The CWB Association had the privilege to attend Fabtech in Chicago, IL. We are bringing you special episodes recorded in person to keep our members on top of what’s new and exciting in the steel and welding industry.
This week we catch up with Alex Jordan from AM Custom Fab. Alex is a Welder/Fabricator, with a successful business and YouTube Channel providing instructional and entertaining welding videos. Join us as we discuss the innovations in welding and the rise of YouTube growth with Alex!
Follow AM Custom Fab:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amcustomfab/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC63HmFeIGEan20WbefrG4PQ
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
WeldReady: https://weld-ready.ca/
Fabtech is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event! Schedule the next event in your calendar: October 15-17 in Orlando, Florida. https://www.fabtechexpo.com/
The CWB Association had the privilege to attend Fabtech in Chicago, IL. We are bringing you special episodes recorded in person to keep our members on top of what’s new and exciting in the steel and welding industry.
This week we catch up with Alex Jordan from AM Custom Fab. Alex is a Welder/Fabricator, with a successful business and YouTube Channel providing instructional and entertaining welding videos. Join us as we discuss the innovations in welding and the rise of YouTube growth with Alex!
Follow AM Custom Fab:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amcustomfab/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC63HmFeIGEan20WbefrG4PQ
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
WeldReady: https://weld-ready.ca/
Fabtech is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event! Schedule the next event in your calendar: October 15-17 in Orlando, Florida. https://www.fabtechexpo.com/
Alright, I checked, checked, I'm good. So I'm Max Ron. Max Max Ron. Shitwb Association Welding Podcast. Today we have a really cool guest Welding Podcast. The show is about to begin.
Speaker 1:This episode is sponsored by our friends at Canada Welding Supply. They are a family owned Canadian business with an awesome customer support team that's there ready to answer any questions you may have. Canada Welding Supplyca offers quick Canada wide shipping, fair prices and a massive selection of welding supplies. They carry all the cool brands such as ESAB, lincoln Electric and Fronius, but also some of the very hard to find niche brands like Furecup, outlaw Leather and, of course, up and smoke welding apparel. Best of all, they offer exclusive discounts only for our CWBE Association members. Check out Canada Welding Supplyca today to shop for all your welding needs. Remember that's Canada Welding Supplyca.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWBE Association Podcast. My name is Max Ron and this is the wrap up interview of the podcast that has been Fabtech Chicago Week. What an amazing week. All the people, all my friends, industry contact suppliers, distributors and professionals that have been out here. I stepped in on some sessions, some keynotes. It's been super fun and also exhausting. So I'm here today with Alex Jordan, who has been on the show before and has done a great job, and I met you at Fabtech, I believe, two years ago here in Chicago. So now this is the follow up. Now, how is it going, alex?
Speaker 3:Good. There's things have changed, but it's been going good. It's been cool to just kind of get immersed in this I don't know what you say, group of people and learn lots of new things.
Speaker 1:So what did you learn?
Speaker 3:What are?
Speaker 1:the new things you think you learned this year.
Speaker 3:This year there's just a lot of cool processes I've seen. One of my favorite things I've seen this year was OTC came out with a brand new welding process.
Speaker 1:It's called a plasma welding one, the plasma arc one. Did you try that out? I didn't get to try it out, but I did see it and I looked at it. It is so cool. Plasma welding has been around for a long time but it hasn't really caught on. The way they're doing it now might be the ticket.
Speaker 3:I was highly impressed. The only downside currently is it's three phase only, so you might be able to run a phase converter, but I don't know if the Ampdra would hold up to it or not. But just the process of it. I was running on some 316 thick aluminum on the AC side and you could run an 8th inch wide bead on 316 aluminum at 150 amps. Wow.
Speaker 1:That was pretty loud.
Speaker 3:No, no, not too bad. It's a little unsettling at first because the high velocity argon on the inner nozzle sounds like an air hose and immediately when you hear an air hose around you, you're like stop.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna blow my shield against you.
Speaker 3:So that's a little unsettling to get over at first.
Speaker 1:Nice, stable arc, little umbrella. Well, it's not an umbrella.
Speaker 3:It looks like a plasma arc.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's just like straight on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of more straight on.
Speaker 2:It's kind of got a little like.
Speaker 3:But it's very pinpointed and it just directs that heat right into the joint. And the other cool thing about that is because it's so pinpointed it doesn't saturate the entire part.
Speaker 1:So the heating puts less. Well, at least throughout the ambient part of the whole thing, the heat effected zone is less.
Speaker 3:Exactly. You're putting more heat where it matters. So that's pretty cool. You're not like we're taking a coupon and you could grab the top of it with your glove on still and it wouldn't like burn your glove out. That's wild. And the other cool thing we're messing with was they had some on the DC side of it. They had some dirty, stainless there with just like a heavy scale on it and then when you run a pass on the back side you're going to get all those chromiums are burnt out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, the sugar, sugar and stuff like that Run a bead right over the back side while it's still hot. Even they didn't push through. No pushing through, no undercut, just a beautiful rainbow bead.
Speaker 1:I've seen a lot of stainless plates out there that people were playing with different processes, different boots, and you see a lot of pretty welds on top. You flip it over and you got a bunch of sugar in the back. That won't fly, though. That's not allowed.
Speaker 3:But I mean most of these just don't have purge set up. They don't have a purge fixture set up in the down low.
Speaker 1:If you don't got purge, you got to go quick.
Speaker 2:That's expensive.
Speaker 1:So in the last two years you know, when I interviewed you we did it virtually you got your shop at home. You're working away. You're also really investing into the social media and the videos and stuff like that. Are you still doing that? Are you still like the same level of importance? I feel like your shop's gotten bigger. You've bought new tools. I see like you got a mill and you got some stuff. Do you still have the same time to do the social media and the YouTube stuff at the same pace?
