We are very fortunate in our shop to have a small welding area complete with welders and equipment for MIG, TIG, and stick welding of Aluminum and Steel!

As another specialized skill, we had to develop a training curriculum for our welding trainings. We ran these as optional trainings for interested students, whereby completion of the training would grant them access to use the welding equipment. I ran several of these trainings teaching TIG and MIG welding of steel. Here’s some photos of the welding projects we made, as well as the written tests we created to ensure students understood the basics of welding before flipping down their masks:

Each student would learn about the fundamentals of welding, how it works, part preparation and ensuring good contact with the table, why we need to use shielding gas, the theory behind applying the correct amount of heat to the weld and the heat-affected-zone, etc. Next, we’d demonstrate and practice flat beads before moving onto inside and outside corners, and then we had a little dice project for folks to complete if they liked, or they could bring in a household item of theirs that had broken and we could fix it together.