He rolled up in a cool blacked out Porsche 911 GT2RS and he was getting ready to star a new skating video.  The production company wanted him to skate over a roll-off dumpster, and he told them they needed to put a lid on that thing;  to do that right, they’d need some welding gear.  Josh offered to get it himself and weld it so they could add that to the video.

Josh googled and found Arc-Zone.  ”Sure glad I found you guys,” he told me.

We hooked him up with some stylin’ new Revco flamed out black Stallion gloves and a nice Miller Digital Elite welding helmet.

I  spread out the goods in our styled out conference room– helmets all the colors and graphic options, and told him the the flat black is my fave– you can decal it as you like.   Josh agreed and that was that.

Next the ladies in our Customer Care Department put together the rest of his order and  charged his Amex card.  He even gave up his email address:  ”Put me on the list!” he said.  (Arc-Zone’s monthly email is pretty informative and a fun read)

Josh said, “Man you guys got all the good stuff! When I walked in the lobby I was thinking you only sold online, but I’m blown away!”  He said he’d be buying more from us for his Automotive restoration shop in Michigan — http://www.allspeedperformance.com/

Unfortunately he wasn’t driving this tricked out custom DC Camaro but you can check it out here:

And let us know if you want to stop by! Its great to meet our customers and hear about the projects they’re working on…. We’ll even have you’re order ready to go!

And sign up for our email list to get news of new products, as well as tips and tricks so you can Weld Like A PRO!

CSUF students build a race car chassis
By DAMON LOWNEY
Daily Titan Online Editor
Published: February 08, 2010

One inch steel tubes were welded together over winter break to form a race car chassis as Cal State Fullerton engineering students toil to build a race car to compete in the annual Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) competition.

By May, the Yamaha R6 powered senior project, built to FSAE’s race car specifications, will be ready to race.

The steel tubular space-frame chassis was finished on Jan. 26, according to CSUF FSAE team director Fred Hogarth.

“During break I saw footage of other teams chassis completed … They finished by mid-January. We finished by late January.” He said he believes CSUF’s car is about even in the build phase with cars from other university FSAE teams.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

My dad and I straightened the frame, hand cut and bobbed the rear fender, took the emblems off, painted it orange, and went racing.

I will never forget that Tuesday night.  We went to Trojan Speedway in South Gate, CA — a sticky little clay oval next to the LA river, behind the rock quarry, east of downtown LA.

My Dad stopped off at Kmart to get a cool looking orange metal flake Grant helmet that cost a mere $14.35.

I remember thinking, “Is that all my head’s worth?”, but my dad checked the specs, and it turned out that it was Snell approved and everything.

Then it was off to the races!  I was so excited to be there that lining up for the first heat race, I actually dropped the clutch early and jumped the start! I ended up going from my row two starting spot clear past row one and the starter! That was hard to explain to my sixth grade school teacher Mrs. Jackie Jacobson and a bunch of my class mates from Vista Del Lavalle grade school in Claremont CA. . .

That first race was an eye opener — the other bikes were faster and highly modified, so my dad and I went out and bought Floyd Clymer’s book “How to Tune a Two Stroke Engine”.

I learned early on that researching what others have done is your quickest way to the top.

We went to work on the engine — a rotary valve design that was easy to hop up. We installed a new rotary valve, over-bored cylinder, which we seven ported, installed a single-ring piston with a super short cut-skirt, machined radial high-compression head, and a topped it off with a total loss ignition system.

We finished the engine modifications off with a tuned exhaust made by Dick Haycock from Chino CA. Dick custom fabricated it by beautifully rolling and forming the expansion chamber and artfully oxy acetylene welding it together. He then finished off with a 7” long x 1/2” diameter stinger tip – that thing screamed!

My dad and I worked together to collect all the parts needed to build it.

Centrifigal chain drive clutches were popular then but a bit unreliable and noisy, so we engineered a belt drive system with a double pulley jackshaft, and chain drive to the rear sproket.

It was connected to a variable speed clutch, which was installed on a polished and chromed out, performance tuned Briggs & Stratton 5HP engine complete with a Tecumseh down draft carburator and straight pipe exhaust!

We turned the flywheel all the way down to the magnets, milled the head and made our own copper head gasket, as the OEM one was a thick layered sandwich design.

My dad organized a trip to Tijuana Mexico to have our 1969 Dodge Dart reupolstered. I invited two of my grade school buddies, Steve Maxwell and Eddie Fagg from Vista de Valle Elementry School in Claremont CA. Each of us brought our mini bike seats to have them reskined with custom material, button-tucked and finished off with some nice edge piping. The last thing we did before painting the frame gloss black was to redesigned the friction rear brake and custom foot pegs, which we had heliarc welded at Foothill Welding in Claremont, California.

