Never the Same #85 Same ole’ Kirk (for now)

Welding class, old friends, and a foreboding phone call.

 

 

Cue: “Learning to Fly” https://youtu.be/v-LsnQPwHzI?si=w1rg_ongfb4hQpCR

 

            One simple act Kirk performed for years since a young child was to walk out the long driveway to pick up the mail and the newspaper. In his younger days, his main attraction was to see if he got anything in the mail which might be some little trick object he ordered from the junk catalogs that he usually received on a regular basis. On the other hand, he liked to peruse the news photographs on the newspaper’s back “picture page.” Most of the time that’s the only news he exposed himself to. As time went on to when he started racing, he’d head right to the sports section. No, he never got enthused about “ball” sports like baseball, football or basketball primarily because he was never proficient at any of them and thought the ball players were an egotistical headstrong bunch. He never understood their over-the-top everlasting enthusiasm at all. Anyway, when he started racing, he went straight to the racing column hoping to see his name in print and his name did often appear in the racing results during his second year when he was more successful.   

            Moving on, after Thanksgiving, winter really set in if you live in the northeast like Kirk. He had been chilly for some time working in his garage inside the old barn despite the archaic heater that he used, but now in December, the old gas stove didn’t do much against the freezing temperatures seeping within. When he had the gumption, thick clothes, and enough internal heat, Kirk ventured out to the garage.

             Truth be told, he didn’t have much to do besides to work on the car except drop employment applications off at various places of employment which, by this time, had gotten really scarce. It was something he had to do to continue receiving his unemployment checks that wouldn’t come forever which Kirk knew all too well. He supposed that he’d be open to work anywhere seeing he had an automotive background and manual laboring in an industrial setting, but it seemed, in the economy they lived with at that time, the only jobs he could maybe get would be at grocery or retail stores and Kirk had to draw the line somewhere, didn’t he?   

            Recall that Kirk signed up for the welding class that the local community college offered. His thought being that if he had a certificate of welding course completion it might open more job opportunities, albeit he had to ask himself if he’d be able to endure a welding job all day long every day and enjoy it. Well, he knew his welding skills needed improving and he was not improving much by just welding on his stock car his old haphazardly way, so there he was.

            Anyway, the class started after Thanksgiving. Always nervous about trying something new or going some place different, this class provided no alternate outcome for Kirk’s emotional state. Even though fairly confident he’d be the star of the basic course, he still had to find the particular shop on the campus which he had no familiarity with at all. He got there in plenty of time in case of unforeseen circumstances or a problem in finding the shop/classroom which he didn’t experience any difficulty at all.

             He didn’t know what the venue might look like and from first impression, it appeared as a shop versus a classroom. Quietly waiting in the hallway outside the shop with a couple other guys about the same age as him, when lo and behold a familiar face showed up.

            Kirk stuck his hand out. “Rich! Long time no see!”

            Rich gripped his hand. “Yeah, definitely has been a while.”

            “I didn’t expect to see anyone I knew here,” Kirk shrugged. “Thought everyone had their own thing going since school.”

            “Well, trying something new, maybe for a job seeing I lost mine.”

            “Yeah, me too a while back now. A little guilty with my unemployment, but I needed to take it to fund my new stock car.” Kirk said, always trying to promote his stock car hobby and his personal minor notoriety, but Rich didn’t seem to bite nor care, apparently.

            “Same with me and the unemployment payments. Just trying this for a new skill, you know, whether it leads to a job or not?”

            “For sure.”

            Kirk couldn’t believe that someone he knew would happen to take the same course. The person in question turned out to be Rich who he knew from the high school wrestling team and his graduation class. Rich was a member of one of the two Black families that lived in the district and attended his school. Remember this school was primarily rural and many Native American people attended his school as well, so I might say the school would be called multicultural before the term became notable. Of course the reservation was within the school district. Anyway, seeing a familiar face that belonged to sort of a friend was totally unexpected in Kirk’s mind.

            The twelve students milled about the shop/classroom as the professor unpacked his briefcase. Kirk marveled at the industrial level equipment from oxygen/acetylene torch sets that put his to shame, along with regular duty arc welders, MIG and TIG welders which Kirk had no familiarity with whatsoever. The professor told the guys to take a seat at the steel-topped tables. He called out names to acknowledge their presence which unsurprisingly included everyone there seeing that they all had to pay up front for the course.

            The professor, Professor Brown, took in everyone around the room which Kirk did as well. Two guys were older, like thirties, but the rest appeared a couple years out of high school like Kirk and Rich. Professor Brown said he wanted to get feel for the experience level, so asked how many had welded at all. Kirk shot his arm up along with Rich along with half the guys putting arms up. Gas welding? The professor asked. Arms stayed up. Arc welding? One guy dropped his arm. Kirk glanced around surprised. MIG? Kirk and everyone but one guy dropped their arms. MIG means Metal Inert Gas which uses an automatic fed wire electrode with a gas nozzle that protects the welding process from exposure to surrounding ambient air and contaminants that provides a perfect and clean weld. 

