Probably one of the greatest tractor men of history did this for a living...
R.G. LeTourneau, credited with inventing the modern bulldozer, had a job rebuilding batteries for a trolley line. This caused him to learn how to use a welder to fuse lead plates together, which caused him to weld his first construction equipment together. By World War Two, 40% of the heavy equipment used in the war was of his machine. 90% of his money went to charity, and to this day, his technical schools live on.
All because he took a job scraping plates for a Trolley Company in the early 1900's and learned how to weld lead.
You can read about it in his book, Mover of Men and Mountains