It was the day after Larry Dorsey’s 54th birthday when Katrina hit.  He spent the next week just trying to survive.  Now, 4 years later, Larry is not just surviving; he is thriving, thanks in part to a shiny new welding certificate.

Hurricane survivor, KCC student earns premier welding certification

NICOLE FINKBEINER • READER SUBMITTED • OCTOBER 6, 2009

Larry Dorsey (Kellogg Community College)

Larry Dorsey, 58, received notification on Wednesday, September 30, that he pass the American Welding Society’s 6G Pipe Welding Certification.

The national certification means that the Air Force veteran can make approximately $25-30 per hour inspecting and supervising welding projects.

The certification is rare, and opens up a broad range of employment prospects.

Dorsey arrived in Battle Creek after surviving seven days of flooding from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. It was the day after his birthday when the flood waters came and he thought, like all of the other times, the waters would subside.

Within two days, the food he had ran out so he used a refrigerator door as a flotation device to find food for him and his neighbors. When he realized the waters were not receding, he knew it was time to leave.

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Jerry Fuhriman is, at heart, a painter.  At least, that’s what most people would have thought until this, his most recent exhibition — Mr. Fuhriman has traded in his paintbrush for a welding torch, his pallet of paints for an array of stainless steel.

Showing his metal: Providence artist’s steely sculptures on display tonight

By Emilie H. Wheeler
Published: Friday, September 18, 2009 4:46 AM CDT

Jerry Fuhriman is known throughout the valley for his watercolors and oil paintings, but tonight people will get to see another side of the Providence artist.

A handful of Fuhriman’s newly created metal sculptures will be on display during the downtown Gallery Walk tonight at Fuhriman’s Framing & Fine Art, one of 12 businesses displaying artwork or hosting live music.

But for those who have visited Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City recently, the artwork will look familiar.

Dubbed “Missy’s Rocket,” a 10-foot stainless steel rocket created by Fuhriman and Arthur Taylor of Hyde Park is on display in the symphony hall’s plaza. Like “Missy,” all of Fuhriman’s work on display tonight is put together using salvaged pieces of stainless steel.

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This just goes to show you that fabricators are a smart, savvy and creative bunch! Check out this story on the  Marlin Days at Carolina Custom Towers.  Great way to keep up your chops and diversify your income stream.

Fishing for business

September 23, 2009 5:30 AM
By Drew C. Wilson

Havelock News

Successful companies can adapt to a changing market.

Change is exactly what Carolina Custom Towers of Havelock is doing.

The company makes aluminum tuna towers and other products for custom sports fishing and luxury yachts.

“I really enjoy doing the towers, but the way the economy’s been the last couple of years, there just isn’t the work,” owner Tim Daly said from the company’s shop in Havelock’s industrial park.

So five weeks ago Daly and his employees got together and decided to diversify. Fridays have now become marlin days.

That’s when anodized aluminum that would otherwise be made into tuna towers and T-tops is instead fashioned into marlin, tuna and mahi mahi sculptures and wall mounts.

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Are YOU doing anything to diversify? Let us know!

Check out the one piece mufflers from Woodsage™ Industries, and see how they did it:

Manufacturing motorcycle mufflers

Fabricator finds improvement with rotary swaging

September 1, 2009

Like all manufacturers, Woodsage Industries is always on the lookout for a better way to manufacture the many components it produces for OEMs. It recently devised a way to make one-piece external muffler shells for motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles.

You don’t have to look far to find a motorcycle these days. Riders purchased 900,000 motorcycles in 2008, nearly triple the number sold in 1995. The best-known motorcycle rally, held annually in Sturgis, S.D., regularly draws more than 400,000 riders. In total, organizers put together nearly 1,000 motorcycle-related events every year. That’s not bad for a mode of transportation that was once the domain of not-quite-law-abiding individuals who formed nonmainstream social clubs (biker gangs).

The allure of motorcycles is centered mainly on three criteria: How does it look, how fast does it go, and how does it sound? All three result from extensive engineering, prototyping, and manufacturing efforts. As in all other areas of manufacturing, the OEMs are always on the lookout for a better method. One motorcycle manufacturer, Victory Motorcycles, a division of Polaris Industries Inc., turned to one of its suppliers, Woodsage™ Industries, for input on its exhaust systems.

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Do you know someone doing something cool with metal? Let us know!

How old is too young to retire?  Fifty?  Sixty?  How about eight-nine?
For Jack Hayes, it certainly was, because this year, he is an even 90 and just beginning the transition from full-time welder into part-time “buggering about.”  I guess when you love your job, it’s not “work!”

90 may just be time to ease up

Don Farmer | 10th September 2009

After a lifetime of making and fixing things Greytown engineer Jack Hayes has finally hung up his welding gear.

The 90 year old whose exploits with a welding torch and a spanner are legend in South Wairarapa has flagged away taking on jobs for customers but he won’t be sitting idle.

“I’ll keep buggering about but I won’t be taking on any engineering work.”

For all his successes- that include transforming the fishing industry at Ngawi by vastly improving the mechanics of launching and retrieving vessels from the bay – Jack reckons his proudest achievement was not making anything of steel.

“It was making my eight kids, they are my proudest achievement.”

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