Aims Community College of Colorado is reaching out to its welding students with a newly established memorial scholarship.  It commemorates the late Dale Majors, a welder himself, and a member of the college’s Board of Trustees.

New scholarship to aid Aims welding students

Staff Reports
Thursday, July 30, 2009

Dale Lee Majors 1936-2009

Family and friends of the late Dale Majors have established a memorial endowment scholarship for welding students at Aims Community College.

Majors, an early and longtime supporter of Aims and a welder, played a significant role in the development of vocational programs at Aims. He served on the Aims Board of Trustees for 16 years and was presented with the Honorary Aims Fellows Award in 2009.

He owned and operated Majors Welding Supply & Equipment Co. for 25 years, Gateway Self Storage and other commercial properties. Dale was also active on numerous boards in the community, including president of the Greeley Rotary Club.

“Dale loved the welding industry, had thoughtful business practices, and was committed to the community,” family spokesman Jeff Engelman said in a statement. “The scholarship is a way to pass these traits on to future generations.”

For more information about scholarships at Aims, call Julie Buderus at (970) 339-6583.

Check out this video showcasing a technique known as explosion welding…. Explosion welding also produces high quality welds on almost any combination of metals, not only is it a surprisingly dangerous type of welding but surprisingly effective as well.

You’ve always been told that fire and water don’t mix. But what they didn’t tell you is that it can also produce a great weld. Diver welders dance with danger as they weld as deep as 10,000 feet underwater. Some jobs even require diver welders to go to extreme depths and stay in those environments for several days. Excellent precision and concentration are a must as distractions are abundant, from inquisitive sea creatures to strong ocean currents. Using cutting edge technology, underwater welding can produce excellent welds even with those seemingly adverse conditions.

There’s nothing like a movie on a Friday afternoon at work. Tsk tsk, I know I shouldn’t be watching movies at work but this one is about welding. And not just any welding movie, but an interesting and surprisingly informative promotional flick from the 40′s. This well made movie covers a variety of welding processes like Qxy Fuel welding and cutting, Stick (SMAW) Spot or Resistance welding, all done in a variety of settings from training schools to high rise construction projects, to ship yards. Enjoy!



Several months ago I didn’t even know there were welding competitions, let alone individuals known as “World Class Welders.” I thought that kind of prestige was reserved for athletes, but it turns out that I was wrong. Stuart Greer was a world class welder back in 2007 and his success in the World Skills Championship 2007 is showcased in the following video. The precision and coordination needed to make a good weld are pretty impressive, anyone can learn to weld but not everyone will be a world class welder. Kudos to you Stuart!

I was back in the shop last week looking around the storage area where I have archived some products that we have collected over the last 25 years. There’s some really interesting stuff back there, from the first TEC brand TIG torches to the first Weldcraft Micro-TIG torch, and the first Crafter Series prototypes and more.

I was looking for a specific Plasma gas distributor for a recent post, when I found something that brought back some great memories and made me laugh — the prototypes for the Weldcraft Plasma Cutting torch! Did you know Weldcraft had a Plasma cutting torch? Well they did and it was a real market innovation — (that’s my favorite word).
It was some 15 years ago… I was Director of Manufacturing at the time, and we decided it was time to leverage the outstanding worldwide brand name that we had built at Weldcraft. We had an excellent group of skilled guys and we identified the Plasma Arc Cutting market as an area that was greatly under served (as it is now).

So Randy Haberman our lead Mechanical Engineer took the concepts and created a blockbuster product line — a universal Plasma Arc Cutting torch that would fit all the popular Plasma Arc Cutting machines and used basically one set of parts! Think about it –one torch — one set of parts regardless of machine type. It was a real innovation.

Weldcraft’s PC-30 Plasma torch was the first to use a sculptured ergonomic handle with a built-in trigger switch located on the bottom of the body — and get this — it was completely rebuildable.

We created a dedicated facility across the street from Weldcraft with a dedicated engineering staff, machinery and sales force, we began to expand into all types of high quality aftermarket Plasma Arc Cutting parts and that’s when the trouble began.

What happened to the Weldcraft PC-30 product line? As the Product Manager I was told to relocate it to our sister company Bernard and rename it PlazCraft.

It seems companies like Hypertherm and Thermal Dynamics didn’t appreciate the competition, and because our division President was trying to buy one or both of those companies we were told to shut it down!

I said I had to laugh because now you see all the new Hypertherm torches with a similar comfortable handle style, and Thermal Dynamics is spending heavily to promote their “One Torch” one torch that fits a variety of Plasma Arc Cutting machines… Been there. Done that! Even Abicor Binzel is in the game with their Abicut Plasma Arc Cutting torch.

That’s been my experience in this industry a lot of copy cat’s — few innovators…

Practical Welding Today is a great source of information, covering everything from how-to guides and showcasing fabricators to illustrating the nuts and bolts of your welding equipment. This article, “Gun Control: GTAW torch design innovations enhance productivity, quality” outlines the history of the development of the TIG welding torch over the years. And while the magazine is careful to not name names, or show preferential treatment, we’re under no such editorial obligation here at JoeWelder.com. Many of the innovations in TIG welding Torch design happened at Weldcraft. And while Jim Watson doesn’t like to brag, I’ll tell you that he was in on some of that innovation, and in fact patented a design for a new TIG Torch, a TIG torch now known as the Crafter Series.

You’d never know it from watching any kind of metal fabrication on tv, but safety is a big concern for most welders. The American Welding Society is a great source of information about the industry, and has a collection of welding safety information, from hazards in the workplace to information on Thermal spraying, Resistance spot welding, Laser cutting and Plasma arc welding and cutting…. found online in the AWS Safety and Health Fact Sheet section.

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.

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