I have a diploma in welding and joining technology and I’m willing to teach. Who can I talk to about getting checked off on the equipment to accomplish this.
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We’re always happy to have welding teachers. Here are the steps ahead of you if you’re interested.
- Talk to @TBJK and/or @dallasmagna about your history and make sure you know who they are. They are the current vice chair and chair of the Metal Shop.
- Take the DMS Welding Safety Class (required to weld at DMS regardless of your experience.)
- Take the welding process class for each process you’d like to teach. You have to know how we teach the class to be able to teach it. We currently have the setup to weld MIG, TIG, and Stick/Arc.
- Teach a DMS Welding Safety and/or DMS Welding Process Class (MIG/TIG/or Stick) with one of the current teachers or chairs so we can watch you and give feedback.
- Start teaching. Put something on the calendar, and enjoy having full classes within 24 hours of posting them!
It’s a bit of a process, but it’s the one we got.
If you have any other questions let me know and I’ll be happy to help you out.
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Has there been a Metal Shop Meeting since April 8? I asked about one on May 4, and haven’t heard anything yet. Doesn’t look like there’s anything on the calendar. I really wanted to talk about this in committee, but since that’s not an option, here goes:
I think the availability of welding classes is an area that we as a group need serious work on. These are training required tools that are promoted to new and prospective members as great reasons to join the space that we don’t train on with any regularity. As a result, these people are presented a false bill of goods. Put simply- it’s not fair.
Under the current system, the first step is a safety class. This class does not qualify you to use the equipment, this class qualifies you to take other classes to use the equipment… and we’ve had 6 of those opportunities this year, including the combo classes. There have been 22 weeks (165 days) so far this year. and these classes are limited to what 8, maybe 10 people max? Based on our historic growth rates (last years numbers) we’ll have added about 158 net members in that amount of time. What this means is that less than 38% of those new members have even had the opportunity to sign up for an actual welding class assuming that schedule and current members needing the class, etc., are not even factored in. The real numbers are much lower.
If somehow, you were one of the lucky 60 that got to take the safety class, Now it’s time to find a process class:
Wanna learn to MIG weld (or at least get cleared to use the machine)? Good luck. There have been 5 classes this year and the last one was on March 24.
TIG? Still 5 classes, but at least they’re spread out such that January and April were the only months without any opportunities to learn.
So there have been 10 total process classes with class size limits of what, 6? So maaaybe all the people who took safety have had the opportunity to use one process? Assuming they were the only one’s looking?
Let me be perfectly clear- I’m not calling anybody out. This is a group problem and it requires a group solution. And before the inevitable “Well, Mr. Problem-presenter, how come you’re not stepping up to help?” I’ve tried. As outlined above, I can’t take a MIG class to prove I can teach one (hence the relevance to this thread) and I’ve offered to teach the TIG class if I could get somebody to check me off even though I’ll be the first to admit- it’s my weakest process by far, no luck. I teach induction forge/KMG grinder once a week (unless I’m teaching open forge) I’m happy to add a welding class.
Limit size is 8.
Honestly, we have three issues in my book.
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We don’t have room and helmets for a class larger than 8. To solve this we’re looking at having multiple welding tables, and then maybe we can increase the size of the class to 12 or 16 (since we have two machines capable of welding each process (Hobart + Miller for MIG, Lincoln + larger Miller for TIG, and Lincoln and ThermalARc for stick).
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We don’t have enough teachers teaching to teach new teachers to teach. I’m working as hard as I can on this one. I schedule classes about once a month on average. I’ve taught three people who said they would be interested in teaching in 2018 and so far one of them has actually taught a class.
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We don’t have adequate cooling for the metal shop. I don’t enjoy welding when I’m sweating and at some point it does become a safety risk to be drenched in sweat and welding. As such, I’ve mostly been teaching TIG. This may be some of the “this year X classes and a bunch of them were TIG”.
Also, I did recently teach a “show me you can weld” class, where 12-15 people were certified on every process they knew how to weld (but, none of them can teach until they’ve taken a “normal” class because they just set up a machine and ran a few beads for me).
This one is an easy solution. Come to my TIG class this Sunday, pay your $30 to the box, bring your own helmet and gear, and I’ll stay late to make sure you know enough about the class structure to teach a MIG class.
@Derrick_B Note that the “stand-in” suggestion above applies to people who have their gear, are willing to teach, and are willing to pay for the class like anyone else. If you’d like to be on the fast track to teach, I’ll train you both up.
If anyone has an AWS certification, can provide it, they should be qualified to teach that process. This is pretty much an industry standard. I agree that safety courses are reuiredbecuase How-DMS-Does-Things is important.
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I agree that larger class sizes would help, but frequency is something that we can immediately impact Averaging a class a month on training required tools is a problem that the committee should solve… Doesn’t require anything other than training and trained people putting classes on the schedule.
Sure we do. One teacher can work with the committee (basically just get approval) to do a “train the trainers” class. One class= eight new trainers. Maybe two or three of 'em tech with regularity and you’ve increased your number of available classes by 300%, in this case. Sounds like success to me.
I’ll agree it’s not great, but it’s not like it’s ever been better. Over an equivalent period last year there were 9 TIG classes and 11 MIG classes. So although the membership is larger than it’s ever been, were doing about half as many classes. I don’t think ventilation has much to do with it. I’ve swung a 3 lb. hammer at 2200 degree steel for literally hours in that shop- I’ve yet to become “drenched” with sweat to the point that I’d have considered it a safety hazzard.
Ok. I’m happy to do my part.
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I look forward to seeing your physical prowess on Sunday. I am but a lowly office worker, and I do break a sweat easier than most.
Lol, I’m definitely not claiming any kind of prowess, just saying it ain’t that hot.
Outsider perspective, as someone who only welds things by accident (Mostly wrenches):
A big reason I joined DMS was to have access to welding tools so I can get my feet wet before buying my own gear. Unfortunately, due to the way welding classes are structured and scheduled, I haven’t had the opportunity to get certified to use any of the equipment. My schedule makes it difficult to get out to DMS when classes are taught, but the very small number of small classes being taught mean I don’t even get the chance to sign up and take the time off work to get certified before they’re full up.
Obviously, this is a high-demand resource, and trainer availability in an all-volunteer establishment is not an easy problem to solve. I hate to complain about it without being part of the solution, but I think it’s fair to say this is a frustrating situation in one way or another from everyone’s perspective. If there’s a good way to get more people on board who are willing and able to teach welding classes, I say we should go for it, even if it does require bending standard practices a bit. I, for one, like the sound of a dedicated Train The Trainers session as a way to quickly pad the available trainer numbers.
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What’cha need? I might be able to help you out.
I need to go through the whole welding cert process from safety to process certs, which is difficult because I work the evening shift until midnight, and classes are usually scheduled either early in the morning on a day I have off, or into the evening on a day I work. This isn’t strictly a metal shop problem, but the limited availability of welding classes has made it harder for me to make something within the scope of metal shop.
Of course these days I scarcely have a free moment anyway, let alone time to make it out to DMS for any reason, let alone time to get out to DMS for a scheduled class. #techprofessionalproblems
I’m sorry I missed this last bit. I was on call for that week at work and life got into the way of my plans. I’ll be at the makerspace tomorrow to work on some things. If you’re available, it would be cool to Meetup.
I’ll be up there next weekend teaching a TIG class. Feel free to sign up and I’ll let you know what you need to know to teach.