How 'Bout a Little Head?

Or why I never get my projects done.













A student brings in a cylinder head for me to look at and instantly I know this isn't going to be a fun one. The corner of the head has been welded up where a manifold bolt is supposed to go but it's looking real ugly. So I tell him as long as he's not in a big hurry I can help him out. I grind all the old crap out, including the broken tap they welded over and build the corner back up. It's a slow process but the cast iron rods I've got work really well. I don't have an angle plate for the mill, so I clamp a piece of channel to the table and the head to the channel and mill the corner back flat. The next step is to fixture the head at a 45 degree angle so I can redrill the hole for the manifold bolt. Once again not having an angle plate, I weld the piece of channel at the proper angle to a flat plate and throw a gusset on it to make sure it's not going to move when I start machining the hole and then clamp the whole works on to the table of the mill. Next step is to bolt the intake manifold on to locate the hole, center the job under the spindle, spot face a flat spot, drill and then tap the hole. Nothing to it, right?

If I was running a welding shop that had to make money, I would have told him to take it someplace else. Around here however, I'm the someplace else. I take on a lot of jobs through the school just to help some kid out. I'm already on the clock, so it doesn't really matter if it takes longer than it would be profitable to do on the outside. I tackle some jobs just to show the students what a good craftsman is capable of and I do some jobs because I just don't know when to say no. The cylinder head being the perfect example.

The role of vocational education is to give the students the skills necessary to become employable. Give them a head start on getting and keeping a decent job. I try to run a big variety of work through the shop to maximize their exposure to the huge field that welding encompasses. I know they're not always going to be capable of doing all the work themselves, but they need to see it so they can decide the direction they want to take upon graduation or maybe inspire them to pursue similar types of jobs after improving their skills.

In my perfect world, I would bring my stuff in and keep them and me busy pretty much full time. However, as much as I hate to admit it, the students are not there just to assist me while I work on my stuff. I can get away working on quite a bit of it because it's welding and metal work. It sure would be nice just every once in a while, though, to tell everyone to leave me alone. Then, me and a couple of my aces could get some serious work done. I know that wouldn't last too long, nor should it. It would be nice, though.