Check out this AWESOME opportunity from Miller…

Miller Electric Mfg. Co. has launched of its 5th annual Welding Project Contest: The Welding Showdown, a competition to showcase the welding skill and talent of anyone in the industry. Contestants will submit a project in one of three categories (easy, moderate, difficult). Judges will select two finalists from each category based on the project’s creativity, quality of presentation and craftsmanship. Each finalist wins an ArcStation™ 30SX welding workbench, an Arc Armor™ Welding Protection Package and an all-expense-paid trip to Miller’s headquarters in Appleton, Wis. Entries are due by August 10, 2010.

Finalists will receive a tour of Miller’s headquarters and compete head-to-head to build a project, selected by Miller, within a set time period. Miller will supply all materials and tools for the Welding Showdown.

The grand prize winner in each category wins their choice of a Millermatic® 211 Auto-Set™ with MVP™ MIG welder with a Spoolmate™ 100 spool gun, a Diversion™ 180 TIG welding package, or a Spectrum® 375 X-TREME™ plasma cutter. For information on contest rules and how to enter, visit MillerWelds.com/Showdown.

GUEST POST BY: Spc. Cassandra Monroe, 135th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Iraq — With each Soldier comes a specific duty, task and military occupational specialty. However, some Soldiers bring additional skills that contribute to their wartime mission.

“Right now, my mission here is culvert denial — keeping the insurgents from putting bombs under the culvert, which are tunnels under Iraq’s highway system and roadsides,” said Spc. Ryan Thomas, a combat engineer with 3rd Platoon, 573rd Clearance Company, 1st Engineer Battalion. “A lot of them have been poorly denied already.”

When culverts are poorly denied, they are usually surrounded with ruined, crumbling sand barriers, or littered with trash and other waste products. This results in complications with water flow throughout the provinces. To deny a culvert, this simply requires an application of a steel grate, blocking any objects or personnel from entering the tunnel.

Specialist Thomas, a Seattle native, welds rods of steel to create a framework of parallel and crossed bars that are used as a cover for the tunnels. He is tasked with welding the grates used to deny the culverts.

Before denying a culvert, the team performs a reconnaissance mission, inspecting a culvert and categorizing it by whether it needs to be fixed or not. If the culvert requires the team to build a custom grate, that’s a cue for Spc. Thomas to assist the team with the assembly and emplacement. A welding trailer attached to the platoon’s trucks allows Spc. Thomas to weld grates on-site.

Some challenges the platoon and Spc. Thomas had to overcome were preventing hot slag, which is a liquid matter derived from fusing two metals together, from falling into Spc. Thomas’s face. Additionally, wearing all of the proper protective equipment, such as the combat helmet and body armor, while still trying to weld with the required welder’s mask complicated the process. Read the rest of this entry »

The new and improved Miller® Welding Helmet line-up is the ultimate in safety, Protection, Performance, and Comfort.

From basic hobby applications to working in an extreme heat, high-tech welding environment, these welding helmets will keep you safe and comfortable and with the variety of designs we offer, you will look cool while doing it.

Designed to protect your eyes and face in some of the most intense welding environments, Miller’s welding helmets meet ANSI Z87.1-2003 (High Impact) industry standards.  Hard hat adapters are available and most of the helmets come standard with an auto-darkening lens.  Miller’s passive welding helmets can be upgraded to an auto-darkening lens with the Digital Elite™ Upgrade kit.

BENEFITS:

The auto-darkening features are awesome, instead of having to stop what you’re doing to adjust your helmet, your helmet’s arc sensors will automatically darken to preset shades at lightning fast speed as soon as the arc is detected.

Highly sensitive Electromagnetic Digital Arc Sensing is also available for use when welding outdoors or at very low amperages.

Auto-darkening lenses can be preset to your shade preference in a variety of different standard shade options: (all lenses include light shade #3)

• MP-10™ Series – non auto-darkening, Passive Shade #10 lens
• Pro-Hobby™ Series FS#10 – fixed shade #10
• Pro-Hobby™ Series – variable shade #8 – #12
• Performance™ Series – variable shade #8 – #13
• Elite™ Series – variable shade #8 – #13
• Digital Elite™ Series – Electromagnetic digital arc sensing
  • Weld Mode – variable shade #8 – #13
  • Cut Mode – variable shade #5 – #8
  • Grind Mode – Light Shade #3
  • X-Mode – variable shade #8 – #13
• Titanium™ Series – used for extreme heat and industrial welding, can come equipped with most of the auto-darkening options available.

Auto-darkening viewing areas up to 3.85 x 2.38 in / 9.22 sq in.

Lithium Ion batteries are included and come pre-installed

Magnification lenses are available from 0.75 – 2.50 and all helmets come standard with a magnification lens holder

Most helmets are compatible with the Arc Armor™ Heat Stress products, including the CoolBelt™ and CoolBand™ which both help to increase air flow and lower the temperature under the helmet.

The welding accessory experts at Arc-Zone.com deliver a complete line of replacement parts and accessories to upgrade or maintain your Miller welding helmet.

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.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE–>

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.

This looks like an awesome opportunity to learn– if you’re in Minnesota!

FROM FINANCE & COMMERCE news….

Anoka Technical College establishes one of North America’s largest sheet metal training facilities

by Brian Johnson Staff Writer

Anoka Technical College is heavily into metal.

Walking through the cavernous new sheet metal training facility at the school, a visitor can see row after row of machines and gadgets used for bending and shaping metal into everything from auto parts to picture frames.

