We did our first video shoot at Arc-Zone.com last week. We’ve seen the rough cuts, and we’ll be posting them online soon, but in the meantime, check out Joe Welder’s write up on how the day went –>

Why do boys get to have all the fun?

This just in from Lincoln Electric’s iWeld newsletter (if you’re not signed up yet, go do it now! they send lots of great articles and my favorite, the How I Did It section showcasing different projects submitted by real life welders.)

Project Go Cart was submitted by Martin Ziskind and his son and built in 9 days…. would have been a great mother/daughter project too!

For some great how-to pics to stimulate your imagination, visit the Lincoln Electric site.

I admit, until I started working here at Arc-Zone.com, I had a lot of preconceived notions about welding. I had no idea how prevalent WELDING is. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I just never thought about it, but you find welding everywhere.

I thought welding was a dirty job (like the photo on the left) and didn’t take much know how. I thought welding involved lots of sparks flying (as in MIG welding). I knew nothing about TIG Welding, or Plasma Arc Welding or orbital welding.

I soon found out welders are smart. They have to know something about metallurgy, electricity, and geometry, for example. In addition, finer processes like TIG welding require the kind of dexterity that comes with dedicated practice. And good welders make good money. (more…)

At Arc-Zone.com we have a lot of international customers. We’ve delivered TIG, MIG and Plasma Arc Welding to fabricators world wide: Canada, Brazil, Israel, England, Spain, Guam, Greece… to name a few.

However, I think I’ve found the most GLOBAL of Arc-Zone.com’s customers… Matt Binns of Giant Globes.

Matt purchased a foot pedal from our eBay store, Arc-ZoneAuctions, where we sell some of the same product you’ll find in our Arc-Zone.com webstore –you know the high-performance MIG, TIG and Plasma Arc Welding accessories you need to Weld Like a Pro(tm). Sometimes on our eBay store you’ll find a really good deal. Sometimes you’ll find an item we’ve taken in on trade, or refurbished in-house…

Matt, however, wasn’t entirely pleased with his remote amperage foot pedal for his Miller Dynasty because the photo we had in our eBay store– and the price– was wrong. Yeah. Ooops. Big ooops. We quickly refunded Matt the difference in price on the foot pedal and sent him a big ole apology, and an offer for the foot pedal shown in the picture. He declined the offer to swap, and was really super nice about the whole misunderstanding.

In the exchange of emails, however, I noticed the tag line on his email, “Oh and as a bit of self promotion, buy a globe from me at: http://giantglobes.com”

So I clicked.

Wow. I don’t know about you, but I would love to have one of these finely crafted globes on display in my sculpture garden!

“We make the globes from 6061 -T6 tubing, which we bend ourselves, continents are made from 3003-0 sheet, we bend them ourselves using a variety of old and new methods, including an English wheel,” says Matt.

Almost all the welding is done with a Miller 210 MIG welder with a spool-gun, as it is really hard to weld the intersection of two tubes with a TIG torch. If anyone has any tips on how to weld two tubes (Tubes are 1/2″ OD up to 2″ OD) at right angles without notching them, leave a comment– we’ll pass it on to Matt!

Matt says “The globes can rotate on their axis if required on weatherproof silent bearings. We also motorize them.”

What are you fabricating today??

One of the cool things about working at Arc-Zone is the fact that Jim Watson, aka Joe Welder™, knows a lot about cars, and about the racing history in Southern California, having participated in a lot of it himself!

Makes me interested in motorsports!

So yesterday, I mention to Jim that the TLC channel will be premiering ANOTHER show which will feature metal fabrication… “Hard Shine” filmed out at So-Cal Speed, and Jim’s all like, “Oh yeah, Jimmy Shine. Great shop…”

and I’m left shaking my head, thinking Does Jim know about everyone in the welding world? It sure seems like it sometimes. It IS a small world, and Jim’s been around motorsports and metal since he was kid....

The show will premiere at 10 pm this July 12 on TLC channel (cable). Jim and I will both be watching so expect some commentary and a review. I’m curious to know if the guys at So-Cal Speed are as lax with safety as the guys are on American Choppers…. we’re sure to see some awesome hotrods.

And maybe I’ll even apply for the next round of Shine… I’m excited that they have two women on the show this time around! an artist named Jezebelle and Sarah, a hot rod junkie.

The bike on the left is a photo of a custom chopper done by one of our favorite customers, David Anthony Customs…
check out some of his other handiwork. He has become quite good at TIG welding and some of his designs are  pretty extreme!

If you’re into building custom choppers, or want to learn how it’s done, check out this website, Custom Chopper Guide:

The most common problems metalworkers and custom bike builders encounter can cost them countless hours of frustration, and thousands of dollars in wasted material. ‘9 Problems Metalworkers Face When Building A Chopper Frame And How To Overcome Them’ is a special ‘mini course’ that reveals the solutions to these problems.

Novato, CA (PRWEB) June 22, 2007 — Building a chopper frame from scratch is not an easy task for any metalworker or motorcycle builder. Fortunately, the most common problems that metalworkers face as they build a custom chopper frame are answered.

Custom Choppers Guide and BCC Orlando have teamed up and put together a mini-course called ‘9 Problems Metalworkers Face When Building A Chopper Frame And How To Overcome Them’. This valuable new resource will help metalworkers save time and money on their frame-building projects. For example:

Problem #1: What is the difference between common pipe and tubing?

Answer…. read the full press release….

The site offers lots of articles and information and while it appears they have an ad revenue business model (you’ll see lots of adsense ads from Google) they do sell Ron Covell videos and some books as well.

And when you’re ready to fire up the TIG welder, and you’re looking for a high-performance TIG torch set up, check out our lineup of Weldcraft TIG torches, from the super small MicroTIG WP-50 or WP-125 to the popular WP-20 water cooled TIG Torch. We also carry a complete line of tungsten electrodes, welding water coolers, and much more! Give us a call at 800-944-2243.

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?