Welding the world

Phil Houseal
Sept 23, 2009

You've moved to the Hill Country. You've bought your 5 to 10 acres, built your dream home, planted your pecan tree, and ordered a dozen laying hens. What is the next thing that newcomers want to do?

According to Rick Boles, it is to learn how to weld.

"In a retirement area like this there are so many people buying small acreages that they want to fix up," the former ag teacher said. "Many don't have funds to hire help to build fence, so they want to learn how to weld in order to do that themselves."

Boles has taught adult welding courses for Club Ed since 1990. He recently retired from Ingram ISD, where he taught agriculture for 21 years. He now works at Back 40 three days a week, and teaches a Basic Welding course each fall and spring.

It is hard work learning to weld properly, and takes a commitment and effort that barely fits into the 36-hour course.

"The industry training standard for welding is five months. In high school the course lasts the entire school year. We have distilled this down to six Saturdays."

Within that time, students learn oxy-acetylene cutting and basic arc - or stick - welding. Boles spends a lot of time up front on safety and familiarizing students with the equipment. Then, it's practice, practice, practice.

"The myth is that you pick it up quickly," Boles said of welding technique. "It's a skill, and like any skill, it requires practice. Even with all the computerized technology, where there are machines that can almost feel how the person works, it still requires practice. After the first 6 hours, it's 30 hours of hands-on. "

In recent years, Boles is seeing more women signing up for the class. He considers them to be very well suited for welding.

"Women seem to have a much steadier hand than men," he observed. "Being hands-on type people, they often far surpass the skills that men have."

Despite the hot working conditions and hard work involved, welding remains consistently the most popular course year in and year out at Club Ed. Every class is filled, and we could fill three times the number of classes if we had the instructors and space available. Teachers like Rick Boles are a big reason for this appeal.

"When they leave my class, they are ready to go home and weld," he said. "The students all have the confidence to tackle the projects they want to tackle."

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For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.