dr_hunt Posted September 8, 2006 Author Share Posted September 8, 2006 I've ordered from these guys before. Good prices' date=' selection, etc. I liked them better when their website wasn't all "riced out" : [url']http://stores.ebay.com/Verocious-Motorsports_Bends_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ3QQftidZ2QQtZkm[/url] As far as TIG machines go, I have a lot of experience with portable welders by Thermal Arc/Thermal Dynamics as well as Miller, Hobart, PowCon, and Lincoln. For all around versatility as well as durability, the TA machines are hard to beat. ATP has their prices beat by 40% or more, check them out if your buying any more. That salesman told me that TA was discontinued, but he was probably trying to sell what he had on the floor since they have no discount for the lies that they tell! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHO-Z Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 Not to change the subject greatly but you do not need a TIG to weld aluminum. A lot of grades of aluminum can by Oxy Acetylene gas welded. This is how the original Cobra bodies were welded together. I welded some aluminum plate around 20 years ago on a job. It took a little while to get the feel of it, of course I had another welder looking over my shoulder giving me some help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 I would definitely go with a THERMAL ARC ARCMASTER 185. They just had a price increase in the last two weeks upto around $1950. This is the revised model from the thermal arc 185tsw. Regards, Justin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusPuppis Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 Yeah, for all around ability, features, quality and price the TA 185 really kinda stands out. As soon as I find someone looking for a slightly used kidney (only punched a few times!) I'm gonna be buying one.. Also, I linked to several on ebay, IOC, the ebay retailer is a great company to deal with. Ive bought a few things through them and know of manymany poeple who do business with them almost exclusively and they are top knotch. Also, if you have a local shop you prefer to go through, you may be able to print out the IOC TA adds and take them with you, see how close that shop can come to their prices. Alot of times you can work with the small shops on prices. Sometimes anyway. The poeple I had to deal with in Somerset are such assholes I just gave up, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolane Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 Dr. Hunt, I have a Dynasty 200DX that I love. I live in Alb. and you are right, the local welding shops here are smoking crack! I bought my MIG (MM210), TIG (D200DX) and Plasma (Spectrum 625) from Cyberweld.com. They are great to deal with and have very good prices. Remember, most of the TIG's do NOT come with the foot control/torch/etc. A Dynasty setup without bottle is ~$2800 +/- online! The TA185 is a great little machine also, at about $1650 or so. Check with B&R Welding, they are also a great online retailer who sells TA. After looking around locally for welders I finally gave up and ordered online. I know someone at Trigas who could get me a better deal that MSRP, but even he could not come close to the online prices. Quite often shipping is free as well, and no tax. The nice part about the D200DX is that it is portable and will weld on 110V. The bigger TIG's can weigh a lot. The Lincoln Precision 185 is supposed to be a nice machine too. I presonally also like the Miller Syncrowave 200, but it is heavy and large (and needs a large 220V circuit). The Dynasty only requires a 30A circuit, I think the others are in the 60A+ range. I hope this helps, Joshua Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnjdragracing Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 David if you lived a little bit closer to S.C. I would let you borrow mine, I tell you go to some welding shops and ask what they preferr. That is what I did, saw the one I bought in action. It is a heavy duty monster, came with foot control, torch, and supplies. I only had to get the tank. Maybe they would let you try out the tig and get a feel for it also. See some in action and make a decison. I almost bought a tig from cyberweld. But I lucked up on this one. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_hunt Posted September 9, 2006 Author Share Posted September 9, 2006 Josh, yeah, I talked until I was blue in the face, the alb guys said "then buy online", what are they thinking?!! My shop has 220V single phase, runs my snap on 250 amp mig fine, I checked and it's got 100 amp breaker on that plug, so I should be fine. John, I have a friend, Glen Ezell, has an aluminum fab shop. He uses miller exclusively, he says for a reason, but they are big machines, huge actually. His argon tank won't fit in my dodge truck, he has 3 TIG machines like that all set up with different torches for different aluminum thicknesses I guess. He said he'd show me the secrets to aluminum welding, so I'll take him up on that. I've watched him for several hours, and have picked up some of the little tricks he uses to start and finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolane Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 Josh' date=' yeah, I talked until I was blue in the face, the alb guys said "then buy online", what are they thinking?!! My shop has 220V single phase, runs my snap on 250 amp mig fine, I checked and it's got 100 amp breaker on that plug, so I should be fine. John, I have a friend, Glen Ezell, has an aluminum fab shop. He uses miller exclusively, he says for a reason, but they are big machines, huge actually. His argon tank won't fit in my dodge truck, he has 3 TIG machines like that all set up with different torches for different aluminum thicknesses I guess. He said he'd show me the secrets to aluminum welding, so I'll take him up on that. I've watched him for several hours, and have picked up some of the little tricks he uses to start and finish.