The Monster Energy crew is in the Zone setting up our IV drip system.  Things could get interesting.

Today’s blog will be a short one, because I’ve been so busy working on several awesome projects that time is limited.  As those of you who have read this blog for any length of time know, I am the Founder and President of Arc-Zone.com.  When I’m not blogging on Joe Welder about welding, motorsports, cycling or other things that interest me, I run our welding supply company.  Here’s some of the cool stuff happening at the Zone, and the reasons why it’s good to be Joe Welder:

Reason 1: Miller just delivered a bunch of new toys

I’ve been working on a special program with our friends at Miller for some time, and today it finally feels real.  Miller dropped off a Millermatic 211 MIG welder, a Dynasty 200 TIG welder, a Diversion 180 TIG welder, a Spectrum 625 XTREME Plasma Cutter, and some cool accessories like a wireless foot control for us to play with.  I can’t tell you what it’s for yet, but I can say that we’re working on a way to get you more free education and better information to make sure you have what you need to do the job right the first time.

Reason 2: The contractor and designer were here working on our new spaces

Arc-Zone HQ is expanding, and part of that expansion are two spaces that I’ve been dreaming about for some time.  We’ll announce more in the coming months, but what we’re working on is totally unique, and will transform Arc-Zone.com from just an online weld-shop to a real-world destination and hangout for welders.

Reason 3: We’re hiring

The American economy is slowly recovering, and thanks to our great customers, the Arc-Zone business is expanding.  We’re combing Southern California for customer service reps and warehouse staff to meet the demands of our ever-growing customer base.  We’ll profile a couple of the new additions on the blogs very soon.

Thanks to our Arc-Zone.com customers and readers of the Joe Welder and Carmen Electrode blogs (that means you!), I get to watch the big vision that started with our opening in 1998 come to fruition.  We’ll soon be back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Until then, weld on!

At an auto show a few months back I got to talking with Pete “Hot Dog” Finlan, the former painter from West Coast Choppers, about custom painting a couple welding helmets for Arc-Zone.  I envisioned a cool old school hot rod theme, with gold leaf, metal flake, and pinstriping.  Pete, who also happens to be the uncle of Sarah, the Shipping Manager here at Arc-Zone, was up for the job.  I gave Pete two Miller Digital Elite  welding helmets with instructions to paint a personalized helmet for me and another helmet that we could give away to a lucky Arc-Zone customer. I chose the Miller helmet shells because of their cool shape, comfort, and lens technology.

Yesterday, Pete dropped off the finished product, and everyone in the office was blown away by how great these helmet shells look.  The level of detail in each of these helmets is mind boggling.  Hot Dog is a master at all the old school styles – flake, gold leaf, pinstriping, lettering, flames, airbrush.  There are custom-look welding helmets for sale, but these are on another level.

Pete, a.k.a. Hot Dog, has been creating world-class custom paint jobs since 1982.  Pete began his career airbrushing surfboards and progressed rapidly to master all the various aspects of custom paint, including airbrush sign paint and pinstriping.  For several years, Pete worked as the in-house painter for West Coast Choppers.  Nowadays, Pete remains busy with various custom painting jobs through his company, Hot Dog Kustoms, and participates in painting competitions at auto and motorcycle shows nationwide.

The darker orange and blue helmet will be the first custom-painted helmet shell I’ve ever had in all my years of welding.  In the past, I have always decorated my helmet with stickers.  I remember back in the day when my dad and I painted our own welding helmets because we wanted a custom look on a shoestring budget.  Having a famous hot rod painter like Hot Dog paint a welding helmet for me was something I only dreamed about back then.  It’s good to be Joe Welder!

As I am sure you are all wondering, we have big plans for one lucky Arc-Zone customer to get their hands on the other Hot Dog Kustoms welding helmet, and we will be making that announcement soon.  Stay tuned!

The helmet is orange with yellow airbrushed flames on the sides, front, and top.  On each side is the Arc-Zone.com logo, and the top reads “Weld Like a Pro”.  In the front, the helmet is signed by Hot Dog Kustoms and dated 2012.

