ARC LIFE

Strike a light! We find out the secrets of artisan welding, from a man who knows...

- Alan Dowds

There are few more manly tasks than welding bits of metal together. Like some modern-day Thor, you wield bolts of lightning that melt, rend, fuse and burn solid, massive lumps of steel or alloy together into one. And unlike namby-pamby bolted or screwed joins, these are permanent, super-tough junctions, which are, apparently, even stronger than the metal itself.

But like Thor, there’s a huge amount of mythology surrounding welding. Partly that’s because the term covers such a wide range of technologies, and partly it’s because the physical act of welding is as much an art form as it is a mechanical process. Any fool can (pretty much) fasten and loosen a load of bolts, or use a screwdriver without too much drama. But welding is an artisan’s skill that takes years of practice to perfect.

We’ve gone to just such an artisan, to find out the ins and outs, the whys and wherefores of welding techniques. Jeff Hill is a freelance welding and fabrication guru. Working from a large workshop in the smallholding near where he lives, Jeff does all sorts of metal fabrication, but he specialises in exhausts and pipework. From classic F1 cars through to turbocharged drag race bikes, Jeff works on a bewildering variety of projects, all finished to a supremely high level.

Getting started

Jeff started out with an apprenticeship at the former British Army armoured vehicle research centre at Chobham. Five years of welding up tanks taught him the basics, and then he left to work on Maclaren F1 cars. “It was interesting work – they had no shortage of cash to spend and they used very high-spec materials.” But for the last decade or so Jeff’s been working for himself and the specialist car fabrication world. He started working on bike projects around three years ago.