Bernard’s Dura-Flux self-shield gun requires no tools to changeover the contact tip (as shown here), helping Jolson and his team reduce downtime and keep their welding jobs on track.

Contractors like Jolson Welding seem to do it all. From welding piles and water lines to beams, heavy-wall underground pipe and bridges, owner Bob Jolson and his team tackle some of the toughest jobs on the West Coast. And they do it quickly, thanks to some recent changes to their welding equipment and consumables. “I always like to try new things with our business,” Jolson explained. “I keep trying them until I find something that I like, and that works.  It helps to keep us a lot more competitive on our bidding.”

For Jolson’s company in Wheatland, Calif., most of the assignments are for heavy-duty commercial welding, which includes welding pipe ranging from one-half inch OD to 200-inches in diameter, with walls as thin as one-eighth inch up to unlimited thicknesses. Taking on large projects doesn’t leave much room for downtime if the company is to stay on schedule and remain competitive in their bidding. So, while Jolson has always taken care of his customers, since pairing his Bernard Q-Guns^™ with Hobart Brothers’ Excel Arc^™ 71 gas-shielded wires, and Bernard Dura-Flux^™ guns with Hobart Fabshield^® XLR-8 self-shielded wires, he’s been able to do more than just stay on schedule: he has improved the company’s productivity by 30 percent in the effort.

Making the change
Since Jolson and his wife Colleen founded the company in 1989, they have been working diligently to gain welding contracts along the West Coast. Supporting the business is welder, Brandon Hobbs. sBetween referrals they receive from other contractors to repeat business and active bidding, they’ve carved a niche for themselves as the ‘go-to’ company for pile driving and pipe welding, especially.

Bernard’s Dura-Flux offers Jolson and his team the durability and flexibility they need for welding everything from pipe to pile and more (as shown in this demonstration).

Each of the welding contracts Jolson takes on has unique requirements. Some require strictly stick welding, which he and Hobbs usually accomplish with AWS E6010 and 7018 stick electrodes. Others call for a combination of stick welding and flux-cored welding. Additionally, the projects vary between requirements for gas-shielded flux-cored wires, like AWS E71T-1 wires, and self-shielded products like E71T-8JD H8 wires. Also, some projects entail strict attention to established codes, including the AWS (American Welding Society) D1.5M/D1.5:2002 for bridge welding and AWS D1.1/D1.1M:2006 Structural Welding Code – Steel. But regardless of the requirements Jolson encounters, the contracts he accepts demand close attention to detail, high-quality welds, and good productivity.

For years, Jolson faithfully used a competing welding wire to achieve those results, until last year when a large, important pipe project prompted him to seek out new products that could meet the tight timeline imposed by the hiring company.  

“We had the option to take on a major project in San Francisco. It was 96-inch diameter pipe job that the company wanted welded on a short timeline,” explains Colleen Jolson. “That’s when we met up with our local Bernard and Hobart Brothers’ representative, Willie Stubblefield. We wanted to look at new products that could help us meet that deadline.”

Working with Stubblefield, whom the Jolsons met through a local welding distributor, they set up tests for different types of welding equipment and wires. The goal was to find products that allowed Jolson to weld faster and also that would be user-friendly for the other welding operators that joined them on the project. According to Colleen Jolson, the company brings on welding operators to meet the demands of a given project (with the exception of Hobbs, who is a full-time associate.) So, while highly experienced, their skills often vary.