I brought a ceramic cup with me to the welding shop, along with a collet (just for the hell of it) and they had all the parts I needed in stock and they were standard 17 style torch parts. I received the black handled torch and I actually really like it a lot.
Once I realized that the parts were standard, I went to weldingcity.com and spent about $50 (total with shipping) on 2lbs. of stainless rod, a new cloth zippered cable jacket for the torch, and a ton of different sizes of gas lens cups. The ceramic cups were $2.45 for a minimum order of 5 (49 cents each!), and the welding shop wanted $2 to $6 per ceramic cup! I did spend $3 on one special extended cup for getting into tight spaces, but I bought like 17 cups for around $10. I like to keep an overkill of supply on hand (especially when it's extremely cost effective)...plus I've had a few "slips" of the torch and those ceramic cups don't like hitting the floor too often!
It may not be an issue for you, but I just changed the cable cover/jacket on my torch leads to a zippered cloth style one and it made a huge improvement for me as far as flexibility goes. I no longer feel like the torch is twisting my hand as I weld. I think that upgrade was like $15.
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