Welding 101
(project: broken gate hinge)
Sometimes, here on the ranch, you make plans for the day of what you'd like to accomplish....
it all starts out good and well, but then, as you start making your daily rounds, you see all of the "other" projects that require your most immediate attention, like a gate hanging off the hinges... so, you load the gate (heavy) into the back of the Polaris and drive it to the shop. Get out the welding equipment and fix the piece that has broken off. It's not always a glamorous job, being a "Cowboy," but it is rewarding to know that you can fix something around the ranch that needs to be done without calling a "handy man!" Nice work boys!
Here you can see the "heat mecca" center of the arc created from welding. While it may look somewhat harmless, looking directly into this light can cause serious retinal damage, which is why wearing a welding helmet (pictured below) is essential!
Just a note about welding from Wikipedia:
"Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material (the weld pool) that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes used in conjunction with heat, or by itself, to produce the weld. This is in contrast with solderingand brazing, which involve melting a lower-melting-point material between the workpieces to form a bond between them, without melting the workpieces."