Arc-Zone.com® Inc., the first internet-only company to sell welding and cutting accessories online, has added electrode holders for Stick/SMAW welding to their ecommerce website.

In addition to the standard shortstub and tong style electrode holders, Arc-Zone sells Stick Electrode holders complete with DINSE connectors and leads – choose from 12.5’ to 50’ lengths.

Arc-Zone.com president Jim Watson says, “We’re really taking advantage of our new ecommerce site which lets us add products, responding quickly to our customers’ demands.”

Founded in June 1998, Arc-Zone delivers proprietary, brand name and OEM replacement parts and accessories for GMAW, GTAW and Plasma Arc Welding and Cutting applications to customers worldwide.

For more information, visit the Arc-Zone.com web site at www.arc-zone.com, call (800) 944-2243 or email sales@arc-zone.com.

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Although this is not related to welding in the least (unless some of these girlz are riding a custom chopper!) a friend of mine is a member of the San Diego Sol Sisters motorcycle club and they’re doing this ride for charity:

On June 21st, 10 women from San Diego will be firing up their motorcycles to make a 15-day trip through 12 states. Our main destination is Graceland and we plan to arrive on 6/25/08 for a 2-day stay. We will have a documentary filmmaker along for the ride, as this trip is about so much more than just getting to Graceland. It’s about our journey as women, a celebration of why we ride, and an homage to the rebels of yesteryear who saw the open road as an escape, a challenge, and a friend. The documentary will be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in October 2008 for their 2009 season.

When we reach Memphis, we’ll be stopping at Presley Place, a homeless shelter which is supported by Lisa Marie Presley and the Elvis Presley Foundation. While the dozens of parents at the shelter attend a Life Skills class, we’ll be babysitting their children - taking photos on the motorcycles, providing them with biker toys and leading a cooking class on “How to Make a Biker Meal.”

READ MORE ONLINE–>

And if you see them on the road, wish them a safe journey!

Arc-Zone.com has partnered with Master Fabricator Ron Covell to bring you some terrific DVDs on How To Weld. Ron himself worked with us to select the premium DVDs he felt would best serve our customers:

• Basic Techniques for Working with Steel
• Chopping and Sectioning
• Hammerforming Techniques
• MIG Welding Made Easy
• TIG Welding Basics and
• Working with Tubing

These DVDs should get you well on your way to Weld Like A PRO™!

I’m not a huge fan of either Carrie Underwood (though she has a great voice) or country music (although I totally respect some of the storytelling lyrics)  but I noticed this the other day, and had to say whooo hooo!

Check it out, right at minute 2:22 on the All American Girl video.  It shows up again at 2:49, flames and everything!

Probably too late to register for the Spitfire Forge June 8-14, 2008 Women’s Welding Workshop (in Taos, NM one of the most beautiful places on our planet) but there is still time to sign up for the October 26- November 1, 2008 workshop.

The class is taught by metal artist Christina Sprongg, originally from Stockholm, Sweden. She now works as a blacksmith and fabricator in New Mexico. She has been teaching since 1996, advocating metal as a “tangible medium for all to tackle.”

The class is a “non-competitive and comfortable environment where students can familiarize themselves with welding and forging tools at their own pace.”

Taos is a wonderful place, and this week long workshop includes instruction, all materials, field trips, lodging… and more! Register Today…

Another great tip from Weldcraft®

Maintaining good electrical contact between your tungsten and collet helps improve current transfer and weld quality. Keep your TIG torch components tightened and check regularly for worn parts.

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.

This one caught my eye…. the Vision Award seems similar to the Image of Welding Award, and Tomboy Tools — what can I say. It’s the new tupperware! Check it out.

NAWIC’s Crystal Vision Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals with vision who help promote, expand and encourage the role of womenin the construction industry.

Janet Rickstrew (left), co-founder and CEO of Tomboy Tools, and Nancy A. Eaton (right), CCA, CDS, CIT, CFO of Par 3 Landscape and Maintenance Inc., help pave the way for women in the construction industry.

Fort Worth, TX (PRWEB) May 16, 2008 — The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) is pleased to announce the winners of its 14th annual Crystal Vision Awards. The mission of the Crystal Vision Awards is to recognize individuals who promote, expand and encourage the role of women in the construction industry. Janet Rickstrew is the recipient of the Crystal Vision Award, which is awarded to a nonmember of NAWIC, and Nancy A. Eaton, CCA, CDS, CIT, is the recipient of the Crystal Achievement Award, which is awarded to a NAWIC member.

Janet Rickstrew is the co-founder and CEO of Tomboy Tools. Rickstrew, with the help of a friend, founded the company in 2000 in an effort to provide hands-on training and high-quality tools for women around the world. The mission of Tomboy Tools is to build confidence and empower women through education, quality tools and an independent business opportunity. In order to fulfill her mission to teach women the needed skills to make simple home repairs, she designed Tomboy Tools as a “party-plan” company. This structure encourages women to join the company as consultants who then reach out to their communities and teach other women the hands-on approach. Rickstrew has initiated educational processes of teaching women and promoting the idea that women can and should consider a career in the construction industry. Read the rest of this entry »

A common thread among many women welders is that they were first introduced to welding by a man in their lives. Laura Knight is no exception. “I started welding copper water lines with a plumber and then married an air conditioning technician who welds steel…. and I learned wire feed welding from him,” she says.

Rather than welding as a trade, Laura moved into a more creative endeavor with her new found skill, working with metal to create “paintings” and sculptures. With a painter for a father and a mother who works in jewelry, it was a natural move. “Artistic welding is my career now,” she says, and with over 300 paintings sold has chosen her career well.

She first tried to learn welding when she was in her twenties but found the process frustrating and the helmets uncomfortable. She couldn’t do the designs that she wanted and soon gave up. “I had to wait until the technology caught up with me,” she says, referring to the auto-darkening helmets.

Ideas come to Laura as full-scale, full-color, three-dimensional pictures in her head. She then draws her idea, “Then it’s out to my outdoors-under-the-awning-workshop to put it all together.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Over at JoeWelder.com we’re running a contest of sorts. A way to get a Free T-shirt:

We’re starting a new regular feature:  Ask Joe.

Each week we’ll feature real questions from real customers, and answers from our own Joe Welder.

Joe, aka Jim Watson, doesn’t like to toot his own horn, but he has a tremendous amount of expertise in TIG, MIG and Plasma Arc Welding and Cutting products– you can read the details over at Arc-Zone.com or read some of the About Joe Welder posts.

And, if you have a welding question you’d like answered, go ahead and Click on the Contact Joe link.

If your question is featured on an Ask Joe post, we’ll send you a t-shirt!