Speaker 3:Not at the same pace. I've been trying with that. The shop hasn't gotten any bigger, there's just got more Like I'm still my two single garage. It's a 280 square feet. Yeah, pack a lot of tools in there and I'm running out of room to work. I had another building that I was able to get access to and I'm kind of renting. It's a 1200 square foot building and I was going to move everything over there, but because I still have kids and stuff like that, it's hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well she's right, keep sticking around. I love them.
Speaker 3:But that it makes it hard to just like run out for half an hour work on something While they're taking a nap, right, and so that ended up not working as well as I was hoping. I still have the play space that I just kind of use as staging, so if a larger project or like bring it over and then bring stuff over.
Speaker 1:Keep materials out of the exterior Exactly.
Speaker 3:So it's more of a staging area now, because it's still it's affordable, so it's worth hanging on to. Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with a staging area for organization, because space is a premium amount of how you work it like covered space, especially in Oregon, so wet and stuff, yeah yeah, and it's not even semi temperature, old to, so it's kind of not frozen, at least Exactly, it's got a fireplace in it. I can.
Speaker 1:Warm it up. Warm it up, exactly, yeah. Now how's let's? That's? There's two pieces of that conversation. How's the business doing? So how's am customs Good?
Speaker 3:And like it's starting to grow, like it's not. I don't know. I'm not trying to explode, yeah, and I haven't been able to put as much time as I'd like to, and obviously I just had my third kiddo about six, seven months ago, so is that it now? Yeah, I had to take care of so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no more wife. No, just kidding.
Speaker 3:No, no, I couldn't do with her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, the third kiddo. Well, what name? Boy, girl, what's a little girl? Emma, emma, nice. So you got a third kid and a baby, of course, and the other ones aren't that old.
Speaker 3:So I got a four, two and seven months old. So, when do you work Um? Whenever I can.
Speaker 3:I'm busy at the day job I usually work nine to 10 hours a day at the day job come home and eat dinner with them and spend about three hours, four hours with them, play with them and stuff and thankfully, at this point in their life, they go to bed fairly early. Yeah, because seven, seven, because they are up no matter what time. We put them to bed at five am, so we put them to bed early because they get up early. So, yeah, eat a clock. I got and work in the shop for another two or three hours each night.
Speaker 1:And the day job is still same day job you had two years ago, yeah, yeah, and that company was building.
Speaker 3:We build large-scale stage sets right for the entertainment industry. So we do stuff for Disney, university Studios, cirque Soleil, blue man group. Just who done stuff with opening ceremony Olympics? We just finished building a brand new show for the win casino in Vegas. Mmm cool Larev was the current show that used to be in there and they tore all that out. We built a lot of the new components for the new show, which is called awakening.
Speaker 1:Oh, cool and the house that gig. Been you still happy there. You know they've been busy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's especially this time of year because it's an entertainment industry. A lot of companies have a fiscal budget and so around this time of year they're like, oh, we got money left and so blow it all this. We get all these last-minute orders and they got a. They don't necessarily have to get done by the end of Year, but they have to be started by the end of the year to be able to get their deposits in the peels exactly.
Speaker 3:So from like now till February is always our busy season, and right when fab tech is of course exactly hey boss. It's really busy. I gotta go again. Yeah, they weren't super impressed that I left this week.
Speaker 1:But you could. But you've been here like you're Atlanta last year, like you don't miss them. No, you don't.
Speaker 3:I it'll be hard for me to miss one. If I do like it, I'm hooked, yeah, yeah, just the connections you make and like the people you meet, like Yourself included, like just making having the resources at your fingertips of just experience, like, yeah, and it's not even the trade show, for me it's a lot of like just the after parties and stuff be able to sit down with people and Learn what they're doing and how they do stuff. Like it was cool, not last night, night before got to sit down with, went out to dinner with who is it? With Mike from garage bound and a dueling, and like Chuckie and Ian Johnson, right, and we went all, all the five of us went out to eat and they all just sat and talked business and experience all night. And I just took notes the whole time, actually on a piece of paper on my phone, my notepad. Open my phone, I'm like under the table taking notes.
Speaker 1:No, that's a wealth of experience. Like Chuck is amazing. There's broken arm. This. What a guy. Chuckie, be careful, come on. We went up for supper. Ian was with us last night. He's a Canadian right so so we always try to spend some time together and he's a great guy. Yeah, and then we try to band up, because when there's a couple Canadians together in the US, we're like hey there's, there's more than one of us now we can.
Speaker 1:We can talk smack now. And you know, adam, we have not been able to get on the show yet. We keep talking to them. He's like, yeah, yeah, but he's moving at a hundred miles an hour himself. So he is, but he's just a wealth of knowledge, also like yeah, he, and he does stuff that like not too many people do, like that beat rolling. He does that so well I kind of don't even know how that works. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I haven't personally messed with the beat roller. Yeah, I mean it's on the list that I really want to do but I was heavy industry.
Speaker 1:Like you don't do it, you don't touch that stuff. In heavy industry it's like for sheet metal and like age. So when I see that happening, like I can see it in products in the world, and been like, hmm, how do they do that? And then I go to his Instagram he's like do, do, do, do, do, do. Look at this and it's like what, like how.
Speaker 3:For sure, like I was kind of jealous of that class that Ray and Mike from garage brown there took last week. Like that looked like a fun class or work in the English wheels and you know that she met a work and that's something that's definitely on the bucket list to yeah, did my toes where do you find that equipment anymore?
Speaker 1:I got a hit of poxons like I know they make new English wheels, but you know like you can make this stuff too.
