Recently I headed up the road to the Tulare Fairgrounds for the World-of-Outlaws Sprint Car Race!

Tulare is located in the Central Valley of California, “the nation’s bread basket”. They call it that because of all the agribusiness. And I have some history in Tulare, my family farmed in the valley for generations — they had several big ranches and dairy barns, that’s where I learned to love the dirt.

I know it sounds strange, but growing up I always looked forward to going to dirt race tracks with my family. I began amateur motorcycle racing and that passion for competition ultimately lead me to build my own cars and form a Sprint Car Team. I still love the dirt and I ride my mountain bike at least 3-days a week in the local mountains.

I took Matt with me — he’s Arc-Zone’s Director of Video and Graphics. We brought all the gear to video the action. I wanted to share some of the things I love about motor racing and show how it relates to the welding/metal fabrication market.

At the track we met up with “Hollywood” Mike Sweeney my friend and former driver in the CRA Sprint Car Series (I talked about him on a previous post). We also met long time friend World of Outlaw driver Jac Haudenschild a superstar in the dirt racing world. Picture below: That’s me with Jac– Driver of the City Wide Insulation # R19 Owens-Corning Outlaw Sprint Car in front of his transporter (nice toolbox!)

We talked about the new cars and old friends. Jac told me he is putting a winged Sprint Car team together for his son Sheldon and he has been fabricating some of the parts needed to get him on the road.

Jac mentioned our mutual friend and former driver– now TV personality (and part time welder) Brad Doty (also a Hall of Famer) was having trouble finding the right remote amp control for his Lincoln TIG machine. Jac suggested I contact Brad and get him dialed in… That will be another post!

And if you like fast cars look for the video of our trip– we’ll have that ready soon…

One should never get tired of watching welding videos.  Or, at least, I don’t.  So, if you’re like me and you need more welding footage in your life, check out this Welding Theatre website I found.

It’s amazing and it has videos from nearly every company that you can think of; you can even submit your own.

Actually, it has videos for everyone except Arc-Zone.com, but we all know you can just go to our website to see those.

Check out the new PipeWorx™ Welding System or a Dynasty 200® AC/DC TIG/Stick inverter– now available in a complete water-cooled TIG Runner package.

And if you want to upgrade from Miller’s basic package, consider adding a WP-18 TIG torch for high-amperage, continuous duty welding applications, or WP-24W, Low-Profile, Front Loading TIG Torch For Tight Jobs. And be sure to make it an Arc-Zone.com PRO Torch complete with all the accessories, including gas lens and a pack of Arc-Time(TM) Hybrid Tungsten Electrodes– the only tungsten you’ll need, it’s good for all metals, all welding applications.

Miller to Introduce New Pipe Welding System, Improved TIG Welder and More at WESTEC 2009

• Visit Miller at Booth #4013
• On display: PipeWorx™ Welding System, designed to streamline pipe fabrication.
• Also on display: Miller’s Dynasty 200® AC/DC TIG/Stick inverter now available in a complete water-cooled TIGRunner package.

APPLETON, Wis., February 2009—Miller Electric Mfg. Co. will be presenting several new welding and plasma cutting solutions in booth #4013 at the WESTEC 2009 Exposition taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center, March 30 through April 2. Products on display include the new PipeWorx™ Welding System, a multi-process welding system designed for pipe fabrication shops, and the Dynasty 200 AC/DC TIG/Stick welder, which is now available in a complete water-cooled package for increased operator comfort and ordering convenience. New Spectrum® portable plasma cutting units and Millermatic® all-in-one MIG welders will also debut at this year’s show.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Good welding. In Nascar, and all forms of racing, it’s essential, especially if you want to walk out of a crash with your limbs intact. At Kevin Harvink Inc. (KHI) the Team Fabricators make sure of that by using MIG and TIG welding techniques to reinforce the cars’ roll cages, wheel spindles, and sheet metal bodies to make sure that the drivers (and cars) don’t take too much of a beating in a collision.

