HDG’s Kelsey Atchison Tries Her Hand at Welding
January 22, 2018
AIA Pittsburgh’s Young Architects Forum (YAF) seeks to support and encourage young professionals in the field of architecture to obtain their license, become more involved with career development opportunities, and engage allied professionals through collaboration.
YAF continuously seeks out new and fresh ideas and the energy and resources to implement them, and they have fun doing it. A perfect example of this: the 2018 Evening Hands-On Courses they are hosting at the Keystone + Mountain + Lakes Carpenters’ Training Center on Tuesday evenings from January through April. HDG’s Kelsey Atchison, Associate, recently tried her hand at welding when she attended the first training of the series on January 9th.
Kelsey took the class to obtain AXP credits to count towards reaching her AIA license, but little did she know what a one of a kind, enjoyable experience it was going to be!
About the experience, Kelsey said, “Going into the welding classroom with little knowledge about welding, I left with a great appreciation for the difficulty of the trade. We first got the chance to practice on welding simulators that taught you the basics of arc angle, height, pace, and sound. The key is to get comfortable, especially within the classroom, as you are not always in a comfortable position in the field.
My ears were the biggest tool I used! You can immediately tell that you are off on your height or angle by just the sound of the weld. When I got into the welding shop, I was able to apply those basics from the simulation to sense how I needed to adjust my weld. This was a lot harder than how the Millwright made the tutorial look! But, once I got the hang of producing an initial arc and finding my “puddle”, I was able to finally get a decent weld. I wouldn’t expect to see myself out in the field anytime soon welding, but that was surely a great way to spend a Tuesday night! I even left with a nice souvenir to show off.”
For more information on the remaining hands-on courses in the YAF’s 2018 series, visit the Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/571962646488138/?active_tab=about or check the AIA Pittsburgh Events Calendar: http://aiapgh.org/events/.