When we picked up the parts from the shop, I was intrigued by the heliarc welds the guy had laid down, so I asked him a couple of questions, and he showed me how to make a few myself!

My friends thought it was all so cool – the bike – the welding. Before long, they had started calling me “Joe Welder”, and I guess it stuck !

I had a lot of fun on that old bike – it was the first time I really learned about engine modifications.

One night my Dad came home and saw me doing a trophy run down the alley behind the workshop. He said there was a long white flame streaming from the exhaust and it smelled like it was burning up.

When I explained how I had added some nitro to the high-octane AvGas, he knew I was ready to move up to a real motorcyle.

I was excited to be back at the races again watching the bikes line up on the front straight-away for the rider introductions in front of an overflow crowd.

The pits were jammed with bikes in a variety of classes from the AMA Grand National Pro, including 2009 Champion Jared Mees on the #21 XR 750 Harley-Davidson,  West Coast Experts, Amateurs, and Vintage.

I walked the pits and visited with some old friends and met some new ones too.

I love flat track racing because the bikes are custom built for one thing — speed, whereas in motocross racing, you buy a factory-built bike and  slightly modify the engine and suspension before you are ready to ride.

Flat track bikes are purpose-built from the ground up with hand-made TIG welded chromoly frames, custom-built exhaust pipes, CNC machined wheels, and hand-laid fiberglass tanks and rear fenders.

Each bike is made with the rider’s personal wants and needs in mind,  from the handle bars down to the tires.  A perfect example is Jimmy Wood’s #37 BMW powered machine.

This is a beautiful motorcycle and it looks even better in person!  Made me think about breaking out my old skid shoe!

One of the coolest bikes I saw there was a Grand National Replica street bike.  I had a similar flat track styled bike that I put together — it was based on a Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster, but I ended up selling it to one of our reps…

Take a look and let me know what you think!

– Jim Watson, aka Joe Welder –

I raced at Glen Helen some years ago and I have not been there for sometime. I was shocked the first time I saw those riders head up the hill and come down the other side at speed. My jaw dropped open, I couldn’t believe I ever raced on that track with my Yamaha YZ 250 in a champion frame with 4”of shock travel! Excited to attend her first race, my six year old daughter yelled out “Wow that was radical!” when the bikes left the starting gate and headed up to the first turn.

Most of the pros were there except James Stewart and I got up close with the Factory Suzuki of Chad Reed. I’m not the kind of guy to ask for a picture or an autograph, so I you won’t see that here, but I did get some good pictures of the pits, the starting line just before the first Pro Moto and the track.

On the way home we stopped at the Bass Pro shop in Ontario. My daughter had fun touching all the big game and looking at the fish, alive & dead. I enjoyed checking out the tracker aluminum boats and remembered the sales call I made as the Regional Sales Manager for Weldcraft. I hooked them up with a series of TIG torches and accessories to help improve their TIG welding quality and productivity.

So what does all this have to do with welding? Arc Zone supplies several of the aftermarket parts suppliers in the motorcycle industry including companies like FMF Racing, which build highly engineered exhaust systems for on and off-road bikes. Don Emler, from FMF, bought a Sharpie Tungsten Grinder and other products from us. While at the event, I had the opportunity to meet with other vendors like Jardine Headers, they have been around for years, primarily building headers for the automotive aftermarket and recently they entered the motorcycle and off-road market.

I spoke with one of their technicians, who was not aware of our hand-held tungsten grinder or the many other welding and fabrication tools that we offer. He was using a bench grinder, it was dirty and the tungsten was getting really hot in his employee’s hands. What I enjoy most is to see people light up when you talk about something that they have been doing for years. Something that they never really gave much thought to or received much input on how to improve weld-quality, lower defect rates and improve their finished part appearance with new tools and techniques. I enjoy teaching and helping people especially through the educational and informative content on this blog and my website.

It sounded… fascinating.

And then, last night, while we were talking about our plans for this year, they mentioned a tree house – this one Steampunk Tree House, to be exact.

Photo by Zachary Wasserman

It is completely… amazing.  Unluckily, you could not climb up into it (although my friends really wanted to…).

However, there were some amazing special effects attached to the project that made standing on the ground just as enjoyable.