Speaker 3:Well, not necessarily the dies, but the main main structures. But yeah, for me it's not necessarily like I just haven't got it because I'm not space. Yeah, I can't justify the space for it, especially like reindeer and sheet metal. Rain sheet metal is sheet metal. So, yeah, you need a lot of room to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Now you brought up, like the people you know, the, the, and it's come up in a few of the podcast We've done this week. It's like you know, fab tech, yes, technology products, distributors. It's like you come, it's like there's a Walmart or Superstore you know a safe way, all in one place, right? So, like, you get to like, pick Whatever you want, it's gonna be here and Various versions of it that you can take a look at. So if you're like even inkling at shopping, this is the place to do it, right, and that's awesome, absolutely, I love it. I love seeing around. I didn't get around enough this week. After we pack up here, I told you know, we're gonna go for a walk. She's like well, everyone's gonna be wrapping up. I don't care, I'll catch what I can before everyone leaves because I have a net time.
Speaker 1:But on the other side of that, it's the relationships in the networking which I find I put most of my focus on, because a human capital like the, the people part of it, it's not that easy to repeat or replace. Like I mean, if I miss the e-sab booth, I can reach out to my e-sab guy and he can come over and explain it to me in Regina in Canada, right, but if I miss hanging out with Becker, I Can't just have Becker come over whenever I want, right and and there's things I can learn from him, and you know. So I want to have those conversations with the people I know here and meet new people that, like you said, you're just sitting around and everyone's just talking about what they do and everyone's got a different angle, a different viewpoint, a different level of experience or history and it's all useful, all right, is that? What's your favorite Stuff that you like to learn? When you hear like, do you like the technical stuff, like the metallurgy or the shop talk stuff, tool stuff, or like just business, sir?
Speaker 3:The business stuff intrigues me just because I feel like that's gonna be the next step for me, mm-hmm and kind of stepping more out. I mean, I technically have this business, but it's just more of a it's so paying hobby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a paying hobby right now.
Speaker 3:So if I'm perfectly honest, but so that's interest me just because I know it's gonna be kind of the next step. But I mean, I'm a tool junkie also, yes, but I also love those relationships. It's so nice to be able to be like you run into something and this community is so great. You can send person a text and be like, hey, I ran to this, what would you do? And just to have that feedback or a different perspective in the moment and just have the accessibility to do that can Save you so many times, just like.
Speaker 1:And not have to make that mistake yourself. Man, I should have asked somebody about this.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Or instead of having to pick from a hundred options, have that person narrow it down to four for you and be like Try this one, this one or this one. Like yeah, yeah, it just kind of expediates that learning process and yeah so when did you get in with what no like into Chicago? Oh, I came in. Sorry, what did I come in? It's all been up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of where I'm going with this.
Speaker 3:Sunday night. It's a Sunday night Actually. I came in midday Sunday.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you were at the hard rock. I saw you there at the hard rock, and when do you leave to like tomorrow?
Speaker 3:or leave at 8 pm Tonight.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know, over the four days that you're here, you know how have you scheduled your days, like what you wake up and how do you plan the things you're gonna do and what you're gonna see and and what you want, like you know, for a night ten, or your schedule cuz you don't have a booth, yeah, you're not presenting, you're not speaking. So you kind of have the ability to create, like your schedule for each day, which I'm very, very jealous, like I would love to be able to do that, and how do you do that, and you know how do you decide.
Speaker 3:Um, I didn't really have a schedule. I had a couple like Goals I wanted to hit because I wanted to film a little bit for the channel. So check out a custom fab on YouTube. Um, but before that I didn't want to just like walk around with the camera the first two days.
Speaker 3:So the first two days I just kind of Stuck in scope stuff out and just kind of tried to foster relationships and stuff like that. And then Yesterday I walked around with the camera and hit the people and I'd. The other thing I found is just I'll catch people off guard less if you just talk to them first, and so the first two days I go by and then talk to people about their stuff and so I'll come back.
Speaker 3:Be like hey, if I come back on Wednesday, you care, if you just give me a quick presentation, tell me about your product on camera, and then they'll be like oh yeah, for sure so. And then it gives them a little time to prepare too, so they're not caught off guard and they can cause some people don't like being on the spot either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so funny, cause that's the exact opposite of what I do.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't always do that, but I found that I love catching people off guard. I was finding last year some people were like no, you can't film because we weren't prepared for this.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess not to sound like weird, that's two podcasts in a row. I've said that now, but so maybe I just down weird. I'll just say the largest case. So I'm just weird, OK, but I love catching people off guard, but I also, like you know they'll be like, oh, he's from the CWB. I should probably take this, you know, cause like it'll be good exposure and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I don't like when people prepare too much. That's because then it turns into like a really like purposeful product placement, that's right.
Speaker 1:And I'm trying to just get like more of the vibe like how's the show, how are things to get going? And if you give people too much like I mean, maybe a day is fine, but if you give people too much notice, then don't really think about it and be like, well, today was great. But you know, the SR 7245 has been found.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's true. You know and you're like well, I don't give them a time. I'm coming back, I'm just like sometimes I'm going to drop in Wait for them to start eating a sandwich. I'm like OK now when a couple of times I've dropped in right when they were talking with another customer to kind of drop in, and then then they got there like telling the customer about it and you're showing me your toy that you've been using to record with the little microphone thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just. I decided to bring a small camera this time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you got a big one that goes with you for like yesterday or today, or do you do that for everything?
Speaker 3:I left a big camera at home, yeah, yeah, it's not a huge camera, but it's just a mirrorless. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then how like you got those little microphone thing is a little creepy. Yeah, I hope they work like that's cool.
Speaker 3:I'm excited to see what the quality of Amar when you get back to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good, because that's pretty neat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like the fact that they all just kind of like go into like a little air pod and they're super easy to key right in. And the cool thing about that camera that I've liked is it actually shows you a mic input on it. So if the mic is feeding you'll see a level. They've got a level that bounces as you're doing it and it turns red if it's too hot and some of that. So, that's pretty cool for a little action camera. Get that out of it.
Speaker 1:So so the business is doing all right. I saw you bought a mill. I was jealous. That's the one too I don't have like a milling machine at home Didn't you.
