Clackamas Community College offers welding classes seven days a week.  Their most popular time slot?  The “graveyard shift”.

Welding school offers night shift to fit busy schedules

Story Published: Feb 3, 2010 at 4:30 AM PST
By Chris Parker for KVAL.com

OREGON CITY, Ore. — The sun isn’t necessary for students welding at midnight: the blinding electric arcs provide enough light at Clackamas Community College metal shop.

John Phelps and David Williams instruct welding classes during the graveyard shift, from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., to accommodate an enrollment demand that has surged over the last year.

According to Phelps, enrollment increased 60 percent since last fall term, making it difficult for students to take welding classes during normal hours.

“Because the enrollment shot up so high, there was no other way to accommodate these needs,” Phelps said. “We already offer classes seven days a week. The only other time slot we didn’t offer was this late at night, and so we wanted to give it a try.”

At first the graveyard classes were only held two nights a week, but since being offered spring term of 2009, more students have become interested in the late night class. Now, the graveyard class is offered Monday through Thursday.

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College isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  In fact, if you’re looking for a career in welding, a technical school might just be the place to go.

Technical schools give students a leg up on a career

By FARAH TAMIZUDDIN/VOICE CORRESPONDENT
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Jan 25, 2010 @ 11:00 PM

Seventeen-year-old Konner Fenwick doesn’t want to go to college.

She isn’t taking any more history or English classes.

The Springfield High School senior doesn’t want to get a job after she graduates in June, either.

Her plan? Attend a technical school.

“School’s never really been my thing,” Konner said. “I think I’ll enjoy this a lot.”

More than half of the country’s high school seniors each year head to college right after graduation, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

However, 30 to 40 percent of seniors find their footing elsewhere.

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Through the wonderful social medium that is Facebook, we have been fortunate enough to meet a variety of dedicated and uniquely talented women welders who are working their way through life with a torch in hand. Here’s what Karine Maynard says about welding, and life:

My name is Karine Maynard, and I live in central Kentucky. I work as a blacksmith who helps to make ornamental & architectural ironwork, mostly custom jobs, like railings and balconies; sometimes we get smaller commissions for tables, fire screens, etc.

Growing up on a tree farm in Wisconsin, my father also had an auto parts store and I’d probably still be there and running the place now, except that when it came time for him to retire he said it was “no business for a girl,” so I went to college and one of the things I studied was art.

I got my introductions to working in metal in jewelry-making classes, and I studied everything including political science, foreign languages and history – but really my early years in the country surrounded by auto shops & farming gave me the taste for things “hands on”. I also traveled a lot internationally in college and that really expanded my ideas as well as introduced me to other cultures and interesting people.

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In one of the most original, sad, and, therefore, daunting tasks I’ve ever heard of, Natascha Whitehurst is using her talent for welding to fabricate her own parents’ tombstones.

Instead of the usual headstones, Natascha is crafting two oak stumps (made from a water heater tank), connected by a root (made from an exhaust pipe), bearing their names and dates etched in the metal.

Welder honors her Mother & Father

By Laura Gutschke
Posted January 2, 2010

TUSCOLA — Rusted metal scrap objects long past their original function are finding new life as art at the hands of Natascha Whitehurst.

One of her current projects also is her most personal. She is crafting out of a discarded water heater’s inner steel tank a double tombstone for her parents. The tombstone looks like two oak stumps connected by a root, to be made out of a vehicle exhaust pipe.

“Instead of buying new, I like using what is already out there,” Whitehurst said.

Rows of small welding beads will run down the side of the tank to resemble bark. On top of the 18-inch tree stump for her mother, Janice Sadler, who died on Jan. 1, 2009, will be a watering can to symbolize her nurturing of the family.

A rifle will be leaning against the stump for her father, Harley Sadler, who continues to work as a truck driver today, to represent his providing for the family and his love of hunting.

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I never thought I’d see the day. Let me repeat that – NEVER.

But the day has indeed arrived, from whence forward, a newbie welder will be able to practice welding, not the old-fashioned way, with torch and electrode, but via virtual reality.

You can thank Lincoln Electric for this new advancement in welding technology — they are the producers of the new VRTEX 360 which enables the wearer to weld via a virtual welding gun and a helmet that is equipped with monitors on the inside.

You can “virtually” weld in a welding booth, on a construction site — even on a base in the desert!

And, it has to be said, this is the greenest welding machine on the market, and it will enable students to learn faster than ever before.

Who knows — this newest welding “video game” could become so popular that instructors will have to pry the virtual torch right out of their students’ unwilling hands.

One can only hope.

Lincoln Electric is offering Pipeline Welding Productivity Seminars to address the growing demand in energy matters….

Cleveland – Lincoln Electric is offering a day-long Pipeline Welding Productivity Seminar intended for professionals in the pipeline industry. The session will take place on Tuesday, March 16, from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. at Lincoln Electric’s corporate headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.

