PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGET
PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRETA RYBUS @PopularMechanics _ June 2019 45
HROUGH a welding mask,
the world is a dim place. A
few minutes ago, the sliding
door of Nick Wicks’s metal
shop outside Portland,
Maine, was wide open. Sun
streamed in through a light
rain. But now, with a MIG welder in
my hand and my mask down, all I
could see was the outline of two pieces
of mild steel tubing.
Wicks was helping me build a
roof rack for my Jeep Wrangler—
something he’d agreed to do despite
my knowing nothing about metal-
smithing. (For instance, I called it
blacksmithing, which, it turns out,
refers only to work done with a forge.)
After a quick overview, he handed
me the torch, a tool that makes an arc
that burns at thousands of degrees. He
told me to keep it about half an inch
from the workpiece and perpendic-
ular to the surface. I tried, but I was
much more concerned with some-
thing else Wicks had told me: “The
brightness of the welder can basi-
cally sunburn your eyes,” he said. “It
might feel okay today, but tomorrow
you’ll wake up and not be able to see.”
That was right before he handed me a
mask and warned me against doing
anything before his own was in place.
I pulled the trigger of the torch.
When my Jeep needed more
storage, I learned how to build it
with the help of a metalworker.
/ BY KEVIN DUPZYK /How I
Learned
to Build
with Metal