Welding and Metal Materials
Today was the starting of the second semester at the Vincennes Aviation Tech. This semester started out with learning the basic metals of and aircraft and how to read the codes of the metals. The focus of today was Ferris metals. Fe stands for iron, Ferris means iron based metals. Tomorrow we are going to get into non-Ferris metals. These metals are not iron based and can be alloyed.
The second Day of the semester was good and interesting. We started the day finishing notes on Ferris and non-Ferris metals. The class was on that subject for an hour and a half. We have written three pages of notes so far and I plan to write much more. After a fifteen-minute break for the day we started on the Alloys and Aluminum. There are many different materials added to metals to make them stronger or if needed weaker. A few of the metals have a high corrosion rate. That is when the companies send it to get what is called ALCLAD. This puts a thin coat on both sides of a sheet of metal. The thin coating sprayed onto the sheet of metal is one hundred percent aluminum. That is the basics of what I have learned today. Tomorrow we are learning about the labeling of hardware.
Today is January Third its started out to be a good day. When class started i had to take the first quiz of the new semester. The quiz was over what we learned about the last two day. I was nervous as i am about every quiz but when i got it back from the teacher. I saw that the grade was and eighty five out of one hundred. Thats not to bad of a score for only knowing the information for two days. After the quiz we took a small break and got back to work. The class got into the conversation of airframe bolts and the numbering system. We learned about why the bolts are labled with and X to tell you what they are used for. Tomorrow we are talking about all the different nuts used and the numbering system for those.
Today was fun. Our class started naming and identifieing hardware. I got a box of twelve peices of hardware. All the peices were different. There were bolts,nuts, cotter pins, and washers. The identifieing part was easy but then I had to ind the part number. Fndingthe par number was alittle difficult on some of the harware peices. Thats what we did all dayand I found out we have a big quiz on tuesday next week.
Today after the tree day weekend i started off by studying before class started for the quiz. There were two different partts of the quiz one was regular and one was open book. When i got my quiz back i found out i didnt do so good. I felt like i wasnt prepared but i will be ready for next time. For the rest of the day i was partnered up with one of my class mates that did good. He helped me with the problem i had and we worled togther on them. Tommorow i beleive we are starting on a new subject. I dont know what it is but i hope it keeps my interest.
Today did keep my interest. I am starting to get into torgueing and safety. Everything that we have learned in the last weekis starting to tie into the subject we started today. The main thing about this subject is the torqueing values and that if you over tighten them the heads will become brittle and easy to break apart from the material you are trying to hold together. Well its good so far but i dont know how it will be later on down the road.
Today we are learning about tourqing techniques and alittle it of safety wiring. We started in the lab today. The teacher showed us the techniques of using a tourqe wrench. I was told we have a test tommorow so i need to study. Ive studied the last few nights and i am starting to understand alot of the stuff.
Today is low impact friday. We arent in the class getting lectured. I am in the lab working on abolt and nut board. I am torquing and after i am done with torguing. I safety wire the nuts and bolts. Its harder than i thought it would be. I havnt cut myself yet and i dont really plan ot it.
Today is monday. some people say mondays are bad days, well not for me. Today is a good day. First i passed my test by a long shot. Then i went to the lab and did good on my safety wiring. Thats all good stuff that has happened today.
Wednesday, January 27. Today we are sitting in the lecture room. The lecture is about welding setups. We have only got through a few minor parts of the subject but it sounds like fun.
Thursday, January 28. Today I am not sitting in the class room. I am in the lab starting to cut sheet metal for the welding part of the project. I get to use a metal press that can cut up to quarter inch steel. If we have enough time I get to light a torch and prepare the welding station.
Monday, Febuary 1. Coming out of the weekend i was a little rusty for the first half of class. Then when i started to wake up and get ahold of what im doing, everything started to turnout good.
Tuesday, Febuary 4. I was evcited for today because we started using filer rod instead of running puddles. Using the filler rod is the main part opf welding. Im gettin good at it. The teacher put one of his welds next to mine and they almost looked identicle.
Monday, Febuary 8 Today is fun. All i am doing is melting metal and welding it back together. Im really learning alot, its good to know what metal looks like before it starts to melt.
Tuesday, Febuary 9 I was supposed to have a test today but some of my classmates werent here because of the snow. So i am having it tommorow. Today besides being set back from the quiz we were supposed to have i went to the lab and worked on welding.
Wednesday, Febuary 10 The quiz was today even though the same students werent here, we had it anyways. I passeed it. The Quiz really wasnt that hard. After the quiz we went to the lab and i started brazing. Brazing is a harder version of soldering.