With the growing demand in energy markets, rehabilitation of existing infrastructure and construction of new cross-country and subsea pipelines will continue to increase.The seminar will focus on this topic, as well as new solutions for overall improved safety, productivity and quality.

This one-day session will cover:

* A comprehensive overview of the pipeline market
* Solutions to common pipeline welding challenges
* Welding consumables selection
* Understanding hydrogen cracking
* Automating your welding processes
* Ways to increase overall productivity
* An update on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
* Administration’s (PHMSA) latest findings

Session topics will be followed by welding demonstrations and facility tours.

For more information on this free informational seminar or to reserve a spot, contact Lincoln Electric at (216) 383-8355.

The Lincoln Electric Company, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc welding systems, fume extraction equipment and plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment. The company holds a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market. For more information, visit their Web site at www.lincolnelectric.com.

If you’re already welding pipe, or just getting into it, check out some of the high performance purge gas welding accessories that Arc-Zone.com carries that will help you out:  Trail Shields and Purge Cups, Tube and Pipe Plugs, Purge Baffle systems, Purge Bladders, Weld Tape, Water Soluble Purge Paper and Film, Purge Chambers….  and a selection of Oxygen sensors so you’ll know when to start welding!

For more information about Arc-Zone.com visit www.Arc-Zone.com

Interested in learning about restoring classic cars? Well, you’ve come to the right place!

The folks over at Second Chance Garage have given us a step-by-step guide to choosing the right welder for the job:

Selecting the Right Welder for Classic Car Restoration Projects

What Welder To Use?

The most common welders used in auto restoration, therefore, are MIG (metal arc welders, gas or flux-cored), TIG (tungsten arc welders using shielding gas) and Arc Welders (the traditional “stick” electrode).

To choose the most appropriate one for your needs, you have to consider the following parameters:

* What is the maximum and minimum thickness of metal to be welded? Fortunately, automobiles use metals that fall into a relatively narrow range.

* What is the metal type? Again, automobiles generally are made of steel and, rarely, aluminum.

* What is the normal position the welding “head” will be put in? Do you need to do a lot of welding overhead? The answer is usually no here.

* How much current is available in your shop and do you have 220 volts? Check your circuits.

Let’s be frank. Our overwhelming favorite type of welder is the MIG. We’ll explain why shortly, but first we’ll give an overview of the other contenders. Here we go!

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It is the best kind of person who takes inspiration from adversity.

When Lee Soucie was laid off from his job with ONG Industries, he decided to start on a project that he’d been waiting years to do: welding a full-size Tin Man, with heart.

Playing Tin Man with heart

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 10:08 PM EST
By SCOTT WHIPPLE
Staff writer

BERLIN — No one would ever confuse Berlin with the Emerald City or 7-year-old Alyssa Watrous for Judy Garland’s character, Dorothy Gale in the classic film, Wizard of Oz.

Then, too, neither Watrous nor her 4-year-old sister, Kirsten have a dog named Toto.

However, what 52-year-old Lower Lane resident Lee Soucie has done with six feet of tubing is more than pure fantasy.

Nothing against the Scarecrow or the Cowardly Lion, but Soucie, a welder with time on his hands, says as a kid he loved this most-watched movie in history. His favorite character was the guy who needed a heart — the Tin Woodman.

“My granddaughters, Alyssa and Kirsten — their mouths dropped open — when they saw what I’d done,” he says.

What Soucie did was a metal sculpture. He says for five years he had wanted to make a welding of the Tin Man.

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Looking to go back to school for welding?  Where better to learn the tricks of the trade than from good ol’ Lincoln Electric?

The Lincoln Electric Welding School Announces Its 2010 Schedule

Cleveland – The Lincoln Electric Welding School, which has instructed more than 120,000 students since its inception in 1917, announces its 2010 schedule.

The Lincoln Electric Welding School is the oldest and one of the most respected arc welding schools in the United States. Classes are taught by the school’s seven full-time instructors who have more than 100 years of combined industry experience. Courses are designed to teach the arc welding skills that employers need. Lincoln-trained students are in high demand by welding fabricators at pay levels that tend to exceed the industry average.

Classes range from a six-week basic course to an advanced 15-week comprehensive course, as well as one-week classes on specific welding processes, certification and customized programs. Students spend 80 percent of their time in the booth learning to weld. Additionally, Lincoln limits class sizes to 15 students per class in order to maximize learning and guarantee one-on-one instruction time.

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Want some free Miller welding equipment???

This month, Miller Electric is giving away over $2,000 worth of welding supplies to one lucky grand prize winner!

To enter for a chance to win, just sign up for one of Miller’s eNewsletters to keep in touch with industry news and the latest how-to advice!

Complete Grand Prize Package:

• Choice of Millermatic® 211 Auto-Set™ MIG welder, Diversion™ 165 TIG welder, OR Spectrum® 375 X-TREME plasma cutter
• ArcStation™ welding workbench
• Performance Series™ auto-darkening welding helmet
• Arc Armor combo welding jacket
• Pair of MIG, TIG, and Metalworker gloves
• iPod touch