Any Cutting and Welding based out of Portage, Michigan has done its share of odd jobs.  They have built and/or repaired deep-fryer cooking baskets, snowplows, a chimney flue, demolition derby cars, a cow-catcher, a wood-burning stove, and a 1880 metal flag holder and gravesite marker. 

Why?  Because they can.  And often, because nobody else will do it.

Portage welding shop thrives on willingness to go anywhere, do anything

by Al Jones | Kalamazoo Gazette
Saturday March 14, 2009, 8:30 AM
John A. Lacko | Special to the Gazette

Assemblies that support the 10-foot-wide by 16-inch-high “belly” blades on the city of Portage’s 16 snowplows wear down and ultimately become unusable when drivers bang the blades too often on curbs.

Either of the two mechanics in the city’s Department of Streets and Equipment can fix them. But bending metal and welding can be time-consuming and it takes away from lots of other work the mechanics need to do. So the city gets Terry Meisling to do it.

“He’s the metal magic guy,” says Raymond Waurio, deputy director of the Department of Streets and Equipment for the city of Portage. “He just does a fantastic job.”

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

thefabricator.com has just launched its own online TV series to accompany its magazine Practical WeldingToday.  The television series will go by the name Practical Welding TV and will be airing a new episode every two months.  For a full line-up of this season’s webisodes and to view their first one (How to Properly Set Up Equipment Before Welding), go to their website HERE ->

Come back here afterwards if you’re intrigued by all that safety information and check out Arc-Zone.com’s selection of welding gear packages including (but not limited to) welding jackets, gloves, doo rags, HellRaiser™ glasses, and much more.

And for all you excited student learners out there, check out our Arc-Zone.com’s student discount (10% – woohoo!) and SAVE.

Look for Jesse James on the upcoming Celebrity Apprentice! That’s right The Welder from Long Beach California is going to be on the show. Check out this preview:

It is true what he is saying: not everyone has the skills to be an engineer, and not everybody needs to (or wants to) go to college. But kids do need the educational opportunities to help them succeed with good job skills. Many kids have the ability to build things from metal that require thinking, planning, measuring, testing etc. Metal fabrication involves hands on learning of metallurgy, electricity, and geometry to name just a few.

I bought my first TIG welder when I was 19 and immediately started building accessories for motorcycles and cars out of my parents garage. It wasn’t long before the big guys began to ask if I could do work for them. I was shocked and had no idea how – or – what to charge them!

Welders– especially if you’re good– can make really good coin. And if you specialize in welding titanium, or pipe welding you can really do well for yourself.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t worry, this is not a post about Annie Proulx ‘s novel, or even the movie with Kevin Spacey….

Arc-Zone.com is located in Carlsbad, California which is just a few miles north of San Diego. Our office and warehouse is in an active and vibrant business park. In fact, when I located the business here a few years ago we chose it for that very reason. Plus it’s close to the service centers for UPS, FedEx and DHL.

Last night I was in the Shipping Department. It was late and the guys were jamming to get the late day orders out. Dennis, our UPS driver, was there waiting.

It used to be the UPS guy would come early and not wait. He’d come back if he had time… but more likely we’d have to drive our “after pickup” load over to the UPS Office.

“How’s your load count?” I asked.

“Way down,” he said. “It’s sad.”

Then Dennis told me that Arc-Zone is the only company on his route that is consistent… As he picked up the last boxes to load onto his truck he said, “Man, you really do a nice job of packaging your orders. I bet your customers are happy to get a package for Arc-Zone.com.”

And we didn’t even tell him about the M&Ms that we include with every order!

Yes we do have a lot of raving fans and that’s why I’m proud to say Sales and Profits are up.
Arc-Zone.com closed out 2008 with a modest increase in sales and a huge improvement in our bottom line.

We’re looking forward to continuing the upward trend in 2009, because despite the current economic crisis, we see that the trend is steady. We’ll be here to serve the fabricators doing important repair work, and when the economy improves we’ll be serving fabricators working in construction and innovative areas like alternative energy laying the foundation for the future.

The FABTECH International & AWS Welding Show is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, and welding exposition and conference. The event exists to bring buyers and sellers of metal forming and fabricating technologies together in an environment that facilitates and accelerates business relationships.

