Get in the mood for Halloween with some… welding?  There’s no better way for the students at Pickaway Ross Career and Technology Center!

Pumpkin pyramid reborn for 2009

Pickaway-Ross students make improvements

By CRAIG ALLISON - STAFF WRITER

Published: Monday, October 5, 2009 2:17 PM EDT

The famed pumpkin pyramid, always located in the heart of the Pumpkin Show, has received a rework in time for the 103rd show. The job was a joint effort by the Pumpkin Show Inc. and a group of welding technology students at Pickaway Ross Career and Technology Center.

Under the direction of Tommy Collier, welding instructor at Pickaway Ross, students made a design, mounted the pyramid onto a wheeled trailer, fastened a towing hitch,  installed stabilizer jacks, and welded all the parts together for strength and durability.

Brandon Hart was the lead student on the team and was assisted by Burman Detty. Dakota Waggoner and Cody Hettinger assisted in the early stages of the project.

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What will you be welding this Halloween?  Share your ideas HERE.

I happily stumbled across this article at the Pop History Dig.  I say “happily” because I have never article more succint, more informative, or more delightful than the one which I am about to relate to you all.

It is, as was suggested by the title, ALL about Rosie the Riveter – the paintings, the posters, the song (did you know there was a song?), the campaigns for women workers, and loads of interesting little tidbits along the way.

For instance, did you know that Marilyn Monroe was once a real-life Rosie?  Well, she was, but you’ll have to read on to find out all about this, and loads more!

“Rosie The Riveter”
1941-1945

“Rosie the Riveter” is the name of a fictional character  who came to symbolize the millions of real women who  filled America’s factories, munitions plants, and shipyards during World War II.  In later years, Rosie also became an iconic American image in the fight to broaden women’s civil rights.

After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the full involvement of the U.S. in World War II, the male work force was depleted to fill the ranks of the U.S. military.  This came precisely at a time when America’s need for factory output and munitions soared.  The U.S. government, with the help of advertising agencies such as J. Walter Thompson, mounted extensive campaigns to encourage women to join the work force.  Magazines and posters played a key role in the effort to recruit women for the wartime workforce.

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Here at Arc-Zone.com, we love to hear about people recycling their old scrap metal – saving the environment, doing some welding, and most of all – making art!  In Silver City, New Mexico, Stuart Engal of Custom Steelworks is recycling old lightposts.  With a little ingenuity, they are going to become a brand new welcome arch spanning the entrance of Silver City’s historic downtown center.

New gateway to visit visitors to downtown Silver City

By Christine Steele Sun-News Bureau Chief

Posted: 07/31/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

A local business owner is helping to create a custom-designed archway that will span Broadway and welcome visitors to historic downtown Silver City as part of a long-awaited Silver City MainStreet program.

Tommy Johnson, of Custom Steelworks, 202 Bullard St., welds steel plates joining four recycled Silver City lamp posts... (Sun-News photo by Christine Steele)

Custom Steelworks, 202 S. Bullard St., a local metal fabrication business owned by Stuart Egnal, is fabricating the nearly 20-foot columns that will support a steel sign that will say “Downtown Silver City.”

The Downtown Gateway Arch will be installed on Broadway, on the east end of the bridge near Hudson Street. The project is estimated to cost $100,000, including in-kind   and donated services and materials.

Egnal and employee Tommy Johnson have been working for several weeks on the project, welding together four steel columns that had previously been downtown lightposts. The lightposts date back to 1949. The city had been stockpiling them to use in the project, Egnal said.

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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?

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!

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!

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:

Ever wanted to be an astronaut when you were little?  Well, now you can!  Well, no, you can’t, but you can get pretty darn close, by welding for NASA!  Even if they won’t actually be able to live in the International Space Station, these students can get a taste of life in space by welding the very tables that those astronauts will eat off of!

Students work to create table for NASA

Friday, July 31, 2009 | 2:50 PM

LEAGUE CITY, TX — Teachers, mentors and students with the HUNCH program (High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware) are working overtime this summer. NASA engineers are teaching high school students how to create flight ready hardware out of sheet metal.

Jacobs Engineering's Steve Rogers and Clear Creek HS teacher Bill Gibbs help Josh Hartnett learn the intricacies of making sheet metal flight ready for space.

At Clear Creek High School they are working on making a dining table for the International Space Station. The design is already NASA approved and now students are learning how to fabricate the table using wax molds and sheet metal that is flight tolerant. According to teacher Bill Gibbs, the table should be flown to the ISS in 2010.

Steve Rogers a NASA contractor with Jacobs Engineering explained, “These high school students are doing what engineers with 25 to 30 year experience are doing at NASA. These students are doing very well.”

From the design to the fabrication, students are also learning the tedious side of sending hardware into space.

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At the beginning of September this year, way up north in Calgary, Alberta, hundreds of young professionals from all over the world will congergate to compete in WorldSkills 2009.   Particpants compete in areas ranging anywhere from bricklaying and hairdressing to robotics and floristry.

However, since this is a welding blog, you’ll probably be leaning toward the construction metal works, welding, and sheet metal technology categories.

This is what WorldSkills International has to say about the event:

Power. Passion. Precision. Craftsmanship. Camaraderie. Competition!

These six words represent the thrill, excitement and spirit of WorldSkills International.

Every two years, hundreds of the best young professionals from trades, service and technical programs around the world gather to showcase their talents and abilities. This thrilling, high-performance, four day WorldSkills Competition is the biggest event of its kind in the world.

WorldSkills International was established in 1950. Today it is made up of 51 Member countries/regions worldwide. Participants compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals – striving to excel in world-class standards in 45 skill categories, ranging from cabinetmaking to web design.

Yet WorldSkills International is more than just a head-to-head challenge between aspiring professionals. It is a unique, not-for-profit, non-political, non-denominational association whose Members are responsible for promoting vocational education and training in their respective countries/regions.

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For more information, you can go to the WorldSkills Calgary website HERE.

As only the second Canadian host of this event in its 59-year history, WorldSkills Calgary 2009 is proudly hosting The 40th WorldSkills Competition from September 1 – 7, 2009. Over 900 international Competitors will compete simultaneously in 45 skill categories during four days of intense Competition on Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hailed as the pinnacle of global skills, trades, and technology competition, this biennial event promotesWelding, construction metal works, and sheet metal technology excellence and international competency industry standardsCONTINUE READING ONLINE -