Teaching the cousins to weld

Josh teaching the basics to Alex and Christian.

Christian and Alex Bird are our 16-year-old twin cousins. They are my wife Darla’s only blood cousins, and they hold American/British dual citizenship. The boys live in England, but each summer they travel with their mom to the U.S. She does a good job of exposing them to different cultures and lifestyles and found some unique ways for them to experience that this past summer. For one week they volunteered in the soup kitchen at the Bowery Mission in New York City, and they spent another week serving at the Life Remodeled project here in Detroit. The boys worked hard, helped with research for job-training programs, and learned much about the plight of the poor and underprivileged people in each city.

The twins are citizens of the world and incredibly fortunate to travel and experience it like this, so we thought it would be cool to expose them to a bit of the blue-collar life through welding. They were excited but had no idea what to expect.

They paid close attention to each detail as I explained the basics. And after watching my first hands-on demo, Darla noted, “When they lifted their hoods, I saw their eyes light up, realizing that they would soon be wielding the tool of the gods!”

They took turns, and both picked it up quickly. It turns out that while Christian is right-handed, Alex is a lefty. It might seem trivial, but maybe find out which is the dominant hand when you’re giving someone a lesson. I worked with one guy (he was just learning), and while we were at welding school he came into my booth and saw me TIG welding lefty. “Wait, you can do it with either hand?” Turns out he was left-handed, but when our instructor did the demo, it was right-handed and so the guy just thought that’s how you were supposed to do it. Once he realized he could hold the torch in his left hand. it all clicked for him.

The twins and I were using my Miller Dynasty 280DX, and the first thing I had each do was start a puddle on a scrap piece of stainless. No filler. Then I had them push the puddle as evenly as possible in a straight line. Then we added some filler to the equation. They both acquitted themselves admirably.

Of course, I had a blast being out in the shop with them, and afterward we asked them what they thought about the experience.

Alex commented that “welding for the first time was a fantastic experience! I’d not only say it was great fun, but also a useful skill for the future.” He added that he’d love to weld again next summer.

Christian said, “I found welding exhilarating, and really unlike anything I had ever experienced. Learning about all the different types of materials and welding processes was really interesting too.”

They each burned their initials onto a chunk of stainless to show off. It’s always nice to let them leave with something tangible, something that maintains a connection with the process.

Hopefully we can get them under the hood again next summer!

All images courtesy of Josh Welton, Brown Dog Welding.

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