's 100 degrees outside and I wish I was welding.

Sick.

The next week I was terribly sick. I was dragging myself to my classes and stiffling coughing fits.

I showed up early to the welding shop, leaving all of my gear in the trunk of my car. Teach looked at me and said "You're sick." I nodded and he told me to go home. He said that breathing in the dirt and fumes wasn't going to help me get better, and that since I was ahead of everyone, missing a class wouldn't be detrimental.

I went home, crawled into bed and dreamt of burning metal.

My welding class was only one day a week. But later in the week, the advanced students had a class that ran at the same time. We were told that we were welcome to come in on that day and catch up. I was feeling guilty about missing class that week, so I went in to do a few assignments and get ahead again. I was still pretty sick, but feeling much, much better than I had felt when Teach told me to go home.

I saw a lot of faces that I had never seen before. A lot of people looked at me questioningly.

One guy greeted me with a happy hello, and as I was pulling my hat out of my tool bag he asked if I had a do-rag. I pulled out a bandana quickly and said "I sure do!" I pinned my bangs back, a la Rosie, and tied the bandana around my hair, then slipped on my ballcap backwards. Two minutes from girly-girl to tomboy.

Teach grabbed a ratty piece of scrap and told me to weld it to my pad for a handle. This was my first time welding two pieces of metal together. I had a hard time keeping the spark going, but I made it about three quarters of the way across my new handle then took it to him. "You aren't grading me on this are you?" I asked. It looked terrible and I held it behind my back until he told me no.

He then showed me how to use the chop saw, which was brand new, and I cut the ends off of my pad, to look for deposits inside. I had a blast using the saw. Teach leans in and goes "Are the sparks bothering you?" I shook my head. Hell, it looked like christmas, with all those yellow sparks flying around. I loved it!

He noted that there were very few deposits in my pad, and told me to take it out to the wirewheel, clean it up and soften the edges. I loved grinding that thing down. I was starting to think that I didn't want to be a welder after all, I wanted to be a cutter and a grinder.

There is only one wirewheel in the shop, and occasionally I would look back and see someone waiting for me to finish. So I would step aside and let them have a turn. Some looked angry or annoyed at me. I stood back, waited for them to finish then went back at it. I had a lot to do, this was my first time using a wirewheel so I wasn't by any means adept, and the pad was damn rough and really dirty! But eventually I got sick of the evil eyes and decided to go home.

One of the evil eyes was from Camaro, the guy who had given me my tour of the shop last semester when I came in to talk with Teach. He had been so nice then and now he looked so annoyed that I was there. I didn't get it.

I packed up my tools, said goodnight to Teach and headed home.

Success!

Got back to class and immediately went to work on my pad. Did a few practice beads on some scrap, then jumped right in to the second layer, at 85 amps. When finished, I took it in to be graded and Teach said it was exceptional! Went back out to finish my third layer, turned up the amperage to 90 and did my practice beads on the scrap. I immediately noticed how much hotter it was, and it even felt harder to control, but I went ahead with the pad, and when I was done,I took it in to Teach. He said it was even better than the last and graded me a 96% for the last layer. Some of the guys were standing around, they seemed surprised and took a look over my shoulder.

One of the other guys needed a spot to work, so Teach told me to go take a break. I stood around for a bit. Some of my classmates brought over their work to be graded, and I watched Teach send back quite a few of them to do it over. One of which was my buddy Malibu. He looked at me, frowned and went over to his booth.

I went outside to make a phone call and when I came in, I saw that everyone was working. I was the only one who was done.

There was certainly a new spring in my step that evening. I checked in on Malibu a few times to see what problems he was having. I also watched Nomad, one of the other beginning students that I had spoken with briefly on other days.

We all seemed to frequently come across the same problems. Splatter, sticking the electrode or losing the flame. I tried not to be too cocky about being done, knowing that I would encounter plenty of problems as time went on. Isn't the first assignment always the easiest anyway?

Malibu picked at me as we walked out to our cars. Calling me "Miss 96 percent". I knew he was being friendly, but I picked back at him, with my head held much higher than it had been the week before.

Week four. The first assignment.

Teach told us to go out and practice for a half hour and then come back to the lecture room and we would talk. I grabbed my equipment and went out to find that all of the work stations were taken. A few of the guys saw me looking for a place to work, and quickly turned back to their work, avoiding eye contact with me. I looked about for Malibu, but couldn't find him, so I went and sat outside until the lecture.

I seethed. I couldn't understand why almost all of the guys were giving me the cold shoulder. I grew up around men, and always got along with males better than females. I had proven that I didn't mind getting dirty, burning holes in my clothes, carrying heavy loads... I wasn't asking for any special treatment, just the same courtesy that they were affording each other.

