Thread: "Cheaper" oxy-acetylene

Originally Posted by d2dave

Today I ran out of mig wire. I rang Total Tools for a price. $41.95

I then rang the other mob that has a three letter name. $166!! I told them about Total Tools and they dropped their price to $80 plus tax

Just goes to show what a rip off this mob is. If I had not priced elsewhere I would have just gone and paid the $166.

Was that for 5kg or 15kg? Gas or gasless? Were you comparing the same brand of wire?

Aaron

15 kg using gas. Brands were probably different, not sure, but what I got was Cigweld, which is fine by me.

Originally Posted by d2dave

Today I ran out of mig wire. I rang Total Tools for a price. $41.95

I then rang the other mob that has a three letter name. $166!! I told them about Total Tools and they dropped their price to $80 plus tax

Just goes to show what a rip off this mob is. If I had not priced elsewhere I would have just gone and paid the $166.

Are the stores actually allowed to drop there prices. I would have thought they were under contract to sell at the price listed. I've asked several times at BOC is xxxx (whatever I've seen) cheaper to buy if I have a commercial account etc... They insist its not. So I walked out of there door ... 3 doors down into total tools and buy the silver solder/mig wire/etc for usually 50% of the cost.

I will however say, pretty much everything I have bought from BOC has been extremely high quality and has lasted well. Even simple stuff like welding gloves. Those blue 3 layer gloves they used to sell were brilliant.

seeya,
Shane L.

TL;DR: Different grades of wire, different prices.

If you are ginning around in your shed, then chances are you don't need a high quality wire. Consumers need to understand what level of quality they can justify for their purposes.
On One side, you have high quality, european / US made wires with all the metalurgical certification to ensure that it's going to lay down the weld you want. Many times, a certifying engineer will specify a filler material (wire, rod etc) to meet a specification- usually the American Welding specification or the Australian/ NZ standard so that they can be assured of the quality of the material in the job. Sometimes in critical projects there will be welding processes that need to be followed by the tradesperson to ensure that the weld process is to spec, as well as the weld material.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are lower specs of wire, straight out of china, which are perfect for some, but will ruin the reputation of a tradesperson, or break them thru re-work or warranty returns.

As we can all understand, one product you will pay $166 bucks for, the other can lighten the pocket for as little as $41.95. But many times, the retailer will choose the products that match their customer's needs, customer base, or branding strategy (amongst many other things).

Yeah total tools is CIGWELD ... I wouldn't have called it low quality chinese crap though

Welding Wires Archives - Cigweld

I use it for exactly it's desgined use. Structural steel etc... with argon/co2 mixes

seeya,
Shane L.

Not all chinese products are rubbish.
Just the same, not all Australian made things are great

Dave, were you buying a standard 0.9 or 1.2mm wire, or were you looking for something silly like 0.6mm? Due to manufacturing losses as the wire is drawn thru the reducing dies, as well as supply/ demand, smaller wires are generally much more expensive than the larger diameter wires. Chances are though, if you looked around the store you visited, you'd probably be able to wrangle a 15kg spool for sub $25 if you put the thumb screws on...

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

Yeah total tools is CIGWELD ... I wouldn't have called it low quality chinese crap though

Welding Wires Archives - Cigweld

I use it for exactly it's desgined use. Structural steel etc... with argon/co2 mixes

seeya,
Shane L.

Nor would I call it crap. It is chinese though.
It's not at the bottom of the pile though. That comes in at the ER70S-3 spec... out of the box, it looks like a rusty roll of old fencing wire randomly wound on the spool.

Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

Not all chinese products are rubbish.
Just the same, not all Australian made things are great

Dave, were you buying a standard 0.9 or 1.2mm wire, or were you looking for something silly like 0.6mm?

0.6 and this is what I got. Should be as good as any by my book.

Autocraft LW1-6 - 0.6 / 0.8 / 0.9 / 1.0 / 1.2 / 1.6 mm - Cigweld - Victor Technologies Asia Pacific - South Pacific

Why is 0.6 silly?