My friend Scott always says, “A clean job site is a safe job site.” Thankfully he’s never seen my desk. Of course my desk is covered with papers, not with heavy equipment or sharp objects so safety isn’t much of an issue. I also don’t do much welding at my desk.

Thinking about safety isn’t usually the most fun part of a welding project, but it is essential. Jim just wrote a great post over at JoeWelder. com talking about safety when it comes to grinding tungsten electrodes. And another about safety, “What’s Your Health Worth?” Check ‘em out.

And lately there’s been a lot of buzz online (and off) about the “new” OSHA regulations regarding hexavalent chromium (present in welding fumes).

If reading government regulations is too overwhelming, Practical Welding Today wrote a pretty good article about how these regulations specifically affect your welding operation and what changes you need to make to be in compliance. You can read the full article online, “OSHA’s new hexavalent chromium standard: what it means to you and your employees.”

And you can download the American Welding Society’s fact sheet on Hexavalent Chromium (a PDF document)

If that’s not enough information for you, check out the picture on the left Jackson Safety — they’ve got a space age looking welding helmet / air purifying rig.

OK, it’s a stretch to connect Arc-Zone.com to the world’s biggest ferris wheel, but we do have the absolute coolest customers doing the most interesting projects.

One of our newest customers is Robert Bosch, LLC.

Bosch was recently awarded a contract to power the 682-foot high ferris wheel that is being built in Beijing China in time for the 2008 Olympics!

Since the debut of the Ferris Wheel in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair, these engineering marvels have been getting larger and larger. But the monster wheel now on the drawing boards at the Great Wheel Corp. in China is in a league of its own, with a diameter of more than two football fields. READ ALL ABOUT IT…

Now it would be awesome if I could tell you that Arc-Zone.com was supplying all the welding accessories needed to put together that ferris wheel, but I can’t. I still think it’s and incredible project, and an awesome engineering feat, and I’m sure there’s some impressive welding that is going on in the construction.

What projects are you working on?

We got a call from a potential customer yesterday. He was looking for a Pyrex nozzle for a WP-20 TIG Torch. Now we don’t have these nozzles anywhere on our website, so it was curious that Brett found us. So I asked.

Apparently Brett reads The Fabricator magazine, at least the online version, where he read an article written by Arc-Zone’s own Jennifer Simpson, Improve your GTAW in 3 steps: Front-end parts that make a difference:

Once you know some basic information about the equipment on the front of your GTAW torch, you can get the right parts for your application and start improving your welding performance.

An industry-standard manual gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) torch package includes a torch body and a cable set, either 12-1/2 or 25 feet long. Front-end parts generally aren’t included. While it may sound like the manufacturers are being cheap, it’s really in your best interest, because it lets you customize your torch for the job at hand or to use front-end parts already in stock.

…….

Pyrex and Quartz. Pyrex is a low-temperature, nonconductive glass material, while quartz is a high-temperature, nonconductive glass material. These glass materials are hand-blown to make nozzles for specialty torches for microwelding or standard torches that allow for added visibility when welding in confined spaces. While the Pyrex nozzles look good, the improved visibility doesn’t add much benefit for general-purpose welding. After all, you should be watching your weld puddle, not the gas coming out of your torch. Also, Pyrex nozzles get dirty quickly.

CONTINUE READING ….

So if you’re interested in Pyrex nozzles, they will be in our webstore soon, but in the meantime, give us a call!

And do let us know if there is a product you’re interested in that we don’t have on our website…

Hanna Pajunen just joined the Arc-Zone.com team, heading up sales and customer support. Actually she joined the team last month, but I’ve been remiss in updating the blog with Arc-Zone.com News.

You’ll hear her voice when you call (we do have a Toll Free Number 800-944-2243 if you’re calling from the US…. 760-931-1500 for our international friends).

Get to know more about Hanna, and the rest of the Arc-Zone.com team when we launch a new updated About Us section at Arc-Zone. Coming Soon!

Over at Arc-Zone.com we get a lot of inquiries about front end parts. Just last week, one customer emailed in asking about a “whole set” of front end parts. He had recently purchased a Weldcraft “super cool” 18 TIG torch, but only had one collet and one nozzle.

Weldcraft makes a standard accessory kit, the AK-18, which is a basic starter kit… but Arc-Zone makes a PRO Accessory Kit for the Weldcraft WP-18SC TIG Torch. Our kit includes a full line of gas lens collet bodies and collets (3/32″ to 3/16″), gas lens nozzles, a short and long electrode cap, a couple of spare o-rings and a sample pack of our ArcTime Hyperformance Tungsten Electrodes.

Pretty much everything you need to Weld Like A PRO(TM).

TIG Welding is everywhere, as you probably already know. And all kinds of people need to know how to TIG Weld. Here’s a pretty well written article from Aircraft Maintenance Technology magazine:

Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, also known as gas tungsten arc welding (GTA welding or GTAW), is often used in aircraft applications. TIG welding provides a clean, strong weld joint that makes it ideal for assembling and repairing various aircraft components. In this article, we will discuss the basic theory of TIG welding and discuss some tips for better TIG welding results

Read the rest of the article, “TIG Welding: Tips and techniques for better welding” By Joe Escobar, Editor