In another room, students move images around on a computer screen in an effort to create the perfect design for their sheet metal fabrication project.

It’s all part of Anoka Tech’s plan to establish itself as the region’s go-to place for training in precision sheet metal fabrication. The college describes the training center — paid for mostly by private donations — as the “only facility of its kind in Minnesota and one of the largest in North America.”

It’s heady stuff for Nick Graff, the school’s manager of Business Education and Solutions, who talks excitedly about the opportunities that such training affords. It’s almost reminiscent of that famous scene from “The Graduate,” except that the operative word in this case is “metal,” not “plastics.”

CONTINUE READING ONLINE–>

And remember if you’re heading back to school– Arc-Zone.com offers a discount for welding students! (click on the Schools tab and find out more)

AND we have some awesome line up of safety gear, including Miller’s full range of safety apparel, helmets and more!

Dario Franchitti

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I have a background in racing.  When I moved from racing to manufacturing, many of my friends and colleagues stayed in the racing industry:  The winning team Target Chip Ganassi, Team Penske, KV Racing Technology and many part suppliers like Howerton Racing Products, Reid Washbon Racing Exhaust, SS Tube Technology, and more. Not only do I count these folks among my friends, some of them have become customers of Arc-Zone.

In other words, I have strong ties to the industry.  And so in the spirit of celebrating those ties, and starting a new tradition for Arc-Zone, for this year’s Indy 500 Race we started  our own version of an office pool.  (for the record, no gambling was involved)

Our Operations Manager Scott Reiman came up with this plan, and to make sure no one (like me) with extensive knowledge of the racing teams would have an unfair advantage, we each  drew names and the person who’s driver came in First would get $25, Second  place driver qualified for $20, and so on.  And to make sure everyone got in on the fun, we even awarded prize money for First Crash, Driver who leads the most laps, Driver leading at the half, Last Finisher and even the Arc-Zone Employee  winning the fewest categories qualified for a $10 award.  I’m not sure everyone actually watched the race– not everyone is as into racing as I am, but it did give us something fun to talk about after the holiday weekend!

Arc-Zone is not the only company with strong ties in the racing industry–  Lincoln Electric is the exclusive provider of welding equipment to winning driver Dario Franchitti (pictured above) and his  Target Chip Ganassi Racing Team.  In fact, Lincoln Electric is the “Official Welder” of the Indy Racing League (IRL).  You can read all about it at the Lincoln website–>.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at work before!  This guy has a gift – if not for welding, then definitely for writing!

Attempting to weld in the age of duct tape

Al Batt, Tales from Exit 22
Published Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I don’t like to wear socks.

I wear them but I don’t like it.

I consider socks to be a fire hazard.

I took a welding class at a college that once thrived in Waseca.

It wasn’t my idea. It was my employer’s idea. He felt that the duct tape I used wasn’t as strong as a weld. He was annoyingly conscientious. Welding started during the Bronze Age, and it survives into the Duct Tape Age. I went to college during the day and worked nights. The welding class gave me something to fill those hours that I had been wasting on sleep.

My father had taught me how to weld with a derelict welder he had rescued from a junkyard. It was a serious stapler that performed basic farm welding with little attention paid to aesthetics.

On the farm, I welded broken wagon tongues and tractor hitches. I gave up welding once I quit breaking wagon tongues and tractor hitches.

I would have been happy not knowing anything more about welding. Welding isn’t even an Olympic event. It could be in the Winter Olympics. Replacing the brooms with welders would make curling a little more exciting.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Crazy Germans and their sausage.  And I fully mean that as a compliment, because we here at Arc-Zone.com were all amazed and highly entertained by what happened next.

German welders + sausage + welding machine = Electric grill for men???

Adventurous Germans Grill Sausages with an Industrial Welder

“Eventually, the tube was so hot that the arc had to be shut down because the fat was on the verge of spontaneous combustion.”

By Vin Marshall  Posted 03.22.2010

Barbecue grills don’t typically require eye protection, but then, they’re typically not made from a giant TIG welder and an industrial sausage positioner either.

That’s something these Germans set out to change with the “Electric Grill For Men.”

What would you do if you needed to endurance-test a large industrial welding power supply?

You’d probably rig up something like the apparatus pictured here, in which a TIG welding torch draws a continuous arc along a slowly rotating piece of aluminum tubing mounted in a work positioner normally used for pipe welding.

As the long weld bead is laid down, the power supply is tested to verify that it can maintain its rated output and duty cycle without melting down. In the process, a great deal of heat is generated.

What would you do if you hated to see all of that heat going to waste? And furthermore, if you loved sausage?

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Lance Hindmarsh used the lack of business around during the recession as inspiration to form a business of his own: Hindmarsh Engineering Services, and he hasn’t looked back since!

Hindmarsh Engineering Services: Metal skills sparks business

Thursday, 25 February 2010

Lance Hindmarsh knows his way around a piece of metal.

For the Dayboro resident, being handy with his hands has led to him running his own business, Hindmarsh Engineering Services.

“I’ve been a fitter and turner for 20 or 30-odd years,” Lance said.

“I was contracted to Top Taste Bakeries, they used to ring me for equipment maintenance and repairs.

“But when the recession really started to hit I lost the contract, and a lot of companies were the same, so basically I was at home and decided I would keep it (my services) going … and keep it local.

“Even as a kid I repaired go-karts and motorbikes and, living on a farm, basically you did it all yourself. So I guess I just had a knack for it (metal work and machinery repairs) from when I was little and I was always going to go that way.”

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->