Here you can see we take a lot of pride in tight fitting joints. When the tube joints are tight, they don't move much in welding. Some pretty good welding too, if I say so myself. Of course, I have been welding for over 20 years now--but I don't do it much any more. I learned to weld at my first job in the mechanic shop at BYU. I was just 17. I hired on to sweep the floors--literally. My boss, the head welder there, told me I'd never learn to weld when ever I asked him if I could watch and learn.
One day I asked him if it would be alright if I could learn how to weld by myself during lunch. He laughed and said, "Go for it." I guess he thought I wouldn't stick with it. After a few days of me welding over the lunch hour and grinding making all sorts of noise, he blew up and was screaming mad at me. He yelled, "You just think you can do anything--well YOU CAN'T! STOP WELDING NOW, YOU ARE WASTING MATERIALS AND GAS!"
Well, the next day he didn't come to work for some reason and so there was no one to weld. The driver of the tanker truck for the football field came in in a panic because someone had backed into him and broke the rear deck on the truck. They had to water the field before the big game that night (or the next night, I don't remember now) and his boss was coming unglued wondering where he was. He asked where the welder was and I told him he was gone and none of the other professional mechanics knew how to weld. So, he begged me to find ANYONE to weld the deck back on for him. So, I told him I'd give it a try and I did. I saw it on there for years and years after that. It is still on the back of that truck for all I know. .
Funny thing, I didn't know how to bill them out or anything like that (dumb freshman kid) and so I just told him not to worry about it. Anyway, the next Monday, the truck came back because they had broken something else (grounds crews are hell on machinery). He told the secretary he also had some welding done the Friday before and so she went out into the shop to talk to my boss to see how many hours to bill grounds crew. My boss said, "I didn't weld that." The driver then pointed to me (I was sweeping the floor) and said, "He did." I just smiled. My boss almost passed out. I hate it when people tell me I can't do something. That was my first taste of the political world of jobs, rice bowl, and CYA. I could not have cared less then; I couldn't care less now.