Speaker 3:Oh, I haven't bought one, I had. I've had a second hand one for probably six or seven.
Speaker 1:OK, I just saw the picture of it in the pool.
Speaker 3:I remember saying to you I was that was probably something I was actually I don't know which picture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I sent you a message like, oh man, I need one of those, and you're like, yeah, it's pretty cool, I like it.
Speaker 3:I remember I was sorry, yeah, so anyways it could have been at work too, because every once in a while I can't get a little like the broad picture of what I do, but I can post things in the macro and show the the welds.
Speaker 1:So, like, what I'm getting at is that you know you have these tools, you, you have your job, you have your work, but you still have YouTube, yeah, so how's that going? How's that been? What have you been doing with your YouTube channel and it's?
Speaker 3:growing and then that's exciting to see it grow Like I've just hit twenty three thousand subscribers and it's starting to pay for itself now Because, as you know, this stuff is not cheap and takes time and stuff like that and, like I said, I'm not making money with it, but I would say that it's. It's paying for my time now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's on rotation now, exactly.
Speaker 3:So that's encouraging. And then I've been able to get on with several sponsors. Actually, I got going to be negotiating, but I was able to hit up one of the abrasive companies that I wanted to work with this week. That was one of my goals.
Speaker 1:That was also one of my goals this week is to hook up with an abrasive company, and so we'll have to talk later.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the same one, yeah it's they have in a product that is for grinding aluminum and it is the best aluminum grinding product that I have.
Speaker 1:Is it the one that won't even go through the can It'll like? Ok, so.
Speaker 1:I got a demo from a abrasive company which will remain nameless for now, but they'll take a can of Coke like an empty Coke can. Ok, they'll put this aluminum abrasive. So that's like, you know, like what? I don't even know what gauge is, like 30 gauge, yeah, something crazy thin and they'll lean into it and it'll peel the paint right off a Coke can without burning through. Oh wow, no, this was. And I was like that's cool, that's cool, like I mean, that is a very I don't I don't even know the technology that went in, I think, but it can peel the red off Coke without wrecking the can. And I was like that is crazy level of accuracy for a grinding.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like an abrasive. Huh yeah, I'm not good on good with you about what that is. No, this one is more of like the equivalent to like a 36 grit.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, so that it'll chew, but it doesn't load up, whereas, like you know, when you have a flap disc, like you get into it and then it's trash.
Speaker 3:Yeah, unless you're putting lubricant on it, which works, but then then you got to get off yeah. Yeah, and so these things is weird, because when you touch it it feels like an orange peel. It's not even abrasive, but like these things last.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it's a little bumpy.
Speaker 3:Lightly bumpy, but it's not like gritty, yeah, but it'll bite in, like it'll. But it'll bite in and take material away and it lasts a long time.
Speaker 1:Really? Yeah, I don't think we have been talking to the same company.
Speaker 3:I don't think so either.
Speaker 1:Oh, we have to do a little like cross education thereafter, so, all right. So, like the YouTube videos going, what are the projects that you've been doing on there? What are the sort of content have you been putting?
Speaker 3:on. I've been doing quite a bit of product reviews lately, which I kind of want to get a little more away from because they're sales in the end. But yeah, I mean some things. I genuinely believe in all, most all the things that I show. I genuinely believe in the words, sorry, genuinely believe in. I don't show things that I feel are junk or whatever, but I just want to get in more of the projects, and because you're not really a salesperson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not so.
Speaker 3:I've. I'm working on the jet boat. I don't know if you've seen that I got a no, I didn't see that. I have a micro aluminum jet boat. It's a six footer, oh man. And so be careful, those things are dangerous. I've got a 700 cc two stroke engine to go in it, so it should make about seventy five horse power Just be skipping across the water. So I'm super excited about that.
Speaker 1:Forget turning, man Forget. There's no turning In all turn.
Speaker 3:So I mean it's a cool glorified jet ski basically like all aluminum hull and so the kit was a six footer. But sitting in it, like my shins are in the dash, so you're a big guy, I yeah. So I just end up stretching at six inches and that allows me to get my knees under the dash and I can almost flat foot it.
Speaker 1:So OK, all right. And was this a kid? Or would you buy a blueprint and then make it all, cut it all out? No, it was a kid up from Canada actually.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah. So one of my sponsors provided it and wanted me to weld it up with their machine, and so it's been an ongoing project with that, so it's been fun.
Speaker 1:How much welding is there on it Like?
Speaker 3:lots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, how many pieces is the hull in?
Speaker 3:15. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you got to like do like full pan and then grind smooth from the outside.
Speaker 3:I've been. The cool thing about is, like it kind of the way the kit lines up. You have basically like a fillet on the outside and then, most of them, there's a fillet on the inside also. Ok, basically I've been doing the inside first, or sorry, I'm sorry the outside first because that's going to be ground off mostly, and then I'll burn the inside in after that. And so do it all take.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm taking it all, so it's slower, but I like wire just spooing and then not as fun.
Speaker 3:Not as fun. I want it to be kind of clean. So excited about that project, I have several other projects kind of in the queue. I have another project that pertains to the jet boat. I don't want to like make it public yet.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you that afterwards OK.
Speaker 3:But I have an idea for it, to build off of it and make some fun content with that. And then I also have just some like curriculum that I've been writing over the last two years. I'm still been working on it, so I have intentions to just kind of like make an online course.
Speaker 1:You want to get into the educator space? Yeah, so.
