With the cart thats a ok deal, basically get the helmet and cart for free. But come on, the first thing you want to do when you buy a new welder is make a cart for it with it. That helmet is like the millers we have at school. but the smaller version. They're pretty good helmets but the knobs on the side like to break off if you're rough with em.

Dammit you guys, I made this thread to make the buying process easier, not harder :vash:

Matt/Dillon, how did buying the Everlast go? Instead of "buy now" it has "make an offer". So for the PowerTig 200DX which is listed at $1200, could I just make a really low offer like $700? What's the difference between the listed price and the price they will actually let them go for? That one is looking pretty good as a hobbyist deal.

I think the make an offer thing would be more used for if you were a business and had to buy multiple machines / equipment. But i'm not sure to be honest.

I just made an account on the site, added to cart, filled out information, clicked the paypal option (not sure what the other one was), did paypal and hit submit. Then it redirects back to the site, and you have to hit "pay". That was weird, and the confirmation text was white with a white background. But that could of been on my end.
I got the phone call from him i kid you not, less than a minute after i hit pay. It was damn near almost instant when the guy called me. I assume he wouldn't call if they had what you order in stock. It was simple, just like any other site.

Edit* Yup, to answer you what you asked me/matt: What he said. :D

I didn't upgrade, i feel what i bought will be more than enough. It will be here in 4 weeks.

i also bought mine through the website.

I didnt use ebay because Im in Canada. I dont feel like you can make a complete lowball offer on a new unit since they are selling out. Doesnt hurt to try though.

Maybe stipulate free shipping or something...
Matt

Exactly what i did... first day... lmao
i have a shitty lincoln 110 though. but, it gets the job done... sometimes...

Looking around, it looks like they might accept as much as 15-20% off the listed price. Probably why they offered to let you upgrade for $100 Erat.

Now the question is, do I try for the PowerTig 200DX @ $900-950 or go with the fancy one with the plasma cutter also for ~$1300...

I'm assuming you have a good compressor and enough power in the garage to handle it.
I think you may be shocked how much you use the plasma cutter. I know i'll use it more than the cutoff wheel. Screw all that grinding dust.

if you have 240v in the garage, do the one with the cutter.

I have nothing yet, was waiting to actually purchase one so I could figure out what I needed to run out to the garage (it's detached). There's already some conduit out there for the lights/opener. Maybe I'll have whoever pulls the cable run some Cat 6 out there too.

I knew I wanted the one with the cutter anyway, I just needed you guys to tell me I'm right :party:

Im running new wire to my shop. Im in the same boat as you.

how large is your conduit?

to get a decent sized pwoer out there you will need 1.5" conduit and i dont think anything is allowed by code to be in it. you wouold need another conduit.

Probably not large enough. It literally just runs the garage door and 2 light sockets. My friend is an electrician so I've picked up a bit from him, but I'm still a noob. I guess it's just whatever normal size you have in a house, not sure if that's 1" or 1.5".

Luckily there is nothing between the house and garage yet (no deck or anything) so running some new stuff shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully then I can run the ethernet (and maybe wire for another 110 circuit) in the original conduit and run a nice big new one out there.

I think i pulled either 10 or 12 gauge wire through 1" conduit. 4 wire that is.
I pulled at least 30' and 4 bends.
Just had to use a ton of lube. :party:

Do not run Cat6 wire alongside power wires. The noise from the power lines can cause interference on the network cables.

On a random side tangent. I tried MIG welding the other night, and fuck that. TIG is where it is at. I am not disappointed about skipping MIG and going straight to TIG at all.

Mig welding is like using a caulk gun. It's 75% how i weld at work.

Randomly, why "f that"? Do you not like it? It is not as "clean" as tig that's for sure.

I was using a snap on mig welder with absolutely no one telling me before hand how to use it. I knew the gas and wire speed were set to what they needed to be before I picked it up. So I tried to lay down some welds. Coming from the TIG world I am used to starting torch and waiting for the puddle to form and then moving and adding in filler. The first time I pulled the trigger on the MIG gun the wire started feeding out quickly, I could not see if I was creating a puddle, and the thing was throwing sparks and splatter everywhere.

I think if I had someone telling me what I had to do differently and was practicing just laying beads it would have gone better.

Hmm, I wonder if shielded would help enough? If not, I'll just have to buy another cheap DD-WRT router to use as a bridge and make some cantennas. The garage is probably only 30 feet from the house and 50 from the router, but 2.4ghz doesn't like cement walls (cinder block garage).

Cantennas!! :D (Only ok if you use OEM Pringles containers) I was going to do this...but ended up running two extra sets of conduit when we had the driveway replaced.

If you go shielded, don't bother with Cat6...5e is plenty for 'not inside a datacenter' type of connection. (even then...debateable)

MIG produces a pretty cold weld. Very little penetration compared to other processes.

thats not true at all.

We build hitches that we rate for over 20,000lbs and get welded with a mig welder. :dealwithit:

Haven't had one fail yet. Spray transfer.