We had a visit from our Weldcraft sales rep the other day. He had lots of great information to share, and some behind-the-scenes company info (we were sworn to secrecy, but I’ll let on as soon as we are given the O.K.) And, the new Weldcraft catalog is available. Drop me a note if you’re interested in having one– we’ll get one sent out to you.

Sales people always have great schwag : branded post-it notes, pens, coffee mugs, you know. Sometimes you can go months without going to the office supply store!

Joshua is no different. He left me this great notepad. (Thanks!) Not only does it have all the appropriate contact information on it, but along the bottom there’s TIG WELDING TIPS. I’ll share them here, on the blog, just in case you don’t get a visit from Joshua.

TIG WELDING TIP

Prevent excessive electrode consumption: maintain one second of post-flow gas for every 10 amps of weld current and choose a tungsten diameter appropriate for your application.

And don’t forget, Arc-Zone.com has some great welding tips, articles and links in their library. And don’t forget about JoeWelder– a great place to read commentary on welding industry news, and tips on metal fabrication from Jim Watson.

I just ran across this article online about a woman learning to weld. Why is it that welding is still primarily a male dominated field? Particularly with TIG / GTAW welding brute strength is not what you need most of… rather dexterity, attention to detail and of course practice that will get you further.

There still is a lack of pay equity for women in the workforce, partly perhaps, because of the lower paying jobs women often take. Pay for welders is good. Particularly skilled welders.  And, with the shortage of skilled welders, you’d think that welding would make a good career choice, for a man or a woman.

Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the article:

LTC program turns woman into a welder
Female student shines in mostly male course

By Helen Clarke, Herald Times Reporter

CLEVELAND — Give 24-year-old Lois Vasquez some tungsten inert gas and a welding torch, and she’ll call it Zen.

“It’s a very slow, very delicate process,” Vasquez, a Manitowoc resident and Lakeshore Technical College student, said of TIG welding. “You’ve gotta respect it.”

And as a woman in the welding field, she knows a lot about respect.

Vasquez will graduate from the LTC welding program Saturday, May 12 — the third woman to complete the program in at least the past seven years, welding instructor Dave Saunders said.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE ONLINE….

Good for Lois Vasquez, but what a shame, that she’s only the third woman to complete the program in the past seven years!

Though not directly related to Women in WELDING … these organizations offer various levels of support, guidance and training to women in the trades:

• National Institute for Women in Trades Technology and Science
• Oregon Tradeswomen Inc
• California Women in Trades
• Washington (the state) Women in Trades
• Chicago Women in Trades
• and more links to women in the trades here.

And for links to trade schools that teach welding, check out the American Welding Society’s Trade School Locator.

We’ve been learning a lot about pipe welding and creating a localized purge dam for a new customer who’s working on a liquified natural gas (LNG) plant.

Purge bladders are popular in Europe. Not so much here in the U.S. In fact, some folks still purge an entire pipe system for welding. You can spend a lot of money on shield gas doing it that way. There are a lot of options for creating a purge dam, but our LNG customer has opted for the inflatable purge bladders as a way to improve their weld quality, lower the purge volume (and gas consumption and expense) and minimize downtime (time waiting to flood an entire system in purge gas).

A few things to keep in mind regarding purge bladders for pipe welding.

First, for pipe IDs larger than 12, it is highly recommended that you use the quick purge system, especially if you’re doing field pipe welding as opposed to pipe fabrication in the shop.

The larger standard inflatable purge bladders can be difficult and cumbersome to situate, and if they are twisted up at all, you can get creases in the bladders which allow oxygen to seep in. This ultimately will negatively affect your weld quality.

The connection between each bladder in the quick purge system is more rigid, which facilitates correct placement of the bladders.

These quick purge systems are brand new products, available now from Arc-Zone.com. Give us a call (800-944-2243 :: toll free US or 760-931-1500 world wide) We can get you a quote or an order right quick!

Did you know I’m on MySpace?  I’ve not totally figured it out yet, but I’m already meeting new people online, most recently Debra from The Metal Shoppe

I have to say their web site is not that impressive but the pics they have online are pretty impressive.  Here’s what Debra has to say about TIG Welding:

We specialize in custom metal work, particularly copper - or at least that is the direction things have gone this last couple of years. We have discovered that TIG welding is the best choice for “joinery” if you will when it comes to copper when the application calls for it, especially when you use any patina coloration since the silicon bronze or solder does not color up the same.

We actually figured out if you cut actual strips of the copper and us it for filler rod, it makes a completely undetectable seam.

Thanks for the great tip Debra!

You’ve talked to us on the phone. You’ve emailed an information request, or faxed over a request for quote. Maybe you’ve even joked with us, told us about your latest welding project, or your new TIG welding machine.

Now, you can find out a little bit more about us, the crew behind the website, the guys and gals on the other side of the phone line, the ones making sure you get your M&Ms with every order….

Arc-Zone.com has just launched a new and improved “About Us” section, with pictures and mini-profiles of each of us.