Speaker 3:I mean a lot of what I do on YouTube is kind of educational. Yeah, a lot of tutorials and how to use, and the thing that I've been learning lately is like when I am in the industry as far as like level of experience and stuff like that. I mean, I've been doing it, for I've been at my work for 13 years now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And, if you count hours spent, probably closer to 20. Yes, those 16 hour days add up. Yeah, yeah, but I forget that, like the majority of people need to start from where some start somewhere. So like it's a good reminder to me that I've been learning lately is just kind of like bring it back to basics, basics, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:And just like be able to be relatable from a lower level, because the majority is starting from that level and so I remember when I was first starting in writing curriculum and I was talking to a couple other content builders and and they were like well, I said something about like well, maybe we should just do like a flat, like a well test play, and say, oh man, everyone does that's like, that's true. Yeah, right, it's true. But I bet you and I do it differently, like just right now I bet just between you and me.
Speaker 1:I bet we have different settings, I bet we have little different tricks, and if someone is struggling trying to do it these 10 ways, maybe the 11th is the trick you know. So don't ever feel like you know that it's been done already and no one will care, because maybe even just your voice, the way you talk or the way you present it, might be more attractive to somebody than the way someone else talks or presents. Just personal preference right. Like you don't know that, so you just get it out there, right?
Speaker 3:For sure. Yeah, Now I have people are like oh, you already did that, I don't want to do that. I'm like, no, do it because like I'm in the same boat, Like I mean you did that in high school. It's like I went through two different math classes before you found one that you understood.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like.
Speaker 1:So, as you work on this content over the last two years since last one, you've been working. Have you like updated the gear? Have you tried to like invest into the editing or quality? Have things changed? We kind of staying to like the formula.
Speaker 3:I've definitely become more efficient at it, just learning how to be able to shoot and edit faster. I'm still not Super great at it, but I haven't really I don't think I've really upgraded any equipment, so you know stuff that came right there about that last week.
Speaker 1:And what's next now? Like so you know you're gonna walk away from Fabtech. You know tonight that news a pm yeah, so you're leaving tonight. You know what are you walking away with, what are you feeling like you you gained and and what's like hoping in the next couple months You're gonna like implement out of this.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, hopefully I can Foster those relationships with these brands that I was able to connect with, yeah, and we can figure something out from there. And then also, just I don't know like yeah it's like too much.
Speaker 1:There's a lot yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean Definitely keep packing away at the stuff that kind of have a list of running Videos that, yeah, I'm gonna be doing. So start packing away at those. How?
Speaker 1:do you make that list, like, how do you get the ideas of what you want to do? I just Things that I see and stuff and I just write it down and then have an idea of you get requests to people said and then something Like hey, alex, can you do it, jordan, or can you do, can you do a video? Can you do a video on this, or whatever.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, I do get those. A lot of it pertains to the Company welder that I work with primarily there I get a lot of people ask me about specific functions.
Speaker 3:All right, so like specific settings, exactly yeah so I get a lot of those requests and most of those I'll just kind of answer in the private messaging and stuff like that. But every once in a while I do get a a Kind of when I start getting a bunch of the same question, like the last video I just put out was three tips on how to upgrade this welder because this company came out with a newer welder that's bigger and better and everybody's like well, I have this one, should I upgrade? And it's more expensive, and stuff like that. So I came out I showed like ways that you could upgrade this, the existing model Mm-hmm. Things like replacing the earth clamp, like because a lot of these factory earth clamps are sheet metal clamps and they don't have they have proper spring, spring or or they have galvanization between the connection, which that'll fry your board if eventually.
Speaker 3:And so the video is just showing three different ways that you could start out upgrading those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just by just not having to dump a bunch of money, exactly like a new earth clamp is like 20 bucks.
Speaker 3:You can get a good quality brass earth clamp, yeah, and then maybe upgrading to a Stubby kit something that's gonna be a little more ergonomical.
Speaker 3:You get the little better gas flow and then maybe getting a water cooler for it Right so that you can have just longer duty cycle. And I don't know, personally I feel like you almost get a Smoother arc in some cases with a water cooler. I don't know if it's might be all in my head, but it probably is. But for some reason I feel like, or maybe it's just cuz the torch is overheating, so it's conducting electricity better because it's not overheating, because they say you don't need water, cool.
Speaker 1:So you're like at, you know, 300 amp, yeah, whatever. Well, for how long yeah?
Speaker 3:exactly the 300 amps for 10 seconds or for 10 minutes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly so, like you get these videos out there when you work with these suppliers, that are, you know you got their product, and this is the the questions that you're asking. Do they also send you a list of things being like hey, can you make a video on this, on this, or can you do something with this?
Speaker 3:I have had ones Request that or even try to like make it a thing, but I have not accepted any Things that ties me down contractually, like that. I feel like I could have these companies like we want you to do this, we want you to say this and we want to see the video before you post it. I'm like, well then, that's not a very unbiased, that's not very organic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm like so I've done, I've turned down anything like that, like I've even had I had a large company Approach me and they're like, yeah, we want to Sponsor you and stuff, but we want you to sign a contract that you can only use our stuff for the next five years.
Speaker 1:I was like no, oh, five years, that's palsy man. No, yeah.
Speaker 3:I was like no, thank you. And so that's one thing I've definitely tried to do is just like I Want to be genuine with it and I don't want to have anything that is like yeah that you're kind of shady yeah. I feel like it's shady yeah.
Speaker 1:In your brand's not shitty like. I mean I think on the our first interview I was like you got this wholesome vibe right.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you got like your dad, you love your kids, you work a job and you like your shop and you do YouTube to try to help people. It's like man. And then I meet you in person and you're, of course, really nice and you know like shake hands and you like this, you know talk, and it's like, okay, you also don't want to throw all that away because you just for sure want to make a quick buck with some company, for sure.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, it's crazy to like the algorithm is so weird. Like the videos that I've put time and money into that I thought we're gonna pop off, have like not. And then I have like little Ones, like the crane video I don't know if you see that crane when I did a couple weeks ago Like that was supposed to be an in-between thing, like I was building the crane to do another video and I was like, well, I should video this, just whatever and that popped off and got a hundred thousand views in two weeks.
