Learning to Fabricate in VR

[FrgMstr]

I learned to stick weld when I was 12 years old on a oyster shell driveway. These crazy kids nowadays are learning how to weld MIG and TIG using mobile VR systems. While VRTEX in no way could fully take the place of actual practicing on steel, it is interesting how it feeds you information on stick angle, speed, etc. I know they will not get that age old lesson of not looking at the arc without your hood on. That all said, I think I will go out and buy a used stick welder for the garage to get the next-gen around my house up to speed.

Check out the video.

Intended for welding instructors and students, this instructional video covers the operation of the three primary welding and evaluation screens in the Lincoln Electric VRTEX® 360 virtual reality welding trainer as well as the demo view. Set up and view results for each pass in a multi-pass weld, initiate actions and cues for student guidance on angles, distances and travel speed during welding.

 

[Yaka]

very interesting welding is something that always interested me but i never every got a time or chance to learn it. one day if and when i do a car or motorbike restoration.

 

[SixFootDuo]

Back when I was in HS, class of 86 ... we still could pick 3 electives I think. I always took Metal Shop, Woodworking and Art.

I heard recently that you get less electives in HS now?

Anyways, we had a Metal Shop Instructor who just sat in his office most the time. We would always cut out the pieces we needed and then weld a variety of weapons, swords, battle axes and daggers ...haha and then try and sneak them out of class. He would always catch us but was cool about it. We did manage to sneak a sword out and a dagger or two but it was because he had a Sub in there for him one day or just didn't give a fk every so often.

Welding is a lot of fun. Also, foundry work. There is nothing cooler in HS than lighting a Oxy / Aced torch and getting that pop then yellow blue flame roar/hiss along with that puff of black smoke. Melting aluminum then casting it in sand is right up there with your first pair of tits you get to play with.

I would hate for this crap to make it into schools. How boring is this? Hands on man, hands on!

 

[HeadRusch]

When I was in college one of my classes involved fabricating some parts, cad work, that kind of thing.....guy was showing us guys who had never done it before how to weld, how to lay a proper bead down. Stands up, lifts his hood, starts to talk about something to us and FWOOOOOOOOOSH the leather arm protectors he was wearing..cuz welding....one of them just goes right up. "Oh, I'm on fire" he calmly says as he's like shaking it off his arm onto the floor. He says to us "normally that doesn't happen, I must have gotten some solvent sprayed on it or something". Welding. Fuck. That. Shit.

 

[MV75]

Another instance of tech being forced into a situation it was never asked for. Nothing beats hands on.

 

[FrgMstr]

Another instance of tech being forced into a situation it was never asked for. Nothing beats hands on.

I thought this was pretty interesting....

 

[Seventyfive]

Interestingly enough I used to work with a guy who was a master welder. He told me the #1 school to learn welding over the last century was the US Navy. However, due to budgetary constraints and that whole "cold war" thing going away, the Navy has been churning out significantly less welders than it used to. Maybe this VR thing will pick up some of the slack.

 

[IcePickFreak]

Yeah nothing beats hands on, but IMO this would be great before the hands on. Practice only works if you're practicing properly. This allows a professional to thoroughly analyze your technique and help see something wrong that they might not notice otherwise, which otherwise leads to you picking up bad habits right from the start and running with them in your practice.

 

[bbs lm-r]

Very cool. I remember being excited to take intro to welding in college for the required one semester, enjoyed it so much so I took it again during another semester where I had space for it (additional welding classes for welding majors only). Showing vids in class of welders laying down beads only allow you to see so much with camera angle and the light emitted from the weld itself partially obscuring hand posture and speed, similar to having 10-15 students trying to huddle around the instructor to watch.

 

[FrgMstr]

But is that a fair comparison?

e.g. are they just using all the other tools that comes with the VR side of it (ability to monitor many things) and not doing the same with the real welders?

If not.. then its a false equivalence. Because if you add the ability to track those things on a real welder.. i'm betting you'd get the same positive results for them.

plus.. it could have been just more naturally skilled people with the VR team.... not enough data and clear data to really judge.

Plus.. given the study may be "sponsored" by the team responsible for creating it... red flag right there that they may just not be 100% honest and that they may lean towards putting a bit more marketing into it.

Of course... this is all speculation and they may well be spot on. But lots to make one to think "hold on a sec" and calm down instead of going full iN00b and believing the KeyNote Speech.

I have no doubt that a simulator can work.. i use heli sims and they unquestionably help to learn muscle memory. But it still does not mean doing the real thing isn't just as good (if not better as it imposes pressures that virtual does not). virtual is just less risky and often cheaper so they are good benefits if no downfalls come from them.

What was the comparison exactly?

Do you know how to weld? Because it sounds like you do not know what you are talking about.

 

[FrgMstr]

umm... you did not read the picture you attached? Or was i mistaken when they said 100 trained with traditional welding and 50/50 with teh VR? So the comparison was with a group using only normal methods with results from a group using 50% normal and 50% VR.



Yes.



Considering whilst i was writing (my admited rushed msg) i was thinking "i hope Kyle doesnt think i'm responding to him when i used his post as a umping off point as i'm sure he'd have the depth of statistical knowledge to realise most of these things"... much disapoint.

Thanks. Sorry to share new VR tech being used.