The 2008 show will be held October 6 – 8, 2008 at Las Vegas Convention Center– in Las Vegas, Nevada.

One don’t miss event, keynote speaker and Joe Welder’s favorite fabricator / innovator, Dean Kamen. “Inspiring Future Generations to Lead the World in Innovation” on Tuesday October 7.

As an inventor and entrepreneur, Dean Kamen believes in the power of innovation. Innovation is the key to keeping U.S. manufacturing competitive in a global economy, but it depends on a well-educated and skilled workforce. During this high-impact presentation, Dean Kamen will discuss the importance of getting our Nation’s youth excited about careers in science, technology and engineering and cultivating an environment that encourages creativity and risk-taking. Drawing on his own extraordinary experiences and successes, he’ll provide insights on what business leaders and society can do today to increase our capacity to innovate and ensure a strong manufacturing future for years to come.

In case you don’t know who Dean Kamen is… he is the inventor of the Segway…. and with gas prices as high as they are now, the Segway is looking like a really good alternative to a car!

For a complete list of the events at the FABTECH / AWS Welding Show, check out the association website.

Joe Welder, aka Jim Watson will be at The Show. If you’d like to join him, and need a ticket, let us know. We’ll hook you up!

You may or may not know about Tesla, the swankiest 100% electric car on the market. They started up production a couple of months ago:

San Carlos, Calif. – (March 17, 2008) — Regular production of the 2008 Tesla Roadster commenced today, marking an historical milestone for Tesla Motors and a watershed in the development of clean, zero-emissions vehicles.

First unveiled as a prototype on July 19th, 2006, the revolutionary Tesla Roadster generated an extraordinary response from people everywhere who were inspired by the vision that beautiful, high performance cars could generate zero-emissions and burn no oil.

Here, Tesla’s engineer explains to Inside Line how the much anticipated electric roadster works:

And now they’ve opened their first store in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago. I can only wonder how long it is before our own Joe Welder trades in his Prius (and his house) for a Tesla– it even comes in Arc-Zone Orange!

Tom OLeary, General Manager of the new Tesla store writes on his blog:

The Tesla Roadster is a revolutionary car and our Tesla Stores will be no less revolutionary as an automotive retail experience….. continue reading at Tesla Motors–>

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I’ve said it before but I love this industry and feel blessed that I’m able to meet so many interesting people and learn about what they are doing with metal fabrication.

I got a call from a Greg — he was in need of some technical info — specifically why his TIG hoses popped, and what he can do to keep it from happening. The power cable burst just outside of the handle. “I repaired it with some tubing, heat shrink etcetera, and it just popped again and started leaking,” he said.

His local supplier’s suggestion was to buy a whole new torch package — which he did– but that did not solve the problem. I talked him through the details of his TIG set up, specifically his connections to and from the power supply and the water cooler. I concluded that his coolant pump needed to be replaced.

We always have PROCON® pumps on hand and all the mounting hardware to connect directly to the welding industries most popular water coolers (from manufacturers like Bernard, Dynaflux and ITW). We also offer a nice refurbished coolant pump. It is much simpler, efficient and cost effective than trying to repair a pump yourself. Buy a refurbished pump, with all the fittings and mounting hardware and when you return your old pump core, we give you a 25.00 core credit!

Greg was relieved that we found the problem and I said we can ship your pump to you and you’ll have it tomorrow. “I need it today I got a job to do,” he said, then added, “and I want to come up and check you guys out!”

Turns out Greg is Greg Deering President of Deering Banjo Company located in Spring Valley, California about 40 miles from us.

We had a nice visit comparing notes about our early days as a start up company and how, due to the web we have connected with so many interesting people!

Deering Banjos “The Great American Banjo Company” is the premier manufacturer of banjos. These finely crafted instruments are played by some the best musicians worldwide. Obviously there is a lot of woodwork involved and apparently some of the brasswork is TIG welded! Check out the factory here:

[flashvideo filename="http://www.joewelder.com/VIDS/deeringfactorytour.flv" /]

$10 million bounty for super-efficient cars
Insurance company provides the purse for Automotive X Prize
By Alan Boyle, Science editor MSNBC

A $10 million contest to develop super-efficient — and salable — automobiles is getting its official kickoff on Thursday, with Progressive Insurance providing the purse.

The Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, modeled after earlier prizes for spaceflight and genetic research, is aimed at promoting the creation of cars that get the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon, while at the same time hitting targets for low greenhouse-gas emissions, safety and affordability.
READ THE ARTICLE ONLINE–>

There hasn’t been a lot of innovation in the automotive industry, though I have been following the development of the Tesla — named after Nicola Tesla, and electrical genius. Tesla Motors was established by the founder of PayPal and some other Silicon Valley success stories who are putting their fortunes to work to improve our quality of life and provide jobs.

The Automotive X prize is reminiscent of the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight recently awarded to Burt Rutan another innovator in the aircraft industry (flew around the world without stopping) He beat out all the competition to claim the prize for first in space. His company Scaled Composites, Inc. develops research aircraft and currently employs 130 people at the Mojave, California airport. My mom went to high school with Burt and he was in my Dad’s model airplane club! I met him myself back in the late ’80s and he toured me around his shop in the desert. I’ll tell you about that in another post.

Let’s hope the Automotive X Prize sparks some terrific innovation– and some opportunities– for some of the auto companies.

We here at JoeWelder.com wanted to take a minute to make note of the passing of a pioneer in the So Cal hot rod lifestyle, Boyd Coddington. I first heard about Boyd when my good friend Randy Haberman was building his ’32 Ford 3 window coupe… that was back in the ’70s. Before T.V. when Boyd had more of a cult following, based on his ’32 track roadsters. He and L’il John would come out to the races where they’d watch master sheet metal fabricator Steve Davis’ beautiful CRA Sprint Car run at Ascot Park.

Boyd Coddington was at the forefront of the whole “SoCal lifestyle” of fabricating and customizing hot rods, and he will be missed in the hot rod and metalworking communities.

Anaheim, CA (PRWEB) February 28, 2008 — Boyd Coddington, the creative visionary who took hot rodding to an art form and custom wheels to a new level dies at 63. Coddington who was a long-time diabetic died from complications that were brought on from a recent surgery. It was Coddington’s ever forward-looking view at the design of the hot rod and his unconditional desire to create the finest quality cars that became the “Boyd Look”.

“It is a major loss for the automotive enthusiasts and hot rod aficionados around the world. Boyd Coddington did so much more than create automotive trends, he also built the finest hot rods. He was entertaining on his TV Show (TLC’s- American Hot Rod) and an ambassador who educated,” said Harry Hibler, former publisher of Hot Rod Magazine.

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We have evolved from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age and we are nearing the end of the Age of Oil. When historians look back at our time, that is how they will refer to us, to our time on this planet. It is in everything we do and use.

Last night My Wife and I were invited to the Del Mar Country Club for a presentation, a “fireside chat” with T. Boone Pickens it was very interesting and gave me some insight as to the future of energy, and the world energy markets.

Pickens advocates we pursue all forms of alternative fuels and move towards reducing our dependency on imported oil. He believes we won’t ever eliminate oil, and we shouldn’t as he believes we need to maintain relationships with the oil suppliers.

There were some 270 people there and the discussion was moderated by Sandra Maas from KUSI News. I had the chance to speak with Boone after the event and he was very informative and funny! He is currently developing natural gas for transportation, a giant wind farm for power generation and a water company. more info on his site. . .

So HOW does this relate to the Welding industry?
Consider the opportunities for each one of those forms of energy, and natural resources.

They all need to be manufactured and delivered — this takes infrastructure, storage tanks, pipelines, transportation vehicles, distribution hubs, terminals, and dispensers. All of these items are heavily fabricated metal products which require engineering, raw material production, welding, finishing and assembly. Work that can’t be done overseas.

It is going to take thousands of skilled welders, pipe fitters, welding and manufacturing engineers, and others to build the needed infrastructure. Additionally we will need welding equipment, safety equipment and much more.

No matter what your political affiliations are, the opportunity to pursue these energy resources in a creative and thoughtful way will pay huge dividends, provide thousands of good paying jobs, and supply the needed energy to power us well beyond the next several generations.

These are exciting times!

(Grangemouth Oil Refiner courtesy of Bryan Burke)