            So the professor when through his abbreviated spiel of the lesson plan of eight weeks with classes of two hours, one hour of theory and an hour of hands-on practice. He reiterated the fact that the basic course was only an introduction to welding with presentations on basic knowledge and skills. He added that further courses including an Associates degreed course could be pursued with a sound background in mathematics and physical science. 

            He started with a film covering safety concerns with gas handling, fire prevention, and proper personal protection which Kirk pretty much had ignored proudly wearing his plentiful scars and burns. The only hands-on that they got into was the handling, installation of gas bottles, hoses, and torches seeing they would begin with gas welding.  Kirk wasn’t overly interested and paid half attention only because they would be quizzed on it later. And so it went on. After class let out, Rich asked if he’d perhaps catch a ride with Kirk during the next classes seeing his house was more or less on the way to the campus and he was “between cars” at the moment. Kirk paused momentarily, but he agreed.

            The following weeks had Kirk picking up Rich who appreciated the ride versus having his mother drive him to the class and then wait around for Rich. He offered to chip in on gas, but Kirk readily declined the offer.

            So Kirk remained unsure if the course would do him much good seeing he was looking to gain skill in welding which the course should, and besides, he’d get a certificate of course completion which was worth something, right? So the next week, the class began with some actual practice gas welding. Assuming he knew how to gas weld quite well, he half-listened to techniques and tips the professor presented beforehand. Kirk had this practice in the bag, considering they had two hunks of sheet metal they had to weld together. The class got to work all donning their caps, dark goggles, and leather gauntlet gloves. The shop filled with the oily, stringy, black smoke of raw acetylene burning from the first-time, novice students’ torches.

            Kirk welded as he always had relishing in the heat of the flame, the smell of the burning metal. The other guys had problems getting the right gas settings to get the correct heat to melt the rod and the edges of the metal pieces, but Kirk pressed on. Here and there, pops sounded with the guys physical reacting to the sudden noise and splattering of molten metal, including Kirk which embarrassed him in his so-called knowledgeable haughtiness. He knew the fact before, but as the professor told the students that the torch tip must not touch the metal or it’ll cause the pop, that will sometimes put the flame out and fouls the tip of the torch. Kirk continued making a good weld he thought, proud of himself finishing first. The professor came over to his table, picked up his welding sample using pliers without a comment. He looked it over, then stuck it in the vise on Kirk’ table. He took the pliers and effortlessly broke it in two, it snapping on the seam.

            “You fused the metal because you didn’t feed in sufficient rod to actually weld the pieces together.”

            Kirk shrunk down a few inches while glancing about the shop at the other students still in the process of welding.

            “Try it again. Make sure your rod puddles up before the metal gets red hot and then let it flow together using the tight orbital movement of the torch. And slow down, don’t rush it. it’s an unhurried, deliberate technique to let the metal and rod melt and flow together.” He looked at Kirk. “Okay?”

            Chastened Kirk could only say, “Yep.”     

            Beginning to try it again, he noticed that the next student finishing welding that his two pieces bent right over without fracturing when the professor tried the piece in the vise. Taking his time and following the suggestions with his second try, he had a successful weld.  So, Kirk, like almost everyone else, had a good enough weld even though his personal overconfident bubble had been burst

            So, the next couple weeks progressed just fine with one particularly snowy drive to the campus, but he picked up Rich and made it on time just the same. Kirk became a bit disappointed that the class remained really basic, not getting into technical welding, well at least not yet for they had a few weeks remaining.

            Meanwhile, Kirk attained enough gumption to work on the stock car. Even though he didn’t have the front suspension springs, Kirk decided to design and install the front suspension loading screws. Recall that the screws mounted on each corner of the car to shift weight from side to side and to a lesser degree from front to back. The old car’s suspension had adjustments perse, but they were definitely harder to correctly adjust, and definitely had a lesser amount of fine-tuning so in turn, more of a hit or miss process. 

            Kirk went to a hardware store for a change and scouted out their largest threaded rod. He had hoped for thicker, but he ended up with a one-inch diameter and three-foot-long rod even though he only needed a foot on each side, but that’s how they sell them. He bought four large nuts as well fitting the threaded rod.

            Despite the now bone chilling temperatures in the old garage even though Kirk lit the gas stove ahead of time, he got to work on fabricating the suspension loading screw and cap. Setting the lower control arm at a parallel to the ground position with cold fingers and steamy breath, Kirk could measure from the indentation in said lower arm to ascertain the angle relative to the frame.  This angle would allow Kirk to mount the rod perpendicular to the arm onto the frame. That lower arm had an indented ring where the large coil spring resides. Kirk had to match that position on the top and if he had the coil spring it would have been easier and probably more accurate, but Kirk wasn’t about to go Ed’s junkyard in the freezing cold and snow, so he’d have to eyeball it and guesstimate the correct position.

