For the past three years my 5 year old grandson has asked Santa for a welder. So last Christmas I built one for him and his 3 year old brother. They love playing with it.[/ATTACH] Their helmets are real self darkening ones.
That's one of the best things that I've read in a long time. I know what that's all about because back sixty years ago my Dad taught me how to weld when I was eight years old. Three and five is even better and they will have fun in learning. I submit that if you have other equipment and can start in teaching them how to sharpen drill bits and then running machinery like a lathe and milling machine as they get a little older you will have some handy little guys. I went on to become an automotive designer and learned sculpturing in clay and later a Mechanical Engineering Degree. It was always funny when in school or in the real world when I was the only one in a group of engineers that could weld or do machine work. The rest wished they could but if it wasn't for my Dad I wouldn't have learned these things. My hat goes off to you and thanks for posting because very few will step up like your doing. Most will say the kids are to young or in today screwed up world " they might get hurt". Thanks so much you made my day, O. by the way my son learned all these things also and guest what today he's a composite engineer but he can still weld and fabricate if he wants to. Johnny Sweet
that looks great, i was about 10 when the guys who worked on my Dads logging truck started showing me how to weld, by the time i was 12 i had my first welder, my GF has a foster boy every other weekend who is 11, i have shown him how to run beads and he is getting it a little, he is ADD so i'm told, so i have to keep him away from the shop for now till he learns not to just grab everything, the last time he came over he jumps off his bike and runs over to my floor jack and lets it down before i can say anything, lucky what the jack was holding up had blocking under it allready, if i have work layed out that i'm trying to keep in order and say to him do not touch that, well it's the first thing he has to pick up, theres just to many things he could get hurt on, i'm not giving up yet but some how he has to learn to listen, i have an old BS engine that hasen't run in years maybe i should turn him loose on that.
good work getting them started on the hobby a toy welder is too cool follow my signature for something really cool for them
Should I admit that I just went over to the Miller website to try to find that thing before I read the rest of the thread? I missed a few key words like 'built'.
This is really cool. My dad was more of a woodworker and plumber and he taught me how to do those things. We should make this thread a sticky and everybody can pitch in what they taught their kids, how they went about it, and how it went. Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone
That's pretty cool. Some kids just love toy tools, I just bought my grandson a toy leaf blower and he hardly put it down for days. My daughter is a Mechanical Engineer and when she was attending U of M for her degree she was the only person in the program that could weld, run a drill press, or even swing a hammer. She worked a couple summers with me at the die shop where I worked and I was able to teach her all kinds of skills. Her husband is an attorney and can't change a spark plug even though his dad owned his own car repair shop for over 30 years. He never had the interest.
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