The Happy Welder LLC

01/11/2025

Headed back to the show! Well… after the shell of ice around our car melts.

01/10/2025

Booth 42 is ready for the show!

01/07/2025

Kind of exciting (and exhausting!)… LuAnne and I have a 10x10 booth (booth 42) at the Bass and Saltwater Fishing Expo in Raleigh NC, Fri/Sat/Sun. Come see The Happy Welder in person! We are introducing new products.

Located in Raleigh, NC, the Bass and Saltwater Fishing Expo is the best show of its kind in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia!

06/27/2024

Our very first production flag was purchased by Triplett & Coffey, Inc. Founded in 1980, this family-owned welding shop is one of the many small businesses that are the backbone of the local community. Being experienced with powder coating durability, they had no hesitation in deciding to purchase the flag for exterior display, even in the sometimes-harsh weather of the NC mountains. The flag is mounted above their entrance, and it looks spectacular! Soon after it was mounted a customer thanked them for displaying the flag and pledge. Go to www.thehappywelder.com for more details and to purchase the flag.

06/26/2024

Sunrise Grill in Boone NC is one of my favorite restaurants! it is one of the many locally owned businesses that make Boone special. So of course, I was very honored last fall when owner Ian wanted to add our flag to his lobby artwork "museum". There is beautiful artwork there that can be purchased onsite, including my flag. After enjoying a great breakfast or lunch, check out the flag and get one for your home or patio (hangs easily with standard tv wall mount, suitable for outdoor display since it is powder coated). And let me wish everyone an early Happy 4th of July! www.thehappywelder.com

05/25/2024

We have added an interesting variation of our original flag to our product line... the "Aero" flag. It is the same very high quality, absolutely beautiful 42"x22" American Pledge of Allegiance flag, but with the white solid back piece removed, creating an interesting "see through" effect. Same nice heavy gauge metal, powder coating, and stainless-steel screws make this flag absolutely beautiful indoors, and at the same time resilient and long lasting when displayed outdoors! Removing the white piece reduces the cost and reduces the weight, making the Aero flag about 24 pounds instead of over 40 pounds. Check out both flags at www.thehappywelder.com.

Metal US Flag Pledge of Allegiance Flag

04/02/2024

Continuing my “one billion is a big number” series… I got to wondering how big a billion oxygen atoms would be. The thought of a really large number of a really small thing intrigued me.

This took some refreshing of my physics education (and I’ll say up front i did not fact check all this, but did check two or three sources).

The Periodic Chart tells us atomic mass, which is mostly a count of its protons and neutrons. But i wanted a width, or more appropriately, a diameter. The diameter of an atomic sphere is tricky due to the electron orbits. So instead they measure how closely atoms can be placed together, then calculate a radius. And the unit of measurement is a “pm” picometer, or one trillionth of a meter. A billionth of a meter is a nanometer (also 1,000 pm).

Most of the elements range from a radius of about 140pm to 250pm, with a few outliers below like Hydrogen at 120, and one really above like francium around 350. And the sizes are not intuitive, e.g. heavier atomic mass elements like lead and gold are not necessarily proportionally bigger than elements like oxygen and helium.

Back to my topic… how long would one billion oxygen atoms be laid side-by-side? The radius is 150pm, or 0.150 nm. A billion nm is one meter, so 0.150 nm * 1 billion = 0.150 meter, or 150 mm! Divide by 25.4 and that gives you 5.9 inches. So, where a billion seconds is 31.7 years, a billion oxygen atoms in a line is 5.9 inches. WOW!

03/31/2024

One billion seconds is 31.7 YEARS. I’ll just let that sink in.

03/14/2024

Just got the final round of packaging materials delivered by PakSouth on a crisp beautiful Charlotte morning! These guys have delivered ON TIME all three deliveries and are happy to serve. (Now I gotta finish the second garage loft!)

03/09/2024

My new garage loft! We needed this to store our packaging supplies and other materials for our flags. Now if I could just blink to duplicate it!

03/06/2024

Got flags?!?

02/13/2024

🏴Introducing our Made-in-the-USA Metal Flag!🏴

Crafted with pride right here in the United States, our metal flag is a symbol of American craftsmanship and patriotism. Here's what makes it special:

🔩 Sourced, cut, and assembled in the USA
🎨 Powder coated for a durable finish
🛠️ Union and red stripes made of sturdy 12-gauge steel
🔳 Back white piece constructed from durable 16-gauge steel
📏 Generous dimensions: 42" wide, 22" high
⚖️ Weighs approximately 45 pounds
🔧 Brackets on the back for easy mounting with a standard VESA 400x400 TV wall mount (sold separately)

With its high-quality steel gauge, vibrant powder coating, and stainless steel screws, this flag is sure to turn heads and make a statement in any space. It's not just a decoration—it's a piece of art that celebrates American pride and craftsmanship. Order yours today and let freedom fly! 🦅🇺🇸