Page 8 - HIWT Fall 2016 World of Welding

Still Asking Elmer

Instructor and former PWT
columnist is still answering questions

Summary: The Ask Elmer column, written by Hobart Institute
of Welding Technology instructor Elmer Swank, appeared
in Practical Welding Today for four years. Even though the
column no longer exists, Swank is still in the business of
answering questions and developing good welders.
By Amanda Carlson
Twelve years ago, Practical Welding Today readers stopped asking
Elmer. Not because he no longer had sage advice to dispense, but
because it was time for him to walk away.
Even though Elmer Swank, the namesake behind former column Ask
Elmer, stopped writing, he’s never stopped teaching. As senior tech
instructor at the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology (HIWT),
where he’s taught for the last 45 years, Swank said his students
come first. And while he loved being able to help welders with their
problems through his column, he decided to walk away when the
demands of his class schedule increased.
Still, every now and then a student will ask him about Ask Elmer,
which he thinks is “cool.” Otherwise, the 65-year-old is content to

Elmer Swank
DO YOUR OWN TESTING
be known as “teacher” because he is able to do the same thing with
be known as “teacher” because he is able to do the same thing with
his students as he did with readers: help.
Bend Testers Bend Specimen Cutters
Test Materials (Coupons) Elmer Answers
Tensile Testers Swank began his career at the historic HIWT in 1969 in the testing
lab, and started teaching welders full-time in 1971. He’s seen the
• Train welders school expand numerous times, lived through all of the extensive
• Qualify welders technological advances the welding industry has experienced over
• Qualify procedures the last half-century, and witnessed countless students go on to

BT1D • Meet ASME, AWS, TT1 successful welding careers. When he was approached to write the
API, MIL codes

column, it was just an extension of teaching, albeit an unfamiliar
one.
“It wasn’t anything I had ever done before, and it wasn’t something
I had ever thought about doing. I thought I’d give it a try, and turns
out it was pretty interesting to do,” Swank said.
BSC-1PLT
Home of Dispensing advice was the relatively easy part. The putting it
the
Visit our website “SUPER down on paper part? Well, that was a little different than his usual
for all sizes and COUPON” teaching method.
models available.
“Sometimes welders aren’t the most articulate. We typically talk
Helping industry meet with our hands. But Marty Baker, former HIWT librarian, was very
welding codes and
standards for 40 years! good at what she did. She’d proof my articles, correct my spelling
BT1C TT2 and grammar, and made it look a little more proper.”

Of course, the quintessential humble welder that he is, Swank
doesn’t give himself nearly enough credit. From the January/
February 2000 issue until the November/December 2004 issue,

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