353 Christian Loop
Havana, Florida 32333
(850) 539-1104
charlieoc@nfbmc.com

 

 

 

More photos in the gallary
On Saturday, April 19th, some members of the NFBMC attended a welding class taught by Dr. Scott Helzer of Tallahassee Community College.  Dr. Helzer voluntarily provided this class as a service to not just our club, but to fellow British car enthusiasts.  He has a Triumph TR-4A (that we just have to get on the road someday soon).  And Scott didn't stop at just providing the training.  He convinced Lincoln Electronics to ship in 5 new mig welders for this class.  In addition, these welders were made available for sale to the students (and car club members) at a significant discount.
Jimmy Ward brought with him, from Panama City, helmets, gloves, and protective shirts for class attendees to use.  He also provided the welder for a demonstration on aluminum welding.     
 
Dr. Helzer provided us classroom instruction on numerous topics that included various  types of welding and safety.  He took specific interest in why we were learning to weld and structured his class around the fact that we primarily want to perform welding on our cars. 
 
Once the classroom time was completed,  we all doned our long sleeve shirts or aprons, gloves and welding helmets.  Dr. Helzer divided us up into teams of two and provided tips, tricks and numerous examples of how welding should be done.  By the time we finished our hands-on session there were numerous pieces of metal that could have (as John McCloskey suggested) be sold as art to raise funds.  Sadly, the art ended up in the scrap bin when the class was over. 
 
In addition to the regular mig welding instruction we were to receive, Dr. Helzer demonstrated mig welding on aluminum.  There isn't a lot of aluminum on our British cars, but this was very interesting to observe.  We also were shown another great tool - a plasma cutting tool.  Please, Santa Claus.  I'll be good for the rest of the year.  Just put one of these under the tree in December.  Better yet, let me have it now and I won't ask for anything in December. 
 
Individuals attending the class included Ed Kirkland, Cheryl Gratt, Jimmy Ward, Bruce Ward, Ken Waringa, Craig Lewis, John McClusky, Charlie O'Connors, and Rafael Gonzalez.  I'm hoping that this is the first of many similar events hosted by the NFBMC with the outstanding support of local professionals like Dr. Helzer.