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New-school knowledge transfer

When someone mentions Instagram to me, I think of cereal, as in Honey Graham Oh’s cereal. It’s not Honey Instagrams, obviously, but I typically think with my stomach.

If I had reason to share more on Instagram, the photo-centric social network, I might participate more, but I don’t really lead a life worthy of regular visual documentation. Now plenty of others, including my daughter, use this as their main means of communication with their acquaintances, and they probably have a much better reason. They are more comfortable with sharing the visible aspects of their life.

It should come as no surprise that welders are one of the groups that are not afraid of sharing snapshots of their work over all manners of digital communication. The term weldporn, often hash-tagged on many social media postings, sums up the visual excitement that a photo of a perfect bead or a newly fabricated creation can elicit.

Jonathan Lewis, 29, a fabrication specialist with Brasfond USA and owner of Superior Welding & Fabrication, Wooster, Ohio; Roy Crumrine, 34, owner of Crummy Welding, Largo, Fla.; and Jody Collier, 58, an aerospace welding veteran and founder of www.weldingtipsandtricks.com and its related YouTube channel (with more than 250,000 subscribers), have all dived head-first into the worldwide welding pool on the Internet. They all boast a robust Instagram following (@superiorwelding with 13,000, @crummywelding with 17,700 followers, and @WeldMonger with 24,600), and they are well-known among the welding community found on the Internet.

In recent months they have turned their focus to another form of digital connection, one that is more verbal than visual. They have launched the Welding Tips and Tricks Podcast, available through Stitcher, iTunes, and http://wttpodcast.libsyn.com.

“We’re just three welders who are talking about welding for welders that happen to be welding,” Crumrine said.

The first episode of the podcast centered on introductions, the best advice that the welders had received over the years, and current projects. The second episode covered tests that the welders had taken and that they have given over their careers. Future episodes will involve discussions of different types of welding challenges and tips and interviews with the people behind some of the noteworthy welds found on Instagram.

Lewis said the goal is to produce a podcast every other week for now. If feedback is positive and schedules allow, the trio might look to ramp up frequency to a weekly basis.

Collier said the visitors to his website and downloaders of the podcast all have one thing in common: They like welding.

“These people are interested in welding, and they want to get better,” he said, “whether it’s someone involved in welding for the nuclear industry who wants to take it to the next level or just a person wanting to lay a better bead.”

The podcasts’ hosts also like welding. In fact, Lewis and Crumrine gravitated to Collier’s website and eventually developed a friendship with the former welding instructor. They all bring different perspectives—such as production, prototype, and heavy fabrication environments—and experiences to the table, but all have a general curiosity about what other welders are up to. It’s knowledge transfer in the most basic sense. Instead of occurring on a break on the shop floor, however, the discussion is occurring on the web.

If you don’t think this type of web-based knowledge exchange is important, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s taking place in the shop. As a reported 10,000 baby boomers head for the exit looking forward to their golden years in retirement, they are leaving behind a big experience gap. Their extensive welding knowledge, in many instances, hasn’t been adequately shared with the generation following in their footsteps.

Crumrine knows that sometimes the best welding education doesn’t take place in a welding lab. Having started in 1999, when Yoo-hoo was more of a teenager’s obsession than YouTube, he learned from expert welders, particularly when he found himself working in aerospace and high-tolerance fab shops.

“I never went to welding school or anything like that,” he said. “Everything that I learned was from people passing knowledge down to me and hearing someone else ask, ‘Why are you doing it like that?’

“I didn’t learn anything without someone telling me, so why should I keep all of that information to myself now?”

It’s good that they and others on the web aren’t keeping that information to themselves. Loose lips don’t sink ships. They help to keep the domestic manufacturing industry afloat.

About the Author
The Fabricator

Dan Davis

Editor-in-Chief

2135 Point Blvd.

Elgin, IL 60123

815-227-8281

Dan Davis is editor-in-chief of The Fabricator, the industry's most widely circulated metal fabricating magazine, and its sister publications, The Tube & Pipe Journal and The Welder. He has been with the publications since April 2002.