Ideas for "practice weld" projects for high school shop

[BarrelRoll]

A little background info, I'm a high school welding teacher and I have more students then welders (6 stick welders for a 16 student class, 8 oxy fuel setups for a 13 student class). I would also rather have my students make things they can bring home then just practice the basic welds and then throw them in the scrap bin.

I'm looking for some ideas for cheap/ simple projects for kids to build in class/ practice their welds and also to keep them busy/ learning while they are waiting for a welder. I'm thinking for their t-joints I'm going to have the kids cut out a mountain scene for the vertical part of the t-joint. So far to get the hang of using shop tools they have built a simple hook out of 2"x9"x1/8" flat stock (used the bender, torch, bench grinder, belt sander, chop saw, drill press, iron worker, angle grinder and some hand tools).

Thanks for the help.

[mudskipper4x4]

When I was in high school we made pic-nic tables outta pipe that we bent and welded together. We then made the top outta either expanded metal with an angle iron band or 2x10 pieces of lumber. Just an idea, but it kept us busy and we used these tables at and around the school. We also sold them to help raise money for more shop tools and such. Oh yeah, almost forgot, we built cattle trailers for people in the community and charged them materials plus 10% just to help out our shop dept.

[dopeassjackson]

a latle or spoon out of smaller pieces of flat stock would be cool. theres so many things that could be made. a 3d octogon or even somthing usefull like a large socket made from flat stock for wheel bearings and such.
the only things they let us make in welding class was junk that started out in the scrap bin and ended in the scrap bin.

[1tonIHs2]

We had a kickass welding shop teacher in high school. After our required welds were finished to his liking we were either given a project or allowed to do one of our own.

We did projects for local companies alot, we all had a required amount of christmas trees stands to weld up (a half trained monkey could have done them). Also did alot for a company that builds the forms for taxidermists, yeah ive built a few ostrich necks in my day.

The second year students were aloud to build utility trailers, which were sold.
The welding program was a very efficient one. With the money we made we financed our program and were able to give most of our budget back to the school most years.

[AK-Josh]

I guess my welding class was lucky back in high school, we had more welders that we had students. They purposely kept class sizes small though. Our shop teacher had most of the students build bbq's out of pipe sections. He also gave some up leigh way when it came to our own projects. I built an RTI ramp and built some tunnel braces for my snowmachine. Practical projects are always better, maybe build up a truck in class.

[bit breaker]

when i was in high school, one of the shop projects was to build a pipe planter. Basically, take about 10 inches of 2 - 2.5 inch pipe, weld the ends on, using a cutting torch or plasm, cut a "saddle" shape out of the top. use the grinder to clean up all the edges. then from wood, cut and sand down the stands for the pipe to sit into. laid beeds down the pipe to simulate a wooden log. came out really well.

[BarrelRoll]

Thanks for the ideas. I like the idea of Christmas tree stands. I'm trying to make some of the basic welds a little more interesting. I have semester long stick, mig (next semester), and oxy fuel classes which are the introductory welding classes. Then I have a fabrication class which is a year long class, we spend about 8-10 weeks reviewing stick, mig, oxy, and teaching tig. The rest of the year in my fab class is projects.

[BumpyDodge]

What is the majority of your donated metal scrap? (flat, angle, round?) I can make a better suggestion if I know what you have a lot of.

After they finish their personal projects, have them work together to build something for the community -public bike rack is a good one.
It's kinda cool to walk past something in your hometown and say "I built that".

[Cleatussnow]

Our "final" was to weld a "cube" with the top missing and see if it would float. I know that this does not help the problem of too many kids and not enough machines but I still talk about that as a good final to this day.

I will X2 on the idea of building something for the school: Bike rack, bench, table....

[sam2145871]

When I was in metals in high school we got to build our own projects and the big thing was that we entered all of them in a contest sponcered by Lincoln and the grand prize was $5000. In high school that was a big drive for all the kids to do their best work and be creative. I built a 6 hole aluminum diamond plate dog box.

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/sam2145871/Picture016.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/sam2145871/Picture015.jpg

[nick leone]

Try these metal targets for ideas:
http://www.metaltargets.com/SpinningTargets.htm
http://www.metaltargets.com/NewTargets.htm
http://www.milestactical.com/steeltargets.html

Nick

[RSWORDS]

I know alot of the guys are looking for pulling hitches for there trucks over on the truck pulling sites that dont cost 300-400 bucks... Might be a way for y'all to put some $$$ back into your program... And they are real simple to make.

http://kydtr.com/iboard/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=87649
http://www.firepunk.com/albums/Pulling-accessories/pullin_hitch_004.jpg
http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/photo/data/646/medium/Pulling_Hitch_2_.jpg

Here is a thread full of pics of different ones...
http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=882&page=5

Let me know if need any specs or have questions...

[some zilch]

I know alot of the guys are looking for pulling hitches for there trucks over on the truck pulling sites that dont cost 300-400 bucks... Might be a way for y'all to put some $$$ back into your program... And they are real simple to make.

http://kydtr.com/iboard/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=87649
http://www.firepunk.com/albums/Pulling-accessories/pullin_hitch_004.jpg
http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/photo/data/646/medium/Pulling_Hitch_2_.jpg

Here is a thread full of pics of different ones...
http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=882&page=5

Let me know if need any specs or have questions...


is the cool thing to do drive around town with your gay hitch on your truck so everyone knows you "pull" with your truck?

I'm not necessarily implying the OP, just the trucks in general

[RSWORDS]

is the cool thing to do drive around town with your gay hitch on your truck so everyone knows you "pull" with your truck?

I'm not necessarily implying the OP, just the trucks in general

What other hitch do yuo recomend we use other then a "gay" one... By all means if you have a less "gay" hitch I as a straight man feel I need to upgrade. :shaking:

And to answer your question... Yes I leave mine in my pulling truck... Just because is it a dedicated rig, does nothing but sled pulling and some street driving. Same as leaving the hitch in my tow rig. That and my pull hitch is tweaked and it takes a hammer to get it in and out :laughing: I don't know if others do or not. Most the other guys I pull with use there truck during the week so I would asume they remove them. And all teh pics came from a thread looking for Ideas. There are some out there that are booty-fab and some that look almost to nice to hook a 40,000 lb sled to.

And bring your 250 out to a pull... i bet you have a blast!

[RSWORDS]

And if you want to get REAL fancy

http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6179&d=1199665809

[guidolyons]

A little background info, I'm a high school welding teacher and I have more students then welders (6 stick welders for a 16 student class, 8 oxy fuel setups for a 13 student class). I would also rather have my students make things they can bring home then just practice the basic welds and then throw them in the scrap bin.

I'm looking for some ideas for cheap/ simple projects for kids to build in class/ practice their welds and also to keep them busy/ learning while they are waiting for a welder. I'm thinking for their t-joints I'm going to have the kids cut out a mountain scene for the vertical part of the t-joint. So far to get the hang of using shop tools they have built a simple hook out of 2"x9"x1/8" flat stock (used the bender, torch, bench grinder, belt sander, chop saw, drill press, iron worker, angle grinder and some hand tools).

Thanks for the help.

I don't think dog boxes and truck pull hitches qualify as simple, cheap welding projects :rolleyes:

For practice on sheet metal, our instructor had a bunch of cut offs from the local muffler shop. We had to oxy/ace 2 pieces of tube together, then braze them to a flat piece of 16ga-20 ga sheet metal. Most guys just slapped them together at a 90* angle, but I made mine at an angle, polished it up and put a piece of felt on the bottom. For an "industrial" desk top organizer.:grinpimp:

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