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The whole class gathers for a photo.
From left, County Commissioner Ruthie Davis Schlabach listens to Aubrey Greene, at right, discuss welding. Melissa Lonsinger of RigFab Energy Services, in the middle, also addressed the class of one-night women welders.
Ardath Prendergast from the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce shows off the heart she welded.
The whole class gathers for a photo.
From left, County Commissioner Ruthie Davis Schlabach listens to Aubrey Greene, at right, discuss welding. Melissa Lonsinger of RigFab Energy Services, in the middle, also addressed the class of one-night women welders.
Ardath Prendergast from the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce shows off the heart she welded.
It’s like using a hot glue gun, only with sparks flying, temperatures that can approach 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and a helmet that makes you feel like you’re caught in the midnight of a new moon.
It’s fun, daring, and creative.
And true, welding two pieces of steel together might not be everyone’s idea of a fun craft project. But the seven women guests who attended a recent Women in Welding event at Withlacoochee Technical College not only created a paper weight/wall hanging they might try to gift to an unsuspecting loved one, but they also developed an appreciation for welding.
It’s a trade in which women can earn big bucks and for which they might even have a special inborn knack.
I know I’d consider a welding future if I could have seen the cut-out 3/8-inch carbon steel heart I was trying to weld to a 3/8-inch carbon steel plate. But my cataract-encrusted eyes prevented me from seeing through the dark-lensed welding helmet. I couldn’t see the edge of the heart that I was to fuse with the square of steel.
Even though my volunteer teacher, Angel Straub, had me put my hand atop hers, I was flying blind. So, I decided that discretion was the better part of saving my instructor’s life. I deferred to her superior welding skills and smiled demurely while she completed my project.
I was the stereotypical Southern Belle, batting my eyes and fanning myself, while someone with superior experience came to my rescue.
It worked out fine for me. I wound up with a spiffy decorative metal heart that I bestowed on a bemused friend. But my colleagues – women from the County Board of Commissioners, the Chamber of Commerce, Camp E-Nini-Hassee, and CareerSource – left me in their dust, or should I say, the slag of their afterglow?
In my welding booth, I teamed with County Commissioner Ruthie Davis Schlabach, and she bent into her task like a finalist wielding a butane torch for carmelizing meringue peaks on “The Great British Bake Off.”
She was determined, she was good, and she was taking no prisoners.
With her welding rod, Schlabach carefully outlined the edges of a cut-out steel moon that she merged with a steel plate.
We were learning Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), or stick welding, a process in which a metal rod, which serves as an electrode, is placed in an electrode holder, known as a stinger.
A current passes through the rod, and when the rod touches the pieces of metal to be welded, an arc forms. Both the metal from the electrode and the metal pieces being welded melt and the pieces of metal being welded are joined together.
It’s not as scary as it sounds. Aubrey Greene, president and founder of RigFab Energy Services of Lakeland, who led the Women in Welding event, said about the only way we could get a shock would be to put a wet hand on the metal welding table and the welding rod in our mouth while running a current through the rod.
That was a trick I was not about to try.
Greene’s firm works with WTC to test and certify welding students through the American Welding Society.
After the 10 months and 1,050 hours that the WTC welding students put into their program and after passing their certification tests, the students can start jobs at journeymen wages of $25 or more an hour, Greene said.
Gloria Bishop, director of WTC, said the Women in Welding event was designed to promote awareness about WTC’s welding program and to encourage women to think about entering the trade. She said she hoped the women who attended would pass along the word to people they see and work with.
“WTC does not like being the best-kept secret in Central Florida,” she said.
Greene said many women have highly developed fine motor skills and also pay attention to details. Both skills are essential in welding.
And women who put these skills to work can earn a lot of money.
Greene directed those attending to a website, roadtechs.com, which lists welding and other trade jobs open to tradespeople willing to travel. Many welders will work at a regular job for a while, then take a vacation or leave of absence, or quit. During their time off, they’ll go to one of the jobs listed, which often are from employers desperate to hire welders for a project that has a deadline.
One such job showed the pay rate of $30 an hour. The job ad was seeking someone willing to work 12-hour days, seven days a week. With time-and-one-half after the first 40 hours, a welder would earn an additional $1,930 a week. There also was a $100 a day per diem. Add it up and the pay rate was $3,880 a week.
Greene told of the women who became welders during World War II – Rosie the Riveters. They helped manufacture equipment for the war, as well as for the country’s infrastructure, like rails and wells.
