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.

At Arc-Zone, we’re continually amazed at the cool things people are doing with welding torches and equipment.  Vigallart is a 3D Metal Sculpture artist.

They’re located out in Joshua Tree and they’re making by far the coolest metal welding sculptures you’ve ever seen.  And they’re all made by welding stainless steel and aluminum pieces which is of course, right up Joe Welder’s alley.

Ric’s daughter Molly actually contacted us because they had been having problems with their plasma torch arcing inside the torch head.  We hooked them up with a brand new torch head and consumables so they could keep churning out more of their amazing metal art.

Ric Vigallon has created some of the most stunning metal art you’ll ever see.  Each piece is hand-made by Ric and he specializes in custom orders.  They have shown their work at festivals all over California, so if you get the chance definitely check them out.  You can see more of their metal art art over at their online gallery.  And if you need supplies for your plasma arc welding station, including plasma arc welding torches, performance proven replacement parts and even consumables like tungsten electrodes–  Arc-Zone has got you covered.

Scrap metal doesn’t ever go to waste at Wagner Companies — instead, the employees are using their free time to transform these bits and pieces into beautiful works of art.

Metal manufacturing workers use talents to transform scraps into art

By Rick Barrett of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Feb. 8, 2010

When a piece of scrap metal falls to the factory floor at Wagner Companies, employee James Woggon may be close behind, snapping it up as material for his artwork.

So when thousands of small metal rings were going to be scrapped, Woggon used them – and a chair from the company cafeteria – to create a funky piece of patio furniture.

It was strictly for fun. Yet the talents of Woggon and fellow employee Jason Scott have not been lost on their employer, which manufactures things such as hand railings and snowplow parts. The two were hired as metal fabricators, an unglamorous job that often involves making thousands of parts in a repetitive fashion. But when work slows down, Woggon and Scott use their artistic talents in the factory.

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What did you do this semester?  Clone fruit flies?  Learn about logarithms?

Gary Blazek spent it welding a 500 lb. sculpture of Thor, his school’s mascot.  Now, that’s a project you don’t often hear about!

College mascot recreated in metal

Monday, Dec 07, 2009
By Lynne Lynch
Herald staff writer

MOSES LAKE — His horned helmet reaches the height of the highest bookshelf in Shawn McDaniel’s welding classroom at Big Bend Community College.

The helmet wearer is Thor, a metal statue of the college’s Viking mascot, created by student Gary Blazek. Thor weighs between 450 to 500 pounds and is made of a variety of parts.

Thor was quietly standing in the corner of the classroom last week, just a few days before fall quarter’s end.

His creator, Blazek, 55, was laid off from Genie Industries in February. At the company’s Moses Lake plant, he welded swing units and also worked on a new production line.

He started taking welding classes at the college to improve his pipe welding skills and to make himself more marketable to potential employers.

In October, he responded to instructor McDaniel’s request for students to make items benefiting a student scholarship fund.

Using donated scrap metal from his past employer and a plow disc, he started working on Thor.

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The critters in my garden aren’t made of metal, don’t stand perfectly still, and they certainly don’t have a four-foot wing spans.

Jerry Brooks’ critters do.

In his garden, flowers don’t grow; they rust.  Birds don’t cheep — if anything, they squeak as the wind brushes past.  His garden is frozen in time, and all because of a welding torch.

A Metal Menagerie

Blossoms, birds and bugs for the ages

by Pamela Kleibrink Thompson

On a bluff overlooking a tree-studded golf course in Wilder, Idaho, is a rough corrugated work shed where scrap iron and outdated tools are reshaped, welded and transformed into timeless works of art. The artist whose imagination resuscitates the rusty, beautifies the broken and distinguishes the discarded is sculptor Jerry Brooks.

In Brooks’ world, a sunflower blooms eternally with metal petals and leaves welded on wiry stems. A quartet of birds reveals personalities reminiscent of animated cartoons and looks ready to take flight or do the chicken dance. A shovel blade forms the body of a rara avis. Teeth from two rakes become outstretched wings. A giant dragonfly with wings of burnished copper-colored metal soars into the sky.

Dragonflies are not an uncommon sight at Boise’s Parkcenter Pond, but Brooks’ 40-pound metal behemoth that welcomes patrons to the restaurant Barbacoa always draws attention.

“When I see a piece of rusted metal or parts of machinery that have been bent and worn by time and the elements, I sometimes see a picture in my mind of what they could become—how they could become pieces of art,” Brooks says.

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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!

Not the Carlsbad, CA where Arc-Zone is locate…  but the one in New Mexico…  thems some big roadrunners!

Iron roadrunners installed at Heritage Park

Posted: 10/05/2009 10:55:12 PM MDT

By Valerie Cranston – Current-Argus Staff Writer

CARLSBAD — Heritage Park near the Flume is now the permanent home to one large and three small quarter-inch plate metal roadrunners designed by Terry Fuson and welded by Jeff Cornwell.

Some time back, Fuson made and gave away a few small metal roadrunners to sit on desktops. The roadrunners were made of large nails, nuts and parts of washers.

He gave one to Heritage Park committee member Dale Janway, who then had the idea to pursue a larger family version to place along the retaining wall in front of the park pavilion.

“At one time someone said to me, ‘You should sell these,’” Fuson said. “I told them why, they give away real good.”

Local artist Gerri Mattson offered to enlarge the small design so it would be easier to cut and assemble.

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If this class was offered at my old high school, who knows – I might actually consider going back!  Automotive restoration?  Welding, painting, and metal fabrication?  Sponsored by the local car museum?  Wait – are you sure this is for high school?

Gilmore Car Museum starts high school auto restoration program

READER SUBMITTED • OCTOBER 15, 2009

An innovative pilot program that matches adult mentors with high school students interested in the automotive arts is the newest educational step being taken by the Gilmore Car Museum, near Kalamazoo, MI to fulfill its mission of becoming a resource to the community.

(Gilmore Car Museum)

Beginning its first full week as an after-school course in automotive preservation, conservation, and restoration, the “Gilmore Garage Works” project selected eight seniors from Hastings High and Delton-Kellogg High, the two high schools in its home Barry Intermediate School District, to be part of the initial class.

Students and their adult mentors, primarily Museum members with long histories in the auto restoration hobby, will use a 1931 Willys-Knight donated to the Museum in 2005 as their first restoration project.

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Check out this  welder/sculptor Kevin Caron.  He works primarily in stainless steel to create free-standing kinetic sculptures, like the ones below.  The following video shows how he creates one of his railroad tie sculptures (like this one), from beginning to end.  Enjoy!

The following are two of my favorites:  an unfinished staircase reaching up into the heavens, and a hand tree– literally, a tree with hands for leaves.
For videos of Kevin making these and other sculptures, you can go to his YouTube account here –>

Hands On -- commission, City of Avondale Avondale, Arizona -- steel, powder-coated steel 168" x 145" x 146" -- created 2009

Aspire -- steel 102" x 21" x 21" -- created 2004