Sherry Little, Big Cat Human Powered Vehicles

Sherry Little is a unique individual. As a deaf female welder in a mostly-male profession, she is the longest-tenured welder at Big Cat Human Powered Vehicles, a recumbent bike and trike manufacturer that manually welds its products and produces more than 2,000 units each year. Starting out in the industry more than 30 years ago, Little began as a welder because she had a passion for building things. But as a female welder in the early ’80s, it wasn’t easy.

“You always had to be better than everybody else,” said Little. “Like when I was in school, I had to do everything over and over because my brother knew I would have a hard time getting a job — and it was true.  Now it’s not that way, but 20-25 years ago, it was not as easy.”

Today, Little is the lead TIG operator and master welder at Big Cat, responsible for training the shop’s other welders to meet the exacting standards Big Cat has for its bikes and trikes. Little’s work has helped Big Cat receive trike of the year six times, as recognized by industry outlets. And in 2009, Big Cat was recognized as Florida’s best small manufacturer of the year by the Manufacturers Association of Florida. It’s this quality concern that has been the reason she has used Miller TIG machines for most of her career. Today, she uses the Miller Syncrowave 250 to weld Big Cat bikes and trikes.

Shawn Moreland, Hot Az Hell Welding

As an experienced welder, Shawn Moreland cut his teeth at Northern Pipeline, and a few other places before founding his own company. Today Moreland’s company, Hot Az Hell Welding of Chino Valley, Ariz., is known as one of Arizona’s premier welding contractors for building carbon steel handrails along Arizona’s highways.

After installing tens of thousands of linear feet of handrail, Moreland found that flux cored welding with Miller’s SuitCase™ X-TREME™ 12VS wire feeder could deliver significant productivity and cost savings.

Before purchasing the SuitCase wire feeders, Moreland and his crew relied on the Stick welding capabilities of their Bobcat™ 250 and Trailblazer® 302 welding generators. Now, Moreland and his crew run the SuitCase wire feeder off of the welding generators. By adding a SuitCase wire feeder and switching to flux cored welding, Moreland was able to realize a 33 percent increase in productivity, lower consumable costs, less cleanup and a better distribution of labor for a substantial return on investment.

“Between wages, consumables, fuel costs and actual production, I figure we’re saving at least $650 to $800 for every 100 ft. of handrail,” says Moreland. “And after seeing what this machine can do, I can honestly say that soon we will double our footage amounts in an 8-hour day.”

Miller Electric Mfg. Co. has expanded the Racing-Customizing-Restoring (RCR) Web page on MillerWelds.com.

Geared toward providing valuable content to Do-It-Yourself auto enthusiasts, race fans and the aftermarket and performance industries, the page will feature how-to welding and cutting articles and videos, highlight racing partnerships and “True Blue” industry leaders, share relevant projects and offer tips for welding and cutting.

“As a company, Miller is invested in making its website into an indispensable resource for welders and fabricators,” said Sue Feldkamp, Interactive Marketing Manager for Miller Electric Mfg. Co. “Our RCR page is a critical component of MillerWelds.com, and our automotive and racing audience has indicated hands-on, how-to information is among the most valued content Miller provides.”

Miller fans can also access a discussion forum for helpful advice from other welders and view upcoming events including auto shows and the Miller Jet Dragster race schedule.

Visit MillerWelds.com/rcr for more information.

Let’s face it. Safety is important, especially when welding. Below are a few tips to keep you safe and comfortable for those long nights in your garage.

Make sure you have a pair of welding gloves and I highly suggest sleeves, too. A pair of these will protect you from burns, hot parts, flying metal and arc rays. The rays from a welding arc will burn you faster than sitting on the beach. Plus, I’m sure your wife won’t appreciate the stink of burnt skin after a night of welding on your racer.

While multiple brands offer welding protection and accessories, you can visit http://bit.ly/iKRon0 for the CoolBand and other safety items mentioned. Until next time, take care!

Eye protection is also a must. Invest in an auto-darkening helmet for welding and have a pair of shaded safety glasses on-hand for plasma cutting. Anyone with a bad case of welder flash can tell you they would rather take a mixture of salt in the eyes.

Anyone that welds will also tell you it can get warm quick. There are some nice fresh-air breathing accessories on the market now. You might consider the Miller CoolBand™, an integrated headgear cooling system that optimizes airflow under the hood, making it up to 8 degrees cooler while welding. I often use it when I am working long events and race tracks where we provide welding demos and offer free repairs on participants’ racecars. You wouldn’t believe the difference that fresh air makes.

In addition to the CoolBand, wearing a welder cap or beanie is nice too for soaking up sweat. A cap also adds extra protection from sparks or flying spatter when you’re welding out of position, like overhead, for example. Some of the nice beanies even cover your ears! You haven’t lived until you are welding under your rig and a hot molten weld spark rolls down and parks itself next to your brain…..and then sizzles for a while…

Late last week Miller introduced the newest member to its family of industrial engine-driven welding generators, the Big Blue 450 Duo CST. This dual-operator welding system provides two completely separate TIG/Stick welding outputs as well as 12,000 watts continuous 3-phase power and 10,000 watts continuous 1-phase power.

For more information, check out the product page here.