"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
Summary: not lookin' promising.

I've had contact with some good people: a senior fellow engineer at
a major ICD mfr, a former employee (engineer) of a major ICD mfr and
friend of many years, my wife's niece who is a former cardiac nurse
of 30+ years experience, and helpful others.

Findings:

There are reported cases of weldors returning to work with ICD's but
the reports are sketchy on details. One report mentions a minimum
distance of 24" between weldor and cables, work and torch. That ain't
how I weld: my face is right in there with 2 diopter lenses in my
mask.

The experience of having a defib misfire has been variously described
as being hit by lightning and being kicked in the chest by a mule. I'd
rather skip that experience. Welding is fun, being kicked in the
chest by a mule very probably isn't.

I can't seem to get data on acceptable field strengths (E-field and H
or B field) that won't cause an ICD to malfunction. I opined that
this is probably because the goddamned lawyers make this data highly
proprietary. That was confirmed by the engineer (and friend) formerly
employed by a major mfr. Goddamned lawyers.

So I'm about SOL here, not being up for a mule kick in chest while
experimenting, candyass that I am.

Helluvit is that I have no friends who can do TIG and MIG, though Karl
Townsend's son "the kid" may be a savior. Neither of my sons are at
all interested. One daughter is, and she's done some nice work with
MIG but she lives in Brooklyn NY so she's not exactly local.

Mar, bless her hawrt, has volunteered that she might do a Vo-Tech
course in TIG and MIG. She'd be a natural, that based on her
precision quilting and prowess with handgun, both hand-eyes
coordination activites. TBD how that goes, but whatta teammate for
even considering it, eh? Hey, she severely aced ground school for
pilot licence for previous hub in the bad old days. Highest score
they'd ever seen if I recall correctly. What a fool he was for doing
her wrong, what good luck for me and eventually us. Goin' on 30 years
now and it just keeps getting better.

Most folks are quite happily "weld free" in their dotages, right?
Still, it's a bit of a lump to be prohibited from practicing a skill
and activity I've enjoyed developing over decades and frequently find
useful in my shop. Oh **** oh dear, poor me.

I intend to wallow in this for a while, **** you if you can't take a
joke. I'm not happy about this, but it's no secret that gettin' old
ain't for sissies.

Sorry to hear your news. My sister was the first woman in the United states
to wear an external left ventricular assist after a defib after CABG. She
ended up getting the heart of a 25 yo male who had died in a motorcycle
accident. Coming up on two years now.

Yeah, it's a bitch getting old. I am getting more hoists and using them. I
would like to fashion some type of stiffleg crane to use over my work table
and to unload the truck. I did make one for the cabin, and it works great
instead of schlepping everything up and down the stairs. Probably stuff I
should have been doing all along, but now it's a must.

Learn to work smart. And take that OA tip, too. You can still do lots of
OA. Lots of trick mechanical fasteners around, too. A friend of mine was a
stage hand back in the days when they weren't all juice babies (young men
whose father's and relative's influence got them in the union) and he could
weld something beautiful with OA. Best to you. I'm facing an operation
that is only one step under a transplant, so I'm trying to last as long as I
can.

Steve