My Welding Projects and Welding Awards!

by James Snoke
(Orient, Ohio. USA)

I'm 17 a senior in high-school. I go to Pickaway-Ross tech school for welding. I've been in 4-h for about 10 years now and I've done the welding project for the last 4 years and every year has been a learning experience. This year I finished a 2 year project. It's a BIG hog roaster. I mean big. It was made out of a 500 gallon oil tank and sits on a dilly boat trailer. All together I have over 150 hours of work into this project. The last three projects I've done was a goat grooming stand (for 4-h goat project), a portable welding table (for 4-h and personal use), a car trailer (work in progress). My parents have supported me every step of the way of me trying to learn how to be a welder and I couldn't have done it with out them. I'm hoping to get into a welding college and get a higher certification and get to where I can become a welding inspector or become a metal fabricator and some day open my own shop and restore old muscle cars. But I still have to graduate school so I can't be thinking to far ahead. I've won 20 welding competitions at my school and won the over all best welder in my junior class and have the trophy to prove it. But I just did my best but I didn't care if I won or not I was just having fun. I enjoy welding and don't mind catching fire from time to time my girlfriend calls me crazy and doesn't understand why it doesn't bother me when I'm sitting there and my shirts on fire and I tell her I just ignore it and finish the weld before I put it out because it will break my concentration. She just shakes her head and calls me nuts. But when it all comes down to it its kind of my thing and I enjoy doing it and I plan on doing it for the rest of my life and that's my story.