Page 9 - HIWT Summer 2013 World of Welding

hiwt@welding.org HOBART INSTITUTE OF WELDING TECHNOLOGY

NOTHING LIKE A FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE!

By Isaac Bowman
Graduate of the Structural Welding Program
May 31, 2013

As I counted down the No college experience is complete without some fitness
days to leave home for classes, so I even joined a local yoga studio. Now don’t laugh,
Hobart Institute, my it was a New Year’s resolution....and it’s harder than it looks.
wife said, “Aren’t you It’s been a good way to get out of the house a couple times a
excited?!? It’s like week and try something different...I can only sit in my room
you’re finally going and study welding books and Youtube® videos for so long!
off to college!”
Call me crazy, but I even went to the local tattoo parlor and
My wife and lots of got a welding tat! My sister said I should have waited until I
my friends went to graduate...whatever! I’m not even gonna try to describe it, but
traditional 4-year if we cross paths some day in a fabrication shop, I’ll show it
colleges and I’ve to ya!
always heard how
much fun I missed by not going....so I was really pumped to I’ve been having a great time and learning a lot, just like a
finally get to Troy and started my welding education. I could college student should. Back home, I didn’t have anyone to
write a book on learning from trial and error, but I’m finally talk welding with, but here everybody wants to talk shop. It’s
getting formally trained in something I’m really interested in. pretty sweet when we all go to our lockers to put on our gear,
and then put in some serious arc time using equipment worth
So far, my Hobart experience is a lot like what I hear “college” more than my truck!
is all about. Except here at Hobart, we spend more time getting
our hands dirty welding steel than writing papers. Most of our They call Hobart the Harvard of welding schools; so after you
days are spent with our hoods down, practicing a new welding graduate, you can put one of those Hobart decals on your truck
technique and trying to lay the perfect bead. and show of your school pride! I know I will.

Since the class sizes are small, I quickly made good friends with
my classmates and began spending time with
some of them after school. The “Submarine
House” is the best hangout we have found so
far. It’s a lively local bar-n-grill and they even
have an annual sub eating contest! If you can
eat their 16-inch triple Philly cheesesteak in Good Used Welders
under 16 minutes, you get it free and win a
t-shirt! I’m a big guy, and since eating is one
of my favorite past times, a few of us went to
take the challenge one day. I swallowed that
awesomeness in under 6 minutes!!!

One of our instructors told us that one of the IndIAnApOLIs • sInCE 1918
biggest blacksmithing clubs in the country is
actually located right here in Troy, Ohio. Talk Miller • Lincoln • Hypertherm
about an elective! It’s called S.O.F.A. (Southern Stick • TIG • MIG • Plasma • Engine Drives
Ohio Forge and Anvil). Anybody can join and
they open the shop every Wednesday night See our complete list at:
for blacksmithing. A few of us from my class www.sutton-garten.com
joined and we’ve been going every week to
polish our skills.
OR CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-686-4674

9