Arc-Zone.com is one of the few places you can buy CK Worldwide TIG Torches…  they’ve got a pretty impressive line (and if you don’t find it on the Arc-Zone.com website, give us a call–we can get it for you!).  One of the products from CK that will really improve your TIG Welding is the Gas Saver(tm) nozzle.

Now if you answered What’s a Gas Saver?... you have got to check this out. The Gas Saver is a super-sized Pyrex glass nozzle. You’ll get excellent visibility of the weld puddle and the tungsten electrode– ideal for inside corners, inside pipe and around tubing etc. You’ll also save shield gas consumption and experience improved flow patterns of your shield gas, which as you know means less turbulence, less contamination and awesome welds… Arc-Zone.com sells the individual parts, and kits that include the Standard Diameter Gas Saver and the Large Diameter Gas Saver…

We first “met” Sara Bingham back in 2008. She had just taken first place in welding for the Skills USA Championship .  That win netted her a visit to Lincoln Electric and some hands on training.   She then went on to Uintah Basin Applied Technology College and then the Navy where she now works as a Hull Technician stationed in Japan!

You can read all about it here on Vernal Express, “UBATC training catapults woman into Navy career”

It’s so inspiring to see a young woman like Sara succeed, AND to apply those skills in service of her country–  especially the Navy!  As the daughter of a Navy Captain, the  granddaughter of two Admirals, and the great granddaughter of a Navy Lieutenant,  I’ve a special place in my heart for the US Navy…

So way to go!!

And if YOU are a woman welder, or you know one who would be a great feature for our New Rosies column, drop me a line!

Well apparently Lincoln Electric has gone Hollywood!

The company’s POWER MIG® 140C, Precision TIG® 225 welders, assorted welding helmets, gloves and accessories are featured on the set of the lab run by the Green Hornet’s clever sidekick, Kato, who invents the superhero’s automobile and his trademark sleeping gas gun. Numerous Lincoln products also were featured in both Iron Man, released in 2008, and Iron Man II, released in 2010.

Directed by Michael Gondry, The Green Hornet, which opened this weekend on January 14, is based upon a character first popularized in a national radio series that ran from 1939-1952. It subsequently also was adapted into comic books and also made its way to the small screen as a single-season ABC television series in1966 that starred Van Williams as the Green Hornet and sent Bruce Lee, who played Kato, on the road to stardom.

In the film, Britt Reid, heir to his father’s large company, teams up with his late dad’s assistant Kato to become a masked vigilante, the Green Hornet, to fight crime after his father’s mysterious death. It stars Seth Rogen as Britt Reid, the Green Hornet and Jay Chou as Kato. The film also stars Oscar winner Christoph Walz as evil villain Chudnofsky, Cameron Diaz as leading lady Lenore Case and Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson as the Green Hornet’s father, James Reid.

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, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment and has a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market.

Now if only we could get Hollywood to showcase some of our Arc-Zone.com products…  TIG, MIG, Plasma Arc Welding accessories… or if anyone knows about an upcoming film about Pipe Welders– let us know!

If you need to improve your TIG welding skills, take a look at the newest of the Ron Covell’s videos, Advanced TIG Welding with Ron Covell.

Jim Watson (my boss) over at Arc-Zone tells me that he learned a trick or two from Ron Covell, and Jim himself is a master fabricator!

And for women welders, it’s even more important to stay on top of your game.  The advice I’ve gotten most often from women on how to fit in or get along on a job site or in a weld shop is to make sure you’re always improving your skill set. (actually that’s true in any career!)  And make sure you know what you’re doing.

Go ahead and take a look at the list of Tips for Women in the Welding Industry, and be sure to let me know what YOU think…

What advice would you give a woman starting out?

How do you work on improving your welding and metal fabrication skills?

Geraldine Doyle, who inadvertently served as the model for the We Can Do It campaign, passed away on December 26, 2010 in Michigan.

In 1942 at the age of 17 she had worked briefly in a factory pressing metal. It was there that she met J. Howard Miller, the graphic artist who created the We Can Do It campaign.  (I briefly looked for a photo of Geraldine Doyle, but to no avail– perhaps one will turn up in the news or on the internets in the upcoming days)

Our condolences to her family…

This iconic image is often misidentified as  Rosie the Riveter…  an illustration by Norman Rockwell for a 1943 magazine cover of the Saturday Evening Post (as shown here).

What I like about the image (actually both images) is that they show women as strong with a can-do attitude and a willingness to work hard.

UPATE:  The Washington Post has a link to the original photo taken by Miller (red polka dot bandana and all- though its in black and white), and the LA Times has a stunning photo of Geraldine Doyle as well.