We get a lot of compliments on the custom welding projects we complete all around Arizona. Working behind the scenes is our talented welder, Sonia. We sat down with her for a brief interview so you can learn more about her.
Tell us a little bit about you
I was born in a tiny town in northern California called Ukiah. I moved here for an ex and stayed because I loved it here. It is super artsy and there were plenty of welding opportunities.
Where did you learn to weld?
I never went to school for welding. My Dad is a welder and I loved to go work in the shop with him on my summer breaks back when that was allowed. I helped out with what I could when I was younger, sweeping the floors and grinding things until I was about 14 when he taught me the basics of welding. I helped him with small art projects and side jobs, I absolutely loved it!
When did you decide you wanted to be a welder?
I was not encouraged to pursue welding as a career because it is a physically demanding job. I tried a few different career paths and even went through the fire academy to become an EMT, but I never fell in love with it. After a few failed career paths, I found a job opening at Flowmaster for an entry-level welder. I got the job and started my first real welding job. Since then I have worked at many different types of welding jobs such as automotive, structural, ornamental but custom fabrication is my favorite. That is why I love working for Affordable Custom Welding; every job is something new and Ben loves to look for exciting jobs that have never been done before.
Tell us about one of your favorite welding projects
The coolest project we have done was also the hardest one. We had a customer who wanted a suspended curved staircase. We started it from the bottom and worked our way up to the second story, it took A LOT of trial and error and many weeks of work but once we completed it I was insanely proud of it. It is one of those jobs that we felt very accomplished by the end but never want to do again.
What’s one of the strangest welding jobs you ever did?
The weirdest project we have done would have to be when we had a customer come to us with two deuce and half truck bodies and wanted us to make him one big vehicle out of them. To our knowledge, this has only been done once before and we did it a completely new way. It took a few weeks, but it turned out amazing and the customer was very happy.