Thursday, Febuary 11 Its just another day in the lab. Me and another classmate are just making art pieces now. Im welding everything i can because its fun. If i dont make it in the aviation world i might just have a job in the welding world.
Friday, Febuary 12 I thought today was going to be a lecture day but its not, we are in the lab again. Today has turned out to be a messy day. First I cut metal then i carried in more metal and cut it. Now im learning a new weld. its call mig (metal inert gas).
Monday, Febuary 15 Today was fun. I MIG welded a little bit and after break I didnt have nothing else to do so our teacher started us on aluminum welding. It was just for fun because i had nothing else to do. It was hard at first but i got used to finding the puddle. Its hard because when you heat up the metal you cant see the puddle. I got used to when the metal would start to melt and finally got a full weld.
Tuesday, Febuary 16 I thought today was going to be a fun day but it really wasnt. I sat in class and listened to a lecture about paint and the chemicals in the paint. We started to get into the equipment and the types of spray guns. Tomorrow we will finish the lecture and hopefully be back in the lab.
Wednesday, Febuary 17 Today was alright. I didnt get to paint or sand. I had to draw “N” numbers. “N” numbers are the numbers that start with N on the side of planes. There were three different ways to draw them Straight up, Slanted right, and slanted right. they are easy to draw you just have to make sure they are 12 inches long and 8 inches wide. I only got one day today becuause i had to get used to setting the leter.
Thursday, Febuary 18 It weas just another drawing day. Its not hard but it takes a long time to draw on a six foot long peice of paper. Tommorow i plan on wet sanding. Wet sanding is when you sand but before you sand you get the peice you are sanding is soacked with water.
Friday, Febuary 19 Today is a laid back day. Not really working on anyhting just sitting in the lab going back and forth from welding and drawing. I am supposed to start sanding and prep on manday.
Monday, Febuary 22 I dont like mondays but what i did today was fun. Today was the day were i got to wet sand. Its messy i got yellow paint all over my shirt. I took three or four coats of paint off the pannel. The pannel was not an actual pannel from a plain it was just a practice pannel.
Tuesday, Febuary 23 PAINTING DAY! This is fun stuff. At first i started out mixing the paint and then practicing on a big peice of paper taped to the wall. I wasnt good at itthen i shortened my strokes and watched my spacing. My pannel turned out good. Its real shiny because of the lackert in the paints.
Wednesday, Febuary 24 Today was really just a laid back day today for me atleast. The only physical thing i had to do today was stensal off my pannel with letters i drew. The letters i picked to draw for my stinsal were my annicials. I first had to draw the top and bottom base line and then put tape the letters on there and make sure they were straight. After they were stensalled off i just took they paper stensal off. Last i had to tape the rest of the pammel with paper o just the letters will be painted. Thats pretty much all i did for the hole day.
Thursday, Febuary 25 I didnt have nothing to do today except to fill out the rest of my lab sheats. While the teacher was in the paint booth with three other students i was in charge of the class. I didnt take that seriously because im not a teacher plus nooone would listen to me. Besides that i got the lab sheets done and dont know what ill be doing tommorow because i have nothing to do.
Friday, Febuary 26 I didnt have really much of anything to do. All i did today was weld alittle and helped people with theyre drawing of N numbers.
Monday, March 1 Today wasnt an interesting day, we sat in lecture all day. The lecture was about micrometers and precision measuring.
Tuesday, March 2 The day started out with just messing around with the micrometers and getting the hang of using them. Its really not that hard to read them once you know what the markings mean. Then after a while of measuring engine parts we went to the lab and finished up on the N number drawings. I looked over mine and found a problem with the spacing inbetween the letters, but i fixed them and everything is back were it needs to be.
wednesday, march 3 Today we finalized everything and got everything set up for the final on Friday. After i got stuff does i studied and talked to my teacher.
Thursday, march 4 It was just a study day today. nothing happened and nothing else to do for me.
Friday, march 5 When i got to school everyone was waiting for the teacher. We found out that our teacher was not going to be there today, so another teacher took his place. Since our regular teacher wasn’t there there today we didn’t have the final exam. The class got to watch a video document about air force one. It was interesting, there were a lot of things on the presidential airline that aren’t seen in the regular everyday airlines.
Monday, march 15 I thought that today we would have the final exam but we didn’t. It is tomorrow and i am ready for it, i think i am going to pass it. Our teacher let us study and get our stuff out of the labs.