After the war, the government encouraged manufacturers to hire veterans. Many women welders were forced out of their jobs. Often, well-seasoned women welders wound up training their inexperienced male replacements.
“They were harassed so bad,” Greene said. “It was sexism.”
He told of one woman who worked in an overhead crane.
“She’d stay up there all day. And she retired as a welder,” he said.
Her perch allowed her to escape some of the harassment.
Today, just 5 percent of the welding force is female, according to the American Welding Society. But 21.4 percent of the welding workforce is 55 years or older. The society estimates 314,000 new welders will be needed by 2024.
The welding industry needs women to help fill those jobs, according to Greene.
His firm provides welding inspectors to manufacturers and works with schools and other organizations to test and help certify welding students. Greene holds multiple welding certifications himself.
He also has a foundation, Bridge the Gap, that helps underrepresented groups like minorities and women, as well as veterans, to acquire the skills they need to succeed.
A high school dropout, Greene went on to earn his GED and got involved in welding. One thing led to the next and eventually, he had his own welding company. At first, he hired family members. But when he ran out of relatives, “I couldn’t find workers.” So, he decided, “We’ll create them,” he said.
By being involved in getting students certified, “We can harvest a better student,” he said. His company partners with the American Welding Society, and is one of the society’s accredited testing facilities.
Greene briefly described the welding project we were about to create – melting one piece of steel sitting atop another into a single unit using a lap weld. Then he sent us into the shop, where green coats, safety goggles, safety gloves, and a helmet awaited us.
He briefly warned us about arc flash, which he said was unlikely to occur, but which is a kind of electrical explosion, and our eyes might be affected. If we experienced this phenomenon, he suggested we put potato slices on our eyes.
Already, I was in trouble. The only vegetables in my refrigerator were lettuce, tomatoes and carrots.
We followed our instructors to our welding posts. Several recent female welding graduates and some current students had volunteered to show us how to weld.
These women might work in hot and dangerous conditions all day, but did they truly understand the risks they were taking when seven women, only one of whom works with her hands for a living, were let loose in a welding lab?
But the WTC students and graduates were fearless. They showed us what to do, put their hand on ours to show us what welding felt like, and then they left us to our own devices, although they stood by.
I really wanted to weld. I was feeling empowered by so many women with a can-do attitude. But I couldn’t see the task at hand. Or my hand. The feeling was like driving when it’s raining so hard you can’t see the road or when you turn a corner, and the sun blinds you.
I had to stop, screech on the brakes.
I’ve since read that not being able to see while welding is a not an uncommon problem. There are various solutions. Turn up the lights where you’re working. Get a fancier helmet. Get new glasses. Get that cataract operation you’ve been postponing. Oh, my. I didn’t want to read about that.
After the welding portion of my lesson, I was able to tap a bit with a hammer along the weld that my instructor, Angel, had laid down. The molten weld needs to be smoothed out and the slag chipped off.
Angel said the chipping should make the weld look like a stack of dimes. Mostly, I let Angel do the chipping. She fashioned a fine-looking heart.
I’d give her an “A.” I’d give myself an “I” for “Incompetent” or maybe just for “Incomplete.” Maybe if I turned up the lights and got a super-duper helmet, I could weld like my classmates.
From the little that I did of it, though, I thought welding was a jolt of joy, a blast of fun. I got the sense that we not only were beginning to develop the skills to do practical, useful, and much-needed work, but also were training to be artists of fire.
After our welding session concluded, volunteer instructor Emaly Ferreira, a fabricator/welder with Fidelity Manufacturing of Ocala, told how she had graduated with a business degree from Pasco-Hernando State College. However, she said she decided she wanted to work with her hands, even though she never had done that before.
Today, a year after graduating from WTC, she said she’s glad she’s doing what she does.
Trish Stratton said her family had a welding shop, so she decided to study welding. Now she’s hooked on WTC. After graduating from the welding program and working in welding a bit, she’s back at school, studying culinary arts. Next up is cosmetology and after that, possibly metal fabrication.
Melissa Lonsinger, operations manager with Greene’s RigFab, said she’s known Greene for “forever.” Their company works with schools in Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania, administering tests for several American Welding Society certifications.
She said she was the one who long ago said to Greene, “Let’s learn to weld.”
After that, they became inspectors, and after that, certified welding instructors.
For Greene, the work that he and Lonsinger do is a “patriotic duty” to provide individuals with opportunities for “economic development and empowerment,” he said.
For information about WTC’s welding program, see the school’s website, www.wtcollege.org, or call Student Services at 352- 726-2430, ext. 4301.
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