19-04-2025
Amateur welder braves 10K degrees, 300 mph sand blasting: On the Clock
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Beyond glancing through doorways at my peers' high school welding classes, I've never understood exactly what the trade does and why.
But after this installment of On the Clock, I certainly have a new appreciation for how physically demanding—and hot—each step of the welding process is.
When I first pulled up to Chantex Manufacturing, I had no idea what to expect.
OTC: How do arborists remove trees in tight spaces without destroying property?
'We'll do all the flat welds first,' welder David Dickey said.
But David here showed me all the ropes. Step one: get geared up.
Now, we're ready to spark up the welding machine, and the arc is hot, reaching up to 10,000 degrees.
'You want to angle it to where you're at about a 45-degree [angle],' David said.
As a beginner welder, I was assigned leg duty. This hunk of metal will later be welded to an even bigger vessel for natural gas.
After my shaky welding…
'Based on my performance today, would you hire me? And you can be honest. You can say no,' I asked David.
'Um, to be honest, I think you're trainable,' he responded. 'I think we could find you a spot or a position somewhere.'
…It's time to prime it for painting with sand blasting.
'That's really intense,' I said while watching a seasoned employee sandblasting. 'It'll be good. Yeah, it'll be good! I won't hit myself with sand.'
Julio got me all suited up, but after that, it was all on me to shoot out sand particles at nearly 300 miles per hour.
'Oh, that's good. That's fun. Honestly, I was more afraid of the welding than I was of this,' I said after blasting. 'This was cool; it had a lot of kick to it. It's like art. You're painting with sand. 'I think I did better with this than the welding because with this, it's sort of like sweeping with a bigger brush, and with welding, you have to be really precise, and I have really unsteady hands.'
With a hard day's work of pure heat under my belt…
'Based on my performance, would you hire me?' I asked.
'Yes! You did good,' Julio said. 'You did pretty good.'
Nothing sounds better than an ice-cold water.
Tune into KFDX 3 for the next installment of On The Clock, which will run at noon and 6 p.m. on Friday, May 2.
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