which machine ?

[Rambozo]

im a new member.. looking at the power pro 256... im an artist not a welder.. mostly self taught.. ive looked at miller machines and it would take about $6000 to do what the 256 does.. that scares me because if it seems too good the be true it usually is.. ive been lurking around the everlast site for about a year.. welding tips and tricks gives good recommendations.. im concerned that if all of a sudden everlast disappears and no place to get consumables.. concerned about service but most referances in the forum seem to be good.. im ready to buy but im also cheap.. and want my money to go all the way...

Consumables are all industry standard items, nothing Everlast specific. That is actually one of the nice side benefits of a commodity type product from a smaller company. They buy things like torches and stuff from other manufacturers rather than making them inhouse. So parts are easy to come by as these torches are used on many many different brands of machines. There is even some industry standards to a lot of things like TIG torch components, so you can even cross brands without much trouble. Whereas if someone like Miller wanted to make a special torch that only they had parts for, they are big enough to do something like that. Service is the one thing that that can be an issue as local repair places may not want to do anything but the big names where they can get schematics and parts through a large dealer network.

Just because the company is still around, it's no guaranty that they will support older products, either. I have an older Hobart machine that has practically been orphaned by both companies that took over the old Hobart Bros. company. If it wasn't for other owners on the net, I would never have gotten the info I needed to repair it.