Working Smarter — Not Harder
Metal Words to Live By Senior writer Dr. John Cochran shares some anecdotes from his years in the ornamental and miscellaneous metals industry. By John Cochran, PhD
No matter how many coats of paint a metal surface has you can strike an arc on it, unless you intend to. The gate design will always call for the hinge to be on the same side as the customer’s Rottweiler. You can think up many ingenious ways to stab a new electrode into the stinger when your gloves are rain soaked. No one should ever be too proud to use a grinder. When you’ve just about worn the grinding wheel down to the nub, you can always grind just a little bit more. Welding overhead is one thing, welding upside down is another. There’s no way to turn your head to get away from the stench of smoldering hair when it was your mustache that caught fire. A four-cylinder Continental Red Seal engine sounds better than any opera ever written. No matter how amazing a new exotic electrode might be, a standard 6010 or 6011 will always be the best. The more effort you put into training your helpers, the
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better competition they’ll be someday. Subs will be available every single time you don’t need them. How you treat the customer should not be based solely on the business at hand, but on the potential to come. Intelligent workers generally always wear safety glasses. The hole your rod blows in light steel always occurs a half second before you finish the weld. The weight of an anvil is proportional to your potential for a hernia. You almost always smell your clothes burning before you feel the heat. If the paint job on an ornamental scroll has no missed spots, you can bet it was dipped. Even when you measure twice and cut once, you sometimes still end up cussing three times. The only thing more slippery than wet steel is the bottom of your boots on wet steel. A simple angle iron cut can be made wrong an infinite number of ways. If the digging was easy, your post hole will probably be in the wrong place. If the digging was very difficult, your post hole will definitely be in the wrong place. You can tell a person’s gambling nature by whether or not he risks twisting the masonry fastener that last quarter turn. Accountability seldom matches accounts receivable.
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FABRICATOR May-June 2002