            With a minor brain storm, he cut a cardboard rectangle to replicate the coil spring�"genius! So, after cutting the rod a foot and a few extra inches long, he screwed one of the nuts onto the rod. Positioning the rod with the help of clamps straight down the middle of the rectangle, he eyed it up and down for a few minutes, warmed up at the stove and eyed it again.

            Yep, good. He fired up the arc welder, donned ALL of his protective ger (you can’t say he didn’t learn anything from his class) and touched the welding stick to the nut allowing a molten bead to flow onto both the frame and nut. Good enough to start and confirm. He looked at the rod in relative position to the cardboard which was on fire. He patted it out and despite the cardboard remains being charred, he confirmed the rod’s relative position as “good.” He noticed a couple welding splatters on the threads of the rod, not so “good.” After a quick couple strokes of the wire brush, he unscrewed the rod and plugged the hole in the nut to protect those threads. He resumed welding. Taking another lesson from class, he moved the molten weld along slowly with a tight orbital motion, making a perfect weld, at least he hoped so. Getting around the nut with the weld, he gave it look. Still red hot, he thought it looked exceptionally good. After a minute of cooling he took the pointy pick hammer and chipped off the waste slag which is somewhat like picking off an old dry scab from your skin. Yuk! But it looked Perfect! He repeated the weld twice around the nut so there’d be no question to its strength, because as we know this one nut and rod holds all the weight of one corner of the car!

            This process took him a few days before he could go on to the next step. What he needed to build was the spring cap which might appear to a casual observer as an upside down  metal “cup and saucer” that would keep the spring in place, allowing an attachment to the threaded rod he just welded in. The spring cap could also be likened to a small “stovepipe hat” like Abraham Lincoln wore. Nevertheless, these would be installed upside down to the familiar monikers worn on the head or while sipping your afternoon tea.

            First, he cut a circle out of quarter inch plate that would be the saucer or brim depending which portrayal you’re imagining. This was a five-inch diameter circular disk and while he was at it, he cut the second one. Well, cutting plate steel with a torch doesn’t produce the cleanest cut, so it took him a whole evening of grinding to make them actually round circular disks with smooth edges. Can’t have a ratty looking suspension loader on his perfect new car, eh? Then, he had to the make the saucer part out of two-inch band steel.

            To make a circular band out of steel ain’t the easiest thing to do. Kirk pondered whether he should heat the steel band with the torch and bend it or simply bend it cold. He decided that heating wasn’t the best way unless he could heat at least half of the band at once which is next to impossible with just the torch, so cold bending had to be the way.

            With the band in the vise, a big wrench, and a three-pound ballpeen hammer he went to town bending, pounding, and shaping. Eventually, he got it done albeit with a multitude of divots from the hammer blows. No problem there because no one would see them inside the heavy coil spring, when he got it of course and installed. He lobbed off the extra length because he cut it too long on purpose. The easiest part came next which was welding the band’s ends together and welding said cup to said saucer dead center of course. This formed the suspension loading spring cap. Then, following that, the large nut he welded dead center on the other side of the disk. Well, the big adjusting screw can’t thread into the nut he just welded because the screw end needs to pivot on the spring cap while making adjustments so he simply ground the threads off where the rod mates inside the nut on the cap. With a dab of grease between the two the loading screw would/should work as intended.

            Take note of this particular fabrication process for future reference in Kirk’s story for it will become relevant in an unexpected way.

            One evening, the phone rang and as usual Kirk’s mother answered it. She said it was for him after she talked a couple minutes, but he didn’t pay any attention to what was being said. He assumed it was Sarah on the line. He took the phone.

            “Hey you!” Kirk enthusiastically said.

            “Hello, Kirk,” Came the man’s voice which sort surprised and embarrassed Kirk, but after a split second he realized it was Jon, his brother-in-law. 

            Kirk quickly recovered. “Hello Jon, what’s up?”

            “Well.” Jon said, sounding subdued. “Have you seen the newspaper tonight?”

            Kirk hadn’t gotten the paper that afternoon and being off racing season he had no reason to peruse it. “No, I haven’t looked at it at all.”

            “You’d better take a look in the sports section; you’re not going to like what you read.”

            “Why? What is it?”

            “I was really, ah, surprised with the story, but you had better read it yourself,” Jon said sounding more morose that got Kirk concerned. “I’ll talk to you later.”

            “Call me back if you want to talk, bye.”

            “’Bye.”

            Did someone he knew die? Was there some kind of catastrophic disaster somewhere? But why would Jon think he wouldn’t like what he read? In the sports section? Huh!

            Kirk had a sick feeling in his stomach with the mysterious message from Jon, but he couldn’t twig what might bother Jon or him.

            Kirk at the moment remained just plain ole Kirk, but what he was about to read would lead to changes in Kirk that would leave him Never, Ever the Same and the news and related consequences would eventually turn Kirk into someone wholly different. He would become Not The Same.

            Hmmm.