Page 17 - Fall 2014 World of Welding

hiwt@welding.org HOBART INSTITUTE OF WELDING TECHNOLOGY

THE BACK-BONE OF A WELDER’S SKILL SET

By Neil Mansfield

As our summer of 2014 temperatures heat up here in New
England and around the country, so does the tip of the welder’s
torch. The torch is truly the back-bone, the DNA of any
welder’s set of skills. It’s an iconic image of what anyone
sees as a welder with sparks flying, a welder bent over slicing
through thick or thin piece of metal, dark glasses, heavy duty
welders gloves, and most of all plenty of fire and molten metal
falling. It’s an image that stands the test of time.

With the advent of modern day technology such as computers
in welding shops, CAD plasma cutting operations, and CAD
blue prints, the welder’s skill still stands the test of time with
an old-fashion, hand-held oxyacetylene torch.

Each welder can reflect on how they got started in a welding Neil Mansfield teaching about torches.
school, a job site where they worked, a pipe line crew, heavy-
duty earth moving equipment repair crew, a shipyard, an It is the true tool that all welders use some, if not all, of the
ornamental ironwork shop, or a blacksmith shop. It’s fair to time in their welding careers. It’s the tool that our grandfathers,
say that each of these operations has one common denominator fathers, mothers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters used
in that they are all linked together in a world of welding… and in building sky scrapers, bridges, pipelines, ships, fabricating
that link is the oxyacetylene cutting and heating torch. shops, metal artists shops and anything that needed to be cut,
bent, or shaped by heat. (Continued on page 34)

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