A couple of months ago a friend told me about a company that wanted some work done on their Web site so I visited them to see what they needed. Turns out they're a fairly large surplus dealer located in Mount Holly, just West of Charlotte, NC. When I arrived they were unloading and sorting a tractor-trailer load of welding supplies.
They told me that National Welders bought out Welder's Supply and they mostly did it to kill competition so they took most of the welders and a few other things they wanted and sold all the rest of the supplies to these guys. They're supposed to receive a large inventory from at least 3 Welder's Supplies stores.
They had only received the first load last time I was there but it was quit a bit of good stuff including rods, abrasives, plasma cutter consumables, TIG torches (probably 50 or more!) and more. They had the replacement clear plastic covers for one or more of the expensive welding helmets like Speedglass. I saw quite a few large rolls of MIG wire, like you might use in a larger MIG unit. They had a good assortment of the small rolls. Unfortunately the only wire they had in the size roll I use (10" maybe?) was
0.30 stainless.Their prices seem pretty reasonable too. I bought a 5-pack of nozzles for my Hypertherm plasma cutter for $5 and a 5-pack of electrodes for $18. The cheapest I've found the electrodes online is about $11 each!
Of course they don't just have welding supplies. In fact, that's a small percentage of what they have. There was one Bridgeport type mill there; can't remember the brand. They have paint, safety supplies, ladders, saw blades, far too much to mention or even remember. They have quite a bit of used pallet racking plus they're a dealer for a major brand but I don't remember who. They're also a dealer for Metal Devil metal cutting circular saw blades. On one of my visits they had to show me the full head dental X-ray machines they had just picked up, new and still in the boxes. I think they said the manufacturer gets $45k for them! They also had this cool
4-wheeled thing sitting outside that looked like it was a cradle for a huge round tank or something. Turns out it was jet engine stand and positioner.So I fixed their Web site and it's setup to handle online orders and a full inventory of products but they're not so good about entering the product info so I strongly suggested they hire someone to help with that. I think they have maybe 4 things listed on their site so far and a couple of those are old test items from the guy that originally built their site in 2003. They're also not so good about answering email. They much prefer to work in person or over the phone but they seem like good guys that enjoy what they're doing.
They do have someone handling their eBay store fulltime though so you can find some of the stuff they have available by checking it out. I just looked and there are 246 items currently available. For now they're selling locally and through their eBay store and by phone. They've been in business since 1988 though and get calls from all over the world for stuff... but I didn't know about them and they're half an hour from me! And if you're looking for something specific you can always call. They'll ship anything, anywhere!
If you go there, plan on staying awhile. You might also want to take a flashlight. It's a large warehouse and the lighting isn't so good in some areas.
You can find out where they are, get a phone number or visit their eBay store from their Web site at:
Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com
"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"