Speaker 3:It's like why, like I was like literally, like this was like filler For yeah, and the video that I like spent the money and time on. Got like a thousand views in the week. I'm like whatever.
Speaker 1:It's tough to predict the social media and online interaction. It's tough, like we spend a lot of time like I look at reports every month, being like all the different parts of the company. What are we going in? Some I'm like I don't know man, like sometimes my personal like LinkedIn will have more interactions than like the company's LinkedIn. Yeah and it's like why, how did that happen?
Speaker 3:like yeah, if you got some magic.
Speaker 1:You know, let me know, I don't.
Speaker 3:Still trying to figure that out. But yeah, another thing that's been cool that I've been able to Partake in lately is you know, justin from the fabrication series. Yeah so he just launched another company called Weld coach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was sad to not see him here this week.
Speaker 3:I was so sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought for sure he was gonna be here. No, and I was talking with him.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, he didn't have enough staff to yeah, yeah sounds like he's real busy? Yeah, he is, and but he invited me to be a coach on his new platform and so I've been coaching on Weld coach and that's what?
Speaker 1:I just add that to the list so.
Speaker 3:Yep, so I he's, he's kind of a little bummed because, because I have so little time, I only have like Tuesday nights open for my class.
Speaker 1:That's the window.
Speaker 3:I have like 6 pm To midnight is my opening for teaching world coach classes. And so he's like well, you put more availability, you get more classes. I was like, yeah, but I don't have more availability right now.
Speaker 1:Now, what's that like? What do you do? How do you walk through that? What's the whole process? Like I was, you know that's first thing. I was like Justin, you know, be a fabric at fab tech. You know, let's, we can talk about your new thing like it. So, like you're that person now, yeah well.
Speaker 3:I hate to steal his glory on this. Yeah, but yeah, it's a really cool platform he's developed. He's done a great job on it. He's been developing it for quite a while, but it's a one-on-one experience. I mean it's virtual, but it's a one-on-one experience with the student and so you. They set up their camera to show their stuff and it definitely makes you think about over phones.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just over the phone so he's got his own servers and everything, so you don't have to download anything. Yeah, and part of it is part of the class is when you go on, he also ships all the metal to you. So you sign up for the class shows up and the kit shows up, so you can only book a class like two weeks out or further, because it's got to have time for the kit to get there. Yeah, but then they. You know what they?
Speaker 1:And kit means deal, tungsten, filler, everything, everything.
Speaker 3:So coupons, tungsten filler.
Speaker 1:Is it tick only classes, or can you take Megan?
Speaker 3:He has. Megan stick also OK well, and there's multiple other coaches on there as well. I think you've got six or seven now. And so if you go on to each of our individual profiles, we have our own classes that we teach. So, like I only have to classes on there currently, but there's another guy that only has stick button classes on there and vice versa, or some people have both.
Speaker 1:So, as an end user, you know, like I just go to the website and I'm like, ok, I want to Tuesday nights, do you get like an email in advance, being like this is a type of machine they have, you know, just so you can be like kind of wrap your head around what you can teach them, because you can't be like, oh yes, at your frequency, you know, you know one twenty, and they don't have a machine that you can adjust frequency.
Speaker 3:Right, yes, so that I don't personally get that information right off the bat. I get a name but they, as soon as they purchase the course, they get sent to a quick little video series that says you need a machine that as this, you need to have your gloves ready, a pair of pliers for picking up the metal and showing the camera. Ppe helmet, gloves, red or whatever, and then so I honestly haven't seen that video but Justin's got a video that it's probably awesome.
Speaker 3:It sends them to it right after just get them all lined up and then I just have a running tally as soon as they go on. That first five minutes is who are you? What's going?
Speaker 1:on what's your setup Exactly.
Speaker 3:So what's your machine? What do you got your balance set at, what do you got your frequency set at? And just a quick little like just to maximize their time. So we get everything set up right from getting where's your ground at. Is it on the table? Is it close?
Speaker 1:Is it on the piece? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:So make sure we try to minimize those things. It could be a problem right off the bat.
Speaker 1:And then, how many classes do you do with each student, or do they just book one class at a time?
Speaker 3:Just one at a time and they can book either one or a two hour session or you can book. I don't think the consultation has to be in advance. It could be just whenever you can book a half hour consultation, and that's not a welding class. But if somebody wants to just jump on with you and say, hey, I'm having this problem, what should I?
Speaker 1:do? What's your ideas?
Speaker 3:Exactly, or and that could be anything that could be welding, that could be if you, they're building something. They just want your advice. So he's give that opportunity, which is cool too. The other cool part about it is he's got an entire arc shot library in the class and so, since you can't be face to face, like seeing it if you see him do something, that's not correct.
Speaker 1:You can pull the video and be like this video and be like.
Speaker 3:What you did there. You were long arching it there, so show him the video. That was like see it was doing this. And then you're like you want to look like this. And he's got nice crisp arc shots to show them in person, since you can't like physically show them, so they are you seeing them weld like the actual arc?
Speaker 1:Like you get them to put their phone on a stand and watch follow along.
Speaker 3:Or yeah, it depends on the the phone. Yeah some of them you're just getting like the glare, but it's amazing when you actually sit back you can tell a lot from what a person is doing Stance move hand placement, torch height, torch angle yeah if they're like hopping their torch or like it was. It was surprising to me how much you can tell without actually seeing the arc.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if they're getting little like splatters coming off of there and then get that dirty tungsten or they're running it too deep in the puddle, stuff like that it was, but it also pushes pushed me to just step back and see what I actually do, because you get in the role of things and you're like, oh, do it like this, but you don't actually like break it down. Yeah, think about the exact movements that you're doing and be able to articulate that clearly, yeah, so and so like that now your Tuesdays are booked.
Speaker 1:Has it been like?
