What Localities Need Welders?
The answer is: All localities where industrial plants are located, or where street railways are operated, or where farm machinery and implements are made or repaired, or where automobiles are used or built. Such localities will probably include your own home town or some town not far away from home.
The Welder’s Tools and Equipment
The numerous makes of torches on the market are of two general types—the medium, or positive, pressure torch; and the low pressure, or injector torch. Practically all the oxygen used comes in compressed form in cylinders. Acetylene is more commonly generated on the premises, owing to the cheapness of this method. It is piped into the buildings and is always readily accessible. Generators, like torches, are of various makes, but they vary in type to correspond to the two kinds of torches, i. e., pressure generators, and low-pressure generators. Generators are automatic in their action, being controlled by the flow of gas. Where the gas is not generated in the establishment, and especially in outdoor work, dissolved acetylene is used. This comes in cylinders which are filled with porous material and contain acetone, a liquid, in which the gas is dissolved under pressure.
Welding equipment varies according to circumstances. In general a welding unit includes welding and cutting torches; hose and connections; oxygen and acetylene regulators and gauges; a supply of various tips; filler rods; goggles; friction lighters; gloves; asbestos sheets; fluxes; hand tools, such as pliers, files, hammers and cold chisels; welding table; preheating arrangement; fire brick; carbon blocks; and V-blocks. It may include also, hand shear, anvil, hand forge, bench and pipe vises, emery grinders, drill press, hack saw, jigs, lathe, hoist, and work bench.
Practically all of the necessary equipment is furnished to the welder, sometimes with exception of goggles, gloves, and overalls or leather apron, which the welder may have to obtain for himself.
Why Take Training?
The aim of re-education is to turn out a good welder who has not only the manipulative skill, but who in addition is well-grounded in the necessary theoretical knowledge. It can not be too strongly pointed out, in the view of the highly unsatisfactory method of turning out welders obtaining in the past, that the course can not be too thorough. The need is for good welders, not for half-trained men. Really good welders in this country are not many, and there is in this field a splendid opportunity for the well-equipped man, but for him only. An employer will always be looking for a better man if he has a half-trained man on the job.
Overcoming Your Disability
The question is not primarily one of the handicap, but rather of the man behind the handicap. It is not the exception, but rather the rule, that a partially handicapped person, endowed with ingenuity will, even though at a disadvantage, beat the sound man who does not possess any ingenuity. This is borne out by numerous instances of foreign experience in re-education.