From kineticsteamworks.org:

>STEAM EFFECTS: The tree will be plumbed with steam using 1″ schedule 40 pipe.  The steam lines will run throughout the tree and branches to establish the steam effects at night (see Steam Plumbing Schematic)…

Lights:
>Solar panels on the roof
>Storage batteries hidden in the house
>LED (firefly) lights in the branches, multiple colors
>LED (mood) lighting in the house
>LED floodlighting to illuminate the tree at night
>Back-up generator and charging system

Sound Element:
>Certain pipes throughout the tree will be a part of an open network that will allow people to speak with other people who are in different sections of the Tree. Small steel “megaphones” will be attached to the Tree for communication. The pipes will also pick up the wind on windy days. The Tree may be equipped with a few aluminum organ pipes that will make unusual sounds as the steam is piped through.

The Kinetic Steamworks team of artists used MIG welding and plate steel to create much of the tree’s original structure.  For their full list of materials, click here.

And now, even though I’ve looked at this photo over and over while drafting this post, I am still amazed.  This year, I will be fortunate enough to finally attend a day of Coachella-ness and I’m excited to see what they, and the many other artists have come up with this year.  I can’t hardly wait.

It’s not you…..

Every guy dreads the phone call, or today the text message, where your girlfriend says “It’s not you, it’s me…” And when that same girlfriend is the one you snagged by taking her for a ride on your motorcycle, every time you look at your bike it will stir up some heart break.

So what do you do now….

You could put the bike in the garage under a tarp and go out with the guys and drink more beer than you need. Or you can take your two passenger bike and make it a solo ride. Granted the beer sounds like a good idea, it doesn’t help the bike situation and you and I know your bike will never say “It’s not you….”

The major parts on your bike that make it tandem are the seat and the foot pegs. So if it is a one piece seat, take it to the upholstery shop and have them cut it down.

Now the fun part, the foot pegs. You’ll probably be able to take the foot peg hardware off pretty easily but the peg mounts that are welded to the bike need to go too.

This is where Joe Welder comes in….

I took my bike out back to the shop, and asked for Joe Welder to give me hand. We coulda pulled out the old hack saw but that would have been messy. And the cutting torch would have required us to take apart the whole bike.

But the grinder was just right, and we could clean up the grind with a polish disc.

Now You Are Back to The One Love in Your Life….

The solo seat and the additional fender exposure will not only make your bike look sleek but also leave you thinking Michelle who?

Tim knows a lot about welding– specifically the importance of a strong weld. Tim does some xteme BMX bike riding (pictured above). The kind of riding where a good, strong weld is important, and could mean the difference between some serious fun and a trip to the ER.

“I just came up short and snapped the frame,” says Tim. Fortunately Tim wasn’t hurt bad.

Tim says 90% of this kind of riding is in your mind, convincing your body to do what seems impossible. Having equipment that you can rely on makes that much easier. And the impact of breaking the headstock off of his BMX frame made it that much more profound.

“Once that happens it takes you a while to trust your frame again,” he says.

Tim ended up switching manufacturers after that. He now rides a Fit bike. With its 20 in. diameter wheels, and precision TIG welded 4130 chrome molly steel frame it’s perfect for the type of xtreme BMX riding Tim likes to do.

Tim brings more to the Arc-Zone team than a great story and some cool pics. Tim has an extensive background in Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. And a good dose of Midwestern work ethic.

“I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, home of Miller beer and welders,” he proudly says.

And if you want to really see him in action, check out this YouTube video:

Our private guided tour included a rocket making class, and each child got to fire their Alka Seltzer powered paper rockets! It was bitchen.

After the party we went next door to the Automotive Museum where they had the History of American Motocross Racing Exhibit. I was excited! There were all the bikes I grew up with — brand names like Bultaco, Maico, CZ, Husqvarna, Penton, Rickman, Hodaka, and of course Suzukis, Hondas and Yamahas. It was a great sample complete with pictures from many So Cal race tracks with all the popular riders from the early days of professional MX. I really liked the completely restored 1967 Chevy El Camino with a Bultaco Pursang in the back (one of the bikes that I had). It was nice to share that with my daughter. (That’s me on the right, catchin’ some air).

Later that night my wife and I were invited to a newly renovated open house party in the exclusive covenant of Rancho Santa Fe CA. The property was completely remodeled and took over a year and a half to complete. A beautiful sprawling California Ranch style home with a large property filled with old growth oak trees, lemon orchards, horse stables, etc. Awesome way to live!

The owner, Jerry is the Chairman of large Capital Investment company with holdings in many areas of manufacturing – it’s a great company, and he and his wife have some interesting friends. At the party we met ambassadors, and other political and business dignitaries, entrepreneurs and so on. At our table I mentioned that I had taken my daughter to the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park, and how impressed I was with that SR71 Blackbird. Sam, who was sitting across from me said, “Oh I flew that plane!” Col. Sam Ursini.

Now THAT is catchin’ some air!