Have you heard of the Make it in America Plan?  How do you think this will affect you?

From the Huffington Post:

For the Strength of Rosie the Riveter: Make It in America
by Leo W. GerardInternational President, United Steelworkers

Rosie the Riveter defiantly rolls up her blue work shirt to show off a brawny bicep. She’s a symbol of American strength.

She worked in a manufacturing job, one of millions that constructed the defense machine that won World War II for the Allies. She said, “We can do it.” And America did.

Now, however, shuttered U.S. factories and off-shored manufacturing are sapping American strength. The nation has lost more than 40,000 manufacturing plants and one-third of its manufacturing jobs, nearly six million, over the past dozen years. China is on the verge of overtaking the U.S. in manufacturing output. And Americans know it. Late in April, 58 percent of 1,000 likely voters told pollsters they believed America’s economy no longer led the world.

They also told pollsters they supported enacting a national manufacturing policy to promote resurgence of domestic production — a return to the days of a robust Rosie the Riveter and a country that could secure its independence with dynamic manufacturing capability.

Democrats in Congress heard that message. They’ve created a program called “Make It in America.” They plan to pass a series of bills to create an environment in which both Americans and American manufacturers make it.
CONTINUE READING –>

I don’t usually post racing stuff here, but check this out from Miller… and note that the driver is Elaine Larsen:

Elaine Larsen has over a decade of drag racing experience and is the driver of Miller’s Jet Dragster and the Embry-Riddle Jet Dragster. She has always had a love of racing and a need for speed. Twenty years after seeing her first Jet Funny Car, she was in the driver’s seat on the track…..CHECK OUT HER  BIO–>

AND check out the BUILD of this super slick dragster–>

Excited for the new Iron Man 2 movie coming out this summer?  Well, while you’re waiting, why don’t you check out this new IronMan 230 All-in-One MIG Welder from Hobart Welders?  It has everything you could want in a MIG machine — we only wish it had a bit more in common with its namesake (flying while welding anyone??)

Hobart Introduces IronMan 230 All-in-One MIG Welder with Superior Arc Quality and Greater Precision
Jon Crowley | Jan 14, 2010

Hobart Ironman 230

The IronMan™ 230 is a total redesign of the full-size MIG platform, outperforming the competition on arc quality, voltage control, duty cycle and value. It delivers 30-250 amps of pure power in a heavy duty cabinet. The arc of the new IronMan™ 230 is optimized to deliver a flawless weld, making spatter and post-weld cleanup almost non-existent. The IronMan™ 230 easily runs aluminum – just add the optional Hobart DP-3545-20 spool gun and you’re ready to weld aluminum from 18 gauge to 1/2″.

For improved feedability with aluminum wires or for extended reach with other wires add the Hobart 3545-20 spool gun with its 20 ft. cable length.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Crazy Germans and their sausage.  And I fully mean that as a compliment, because we here at Arc-Zone.com were all amazed and highly entertained by what happened next.

German welders + sausage + welding machine = Electric grill for men??

Adventurous Germans Grill Sausages with an Industrial Welder

“Eventually, the tube was so hot that the arc had to be shut down because the fat was on the verge of spontaneous combustion.”

By Vin Marshall  Posted 03.22.2010

Barbecue grills don’t typically require eye protection, but then, they’re typically not made from a giant TIG welder and an industrial sausage positioner either.

That’s something these Germans set out to change with the “Electric Grill For Men.”

What would you do if you needed to endurance-test a large industrial welding power supply?

You’d probably rig up something like the apparatus pictured here, in which a TIG welding torch draws a continuous arc along a slowly rotating piece of aluminum tubing mounted in a work positioner normally used for pipe welding.

As the long weld bead is laid down, the power supply is tested to verify that it can maintain its rated output and duty cycle without melting down. In the process, a great deal of heat is generated.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

A new program on the Lummi Reservation is offering the equivalent of full scholarships to ten aspiring Native American welders for an intense 16 week welding course.  They qualify as second-year union apprentices at the end of it!

New program teaches welding to Native Americans
JOHN STARK – THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

LUMMI RESERVATION – Ten Native American men are getting an intensive course in welding that they hope will enable them to get better jobs, even in a sluggish economy.

The students train 10 hours a day, six days a week for 16 weeks, under a program through a new partnership among the U.S. Department of Interior, Lummi Indian Business Council, United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, and Native American Fabricators Welding School, a private welding school that operates on Lummi Reservation.

Art George, a welder and former chairman of Nooksack Tribe, started the school in 2008 with his wife, Rebecca.

He said the demand for trained welders remains brisk at refineries, boat builders, construction sites and shipyards as the older generation of welders retires.

Students who complete the intensive program qualify for hiring as second-year union apprentices, with pay starting at about $20 an hour.

