Reviewer: John M.

The first ten to twenty minutes (Part One) is about everything from eye glass cleaner, sparks, spatter, and a way-too-in-depth" discussion about the sensitivity about shade darkening helmets. Then he goes on to ear plugs and how to insert them. Hello? Is this necessary? Fine, its important to know these concepts and tricks, but maybe put it on an introductory dvd leading up to the sculpting session. Mr Herman also is no actor as you can see his eyes move across the cue cards; watching him exit from the frame is hilarious as you can sense his stiffness. Filters, pre-filters, respirators, owners manuals, MSDS - hey! I know all of this, can you please get on with the sculpting stuff? Part Two opens with him reading cue cards again, plugging Miller units, discussing AC current, 230 single phase, buzz box, transformer rectifier, arc control, inverter types, ambient moisture, blah, blah, blah, zzzzz .... so where's the sculpting? Sorry, he's too busy reading the cue cards about the basics, showing photos of poor welds and explaining travel speeds, heat to metal build up, weld seams. When he finally gets a photo of a good weld in there, he's noticeably silent. There's a few decent high speed photography scenes of welding 1F, 2F, 3F and 4F fillet welds, some talk about weld puddles, but they're just a few seconds each - still no sculpting. When it seemed that we were just getting somewhere he goes off on a tangent talking about carpel tunnel syndrome. By the way, you're still not seeing any sculpting and we're halfway through the dvd. Okay here's some more decent scenes of 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G groove welds, then a few more tips that are read off cue cards - he actually mentions the word 'artist' at this point, but still, no sculpting. Okay, here's some tips on multiple passes, lap joints, T joints, and some decent shots of great welds, but then again he's been doing this 35 years. He's finally explains that we need to practice over and over because stick welding takes years to perfect - ahah! that's why we're going though the basics. Part Three starts off talking about sculpting, but then goes back to safety, showing us how to strategically wear a velcro back belt and how to use a cylinder cart to move a cylinder. Then he goes over safety about oxy fuel cylinders, propane, MAPP, appropriate cutting tips, protective eyewear, respirators, correctly adjusting the flame and cutting. Finally - and very briefly - he touches on forging metal into shapes, hand hammering techniques and brazing and its use in sculpting. Before you know it we're off on another tangent talking about ionization and (powermaxx800) hypertherm plasma cutters. The guy knows his stuff, discussing plasma gases and electrodes, ionized gas, heat and velocity. But still, he still hasn't gotten to the meat of the dvd - sculpting! We're back talking about eye protection, safety gear, cut capacities of cutters, selection of machines, cutting sequences of plasma, nozzles, sqwirl rings, gouging shields, torch alignment, switching cutting shields and nozzles, grinders, pneumatic and electric abrasive cut off tools, orbital sanders, reciprocating saws and portable band saws for stock removal. The very last few minutes here have Mr. Herman making cuts to a jazzy muszak tune, but it jumps through scenes and the beginning to end product is never visualized. He finally admits that the next dvd in the series gives the insight into decisions on painting and finishing the sculpture. Looking for a sculpting dvd? Don't bother - disappointingly its lost here in teaching the basics.