We have evolved from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age and we are nearing the end of the Age of Oil. When historians look back at our time, that is how they will refer to us, to our time on this planet. It is in everything we do and use.

Last night My Wife and I were invited to the Del Mar Country Club for a presentation, a “fireside chat” with T. Boone Pickens it was very interesting and gave me some insight as to the future of energy, and the world energy markets.

Pickens advocates we pursue all forms of alternative fuels and move towards reducing our dependency on imported oil. He believes we won’t ever eliminate oil, and we shouldn’t as he believes we need to maintain relationships with the oil suppliers.

There were some 270 people there and the discussion was moderated by Sandra Maas from KUSI News. I had the chance to speak with Boone after the event and he was very informative and funny! He is currently developing natural gas for transportation, a giant wind farm for power generation and a water company. more info on his site. . .

So HOW does this relate to the Welding industry?
Consider the opportunities for each one of those forms of energy, and natural resources.

They all need to be manufactured and delivered — this takes infrastructure, storage tanks, pipelines, transportation vehicles, distribution hubs, terminals, and dispensers. All of these items are heavily fabricated metal products which require engineering, raw material production, welding, finishing and assembly. Work that can’t be done overseas.

It is going to take thousands of skilled welders, pipe fitters, welding and manufacturing engineers, and others to build the needed infrastructure. Additionally we will need welding equipment, safety equipment and much more.

No matter what your political affiliations are, the opportunity to pursue these energy resources in a creative and thoughtful way will pay huge dividends, provide thousands of good paying jobs, and supply the needed energy to power us well beyond the next several generations.

These are exciting times!

(Grangemouth Oil Refiner courtesy of Bryan Burke)

Lot’s of exciting things happening at Arc-Zone.com…

We are up to speed with many of our internet properties, Joewelder.com, and CarmenElectrode.com, and adding new products to our webstore (we’re launching a new site in October, look for details in your Inbox and on the web soon)!

Additionally, we are preparing to expand our facility, which will allow us to stock more new products, and provide even higher levels of service to our customers.

And in the middle of all this action, I was featured on a local radio talk show, BISTalk Radio!

I’d never been interviewed on the radio and like any first timer I was nervous and rehearsed over and over in my head how to answer questions and interesting things we might talk about. The production staff told me that based on our phone screen I would do great.

I arrived early and talked to the host who asked me some basic questions about Arc-Zone.com – I handed him our corporate presentation binder which is filled with the nuts and bolts of the business, financial ratios, sales growth charts, organizational chart, marketing plan, industry overview etc. That dude was blown away – and that was the topic of the show – How many companies have an up-to-date Business Plan? And I got to share a bit of the history of Arc-Zone.com.

I’ve always said “Luck is when preparedness plus method meets opportunity!”

Take a listen:
Click the Play Button > of this embedded audio player and NOTE: the audio has been edited for the sake of brevity!

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I met my friend and former driver, Mike Sweeney at the USAC/CRA Sprint Car races last Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway, a sticky 1/2 mile clay oval an hour or so from downtown LA, at the base of the Lake Perris dam.

Mike was in town, from Crescent City California where he is now Husband, Dad and full time Surfer. He comes to SoCal a few times a year and works on a couple movies to keep up on his studio union benefits. He called and told me that he was bringing a couple guys with him that used to watch us race at Ascot Park in Gardena California.

We all met at the track and like always, the night was filled with greeting old friends, competitors and a lot of hand shaking and bench racing, some true stories and well, some kinda-sorta close to what really happened…

It was cool because the guys that Mike brought are serious So Cal surf icons: Tyler Hatzikian of Tyler Surfboards, and Jason Baffa Director of the famous surf movie Single Fin: Yellow. Note: Baffa’s latest film, One California Day, premieres July 7.

Turns out Tyler and Jason are also antique hot rod guys, so Mike said, “Hey you guys need to talk to Jim about welding products for your fabrication shop!” (it’s always nice to get referrals!)

I knew Tyler was a famous surf board shaper and owner of a retail surf shop, but I had no idea that he also digs the full custom hotrod lifestyle, Tyler drives a 1959 El Camino and a 1932 Ford High Boy roadster with a flathead Ford engine (similar to the one pictured here).

We had a good time and I’m always amazed at how many people I meet are into fabricating–
it’s bitchen!

Meet Gary Fisher – he Created the Mountain Bike – the Mountain Bike Industry, in fact – and has contributed to creating a culture of mountain biking enthusiasts, me being one of them.

