That’s what our first video shoot at Arc-Zone.com® was all about — 8 hours of non stop action!

We’re putting together a series of professionally produced videos featuring industry leading products from some of our premiere manufactures, and of course our own World-Class line up of products. The production crew showed up with all the lights cameras and gadgets it takes to make it happen!

My shop looked like a Hollywood set We had the videographer, director, choreogrepher, best boy, and who ever that is that holds the little black & white stripped Clap board — Arc-Zone take two! — add in the wardrobe, makeup and hair stylist for my hot assistant — Roxy Acetylene™….

I don’t know about you but this was my first time in front of the camera. We had scheduled several videos — one About Arc-Zone.com and 12 product videos ranging from Product comparisons, to how-to’s. Boy were we optimistic! We were prepared with all the Arc-Zone Brand and other vendors products organized with scripts, props etc, but we had no idea how long it takes to do one 3 minute Video!

These behind-the-scenes pictures give you a pretty good idea of how it went down, and how much fun we had. We are going to rock it so stay tunned!

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:

Longtime Joe Welder friend Randy Haberman dropped in for a visit last month, and sent us this email:

It was great to have the opportunity to visit Arc-Zone in August!

My flight from O’Hare to LAX was unusually uneventful and, after picking up my rental car, I was heading south on the 405! (Editor’s note: the picture at the left is Randy’s ‘32 Ford, not his rental car!)

I had to stop in Oceanside at Diego’s for a couple of traditional tacos before making my way to Carlsbad. I have been living in Chicago now for ten years and it sure was good to see all of the mountains, palm trees and chrome 20” wheels in So Cal again!

Visiting Arc-Zone was awesome! You and your staff have really grown the business. I couldn’t believe all of the neat stuff that Arc-Zone has put together for fabricators everywhere. I had a great time talking with you about the state-of-the-industry and all of the bitchin, creative stuff going on in so many fabricating fields; bicycles, motorcycles, hotrods, airplanes, boats! I would encourage anyone involved in fabricating to stop by and visit Arc-Zone while in the So Cal area.

After my Arc-Zone visit I headed north to check-in with my family and friends in Burbank. The Burbank area has long been a center of innovation in many fields. The city is now known more for its movie studios than anything else but there is still a huge amount of creative machining and fabricating capabilities left over from the Lockheed Aircraft and the “Skunkworks” days. Just thinking about some of the technology that has come out of the Burbank area, like the SR-71 and stealth technology, is inspiring to me.

My first Burbank stop was at Bob Shrode’s house. He is the un-official leader of the Burbank car club known as the “Road Peasants”. He had just finished putting a new street motor in his ’34 Ford coupe. This motor is de-tuned to only about 550HP! This is a badass coupe that has run in the low nines. I talked him into taking me for a ride and we were soon making a speed run down Vanowen! There is nothing better than peering through the chopped windshield of a hot coupe on a sunny So Cal day!

After a quick visit to the Auto Book store and a burger at Tin Horn Flats on Magnolia Blvd. I stopped by to see Jim Miles. Jim is a craftsman by any definition. He is one of those guys that can solve any problem with a 12” lathe and a Bridgeport mill. Jim is also a former “Crafter”. He worked at Weldcraft as a tool and die maker for many years before retiring. Jim was responsible for the design, tooling and effective production of many of the Weldcraft products that are still being sold today. Jim is also an old hot rodder. He was putting Hemi’s in cars way before crate engines. Today he is working on his ’38 Ford coupe and his ’33 Plymouth sedan, both of which have Hemi’s in them. Jim is also widely known for campaigning the Magic Muffler blown fuel altered in the 60’s and 70’s. He is just completing a clone of this car which has a Fiat coupe body and a Donovan Hemi engine acquired from Don Garlits! Can’t wait to hear that one fire up!

That’s it for now. I can’t wait for my next visit to So Cal and Arc-Zone!

Randy

Check out Bob Shrode’s bitchin’ ride.

Mario Lozano, aka Super Mario from TSR Fabrication stopped by last week. We first met him last year when he called and wanted directions from Los Angeles– 90 miles away!

Aside from owning his own fabrication shop, Mario was on the Monster Garage TV show with Jesse James from West Coast Choppers. He was selected because he’s a TIG Welding expert specializing in turbo-charging cars, general fabrication and building racing Datsun 510s and the Monster Garage crew was building a drift car.

Mario heard we had some cool TIG torches, tungsten grinders and state-of the art argon purging cups and he wanted to see for himself, and pick up some items. That’s pretty cool when a guy drives by 10 to 20 “Welding Distributors” to get to Arc-Zone.

Mario represents the majority of our customers — he wants the good stuff and he wants to know how, and when to use it. Does he need a $1200 liquid tungsten grinder for a one man shop? Maybe not but he has one because it provides the best possible diamond ground tungsten finish… and part of it is where he is located — in the heart of the SoCal automotive performance hot bed, South Bay LA. All the sport import tuners stay in touch and are always checkin’ out what’s new in each others shops.

His recent visit was to solve an application problem he had. He and his tuning sidekick “Turbo Kevin” asked if we had something to help them TIG weld aluminum turbo intercooler fin spacers, that were about .012″ thick and also to get inside of a turbo inlet they were fabricating.

You should have seen their eyes light up when we busted out the Weldcraft WP-125, water-cooled Micro TIG torch Pro package customized with a cable cover and front end parts — Ready-to-Weld. With that tiny water-cooled TIG torch you can TIG weld inside of a 5/8″ diameter tube! That’s so cool when you can help someone to build something better and faster!