WELDING ESSENTIALS FOR RACING
Beefed up spindles, roll cages & precision bodywork

Punishment. At 200 mph, it’s the best way to describe the beating that multiple left-handed turns can put on a car or truck. Then there’s the competition to keep a close eye on as drivers aggressively fight for the lead. Team Fabricators with Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) know a thing or two about punishment as they teardown, and rebuild the trucks and cars that Harvick races in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series. The speed and g-forces placed on these cars and trucks is tremendous – but they’re nothing when compared to the energy the vehicles must absorb if they collide with the wall or take a 180 mph (unintentional) shot from another racer. In these cases, NASCAR drivers place their safety, even their lives, on their vehicles’ integrated safety measures and also on the structural toughness of their cars and trucks. Since no metal-to-metal bond is stronger than fusion, MIG and TIG welding techniques are essential among NASCAR team fabricators.
CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

EDITORS NOTE: Joe Welder highly recommends these TIG torches if you’re in the business of welding race cars and related parts.  Check out Arc-Zone.com’s selection of WP-125 Micro TIG torches and WP-225 and WP-150 Modular TIG torch packages.

I can’t believe the number of calls we get from fabricators complaining about how their torch is bad, or the tungsten is junk, or….

Last week a Master Custom Motorcycle builder called me and said “man my welder is acting up can you set me up with a new Miller machine?” I jumped on the chance to tell him about the performance advantages of the New Miller Dynasty 350 DX — we sold four of them last month to a large customer and we don’t even sell welding machines! (but that’s for another post)

When I gave him the price he realized hoped there might be more to the issue than the fact that he had an older model TIG machine.

What he described was an uncontrollable weld puddle with porosity, sparks and smoke. That’s fine for MIG welding but not TIG!

I asked him the usual questions:

Is the material a cheap import?
Do you know what the mill specs are?
Is it coated with mill scale, did you clean it well?
Did you use your tungsten grinder to prepare your electrode?

After he’d checked it out, he called me back.

“Dude, I am so frustrated. It still is not working.”

When I asked him to check his gas bottle to verify that it is pure argon he told me, “I just had my supplier deliver some new bottles.”

“Check the Teflon insulating gaskets and back cap o-ring to insure they’re sealing properly,” I said.

He told me, “I gotta confess I need a new torch. You know the complete set-up like you sold me last time.”

I asked why and he told me “I got so mad I threw in on the shop floor and bent the body”

He said it wasn’t leaking water out the gas cup so I told him he didn’t need a new torch.

Turns out — and this is hard for me to believe — his gas supplier sold him and delivered Argon/Co2 mixed bottles. That is something I rarely ask because it’s so basic. But apparently it’s more common than I realized (Carmen Electrode tells me she hears this all the time on the welding forums).

My advice– save yourself time and money and ALWAYS verify the contents. “Gas type” should be clearly marked on the label of the cylinder. For TIG welding use Argon or in some cases Argon and Helium.

I know I’m adding this question to my checklist and you should too!

We asked Arc-Zone’s Sales guy Tim to guest post here about the revamped Trailing Shield section on the Arc-Zone.com website. He’s taken the lead in making sure we offer all the high tech trail shields and gas purging cups for TIG and Plasma Arc Welding applications.

Trailing in the Fourth Quarter

When a sports team is trailing in the fourth quarter, they put they best players in to bring it home. Welding is no different. When welders need the absolute best weld and gas coverage, they go to their best equipment. And for the best purge gas coverage, welders utilize high-tech trailing shields and purging cups.

Many TIG and Plasma Arc Welding applications require specific gas coverage and Arc-Zone.com understands the importance of the strength of the weld and how poor gas coverage can lead to poor weld quality. To correct the helm, Arc-Zone.com redesigned an entire section dedicated to gas Purging Cups, Standard and Extra-Long Straight Trailing Shields and Multi-Diameter Curved Shields.

In addition to maximizing shield gas coverage, these high-tech trailing shields lower gas usage and ensure weld strength. Designed for the most popular TIG (GTAW) and Plasma (PAW) torches, the cups and trail shields come ready to install on your torch.