On Sunday, my buddies, Long Chain John, Surfer John, Dr. Eye and me met at our usual spot next to I-15 north of San Diego on the banks of Lake Hodges we ended up parking on a portion of the ladies mountain bike skill training track they set up– It was so cool @8.00 am they were meeting to do an off road riding clinic – One of the ladies came over and told us to move! (we did)

We got suited up and rode over to the Trek/Gary Fisher demo compound. I noticed this dude that had a cool look and I could tell the way he was talking to the bike mechanics that he knew what he was talking about. I told my riding buddies I thought that was Gary Fisher.

I went over and asked a question about the pedal he chose, and he looked up and said “Hey man I’m Gary Fisher what’s your name!”

We talked about suspension and frame geometry – I was impressed with how passionate and technical he is. One of my friends asked him a question about his GF Cake bike that suffers from chain suck (that’s technical way of saying the chain comes off). Gary was very informative and had some great tips for his issue, and for general bike set up and maintenance.

When I asked him if he was a fabricator – at first he snapped back, “No. I wanted to build a big company. I wanted to build and sell great bikes. I didn’t want to be the one man shop.”
Later, however, he did admit that you do get a great feeling of release when you’re fabricating a nice part, “but I wanted to do something big so we sent all the production work out to established shops,” he said.

We talked about Arc-Zone and soon began talking about precision TIG/GTAW Welding and before long we were talking about TIG welding Titanium.

Gary said then when they started with titanium, it was like black magic, very few people had the expertise to weld it — and in fact, developed the technique and then taught Sandvik Metals how to do production TIG welding of titanium.

We went on to talk about the industry, and the component suppliers – it was great because he shares many of the same views I do about product quality and how the consolidation of the industry, and shifting production has had a negative effect on most products.

Bicycle manufacturers experienced the same thing we’re experiencing now in the Welding industry — too many reverse engineering companies too few innovators. . .

Gary demonstrated the differences between manufacturers by comparing the front forks on the four bikes that me and my friends rode. I had the one he liked best, a Trek Fuel 9 Pro I Series with its fork manufactured by Fox– the best engineering, manufacturing, technical support and best repair facilities — the whole package. (by the way, that’s what we strive for at Arc-Zone!)

I asked about the new 29″ wheel full suspension bikes or 29er’s – about the performance advantages.

“When you ride there is a pecking order, some people are much faster and they are always out front, with this bike you can be out front,” he said.

With it’s 29″ wheels you roll over the bumps better, corner better and climb better with less wheel spin (11.5% more tire contact patch)

After our 16 mile (25.75km) ride we stopped at the compound where there were a couple of VW Touregs with large trailers filled with bikes – but no 29ers! We should have demoed one first thing in the morning!

It’s not like me, but I went back later with my daughter Siena to get a picture of Gary Fisher so I could write this blog post.

I didn’t see him at first and was ready to leave when I saw him in a chair under the ladies demo trailer canopy. I was nervous and Siena said “Daddy I want to meet Gary Fisher.”

In the photo above, that’s Siena wearing her favorite Race Girl T-Shirt signed by open wheel racing champ and soon to be Nascar star AJ Alimendinger

Siena’s already seen her share of top performers in many fields, we are blessed.

One of our favorite radio programs on NPR is Marketplace. We usually catch it on the ride home… If you haven’t listened to it before, one of the best segments is called Conversations from the Corner Office:

Marketplace goes one-on-one with CEOs and corporate leaders

CEOs, company founders, head honchos. . . . Whatever you call them, the men and women who hang out in the corner office are just like the rest of us in some ways. But in other ways, they’re very different. After all, you don’t create a successful business or make it to the top of a major company unless you have extraordinary drive, energy, ambition and passion. Not to mention intelligence and strong opinions

Some of the featured CEOs include Joseph Gallo (Gallo Winery), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), John Mackey (Whole Foods) and Bill Marriott (Marriott Intl) …and more… and cover topics range from growing as an entrepreneur to managing a family run business and staying competitive through challenging times.

And the best part is you can listen to Conversations from the Corner Office online…

This blog offers a fresh and brutally honest perspective on welding industry news, reviews of innovative companies and products, and profiles of those who are making an impact in the metal fabrication industry.

What we hope you’ll find: tips, tidbits, perspectives you won’t find elsewhere, as well as insights, original interviews and more that should be of interest to the metal fabrication market worldwide. We promise to keep the content fresh, and interesting.

This Blog is primarily written by Jim Watson (aka Joe Welder), a master fabricator, welding equipment designer, industry professional, online distributor, and owner of Arc-Zone.com, Inc.

Contact us with your suggestions, comments, corrections, errors, praise or flames. We will be editing comments for SPAM, and inappropriate content (you know what that means!)