Aluminum Etc.: New columnist’s journey to discovering niche in aluminum welding

In her debut column, new columnist Gina Cutts introduces herself and gives a snapshot of her background and experience with aluminum welding. Photos by Khoa Nguyen, South Seattle Community College .

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Gina Cutts and I’ve been a welder for over 30 years. Currently I’m the welding instructor at Tri-Tech Skills Center in Kennewick, Wash., which serves Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, and surrounding areas.

My career began when I signed up to attend a vocational school called Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center while I was in high school in Everett, Wash. I attended my high school classes in the morning and then went to my trade school classes in the afternoon. I took a welding class completely at random. I didn’t know a thing about it, I had no point of reference or experience with it, and I didn’t know any welders. I’m not sure I’d ever even seen it done. Looking back on it now, I am astonished by the profound impact that welding class has had on my life.

I blindly walked into a welding shop in 1987 for a class being taught by a pair of Vietnam vets who were former Shilshole Bay shipyard welders. Apparently they answered an ad in the paper for experienced welders to teach at a new kind of high school. They had no training in education, just a shop and 42 teenagers. They were intimidating guys for sure.

I was the only girl in the class. No one told me that girls weren’t supposed to weld, and I certainly didn’t know that female welders accounted for 2% of the industry workforce back then.

When I consider why welding hooked me so completely, I always come back to the word integrity. You can’t fake a weld. The satisfaction of laying down a bead that meets the code requirements is deeply rewarding and the science behind it is ever-evolving. I get a rush looking at the material and thinking through how it will go together and deliberating about the best process or even all the different processes I can use. Understanding metallurgy has opened the world of material sciences for me.

Even though I started welding on heavy equipment and crab pots, my career really took off in the late 1980s when I got the opportunity to do precision GTAW on aluminum for a medical laser company. The lasers need to be sealed tight enough to prevent helium molecules from escaping, so I developed a welding process that was approved and documented by the FDA that helped the company go from a 1 in 4 fail rate to 1 out of maybe 1,000.

After I left that job I got phone calls from all over Washington state regarding aluminum welding and I did consulting work at some interesting companies doing very cool projects. When I went back into welding full time, I always seemed to gravitate toward aluminum.

I began teaching at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash., in 2006, and I also spent time as the welding instructor at Columbia Basin Job Corps. In 2014 I began teaching at Tri-Tech Skills Center, and I earned my teaching degree from Eastern Washington University in 2018.

For a woman who didn’t know women aren’t supposed to weld, I’ve had an amazing career, been a part of some interesting projects, and met some wonderful people I am privileged to call friends. As I look toward retirement, it feels good to know I’ve come full circle.

And now I have the opportunity to share my passion for aluminum welding with the readers of The WELDER. My hope is that I can shed some light on all that aluminum is capable of and help readers find answers to their problems with aluminum welding applications.

I look forward to sharing more in future issues and hearing your thoughts, comments, and questions along the way.

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