When I went back in for the lecture, Malibu was there "Hey! Are you just getting here?" I frowned, shook my head but didn't elaborate, not wanting to whine.

For lecture, he talked to us about common problems, gave us tips, and then we got to talk about any problems that we were having. Then we got our first assignment!

Our first assignment? What?! I wasn't ready for that! Our assignment was to weld a pad on quarter inch steel. We had to do 3 layers with 7018 electrode. Each layer was to have a different type of motion.

Malibu and I grabbed our tools and went to the shop, snagging a work booth quickly.

"You know, you are the only one here who will talk to me," I said to him.

"Aww are they scared of you?" he asked with a smile.

"I don't know, I guess so. But as a result, you are my perma-buddy now. You are going to get so sick of me."

He laughed.

We grabbed some electrodes and got to work. Not too much later, while Malibu was welding, the guy at the booth next to us, lifted his helmet, looked at me and asked how I was liking it. I told him it was fun, but I kept sticking the electrode. He told me to strike it like a match, and not pull up. He looked just a few years younger than me, which was surprising, because so far, everyone that had spoken to me was noticably older. He took off his glove, shook my hand and introduced himself. We will call him Lightning. He said if I had any questions to let him know.

I had a bit of a spring in my step after that, happy that not EVERYONE was shying away from me.

I did a few practice beads on scrap metal before getting to work on the first layer of my pad. Not too much later, Lightning left the booth and Malibu took his place. Soon, after each pass, we were leaning around the canvas divider and comparing our work.

Lightning came by at one point and watched over my shoulder, telling me tips as I went.

When I finished my first layer, I sat back, looked at it and thought it looked pretty good, so I took it to teach for a grade. He looked at it, looked up at me, and smiled. Then wrote on my grade sheet that I got an A.

My first welds.

The third day of class had me practically bouncing in my chair in excitement. I was telling my study buddies in other classes about how I was going to get to weld that night. If you had tried to bottle my excitement, the cap wouldn't have been able to fit ontop.

After another safety video and a video on Oxyacetylene welding, (during which I was constantly thinking Oh no, I am gonna blow myself up.) we got to go out and work on our first welds. Half of the class already had some experience arc welding with a stick electrode. Those of us who had no experience were partnered up with people who had some experience.

I was partnered up Malibu, one of the guys from the previous week who had been talking to me about where to buy the textbooks. After he introduced himself, we grabbed our tools, threw on our safety glasses and headed into the shop. He told me that it had been quite a number of years since he had welded, and hoped he remembered what he was doing. One of the advanced students showed us how to turn on the equipment and adjust the voltage, and where the electrodes were kept, then we got to work.

I watched over his shoulder as he welded, then we switched out so I could have a chance. I stuck the electrode against the metal, and pulled up too far, and the flame went out. So I tried again, and didn't pull up enough and stuck the electrode to the metal. This continued a lot throughout the evening. I did get a couple of beads completed, but they looked terrible, and I got mad at myself everytime I screwed up. Malibu was very supportive and kept telling me to try again and not get frustrated. He made a few errors too, but was overall much better than me.

I had to kick the perfectionist in me to the side and remind myself that he had done this before and I had not.

Teach came by to ask us what we thought and how we were doing and all I could say was, "Well it looked a lot easier in the video." He gave us some tips and while Malibu as working he asked if I wanted to work in the industry, or if I was just here for personal reasons.

As I was not currently working, I told him that I was open to working as a welder if I found that I liked it, and did well with it. So he told me that women welders get union jobs very easily, if they turn out quality work. I was surprised, but he said it's because they need the minority, as an equal opportunity employer. This immediately sparked (haha, get it?) in me a desire to get to work.

We showed him our welds, he gave us some tips to try out and headed on to the next group of students.

We cleaned up, put our tools away and headed out a bit later. Not only was I leaving ecstatic about having gotten to weld, but I was also happy that I made a friend in Malibu, and hence, was starting to feel less like an outcast.

The Second Day

The second day of class I made my way to the back of the lecture area, ready to escape any unnecessary attention. I quickly realized how different the view was, from where I had sat last week, right up front. I was able to observe my classmates, and quickly saw that most of them were avoiding eye contact with me. Part of me was surprised, but a bigger part of me was not.

We watched a safety video, and a video on stick Arc Welding. I watched and thought Oh that looks easy.

A few guys actually did talk to me. When Teach was discussing places to buy our text books, I piped up that Amazon.com had them much cheaper, they turned and asked questions like "How much?" or "For both the text and the workbook?" I noticed that the ones that did speak up were much older than I was. The younger ones kept their eyes forward.

Teach concluded by stating that the following class we would actually get to weld, because it was easier to explain things once we had already given it a try.

I COULD NOT WAIT!