Page 5 - HIWT Summer 2013 World of Welding

hiwt@welding.org HOBART INSTITUTE OF WELDING TECHNOLOGY

SOCIAL MEDIA PROVIDES A FORUM FOR WELDING

Creativity seems to run through the veins of many welders.
While some look at the trade as “just a job” to earn a living,
others take it an extra mile and share their talents with others in
one way or another. Lansing Charles Edwards… aka Lanse…
aka Stretch…aka chucke has been welding since he was about
14 and has allowed his creativity to guide him.
“I spent a lot of time as a little kid on my uncle’s dairy farm in
rural New York,” explained Lanse. “When I was growing up, I
was always into tractors; I thought they were the coolest things
ever! I owned a few as restoration projects. The problem was
that I’m no mechanic and usually ran into issues doing the
simplest things on them. So, in November 2008, I decided to
make a YouTube channel so I could share my problems with
the online community and hopefully, if people could see what
I was up against, they could give me advice and tell me “the
timing is off” or “you didn’t put that on there right.”

“Eventually my interest in tractors led to welding. There’s
always something to be welded on 70-year-old farm Lanse Edwards
equipment,” Lanse continued. “The first time I welded was
in May of 2009. I bought my first welder, an AC225, on
Craigslist® that summer for $75. I remember almost being
broke afterwards!” DO YOUR OWN TESTING

“I started making some of my first welding videos in early
2009,” said Lanse. “I guess it started with the whole tractor wBend Testers wBend Specimen Cutters
deal. Once I started putting the welding element in my wTest Materials (Coupons)
videos, people would ask, ‘What amperage are you running?’ wTensile Testers
and ‘Why’d you choose that electrode?’ which led to me
making some basic how-to videos and discovering my passion
for teaching welding and making videos. It was purely an • Train welders
•
• Qualify procedures
accidental discovery.” Qualify welders

“One thing led to another, and 10,000 subscribers and a few BT1D • Meet ASME, AWS, TT1
API, MIL codes

million views later, here we are! My channel doubled in size
last year, and I’m hoping to triple it in size this year,” said
Lanse. “I’ve got a lot planned and it’s a lot of work, but it’s
worth it.”

BSC-1PLT
Lanse was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of a minister. Home of
He currently lives on a small farm in Ohio and graduated in the
“Super
2012 from Brookville High School. He attended the welding Visit our website Coupon”
for all sizes and
program under the instruction of Rick Bickle at Miami Valley models available.
Career Technology Center. It was there that he acquired
the nickname “Stretch” that he uses on his website, www. Helping industry meet
welding codes and
weldingwithstretch.com. standards for 36 years!
BT1C TT2
(Continued on page 7)
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