[/quote'] I got the same exact response basically. For some reason they would rather make no money than a lower profit. It perplexes me since I have done all the leg work, all they have to do is order it and tell me when it comes in. Not very hard. Alwell, I am happy to support Cyberweld. Good luck on your choice. There a lot of good machines out there. Both Lincoln and Miller are great (as are others). Some people swear by ESAB, others really like TA. Joshua Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusPuppis Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 Ive had that same problem myself, I dont understand it. I know it tough for small independant shops to make it, but if they refuse to be flexible AT ALL, well, sorry for ya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 For some reason they would rather make no money than a lower profit. You guys are making an assumption here that's not true, namely that all Lincoln, Miller, Termal Arc dealers pay the same price to the manufacturer for the machines they sell. That's absolutely not true. A dealer that moves 100 machines in a month will pay less for a machine then a dealer who moves 10 machines in a month. That's true for welders, washing machines, and most everything else except cars. So, in all your examples about dealers "foolishly" giving up business, maybe they don't want to or can't afford to lose money on a machine. I encounter this all the time with suppliers. If I want their good price I have to sign a contract and agree to buy $10,000 worth of merchandise over the next year. If I want their better price I have to spend $20,000 and if I want their best price I have to spend $50,000. I have to buy that much merchandise regardless of how much I sell or I'm in breach of the contract and I have to do it every year. That's why I can purchase some 240Z parts at Summit cheaper then I can purchase them directly from the manufacturer or distributor. That's why many welding suppliers can sell equipment over eBay or the Internet for less then most local welding supply shop can purchase them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolane Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 You guys are making an assumption here that's not true' date=' namely that all Lincoln, Miller, Termal Arc dealers pay the same price to the manufacturer for the machines they sell. That's absolutely not true. A dealer that moves 100 machines in a month will pay less for a machine then a dealer who moves 10 machines in a month. That's true for welders, washing machines, and most everything else except cars. So, in all your examples about dealers "foolishly" giving up business, maybe they don't want to or can't afford to lose money on a machine. I encounter this all the time with suppliers. If I want their good price I have to sign a contract and agree to buy $10,000 worth of merchandise over the next year. If I want their better price I have to spend $20,000 and if I want their best price I have to spend $50,000. I have to buy that much merchandise regardless of how much I sell or I'm in breach of the contract and I have to do it every year. That's why I can purchase some 240Z parts at Summit cheaper then I can purchase them directly from the manufacturer or distributor. That's why many welding suppliers can sell equipment over eBay or the Internet for less then most local welding supply shop can purchase them.[/quote'] No doubt buying volumn helps influence prices. With that said, I know for a fact that the price that the local welding shop was paying was significantly lower than their "asking" price. I know this because I know a local fab shop very well who buys their equipment through the same welding shop, and I know for a fact that he payed significantly less for the same exact machine I was looking at (MM251 at the time). I cannot imagine that they were relying on the sale of consumables solely for profit from this fab shop. Further, I asked one shop and he actually told me what he would pay for the machine, and it was ~$400 less than their asking price. My comments are not based on conjecture...rather real research. I wasted a lot of time trying to buy my machine locally to support the local shops... one actually told me to go buy it online, so I did... Joshua Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_hunt Posted September 9, 2006 Author Share Posted September 9, 2006 You guys are making an assumption here that's not true' date=' namely that all Lincoln, Miller, Termal Arc dealers pay the same price to the manufacturer