I don’t know about you, but I sure get frustrated sometimes trying to get things done. You know how it goes: you call Company B, you get the run around, you get put on hold, no one can answer your question, your email goes unnoticed…. and you think to yourself, “the economy can’t be THAT bad, since Company B doesn’t seem to want my business!” They make it hard to buy from them.

I came across this great profile of a small business in Wisconsin (fact: Wisconsin is the home of Weldcraft).  One of the things that caught my attention, is that the company tasks every employee with Customer Service.  That’s how we roll at Arc-Zone.com! I also like their approach, that everyone learns from the shop floor on up. Check out the article from The Fabricator magazine:

The Wisconsin Family Robinson

Robinson Metal’s approach to fabricating has it growing when others weren’t

By Dan Davis
May 28, 2010

Anyone that works for Robinson Metal Inc. learns the business from the ground up. That approached has served it well as the De Pere, Wis., company has grown to become one of the largest fabricating jobs shops in the U.S.

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And speaking of customer service, did you know that Arc-Zone.com offers LIVE CHAT on its website? It’s pretty trick, and we’ve got the lines covered from 6 am to 5 pm California Time. And if you’re not a great typist, don’t worry, we’re still available by phone at 800-944-2243 (USA) and 760-931-1500 (Worldwide). Or you can email sales@arc-zone.com.

Scrap metal doesn’t ever go to waste at Wagner Companies — instead, the employees are using their free time to transform these bits and pieces into beautiful works of art.

Metal manufacturing workers use talents to transform scraps into art

By Rick Barrett of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Feb. 8, 2010

When a piece of scrap metal falls to the factory floor at Wagner Companies, employee James Woggon may be close behind, snapping it up as material for his artwork.

So when thousands of small metal rings were going to be scrapped, Woggon used them – and a chair from the company cafeteria – to create a funky piece of patio furniture.

It was strictly for fun. Yet the talents of Woggon and fellow employee Jason Scott have not been lost on their employer, which manufactures things such as hand railings and snowplow parts. The two were hired as metal fabricators, an unglamorous job that often involves making thousands of parts in a repetitive fashion. But when work slows down, Woggon and Scott use their artistic talents in the factory.

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Terex Simplicity’s recent profitable months have turned out to mean good news as well for the welding students at neighboring schools.

Donation of equipment welds together knowledge for students

By SEAN ELY, Argus-Press Staff Writer
Monday, February 1, 2010 10:17 AM EST

Terex Simplicity’s recent sales increases prompted the company to purchase new welding equipment to further improve their business.

That couldn’t have been better news for both Byron and Ovid-Elsie high schools.

“We had a number of pieces of welding equipment on reserve as backups, so we decided to find a home for them,” said Keith Shivnen, Terex general manager. “We reached out to the local schools to boost and supplement their classes.”

The high schools’ industrial arts and welding programs received the massive MIG and stick Lincoln welding machines, valued at about $500 apiece with Terex maintenance supervisor Neil Marshall coordinating pick up and delivery. Ovid-Elsie received eight machines while Byron requested two.

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What would it take for you to cut off all your hair?  A million bucks?  A week’s paid vacation?

How about some welding supplies?

Hair trade: Student donates ponytail in return for contibutions of steel to welding program

BY TRIBUNE STAFF • NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Scott Stekly lost his ponytail Wednesday.

Stekly got a buzz cut from a classmate in the Construction Trades Building, courtesy of Joe Filipowicz, Salvage Manager of Steel Etc.

Scott Stekly, a welding student at MSU-Great Falls, gets a buzz cut by classmate Rachel Kaiser Wednesday in the welding shop. (TRIBUNE PHOTO/ RION SANDERS)

Filipowicz’ company agreed to contribute metal to the welding program as an added incentive for the hair loss.

Prior to entering the welding program to pursue a second career, Stekly had been a longtime local cosmetologist, where he met Joe Filipowicz and his father Jimmy, owner of Steel Etc.

When Stekly entered the fall semester, he made a challenge to the Filipowiczes. He would allow them to cut his hair in return for donations of steel materials to the MSU-Great Falls Welding Program. Steel Etc. accepted, and the hair cut was scheduled.

The donated steel will consist of pipe and plate that can be used for the college’s welding students to practice various welds and cuts. After being used by the program, the scrap materials will be returned to Steel Etc., which will recycle the metals, sending them to a steel mill for melting and reprocessing.

Toby Gewertz wants to make metalwork that will stand the test of time and so makes sure that he and his company, Metalformz, only use the best of materials.

Napa sculptor makes works meant to last

By MAUREEN MCCABE Register Correspondent
Posted: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 12:00 am

In this plastic, throw-away culture, where obsolescence is built into almost every mass-produced item, Toby Gewertz who sticks with material that will last.

Using stainless steel, bronze, copper, aluminum and titanium, Gewertz designs and constructs signs, sculptures, railings and doors, among other items, for commercial and residential clients.

Local restaurants call on his company, Metalformz, for signage and decorative pieces.

Gewertz crafted the carrot fence at First Squeeze, as well as the medieval Gothic art at the former Belle Arti on the creek in Napa, now the Little Gourmet.

Although the restaurant has been through several owners, all have kept Gewertz’s candleholders and partitions for the breezeway and counter top.

He’s also done Celadon’s signs, the door handles and liquor display racks at Fumé, the sign and interior metalwork at the old Piatti restaurant in Yountville, and the old Brix restaurant’s sign plus indoor railings and coffee tables.

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San Diegans are proud of their local Plumbers and Pipefitters union which has taken on the task of securing jobs for marines being discharged from the base in Camp Pendleton — nearly 750 leave each month.

They are currently offering free accelerated classes in welding to 16 marines at a time, in the hopes that this will provide them with a lasting career upon leaving.

