I have met Carl in person a couple of times. He reached out to me out of the blue, and said... "bring your new welder over and spend a few hours". I reluctantly did (wanting not to be embarrassed), and he graciously spent an afternoon teaching me how to properly weld using my new MIG machine. Prior and only time I ever welded was 40 years ago using a stick machine, in a college engineering shop class. I learned a bunch and am grateful (too bad I couldn't have taken video of me being schooled).
I think he enjoyed playing with a new machine (to him) and seeing what it could do and how it compared to other machines. I think he likes challenge the welder, push past the welder spec max thickness, go hot as it can, and then do legit destructive joint testing.
I really appreciate his knowledge contributed here on TBN, and especially him wanting to personally help a newbie he didn't know from Adam. I'm sure a few others that met Carl in person could attest to his character as well. No softy... a serious no BS welder who worked on iconic structures here in the PNW, who unfortunately suffered from a serious bad accident at work that probably should have killed him. As the saying goes, when life serves you lemons, make lemonade. I think he leveraged that disability into donating his time to help others learn some of his trade.
Hearing people make wiseazz remarks about people they don't know... well... I think Terry summed it up best.
I am hoping Shield Arc is doing well and we hear from him soon! If not... I wish the best for him. And yes, you can call me a softy now.