We get quite a few fabricators stoppin by the Zone, but imagine our surprise when Skateboarder Josh Kalis walked into the Arc-Zone.com headquarters to pick up a welding helmet….  DC Shoes is just down the street from Arc-Zone…

He rolled up in a cool blacked out Porsche 911 GT2RS and he was getting ready to star a new skating video.  The production company wanted him to skate over a roll-off dumpster, and he told them they needed to put a lid on that thing;  to do that right, they’d need some welding gear.  Josh offered to get it himself and weld it so they could add that to the video.

Josh googled and found Arc-Zone.  ”Sure glad I found you guys,” he told me.

We hooked him up with some stylin’ new Revco flamed out black Stallion gloves and a nice Miller Digital Elite welding helmet.

I  spread out the goods in our styled out conference room– helmets all the colors and graphic options, and told him the the flat black is my fave– you can decal it as you like.   Josh agreed and that was that.

Next the ladies in our Customer Care Department put together the rest of his order and  charged his Amex card.  He even gave up his email address:  ”Put me on the list!” he said.  (Arc-Zone’s monthly email is pretty informative and a fun read)

Josh said, “Man you guys got all the good stuff! When I walked in the lobby I was thinking you only sold online, but I’m blown away!”  He said he’d be buying more from us for his Automotive restoration shop in Michigan — http://www.allspeedperformance.com/

Unfortunately he wasn’t driving this tricked out custom DC Camaro but you can check it out here:

And let us know if you want to stop by! Its great to meet our customers and hear about the projects they’re working on…. We’ll even have you’re order ready to go!

And sign up for our email list to get news of new products, as well as tips and tricks so you can Weld Like A PRO!

Chris Santistevan and John Hams (left to right)

At Arc-Zone.com we get some interesting customers, and Chris Santistevan is no exception. He not only a trapeze artist he is a welder too!

At night he dazzles visitors at the Las Vegas Ultimate Variety Show (see video below).

By day, however, he can be seen fabricating stainless steel above-ground pools for high rise hotels in the city.

Chris called us up looking for a good tungsten grinding solution– Arc-Zone.com offers the industry’s most comprehensive line up of tungsten sharpeners.

He was concerned that his newer employees were wasting a lot of time dressing tungsten on side grinders, and they were getting inconsistent welds.  We got him hooked up with a Sharpie DX-K pro-kit, and he told us a little bit about his work.

Chris fabricates stainless steel custom pool liners as well as  supply pipes, flanges, and tubes.  I didn’t know this, but evidently it’s a requirement that hotels with pools above the twelfth floor have the pool made entirely from TIG welded stainless steel!

Once completed, the pool is then sprayed with gunite to look like  a traditional pool.   As Chris points out, no one ever actually gets to see his work, but it is critical to the safety of the hotel nonetheless!

It was a lucky day for Arc-Zone, when John Schroepfer of Ramona set foot in our building.

John had originally called us up saying that he was having a tough time getting the answers that he needed for one of his technical stainless steel TIG welding applications.  Scott helped him out, made a few suggestions, and before you knew it, John had decided to come by and pay us a visit!

So, when John stopped by, (with his truck, trailer, and welding equipment in tow), we gave him the grand ol’ welcome, and got him dialed in with a new superflex rubber power cable, gas lens collet body, and our ArcTime™ hybrid tungsten electrodes for his WP-17-12-R TIG torch.  When he said that he needed a new extension adapter for his Miller Maxstar 150, why, we hooked him up with one of those too!

The thing was, I don’t think that John wanted to leave!  By the time we saw him off, he had also bought not only a flow meter, a couple gas hoses, and several packages of tungsten, but also two of our exclusive Arc-Zone Weld-Like-A-Pro™ TIG Accessory parts kits as well!

Remember what I said about John not wanting to leave?  Well, that very next day, he called us back!  He wanted to thank us for hooking him up with the new parts for his TIG torch which was now running “sweet” and asked if we might know where he could find himself a new foot control?

