Welding Projects for Little Kids

[Laiky]

I have a 10 year old nephew and an 11 year old son of a friend. They are asking questions about welding. I would like to find a simple project that i can do with them that will make them feel like they accomplished something. I was thinking maybe a Mythbusters style name plate. I could plasma cut out the letters ahead of time and have them tack them back inplace with the MIG? maybe a little to much of me doing it and not enough of them. What do you guys think? They have no real welding or tool using experience. Any other ideas are welcome.

[welderman23]

nope i got no ideas ,but i think its good that your getting the rugrats invovled

[DSW]

They could weld their name with mig on a plate. I'd hand them the plasma and let them cut it out while you help. I would drill some starter holes possibly to prevent the splash as you pierce a plate if you have them cut the name from a plate in negative.

Weld a pencil holder from some pipe? U shaped napkin holder? Book ends? Candle holder or one of those cut up can lanterns that hold a candle?

[Laiky]

Thanks DSW i think i may be able to run with one of those ideas. They have been asking the "can you show me how to weld questions" but they of course have no idea whats involved. When the oppertunity presents itself, i would like to have something in mind to show them.

[kcstott]

When I was helping my dad out at an early age. He would give me one or two easy tasks to do while working on a bigger project. He started me off welding .062 1X2" tubing that he had already laid out and tacked up.
My suggestion start them out with a mig or an O/A they are much more forgiving. Get them working on anything you can. It doesn't need to be a project especially for them although that would be nice. let them do some of the grunt work.
I did a lot of hold this and get that but every once in awhile it was "hey weld this joint. Or braze this." just getting them involved will be a big kick for them.

Then you could come up with a supervised project.
Bike rack, RC car display stand, Basketball hoop. Common stuff they would use.

[dabar39]

Here's a project that I posted awhile back that my great nephew made , he just turned 7. Anyways, he is always bugging his mom to come visit me so he can make stuff. I screwed up and erased his last project out of the camera before it was downloaded but he made a plant hanger for his mom that turned out rather well for a kid that just turned 7.

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources...ad.php?t=12666

[Big_Eddy]

My 10 yr old son is into horses - he made this for the arena door. More time bending than welding - but he did it all himself.

[fjk]

in the adult-ed night course on welding that i took i made
a bunch of nameplates
- took a 2x5 piece of 12ga (i think...) and welded (mig)
a name into it,
- welded that piece to another, making an inverted T,
with the name on the vertical piece
and gave 'em out as christmas presents to those that
would enjoy 'em. (i even gave one to my boss, who let
me bug out of work an hour or two early to take the course :-)

the really good part was that it was a project where
neatness, technique, wire-speed, etc, etc, all really
counted.

it probably gave me a whole lot better feel
for how to mig than running random beads on
coupons or joining two pieces of scrap together.

it was a great project

just don't let the kids get frustrated -- it can be hard to
write when you can barely see what you're doing.

f

[welder_guy]

Now I am 14 years old. I started when I was 12. I first started with a plasma cutter and a spot welder. I made all sorts of little sheet-metal dragons and stuff like that

[Weldtoride]

Where do you live? I ask because as a high school shop teacher, a popular no-to-low cost beginners' project for my students was a mud scraper-the sort that is shoved into the ground at a handy location. Anyone who lives around mud, seasonal mud or who is an avid gardener appreciates boot/shoe scrapers. A piece of scrap plate with a couple of pipe scraps or bar stock scraps welded to each end to stick into the ground gives practice with fillet welds, and then it can be personalized with the farm/ranch/family name shown on the plate with practice beads. Some kids put their street address on it and displayed it in front. A variation was to bend the pipe or barstock into a loop over the top so the scraper could be easily moved from location to location. My experience is that kids love to write things with weld beads, and it sure beats the monotonous plates full of practice beads I remember doing. I admit hey did have their purpose, but if you are dealing with brand new welders, chances are they want to MAKE SOMETHING and not just turn in an assignment. Good Luck, Mark