Wesite needed & Welder opinions

Bad. Cheap. Hard to get parts for. Not good if you do a lot of welding.

Good. Cheap. Good if you do a very small amount of welding.

If you want to do just a very small amount of welding, and will always just be doing a very small amount of welding, it will do the job. If you want to do more, or think you may evolve into doing more, spend the money and buy a good machine from the get go. If you get to doing any amount of welding at all, you will outgrow it in a short time.

That is a difficult thing to establish accurately now. You will know it in two years. Then, you will either have a machine in the garage you use now and then. Or you will have spent the money for this one, and then go and buy a better one. You won't be able to sell the Century for much.

Look at your current decision as you would two years from now. You will have your answer.

Steve

century 145 - Good? bad? Does anyone have a website url for Century welders? Looking for info on a

Many old economy companies are passed around like STDs. I was about to direct you to Clore Automotive, who owned Century as of a few months ago. But I just discovered that Century and Marquette Lifting had been sold to Lincoln Electric.

Anyway, as others have pointed out, you're probably better off to stay away from Century.

I am somewhat stunned by this. Century and Marquette have been bought and sold 3 times in the last 5 years. Century makes the crappiest welding machines on the planet, and Marquette does the same with gas welding gear.

I can only think that Lincoln is trying to corner the market on low end machines sold in discount stores and hardware stores.

Century was the main competition for Lincoln's Weldpack line of Fluxcore machines.

This also stirs the pot on the OEM market since Century made a lot of small machines for other companies like ESAB, and Snapon.

I tell ya guys it is getting kinda scary.

Thermadyne, Lincoln, ITW, and ESAB must now own almost 95% of the welding industry between them.

Hypertherm is now employee owned, and Panasonic is way to big to buy out.

The only small welding machine makers I can think of, who haven't been bought yet are MK Products, HTP America, Arcon and Systematics. Everybody else is just relabeling import machines from Europe or Asia.

FYI - Systematics is the other maker of machines for Snapon.

Tregaskis and CK Worldwide are still independant, but everybody else in the torch and gun market was bought by ITW over the last few years. Lincoln gets their torches from Binzel in Austria now.

Who knows what is next.

How good are MK's? I service their OmniTurn CNCs, and they look well made, given the various stuff Ive seen in the factory. Cobra's etc, but Ive never used one.

Gunner, probably still in the kill file.

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"

Who owns Miller? My nieghbor owns a sheetmetal shop and they won't use anything else.

-Carl

If it's the same as the one I offered for trade via email to a guy named Dan, it's a pretty good machine. A little beefier than the usual homeowner types, 230V. Infinite wire speed and volts adjustment, Tweco gun. Drive system is small compared to the very nice but much more expensive Lincoln I replaced it with, but it's not a toy. I welded this tower with it for instance

BTW, I thought you didn't have 230? :-)

Now that my spare welder has been mentioned on Usenet, might as well just offer it up. If anybody wants it, make me a reasonable offer cash or trade. Comes with a cart and a long power cord, regulator, original manuals, some wire etc. Cart is a POS HF thing that's way too wimpy for this machine, so if need be I'll either beef it up or build a custom one. I have a spare autodark helmet I can add to the pot depending. Welder is in AZ. I can't find a spec for the weight, I'm guessing it's about 150 lb.

Wayne

If you're going to spring for a cheaper welder, consider this. For less than $200 more, you can buy a Lincoln or Miller, and chances are you're gonna keep it forever, then you have a good tool, bought one time, and you'll never have to replace it. Some things I won't skimp on, and good tools are one of them. You'll have much better success with a good welder, better resale if you decide to bail out, and parts / service will always be there. $300 spent on a bad welder, then another $500 for a good one = $800. Why not just spend the $500 once? Just my .02 worth... Ronnie

Hey Ernie,

The Tregaskiss head-office and plant is just down the street from where I recently had my shop on the outskirts of Windsor. They don't seem to be fearing any competition at the moment, as they have just had a major addition and terrific re-modeling of the facility take place over nearly a year, and completed not too long before Christmas. Must of spent some good bucks too, and they now have one of the nicest looking buildings in town.

Tell you the truth, I didn't know what they made, except I knew they were an auto industry supplier. Of course, there are lots of them around Windsor and Detroit area.

Back in the 1960's, I sold some automotive test equipment (Allen), and service stuff like battery chargers. Marquette was a well thought of company for quality equipment at that time, and gave me lots of competition. I don't recall that they sold gas welding stuff tho.

Take care.

Brian Laws>>

Miller is owned by ITW aka. Illinois Tool Works. In rapid succession ITW bought : Miller, Hobart, Smith, Weldcraft, Bernard, Weld Nozzle Inc, Oxo, National Torch Tip, Powcon, McKay, Tri-mark, and a pile of others.

Check out

to see the full list of subsidiaries.

Miller is their main welding company, they are using the Hobart name for lighter duty machines. They own something like 5 companies that make MIG guns and 4 that make TIG torches. Which is funny since they get the MIG guns for their machines from Tregaskis, which is still independant.

Thermadyne is the slacker of the bunch. Their innovation is much slower than the others. I don't think the FTC will allow much more consolidation of th welding industry. Lincoln tried to buy ESAB a few years back and the FTC said fine, but they couldn't have the filler metals division as well. They couldn't find a buyer for the filler metals division by itself so the deal fell through.

ESAB is owned by holding company in the UK that also owns the biggest gas distributor in Europe.

Thermadyne is owned by another Holding company.

Tregaskis has taken a huge bite out of the robotic MIG welding gun market. I imagine their new plant is dedicated to that.

I love their 400 amp Toughguns.

It seems kind of odd that Tregaskis has no web presence. Their is no website that I can find.