Local Union Hoping To Spark Welding Careers For Former Marines
BY KATIE ORR
December 11, 2009

A local union is offering men and woman leaving the Marine Corps a chance to learn how to become welders.

Organizers are hoping the program might spark some careers.

San Diego’s Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 230 is already into the fourth class of its Veterans in Piping program.

The union is offering Camp Pendleton Marines who are about to be discharged the chance to take part in a free accelerated welding program.

Union Organizer Gary Sallis said many Marines don’t know what they’re going to do when they leave the military.

“Right now 750 Marines a month are leaving the Marines at Camp Pendleton,” Sallis said.

“We’re taking 16 of them every month as we can to try to train them to be welders. And this way, when they get all done, they have a career when they leave the military.”

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For some, learning welding might just be a hobby, or a way into a new career.  For teens at the Tuscaloosa juvenile detention center, it’s all that and much more.

Welding class keeps peace at juvenile detention center
Students stay out of trouble to attend sessions

By Stephanie Taylor Staff Writer
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 3:30 a.m.

TUSCALOOSA | Some of the teenagers at the juvenile detention center don’t stop getting in trouble just because they’re behind bars.

Fights occasionally break out between the inmates, who are sometimes incarcerated for crimes as serious as shootings and burglary. They may cause trouble in a classroom or refuse to follow rules.

But fights are occurring less often lately since the facility began offering a welding class on Thursday and Friday afternoons.

“People won’t act up because they don’t want to miss welding,” said a 16-year-old who has been at the facility for three weeks. “Some of them want to have a career in this, and it might be the only chance they’ll have to learn.”

But the program isn’t just to motivate kids to stay out of trouble while at the facility, although that is a positive by-product. The administrators, teachers and businesses who have contributed to the program hope that the vocational skills will benefit the teenagers once they’re released.

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What would you do if you had 10,000 pounds of 42 in. piping?  Why, give it away of course!  And that’s exactly what Rockies Express Pipeline did with the leftovers of their construction on a natural gas pipeline running between Colorado and Ohio; they gave every bit of it away to Midwest Technical Institute’s welding students.

Company donates leftover pipe to MTI’s welding classes

$7,500 worth of material could help students diversify skills

By BLAKE TOPPMEYER
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Posted Jul 22, 2009 @ 12:40 AM

The forklift at Springfield’s Midwest Technical Institute had some heavy lifting to do Tuesday.

Rockies Express Pipeline donated an estimated $7,500 worth of pipe that will be put to use in future MTI welding classes.

Much of the donated pipe is 42 inches in diameter and was left over from the construction of the natural gas pipeline that runs from western Colorado to eastern Ohio and includes a portion passing through southern Sangamon County between Auburn and Chatham.

“To have the access to 42-inch pipe like this is pretty unusual. We know that institutions like this are struggling to have access to things like this,” said Allen Fore, director of community relations for the pipeline.

“If this is a little thing that we can to do to assist them with growing their skills and to have access to materials they typically would not have access to, we’re happy to do that.”

Several MTI welding students and a couple of instructors were present to accept the donation. They unloaded some of the smaller pipe off the trailer by hand, but the larger pieces required the forklift. Fore estimated the total weight of the donated pipe to be about 10,000 pounds.

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Then maybe you should come and join the Milwaukee Inventors’ and Entrepreneurs’ Forum.  The meetings, founded by Jill Welytok, are a forum in which inventors and entrepreneurs can work hand in hand, providing important feedback for each other, insider advice, and maybe even an investment or two.

Milwaukee forum brings inventors, entrepreneurs together

Tannette Johnson-Elie | Connections
Posted: July 21, 2009

As a patent attorney, Jill Gilbert Welytok frequently encounters people who come up with clever inventions but lack the resources and connections to launch their products.

Photo By: MaryJo Walicki --- Doug Bartelt stands in a heavy-duty lifter mounted in the back of his truck.

“Many people will go through great expense filing a patent for products that they couldn’t sell or make money from,” said Welytok, a managing partner with Absolute Technology Law Group LLC, a 3-year-old Milwaukee company that specializes in patents, trademarks, copyrights, licensing agreements and due diligence. “Sometimes people have a great idea or product, but what matters most is what the market thinks.”

If the market thinks your product stinks, you’re not going to make money from it. But what if you could test your invention on other inventors and entrepreneurs who have successfully developed and marketed products?

Thanks to Welytok, there now is a place where local inventors can come together to network and share ideas: The Downtown Milwaukee Inventors’ and Entrepreneurs’ Forum. The forum meets monthly at the Germania Building, 135 W. Wells St., and draws 60 to 120 people.

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I am so impressed with what these guys are doing in North Carolina.  It’s not every day that a company  is willing to reach out and hire someone who’s been in, or is in, prison.  But Rickey McCoy and Danny Conaway are doing just that with their metal fabrication business, and it’s fulfilling for them and their employees in ways that none of them could have ever imagined.

 NW Greensboro firm helps employees build new lives
Rickey McCoy (left) and Danny Conaway have built a successful business employing people most companies are afraid to hire.
by Alicia Cosgrove

­­NW GUILFORD COUNTY – In March 2003, Rickey McCoy and Summerfield resident Danny Conaway started their metal fabrication business with a handful of portable tools, two office chairs and a cell phone.

They really didn’t have much choice. They had been talking about starting their own business but were only in the planning stages when their employer found out and fired them both.

Money was tight, and the pressure was high; both men had to put their homes on the line to finance their endeavor. It took a healthy dose of determination to make the business, and their lives, work during that first year.

Then they found a way to help build their business by reaching out to other men who also were determined to make their lives work: convicts who had learned from their mistakes and wanted to change their lives.

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