for the machines they sell. That's absolutely not true. A dealer that moves 100 machines in a month will pay less for a machine then a dealer who moves 10 machines in a month. That's true for welders, washing machines, and most everything else except cars. So, in all your examples about dealers "foolishly" giving up business, maybe they don't want to or can't afford to lose money on a machine. I encounter this all the time with suppliers. If I want their good price I have to sign a contract and agree to buy $10,000 worth of merchandise over the next year. If I want their better price I have to spend $20,000 and if I want their best price I have to spend $50,000. I have to buy that much merchandise regardless of how much I sell or I'm in breach of the contract and I have to do it every year. That's why I can purchase some 240Z parts at Summit cheaper then I can purchase them directly from the manufacturer or distributor. That's why many welding suppliers can sell equipment over eBay or the Internet for less then most local welding supply shop can purchase them.[/quote'] John, I'm sure that's true, but when seller A is selling a machine and making money at $1900 and Seller B has same machine at $2800, then I think it's just more profit than cost difference. The main thing that bothered me was that he told me thermal arc was discontinued and he couldn't get any more. I think he was trying to sell the miller he had on the floor. Anyway, it makes no difference, I'm not willing to pad somebody's pocket with an additional $900 just to keep business in the state. I think I should be my own charity actually! Just wish there was a tig guy closer that did good work and was willing to do what I need to do. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okimoto Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 The 185 is a good choice. Whatever your choice, I highly recommend getting high frequency on the welder. imho, it sure does make aluminum welding alot easier. I frequent these boards: http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/showthread.php?t=21097 Everyone seems to suggest the TA185. I haven't heard anything bad about them yet. There was even a guy on the boards who took his apart, dropped it, broke it and Thermal Arc sent him a new one. That's pretty good service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpyvette Posted September 13, 2006 Share Posted September 13, 2006 http://www.htpweld.com/products/tig_welders/tig201.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_hunt Posted September 13, 2006 Author Share Posted September 13, 2006 [url']http://www.htpweld.com/products/tig_welders/tig201.html[/url] What, only one link?????? I haven't ordered one yet, but I'm going to call them tomorrow at lunch and find out how much that one is, seems to be about the best I've seen yet. 90 day money back guarantee! No questions asked! Wonder how much the guarantee is? You have one of these grumpy or are you just wishing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusPuppis Posted September 13, 2006 Share Posted September 13, 2006 Damn, lol. Sounds like that thing means business.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_hunt Posted September 14, 2006 Author Share Posted September 14, 2006 Grumpy, I called that place and you buy direct from them. The complete setup, watercooler, 25' torch cable, cart, etc, everything is $2900 delivered. Unconditional 90day money back guarantee. 3 year warranty on the machine. Not bad, looks like that's the way to go. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpyvette Posted September 14, 2006 Share Posted September 14, 2006 "You have one of these grumpy or are you just wishing?" Ive got three welders now, (no tig)but I can borrow my neighbors, so Im not in a bind I was planing on getting one , and still may, but my garage project is constantly edging up in costs due to my refuseale to use less than top quality parts/services/supplies its at about $140,000 so far, so it may be awhile yet I was looking at this also http://store.cyberweld.com/milsyn250dxt.html but the http://www.htpweld.com/products/tig_welders/tig201.html is a better value, I do occasionally make custom aluminum parts , like EFI intakes, so its only a matter of time and my budget before I get a decent TIG UNIT BTW I ask around , locally and online and everyone thinks those units are good quality that has one, not one person gave a negative comment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_hunt Posted September 14, 2006 Author Share Posted September 14, 2006 Well, nobody has a no questions asked 90 day return policy, so you know they must be pretty confident about them. Interestingly enough C&S specialties has a 30 day money back guarantee on their aerosol billet carbs. They make them in gas and alky versions. I have two of them, worth the money IMO, so I imagine the welder is too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(goldfish) Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Maybe to late now, But those TA tig are small and light(ish). Very portable if there is a powersource near by. The "handle" is not very conductive for carring it around thou. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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