#Welder fabrication jobs near me cracked#

We’ll see in a year or two if that ends up being true.” Transforming the Welding Hood Game “I have no doubt that some hood manufacturer out there will try to mimic it. With the posts’ popularity, Raabe is certain it has attracted the attention of a few welding hood manufacturers. “I said, ‘No, we actually converted this into a welding hood,’” Raabe explained.Ī follow-up post showed Raabe using voice activation to close the hood before welding, which has generated a modest 1.2 million views. Some insisted it was a fake mask and that the user was simply wearing his safety glasses underneath. Most of the commenters wanted to know where they could buy one, while others wanted to know if it was indeed voice-activated. The post has blown up, generating 700,000 likes, nearly 3,700 comments, and almost 50,000 shares so far. With Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” playing in the background, Raabe’s helmet closes over his face and he initiates the TIG arc. “I put the hood on, found a random pipe in the shop that was already halfway rooted, and grabbed some fancy edge welding cups,” Raabe said. The command “Close mask” encloses the face and the user is ready to weld.Next up? Making the TikTok video. The user can either push a button or say the command “Open mask,” and the mask opens fully, revealing the welder’s face. Unlike standard hoods, the mask is both remote- and voice-activated. The mask turned welding hood was ready for action. We sealed everything up to make sure no light could get through.” They didn’t shatter and they could be shaped any way we wanted. “We cut a bunch of eyes out, did some sample runs, and they worked perfectly. Usually, they’re pretty cheap and I actually had one sitting at the house,” Raabe explained. “Next we tried a polycarbonate welding lens. Shelly did the legwork in tracking down and purchasing the mask, while Raabe and his students fitted the viewing area with protective polycarbonate suitable for use during live welding. (From left) Student Connor Shelly poses with school founder Scott Raabe, who is wearing the Iron Man mask.

#Welder fabrication jobs near me cracked#

Raabe suggested they use a passive lens made of tempered glass, but the glass cracked every time they drilled into it. The rest of the face was covered by the mask itself.

Unlike a standard welding hood with a large viewing glass, the Iron Man mask needed to be fitted with protective glass only around the eyes. The first and most important part was fitting the mask with eye protection strong enough to guard the user against the ill effects of the welding arc. From there came the challenge of converting it into a functioning welding hood. After experiencing a few delivery delays, Shelly received the mask in early 2022. One student, Connor Shelly, 20, agreed and took it upon himself to find and purchase the mask. I was like, ‘Man, that would be pretty cool if we could change that into a welding helmet,’” Raabe explained. “I saw it online about a year ago, and it was just a random Iron Man mask that closed and opened and was voice-activated. Currently 35 students are enrolled at the school, which Raabe started to provide a well-rounded training environment. After a brief shutdown, the school was deemed essential and allowed to reopen. Raabe started Precision Welding Academy two years ago, right before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The whole experience has been a whirlwind, said Scott Raabe, founder of Precision Welding Academy, but it’s also provided learning opportunities and has morphed into conversations about how welding helmets can evolve to be more than just a piece of necessary PPE. The original post has more than 9 million views so far and has generated more than 75,000 followers to their TikTok account. Why is that? Well, the school’s founder and students are responsible for a couple of viral TikTok posts showing off a helmet identical to the one worn by the Marvel superhero Iron Man that they converted into a welding hood. The answer is Precision Welding Academy, a Katy, Texas-based welding school.

What do TikTok, welding, and Iron Man have in common? Raabe said the project has sparked conversations in class about the future of welding hood technology.

The hood opens and closes by remote or voice command. Precision Welding Academy, Katy, Texas, went viral on TikTok with a couple of posts showing off an Iron Man mask that they converted into a welding hood.