Aluminum seminar

[HMW]

Went to an aluminum welding seminar yesterday sponsered by my LWS. Some nice reps there from Miller, walter, Bernard etc. Regional Miller rep [Tim] is a wealth of info. First half of seminar was classroom and was very interesting, covered TIG and MIG for aluminum and the new machines. Afternoon session we got to play with what ever we wanted. Walter guy gave us cut off wheels and the Bernard guy gave us new gas lenses for our spool guns. Was most impressed with the 350P/XR. Wow what a machine. Has push pull gun and works super. Made exellent "T-joint" welds in one pass on 1/2" aluminum. Then could just as easily weld a lap joint on 1/16" Also loved the Dynasty 200 and played with the frequency and thought the sequence set up was pretty cool on that machine.
Had a great time and appreciate Miller and my LWS for having this.

PS Lunch was even great

[jwsrep]

Those events are great aren't they? We put on an open house every 2 years at our main branch store in Rochester. We have over 20 vendors that set up booth's with live demonstrations on all the products and equipment they sell. 2 years ago we had Lincoln bring in a working robot cell. We usually cook hamburgs and hot dogs for lunch, one year we did a pig roast. We usually get anywhere from 200-250 customers to our shin-dig. It's a great layed back atmosphere and our customers get to see AND PLAY WITH all the latest and greatest equipment from Miller, Lincoln, Esab, Thermal Arc, Thermal Dynamics, Hypertherm, MK Products and so on.
Also every year we have a small scale customer appreciation day where we invite our customers for hot dogs, chips, soda. We have maybe 4 or 5 vendors there where customers can take part in live demo's or they can just stop in and eat a quick luch and go back to work. Worth the time invested to thank our customers for allowing us to serve them.

[HMW]

They are great and if any of you guys get a chance to go to an open house or seminar please take the time. You'd be surprised what you'd learn and have fun with the other guys [and gals]. One of the guys I ate lunch with works for himself and has a fabrication shop and he took the time to go. He said he always makes time to go because he learns something that makes him money and he enjoys the other people interested in the same thing
New technology is awesome!!! Its one thing to read about it, but to actually use them as much as you want is a real test. We tried all kinds of things with the equipment.