After four years, they could qualify for journeyman welder status and make more than twice that, George said.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Geography quiz time!  Where is Guernsey?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s one of the Channel Islands (and no, we’re not talking about the ones off the coast of California…)

Give up?  Here you go: Guernsey.  How’s that for an exotic locale?  And what do ya know – there are welders there too!

Challenging the world’s welders

A group of apprentices from the College of Further Education are challenging the best welders in the world.

Three fourth year students hope their welding skills will allow them to reach the world final of the SkillWeld competition in London in 2011.

Guernsey man James Le Lievre was a UK finalist in the contest in 2008.

John Semenowicz, the programme manager for engineering at the college, said: “We’re talking about students in the premier league of welding.”

The Channel Island heat of the SkillWeld competition took place at the College of FE’s workshop in March 2010 as Guernsey’s three entrants became part of the 170 from across the UK who are competing.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

No, we’re not talking about not insects, nor the Protestants.  These are the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) who served during WWII (the first to ever do so) — right alongside the Rosies who helped build the planes in which they flew!

Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – A long-overlooked group of women who flew aircraft during World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

Known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, they were the first women to fly U.S. military planes.

About 200 of these women aviators, mostly in their late 80s and early 90s and some in wheelchairs, came to the Capitol to accept the medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.

In thanking them for their service, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said these women pilots went unrecognized for too long.

“Women Air Force Service Pilots, we are all your daughters, you taught us how to fly,” Pelosi said.

In accepting the award, WASP pilot Deanie Parrish said the women had volunteered to fly the planes without expectation that they would ever be thanked. Their mission was to fly noncombat missions to free up male pilots to fly overseas.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Nick Coleman is a horseman at heart, but after this latest welding project for an AG class, who knows?  Welding just might have to come first, after all.

CHS sophomore may turn from horse training to welding

By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com
February 12, 2010

It’s understandably spooky mounting a horse that’s never been ridden.

The rider can’t know exactly what the horse is going to do — smile, frown or say, “If you raise your voice to me one more time, I’ll buck you into Bosque County.”

That’s what almost happened to young horseman Nick Coleman.

“At first, I was nervous,” the Cleburne High sophomore said. “When I’d first get on a horse, I’d be holding the saddle horn. But if you do enough ground work on them, they shouldn’t buck. They might, but ground work really pays off.

“I had one last year throw me into a metal pipe fence. The guy who was helping me on the ground let go of the lead rope. My leg wasn’t all the way in the saddle. I came off and flew into a fence. The way Ron [Richmond, boss] and I do it, one of us is on the horse and the other is on the ground with the lead rope. If the horse starts bucking, the one with the lead rope pulls [the horse] around.”

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Who’s to say what jobs are “normal” for women to have and what aren’t?  So what if they’re “non-traditional”?

Once upon it was neither “normal” nor “traditional” for women to even wear pants, and look where that’s got us!  You go girls!

Looking for “non-traditional” work

Posted: Feb 17, 2010 2:42 PM PST
By Heather Sawaski

WAUSAU (WAOW) — Jobs in the trade industry took a hard hit during the economic downturn. But experts predict job creation to pick up soon, especially for workers in “non-traditional” roles.

A program at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau is designed to help get students past the stereotype. The Non-Traditional Occupations Program at NTC helps students achieve success in roles typically filled by the opposite gender.

Brenda Cichon is welding student at NTC. She enrolled in the program with her husband after they were both laid off last year.

“The government is helping us by funding us and paying for us to go back to school,” she explained. “So we were happy to come back to NTC and join a program that was good for both of us.”

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Albert Paley went from designing jewelry to creating sculptures of immense stature, but continued to use the same soft touch, even when creating giants out of steel.

Size, Scale and Detail in Creations of Steel

By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
Published: February 5, 2010

It is easy to be impressed by the Albert Paley retrospective at Grounds for Sculpture, the 35-acre sculpture park and museum on the former site of the New Jersey State Fairgrounds in Hamilton. The size and scale of the metal sculptures in this indoor exhibit are mind-blowing; some pieces are around 15 feet high, while others weigh up to a ton. They are monumental.

Born in Philadelphia in 1944, Mr. Paley initially worked in New York City making art jewelry, but in the late 1960s he moved to Rochester, where he is on the faculty of the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is essentially an abstract artist, assembling dynamic, flamboyant structures using wedges, blocks and ribbons of steel.

The artist’s training as a jewelry designer has served him extremely well, for while the scale of his artwork has exploded, his attention to detail has remained steadfast. He is a perfectionist who seems to take delight in challenging himself in terms of execution and concept. He is also the only heavy metal sculptor I know who can make his material seem fragile and delicate.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->