Hobart Teaches Us To Weld

Hobart apparently felt so bad for the metal on our trucks that they decided to come give Primedia's truck group a welding tutorial and tryout.

February 17, 2006
On Ultimate Adventure last year, Hobart was kind enough to send out a truck as support for out trip, just in case anything happened to any of the trucks (can you imagine - truck damage on U.A.?). Well, they got a chance to look at some of our welds, and apparently felt so bad for the metal on our trucks that they decided to come give Primedia's truck group a welding tutorial and tryout. And it was pretty cool too. Hobart sets these things up at schools for kids to try as well, helping inspire little ones to start building and creating, right from the get-go. There's a good chance you might run into the Hobart welding truck at some of the bigger off-road events as well, so keep an eye out for their black and orange box truck.

1. Hobart spent the morning at the Primedia offices helping some of the editors gain new experience in metal fabrication. Heck, half us who were there didn't even know you could stick-weld aluminum. All it takes is a different stick type, but the machine is the same.
2. Robin Stover of Four Wheeler Magazine showed the rest of us that he's actually a pretty darned good MIG welder. We guess we're gonna have to stop razzing him about not being able to weld on his own junk; he actually can. Darn, well, we'll find something else to give him a hard time about.
3. Even our publisher Jeff Nasi came out in his fancy shoes to give a little tryout with a Plasma cutter. "Coooooool!" was his first response. We understand - something that is able to cut through 1/4-inch plate in just seconds is cool!
4. Here's a close-up of Nasi's handiwork. He's using an Air Force 250 cutter that runs on just 110V AC. It can cut up to 1/4-inch plate cleanly, but for anything thicker, you'll want to invest in one of Hobart's larger plasma cutters. This 110V unit is cool though, because it's small enough to throw behind your seat, and will plug into any normal 110V electrical outlet.