fitting a fan to a mig welder ????

[weldequip]

You'll sign up to be one of my distributors one day, I can feel it. Haha

Oh I'm very tempted Matt & would love to give you an order tomorrow... my only reservation is people not understanding the difference between quality & shi*e!
We know, but unfortunatley the punter does not!
The price difference between a top quality unit & a Chinese import is now so huge that people cannot resist taking the Chinese option. £1500 or £500??!
I know & you know where the price difference lies, but the punter simply cannot refuse the price difference.
I think we should F**k off on a boat somewhere & forget about all the implications!
weldequip

 

[matt1978]

Yeah, I agree 100%, its going to be very few and far between the DIY folk who will spend £1000's as opposed to £100's, but like I said to you before, I think you could do very well also doing a bit with the local fab shops in your area. Its a sad fact but the general level of expertise in a lot of distributorship's is very low. People who can offer a service and are good at there job are starting to rise above the rest and clean up.

 

[weldequip]

I think you could do very well also doing a bit with the local fab shops in your area. Its a sad fact but the general level of expertise in a lot of distributorship's is very low.

It's also a sad fact that local fab shops are disappearing on a rapid scale! I'll give Lorch (and the rest) 5 years before they are manufacturing in China, India, Eastern Europe or Closure!
weldequip

 

[irondarren]

Problem is quality control and safety standards here are so strick, compared to the far east and of course the fact that they get 1 bowl of rice per week amoungst 5 as wages makes a big difference to manufacture cost. Sad really but its just the way the public are.

 

[matt1978]

It's also a sad fact that local fab shops are disappearing on a rapid scale! I'll give Lorch (and the rest) 5 years before they are manufacturing in China, India, Eastern Europe or Closure!
weldequip

A lot of the bigger names already source equipment from or have it made in places like China and India.

In 5 years time, some of the middle of the road names who used to be big but now not as big (not naming names ) I don't think will be in existence period. (They are already looking to pull out of the UK market)

Perhaps in 7-10 yrs, you will be left with 5 or so really big quality players to cater for the upper mid to high end and then 10's of cheap and cheerful manufacturers from China, India and such like for the volume/cheap segment.

Problem they will have is if price and cost are all that they have to be able to compete with, the prices will still be very low and the profit margins will always remain very low in that sector regardless of where its made.

 

[baweld]

weldequip could be right about the duty cycle fitting a fan will probably give you another 10 % and this can be the difference between overheat cycle or underheat.
its the rectifiers that overheat first in small migs as they use small ali heat sinks and thius then drags the tranny down .

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

all I can say is that with my old Clarke 90, welding as I generally do for less than 15 minutes at a time and then switching the set off while I got the next piece ready (or had a cup of tea) it used to shut down regularly until I installed a fan.

After I installed the fan I used the set for another 12 - 13 years (not continuously!) before I sold it.

It wouldn't be much use if you're hammering the set at maximum power for hours on end, but intermittent car body repairs caused no problems for my set.

The point I'm making is that it /can/ be done and it's not difficult if the user wants to do it.

Erm, that's two points...

Regards
Peter