Needless to say, John is now our on our list of highly valued customers (I’m kidding — there is no such list, but if there was, every single one of our customers would be on it, because we value every single one of you!), or at least, our list of customers-who-are-welcome-to-drop-buy-anytime-they-are-in-the-neighborhood.  (Wait, that includes all of you too — now I’m stumped.)

But because John did us the nice favor of stopping on by, we felt that we should do something in turn for him!

While he was here, John showed us some pictures of his work, and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that we were impressed.  John builds high-end custom stainless steel and glass stairway, hand rails and much more.  We were completely blown away by his knowledge and creative ways of working out engineered solutions to difficult custom fabrication projects.

And if you’re ever in the Ramona area, be sure to stop by Sun Valley Glass, Inc. and say hi — ask for a John Schroepfer — we know he’ll give you a red carpet welcome!

You can check out some of his custom work here:

That’s what our first video shoot at Arc-Zone.com® was all about — 8 hours of non stop action!

We’re putting together a series of professionally produced videos featuring industry leading products from some of our premiere manufactures, and of course our own World-Class line up of products. The production crew showed up with all the lights cameras and gadgets it takes to make it happen!

My shop looked like a Hollywood set We had the videographer, director, choreogrepher, best boy, and who ever that is that holds the little black & white stripped Clap board — Arc-Zone take two! — add in the wardrobe, makeup and hair stylist for my hot assistant — Roxy Acetylene™….

I don’t know about you but this was my first time in front of the camera. We had scheduled several videos — one About Arc-Zone.com and 12 product videos ranging from Product comparisons, to how-to’s. Boy were we optimistic! We were prepared with all the Arc-Zone Brand and other vendors products organized with scripts, props etc, but we had no idea how long it takes to do one 3 minute Video!

These behind-the-scenes pictures give you a pretty good idea of how it went down, and how much fun we had. We are going to rock it so stay tunned!

I’ve said it before but I love this industry and feel blessed that I’m able to meet so many interesting people and learn about what they are doing with metal fabrication.

I got a call from a Greg — he was in need of some technical info — specifically why his TIG hoses popped, and what he can do to keep it from happening. The power cable burst just outside of the handle. “I repaired it with some tubing, heat shrink etcetera, and it just popped again and started leaking,” he said.

His local supplier’s suggestion was to buy a whole new torch package — which he did– but that did not solve the problem. I talked him through the details of his TIG set up, specifically his connections to and from the power supply and the water cooler. I concluded that his coolant pump needed to be replaced.

We always have PROCON® pumps on hand and all the mounting hardware to connect directly to the welding industries most popular water coolers (from manufacturers like Bernard, Dynaflux and ITW). We also offer a nice refurbished coolant pump. It is much simpler, efficient and cost effective than trying to repair a pump yourself. Buy a refurbished pump, with all the fittings and mounting hardware and when you return your old pump core, we give you a 25.00 core credit!

Greg was relieved that we found the problem and I said we can ship your pump to you and you’ll have it tomorrow. “I need it today I got a job to do,” he said, then added, “and I want to come up and check you guys out!”

Turns out Greg is Greg Deering President of Deering Banjo Company located in Spring Valley, California about 40 miles from us.

We had a nice visit comparing notes about our early days as a start up company and how, due to the web we have connected with so many interesting people!

Deering Banjos “The Great American Banjo Company” is the premier manufacturer of banjos. These finely crafted instruments are played by some the best musicians worldwide. Obviously there is a lot of woodwork involved and apparently some of the brasswork is TIG welded! Check out the factory here:

[flashvideo filename="http://www.joewelder.com/VIDS/deeringfactorytour.flv" /]

Longtime Joe Welder friend Randy Haberman dropped in for a visit last month, and sent us this email:

It was great to have the opportunity to visit Arc-Zone in August!

My flight from O’Hare to LAX was unusually uneventful and, after picking up my rental car, I was heading south on the 405! (Editor’s note: the picture at the left is Randy’s ’32 Ford, not his rental car!)

I had to stop in Oceanside at Diego’s for a couple of traditional tacos before making my way to Carlsbad. I have been living in Chicago now for ten years and it sure was good to see all of the mountains, palm trees and chrome 20” wheels in So Cal again!