Arc-Zone also offers a full line of welding accessories to adapt the trailing shields and cups to multiple tungsten sizes to help keep your equipment efficient. So now when you need 4+ inches of trailing shield gas for your 17 series TIG torch or cylindrical coverage for your 3 inch pipe with your 22 series mounted TIG torch… and you need to triumph over the competition by having the best weld, you know who’s got you covered.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you need more info on any of these trailing shields, give our sales team  a call. They’re  up to speed on these highly engineered accessories and will make sure you get the right equipment for your team.

For years– maybe since 1992 when Al Gore “invented” the internet by sponsoring the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act which allowed commercial traffic on the internet– Weldcraft’s website has been pretty much the same.

We’ve heard rumors. There have been rumblings. Whispers in the hallway. I’ll be honest, we made jokes about the old Weldcraft website. But all that has changed…

Weldcraft has launched a new website, and we here at JoeWelder.com are the first to break the news (pictured right)…. And we’re sharing it with you.

We’re actually very excited to see the direction they are going. For years we’ve been hesitant to direct any of our customers to the Weldcraft website, even though at Arc-Zone.com we proudly sell the Weldcraft line of TIG Torches. The graphics on their new site are nice and clean, the product looks great, and I see a link to a Help Me Choose A TIG Torch page that we’re hoping is a great interactive tool for TIG welders. Perhaps akin to the Miller Electric SmartSelector™.

You can read the official press release here….

Do you think Weldcraft is heading in the right direction? What information would you like to see about TIG Torches that you haven’t been able to find elsewhere?

The difficulties and complexities surrounding the art of gas tungsten arc welding can frustrate even the most expert welders and fabricators. While scouring the web for the latest industry news, I came across a how-to article on TIG torch assembly…hope you enjoy!

Tips for TIG torches: Simplifying torch assembly Jack Fulcer, Practical Welding Today, 11/11/2008

Proper installation of GTAW torches–whether air- or water cooled–is just one bullet on a long list of reasons that GTAW is so complex. The best way to simplify torch installation is to become familiar with the components and how to assemble them properly.

As if gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) weren’t already difficult to master, GTAW torches have numerous interchangeable parts and designs to further complicate matters. CONTINUE READING ABOUT TIG TORCH ASSEMBLY ONLINE –>

Or check out Jim Watson’s video tutorial on How to Build a Water Cooled TIG Torch:

Want to pursue welding as a hobby? Want to make some money on the side or start your own fabrication business, but are turned off by the high price tag and complexity of welding machines?

Well the crew over at Miller has just released a great machine that is both inexpensive and easy to use. Our own JoeWelder^TM, a.k.a. Jim Watson, says “The Diversion 165 is a great tool for the novice welder.” Jim goes on to say, “I recommend that machine as a starting point; to complete your TIG welding station I would add our New TIG welding safety bundle, a TIG Weld Prep Kit, Sharpie^TM Series Tungsten Grinder and a AK-2-Pro^TM Accessory Kit, — with that combination you can achieve high-quality welds on a variety of materials from steel to aluminum, stainless steel and titanium– right out of the box! I would also suggest a copy of Ron Covell’s TIG Welding Basics DVD.” All of these products are available in our industry leading welding accessory webstore. (more…)

There’s a lot of interest in titanium welding. It’s a very corrosion resistant metal and it looks nice but it has a reputation for being difficult to weld. Titanium is very sensitive to oxygen contamination, so one important factor is maintaining the proper shield gas coverage, and allowing the weld to cool without letting oxygen in. Otherwise the titanium can become brittle.

At Arc-Zone we recommend using a gas lens and a super large gas nozzle. The gas lens diffuses the flow of gas so that turbulence doesn’t pull oxygen into the weld zone. As for shield cups for TIG Welding, choose from the Gas Saver clear glass nozzles, high-tech flooding cups and the popular (low-cost) Monster™ TIG Nozzle.

And once you’ve got your torch set up, check out this great article over at The Tube & Pipe Journal online:

TIG for titanium tubing: Success hinges on filler metal selection, cleanness, gas coverage
By Jack Fulcer

Jack covers the the basics, including cleaning the base metal, joint fit-up, shield gas coverage, filler metal selection, choosing the right TIG Torch, and even color acceptance criteria for the welded titanium.