Think you’re having a bad day at work?  Just wait until you hear about Marty Rice’s bad days, cuz he’s had a lot of ‘em…  And I mean, traveling uphill to work, both ways in the snow with no shoes on, kind of bad days.  Afterall, welding’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.

Learn your trade, pay your dues

Advice for new welders
By Marty Rice, Contributing Writer

Welding jobs may not be as plentiful as they once were, but welding instructor Marty Rice believes a lot of welding work is “waiting to bust loose once the economy straightens out, and there’s always work in welding, if you’re willing to pack a suitcase.” Rice has some advice for those embarking on a welding journey.

I’ve paid my dues during my long and crazy welding career. I’ve had good jobs and bad jobs, good bosses and bad bosses, and I’ve met good and bad people in the field. In my opinion, one good person makes up for a bunch of lousy people. Which do you want to be?

Starting Out

I began my welding career as a maintenance welder at an oilfield and agricultural machinery repair and rebuild plant. Actually, my title could well have been “gopher boy.” There was a bunch of older guys and I, the one young guy. The old hands were mostly World War II vets, and the only thing I had going for me was that I had just gotten out of the Army. Other than that, I was a greenhorn—a newbie, a guy who didn’t know squat, and a pain in the butt. So my job was doing the hard, dirty work no one else wanted to do.

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If you’re just starting out, check out Arc-Zone.com’s Starter Welding Gear Packages.  And if you’re in welding school now Arc-Zone.com offers School/ Student Discounts!
What’s your story? How did you get started?

What advice would YOU offer a newbie?

There is a new welding process, recently developed in Europe, that is said to not only improve welds but also lower the skill required to make them.  It uses a “manual and automated GTAW wire feed control combined with a hot-wire power source” that improves the wire feed, weld pool, and weld deposition and decreases gas consumption.

Enhancing the GTAW process

By Ed Craig, Contributing Writer
September 15, 2009

Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW or TIG), a popular process for high-quality manual welding, has its limitations and requires highly skilled operators. A process used in Europe addresses those limitations, enhances productivity and weld quality, and reduces the skill level required to GTAW.

For at least six decades, traditional gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW or TIG) has been considered the process of choice for attaining high-quality welds in any metal application. However, this process has certain drawbacks, such as the weld energy limitation influenced by the weld pool dynamics and typically slow manual wire feed rates. Manual GTAW requires highly skilled operators who possess the dexterity necessary to feed the wire. Manual GTAW techniques vary, and the weld-wire-to-arc and weld puddle placement are inconsistent.

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In our post Welding in Pink, we talked about the company called Tomboy Tools.  I liked the idea of their company so much, I tried to find out some more information for you all, so here’s a little interivew with one of Tomboy Tools’ consultants about their “tool parties”.  Enjoy!

“Women are trained to do precise and vital engine installation at the Douglas Aircraft Company plants, Long Beach, CA, October 1942.”

Photograph Courtesy of the Library of Congress

This has to be my favorite topic post ever from the Miller Discussion Boards. It started three years ago, and amazingly, continues up until, probably whenever you’re reading this! There’ve been over five hundred responses, and since we couldn’t list them all for you, I picked out twenty of my favorites – see if you recognize any!

You Might Be a Welder If…

Got any more YMBAWI quotes?  Let’s start another marathon thread here!

Not especially welding related…  but here at CarmenElectrode.com we do like to feature women that are pursuing their dreams and working in fields that historically have been pursued less often by women:  construction, engineering, WELDING, etc.

This California senior is sure to find her way in the architecture world.  Holli Tripp, who will graduate this year from an Auburn high school, has already designed a house, specifically, the house that she and her family will some day live in.

Placer senior has designs on architecture
Holli Tripp earned straight As plus multiple cash scholarships
By Deric Rothe Journal Editor

Holli Tripp, a Placer High senior who graduates  Saturday, had a 4.0 grade point average her senior year and earned six scholarships. She plans a career in architectural engineering. She is shown holding two of 16 architectural renderings she drew of her family’s future home for her senior project.

Placer High senior Holli Tripp says she is just a country girl who loves fishing and construction.

While that’s true, what’s also true is that Tripp is a young woman who is determined to make the most of her life after she walks across the field at LeFebvre Stadium Saturday and accepts her high school diploma.

Tripp spent her four years at Placer High working hard. The straight-A student earned a half-dozen cash scholarships that attest to her success.

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If you’ve ever seen the show Stomp, then you’ll immediately understand what this new group ScrapArtsMusic is all about.  In the Stomp show, performers use anything from brooms to garbage cans to… themselves to make music.

ScrapArtsMusic has kicked it up a notch by using- you guessed it – scrap metal.  All of their musical instruments are made of recycled scrap metal and other materials, welded and refashioned into new and sometimes odder-looking instruments.  Take a look at this youtube video to get a glimpse of their astounding performance skills:

Northland Pioneer College in Arizona had a problem – a good problem.  More students were enrolling in their practical welding classes than ever before, but that also meant a greater output of welding fumes than the school’s homemade ventilation system could put up with.  More kids?  Ditch the fumes please!

Fumes + Weld students = Bad news

Vocational school cleans up air for thriving weld program
March 14, 2009

A welding program in northeastern Arizona, looking to improve the air quality in its welding lab, replaced its fume extraction equipment.

Located in the mountains of northeastern Arizona, Northland Pioneer College provides real-life experiences to high school juniors and seniors in 11 area school districts through its dual enrollment program. In conjunction with Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT), a partner institution, NPC/NAVIT offers courses ranging from cosmetology to welding.

One of the most popular classes at NPC/NAVIT is the welding applications program, which provides students with the skills necessary to become National Center for Construction Education and Research- (NCCER) and American Welding Society- (AWS) certified welders. Led by weld instructor Curtis Casey, NPC/NAVIT’s weld program has taken off, expanding to facilities in Holbrook and St. Johns, and attracting high school, charter school, home-schooled, and college students, as well as tradesmen and hobbyist welders.

“We were the first and are still the only AWS-endorsed educational and testing facility in northeastern Arizona,” Casey said.

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I love how-to articles.  They’re easy to read, informative, and I you can learn to improve your welds.  I’m a fan.  So, speaking of how-to articles, how about we learn about some shielding gases for GTAW:

A shielding gas primer for GTAW

Gas selection and optimization

By W.F. Garth Stapon
January 27, 2009

With so many blends of shielding gas available, it can be a difficult task to determine which gas or gas blend best suits a particular GTAW application. To simplify that task, you must first understand the distinct properties that each gas or gas mixture brings to the table and how best to optimize the mixture once it’s been determined.

Selecting the most economical shielding gas or blend for gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) must be based on your knowledge of the gases available, volume requirements, applications, and the overall effect the gas has on the welding process.

The primary gases used for GTAW are argon, helium, hydrogen, and sometimes nitrogen. The composition and purity of the gas or gas mixture should be tailored to meet your process, material, and application requirements. Shielding gases are used in either pure form or in blends of varying components. Therefore, selecting a gas or gas mixture can become quite complex because of the many combinations available.

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Got anymore tips for us that this article didn’t mention?  We want to know!  Share the wealth and leave a comment below.  And if you have a favorite article you’ve referenced to improve your welds–  let us know!