Visiting Arc-Zone was awesome! You and your staff have really grown the business. I couldn’t believe all of the neat stuff that Arc-Zone has put together for fabricators everywhere. I had a great time talking with you about the state-of-the-industry and all of the bitchin, creative stuff going on in so many fabricating fields; bicycles, motorcycles, hotrods, airplanes, boats! I would encourage anyone involved in fabricating to stop by and visit Arc-Zone while in the So Cal area.

After my Arc-Zone visit I headed north to check-in with my family and friends in Burbank. The Burbank area has long been a center of innovation in many fields. The city is now known more for its movie studios than anything else but there is still a huge amount of creative machining and fabricating capabilities left over from the Lockheed Aircraft and the “Skunkworks” days. Just thinking about some of the technology that has come out of the Burbank area, like the SR-71 and stealth technology, is inspiring to me.

My first Burbank stop was at Bob Shrode’s house. He is the un-official leader of the Burbank car club known as the “Road Peasants”. He had just finished putting a new street motor in his ’34 Ford coupe. This motor is de-tuned to only about 550HP! This is a badass coupe that has run in the low nines. I talked him into taking me for a ride and we were soon making a speed run down Vanowen! There is nothing better than peering through the chopped windshield of a hot coupe on a sunny So Cal day!

After a quick visit to the Auto Book store and a burger at Tin Horn Flats on Magnolia Blvd. I stopped by to see Jim Miles. Jim is a craftsman by any definition. He is one of those guys that can solve any problem with a 12” lathe and a Bridgeport mill. Jim is also a former “Crafter”. He worked at Weldcraft as a tool and die maker for many years before retiring. Jim was responsible for the design, tooling and effective production of many of the Weldcraft products that are still being sold today. Jim is also an old hot rodder. He was putting Hemi’s in cars way before crate engines. Today he is working on his ’38 Ford coupe and his ’33 Plymouth sedan, both of which have Hemi’s in them. Jim is also widely known for campaigning the Magic Muffler blown fuel altered in the 60’s and 70’s. He is just completing a clone of this car which has a Fiat coupe body and a Donovan Hemi engine acquired from Don Garlits! Can’t wait to hear that one fire up!

That’s it for now. I can’t wait for my next visit to So Cal and Arc-Zone!

Randy

Check out Bob Shrode’s bitchin’ ride.

Mario Lozano, aka Super Mario from TSR Fabrication stopped by last week. We first met him last year when he called and wanted directions from Los Angeles– 90 miles away!

Aside from owning his own fabrication shop, Mario was on the Monster Garage TV show with Jesse James from West Coast Choppers. He was selected because he’s a TIG Welding expert specializing in turbo-charging cars, general fabrication and building racing Datsun 510s and the Monster Garage crew was building a drift car.

Mario heard we had some cool TIG torches, tungsten grinders and state-of the art argon purging cups and he wanted to see for himself, and pick up some items. That’s pretty cool when a guy drives by 10 to 20 “Welding Distributors” to get to Arc-Zone.

Mario represents the majority of our customers — he wants the good stuff and he wants to know how, and when to use it. Does he need a $1200 liquid tungsten grinder for a one man shop? Maybe not but he has one because it provides the best possible diamond ground tungsten finish… and part of it is where he is located — in the heart of the SoCal automotive performance hot bed, South Bay LA. All the sport import tuners stay in touch and are always checkin’ out what’s new in each others shops.

His recent visit was to solve an application problem he had. He and his tuning sidekick “Turbo Kevin” asked if we had something to help them TIG weld aluminum turbo intercooler fin spacers, that were about .012″ thick and also to get inside of a turbo inlet they were fabricating.

You should have seen their eyes light up when we busted out the Weldcraft WP-125, water-cooled Micro TIG torch Pro package customized with a cable cover and front end parts — Ready-to-Weld. With that tiny water-cooled TIG torch you can TIG weld inside of a 5/8″ diameter tube! That’s so cool when you can help someone to build something better and faster!