Speaker 3:busy with it. I'm not super. I've only known a couple classes so far, but actually I haven't really promoted it either because I've been so busy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't think you had a full launch yet, is he I?
Speaker 3:mean, I thought I believe it's launched, but he hasn't promoted it. Okay, yeah, so I saw the testing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw the testing going through and we're reaching out to him and, like I mean some, he's doing CWB test plates now through his kids. Oh, yeah which is which is cool. So you know to help them with that and and it's. And CWS in Canada is selling CWB test plates through weld metals online.
Speaker 1:So like it's every, everything kind of comes together. You know full circle with relationships. How did you end up? Or why, Like, did you ask him like, why you like, why did you reach out to me? Or how'd you get on the list for a weld coach? I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't know. He literally called me at like 11 o'clock one night and he's like are you awake? He's like I want to talk to you about something we can't tell anybody. I was like OK.
Speaker 2:I'm ready.
Speaker 3:So that was like a year and a half ago and but we're just getting to the launch point. We say we haven't done anything, but yeah he's just getting to the launch point.
Speaker 3:He's the one with all the work in. But no, he it's the is. To my knowledge, it's fully functioning and launch. He just hasn't promoted it yet because there's still some backdoor things that they're working on. So, yeah, and there's going to be. It's a new product, exactly so. Anybody can go right now and book a class, and maybe I should book one. You can use what it's like. Use AMC F 10. You'll get 10 percent off AMC.
Speaker 1:F 10. Yeah, you hear that world AMC. Oh, that was a nice slick little pluggy, got it in there You're happy with yourself right now. You're like. That worked out perfectly. Got him to write it down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good, good, good.
Speaker 1:Now you know, with this do you get to pick what you teach. Are you, are you the TIG teacher, or the aluminum teacher, or what's your specialty on there?
Speaker 3:I only have two classes right now, but yeah, I get to write the class that I'm doing. So right now I have like a one hour aluminum, a one hour or two hour aluminum, one vice versa for steel, for stainless. And then there's one a shapes class, because and so you can get the shapes kit and go over out of position stuff I have a tube class, so a Cremoli tube and stuff like that, and then I have a one that is a bi metal. It's aluminum and steel.
Speaker 3:But like the shapes and the bi metal ones, you can't just book one hour because you have to be to they have to be two hour classes because you're not going to be able to go over all that stuff in one hour. So there are some parameters there, but All right.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, as we started working towards next year, you know we're looking at Fabtech next year already in Orlando. You know it's going to be a different venue which I'm excited to go see, new industry, hopefully some new players in the hall and stuff like that. Right, because it's this is one of the things that I'm more I'm looking at in Canada with our conferences is like how do we diversify the people going, not just, not just the ideas, but like if you're, if you're in the same cities you don't get me wrong, I love Chicago, it's, I love this town, but every time Fabtech's here, you know what you're getting, right, you know what you're getting. So what if you know you move it around a bit, and now it's going to be in Orlando, so it's going to be, I hope, different suppliers, I hope it's going to be different industries represented and different, you know, whole different types of people I'm going to run into. Right, I'm pumped, are you? Yeah, no, I'm excited for something different, for sure yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have you ever thought about coming up to Canada one of our conferences?
Speaker 3:I've considered it. Yeah, but right now it's like with the day job I only have so much vacation time. And the other baby and the other baby. So three is a totally different ballgame. I have two hands and so the third one he bounce on the foot. Yeah, like four, right, yeah, so yeah, no, all this is becoming more independent now, but yeah, four years old, you can get a job right.
Speaker 1:They just get out there.
Speaker 3:I had her out running. I just got a five watt CO2 laser and it's got a really simple software and she was out there helping me run it. Oh blast, Did you get any of the vids of it? I have some photos.
Speaker 1:I can say these photos you should put those on your website. Being like with over four years experience.
Speaker 3:I don't. I'm not huge. I'm putting my kids on my social media, yeah. I get that, I'll let them decide if they want to do that.
Speaker 1:I was like I miss that. But by the time my kids were like Facebook would just come in out when they were in their teenage years.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was like whatever for them. Anyways, yeah. I figured, I'll let them decide what's. Your wife think about all this crazy things you're doing. She's the most supportive thing. I don't know how she puts up with me Because you got so many irons in the fire. Yeah, I got. You just told us a whole thing about a new one, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, she puts up with me so well Like, yeah, couldn't do it without her.
Speaker 1:So are you going to try to do anything new in this next year? Like you got the weld coach, you got a custom, you got your job, you got another baby, you got the YouTube, are you looking to add more or are you just trying to like sustain? I don't know in a perfect world I would.
Speaker 3:I don't think I ever want to quit my job. I love my job. I've been there for 13 years and something I learned during the big sea there, covid, was because I got laid off for about four months and I just worked by myself on my garage and like I don't have to talk to people, but I need to be around people.
Speaker 2:So socially and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Like I'm not like a big open, like extrovert, extrovert, but like I just like being around people, yeah, and so like I kind of got depressed a little bit just working by myself in my, my little garage with windows. That could have been part of it too.
Speaker 1:No. No, so there's like one two by two foot window in the whole my garage literally has one two by two foot window and I got stuff on the windows all half blocking and that probably contributed to it.
Speaker 3:So, and I'm like right on the street so I couldn't like open the doors and stuff, but I, just from what I learned from that, is in my ideal world. I'd love to work for my company I currently work for for like two or three days a week. Yeah, I have time for the rest of it, so I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Is that doable? Would your boss ever go for that?
Speaker 3:I don't know We'll see.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure. Is you going to listen to this episode? I doubt it.
Speaker 3:But you're not going to tell to you you think I'm a worker Holic. He's a worker Holic Like that guy is the he's in his mid 60s and he's the hardest working guy I know like he. We were in Vegas working a job and like we worked a 16 hour day. He was right there by my side. We went out to dinner and then he went and jumped on a call to like Germany or something like that, because he's he doesn't just build stuff here, he has another business just consulting with international time zones, I'll kill you Exactly, and so it was their morning, because it was like one in the morning and every once in a while you just got to tap him on the shoulder and be like dude, go get some food, have an app.
Speaker 1:Love an app buddy, have some sandwiches and have an app.
Speaker 3:He's the heart next to my grandpa. He was the hardest working person I know, like awesome.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, let's let's wrap up this interview. A couple more questions. You know going, you know, into the future, future states. You said you know ideally, you know maybe a little less of the of the nine to five. A little bit more focus on your work. Where would you want to put more of your focus to? Towards the AM customs or towards the YouTube world? I?
Speaker 3:think it'd be a collaboration of both. I'd be. I think in an ideal world. It would be making the content for the YouTube world, but also using some of the job shop to make that content as well, because that's part of what makes good content, in my opinion, is just the unpredictability of what's going to come in the door and just like it's solving a new problem all the time, and I love, I love solving problems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. And, and for the last question, you know as you, as you develop these relationships, you come to Fabtech and stuff like that. What are the what's on the wish list for? Perhaps like a tool you want to buy or skills that you would like to get better at yourself?
Speaker 3:I really want to take some more 3D modeling classes. Like I have my plasma cam at home or plasma cutter or CNC plasma cutter but and I draw a lot of things just 2D. But I'd really like to learn modeling modeling more.
Speaker 1:So, which is a software that you use right now I use Fusion 360. Yeah, so you should do inventor. Then it's like it's made by Fusion, right, and it's fantastic. Well, you can model with 360 to I, just but it's not the fab drawing level.
Speaker 3:So with inventor.
Speaker 1:It'll actually do like material takeoffs you can actually pick different materials, so the stretch out circuit accurate. So like if you pick the material to be brass and then you build the 3D model out of like brass, when you do the stretch outs it actually calculates it for you. So like bending things, yeah, yeah and cuts and stuff like that, and it'll leave and then they and then from there throw it into Fusion to make the tool paths.
Speaker 2:So you know that's what.
Speaker 1:That's what I did. Everyone's got their favorites. There's all, there's a billion. But I went into Autodesk. I used to do solid works. I switched over to.
Speaker 1:I hated AutoCAD. I didn't like AutoCAD. It was like it was too hard. It was like too engineering focused. I'm not an engineer. I needed something like like as a welder of fabricator. That made sense to me, yeah, and and then I finally got a taste of inventor and I was like, yeah, I think this is, this is where I like it. And so I just got, literally last month, the newest inventor 2024. It's pretty insane. If you're going to go that way, buy a good computer. They're like these programs. It doesn't matter which brand, they're heavy on the resources. I just tried modeling out. Somebody asked me for a custom made expanded metal out of 10 gauge stainless. Right, they're like I want to expand the metal casing for like exhaust system, like you know, perforated. Yeah, and I needed to be 10 gauge stainless. But I wanted to have like a specific design of the expanded metals, like a diamond shape with an elongated bottom. So you have it like laser cut or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So then you get a 10 like the 10 gauge sheet laser, cut it all in and then form it right To make a really slick expanded metal cover that's in there like company branding. And I was like yeah, I can do that for you. Inventor did not like me putting 600 profiles on one sheet and then rolling it.
Speaker 1:It was like gig, gig, gig and I got like 32 gigs of gram in my computer and I was like, oh man, it took like 50. I did like walk or have a coffee. Come back I'm like, are you done thinking yet? It was like it was heavy on the resources, but again, that's a pretty extreme example.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I've some of that with editing too, Like when you put all the video in there it's got a thing for a bit, I think for a bit.
Speaker 1:All right, man. Well, any shout outs, let people know about your website, your YouTube, your wealth coach. How do people get a hold of you?
Speaker 3:What's going on? I don't have a website. I do need to do that.
Speaker 1:OK, you can find me on Instagram am custom fab.
Speaker 3:Youtube am custom fab a wealth coach. Look for Alex Jordan on wealth coach and use AMCF 10 for 10% off that. But yeah, that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1:All right, good and for the people that have been following. You know Alex is a fantastic person. He's got a wealth of knowledge. He looks young, but he's actually not that young you would be like what 36 now.
Speaker 2:I'm 31.
Speaker 1:Ok, 31. I was way off, so 31, but still you look like you're 19 for crying out loud.
Speaker 1:You know. So, like you know he's, he's fantastic. Well, he does great stuff. Check out his channel and and I love running into you every year and all right.
Speaker 1:Well, everyone, this wraps up our week here at Fabtech. This is the last podcast that we're doing, so I have to thank Daniela for being here all week and working so hard with us, and she puts up with me and for the people that know me well, that's no easy task, all right. So it's good, and we had real fun putting all these podcasts together and the meetings and the presentations, and it was really great. Also, thank you to the SME Fabtech, fma, aws groups. We all work together to get these shows up and running. Fabtech USA, fabtech Canada you know these are parts that are at the high level. We have so many great supporters and people that make these things possible. It takes hundreds and hundreds of people just to organize the event, let alone the distributors and sponsors. So that's how I'm going to wrap it up. Thank you everyone. Hopefully we see you at Fabtech Canada.
Speaker 1:That'll be June. I believe it's a third week of June 2024 in Toronto. I think it's 2728, but don't quote me on that. But it'll be around. Then We'll post it up. And then we got Canwelled in October 18th and 19th and Moncton, new Brunswick this year. So that's coming up in a month from when I'm recording this right now, so you'll probably hear that later. But make sure you get out there and, yeah, keep downloading and sharing. It's been a great time. And stay tuned for the next episode. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 2:You've been listening to the CWB Association Meldin podcast with Max Serve. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at CWB associationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions and what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB group and presented by Max Serve, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.