My Power Arc 160 STH arrived and I have questions.

[everlastsupport]

Since the nerve damage in my hands showed up, I have become a lot more "sensitive" when gripping or holding things with my hands. Before the nerve damage, I always used water-cooled torches, and they are such a pleasure to use that I never had a problem in the first place!

It drives me crazy that the LWS are never open on weekends! You'd think a few of them would open for half a Saturday or something. Heck, even 2 of the 3 local steel suppliers are open on Saturday! That is normally when I run out of supplies though (half way through the day), so it'd be my luck that the LWS would close 15 minutes before I arrived. Then I'd have to read the lovely sign on the front door that says "Sorry, but we closed the second you ran out of supplies and we're now sitting at the bar laughing about it! Come back some other time when we're open! Haha!!!!"

.....I swear the sign says that on it if you look at it in just the right light!

Too funny. The local steel folks here have the same sign. Years ago Welder Services was open Sat. No more.

And we have one metal supplier open Sat. And everything there is aluminum price too. And no matter how small it is $20. I get most of my stuff during the week from an iron works shop a friend owns.

So the 3" nylon worked fine, I will get a couple (only since I have to pay shipping). What happened to your hands. If in a shop, I can relate. But I normally bugger up one at a time.

[Rambozo]

I have some LWS with Sat hours. But I always have to remember the steel shop has odd hours. They want to make sure they GTFO at 5 sharp, so they close at 4:45 weekdays and 11:45 Sat. Have to time those last minute runs closely.

[youngnstudly]

Too funny. The local steel folks here have the same sign. Years ago Welder Services was open Sat. No more.

And we have one metal supplier open Sat. And everything there is aluminum price too. And no matter how small it is $20. I get most of my stuff during the week from an iron works shop a friend owns.

So the 3" nylon worked fine, I will get a couple (only since I have to pay shipping). What happened to your hands. If in a shop, I can relate. But I normally bugger up one at a time.

My local steel supplier also has aluminum prices, unless you buy copper...then they charge you like $8/lb FOR USED! If you purchase any raw materials that are new and have been previously cut down, you get charged for the steel price by the pound PLUS an added surcharge (per foot) since this piece isn't a full 20 ft. stick, and you weren't the one that paid them to cut it down. Apparently they see it as a convenience to you that they can exploit to the full degree.

When I asked how they came to that conclusion, the employee answered "Well, you're getting a custom cut piece of material and not paying the $8-10 fee (per cut), so you're actually getting a better price." Of course I responded by saying "But the last person that purchased material from this stick of tubing ALREADY PAID TO HAVE THE MATERIAL CUT DOWN! YOU'RE CHARGING ME FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU ALREADY CHARGED SOMEONE ELSE FOR, DURING A TRANSACTION WHICH I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH! Besides, do you have ANY idea what the odds are that I'm actually going to need a piece of material that is exactly 67-9/16" long? I came here for a 4 foot section!" I could see what was about to come out of this guys mouth next, before he even knew he was going to say it ("Well, I'd be happy to cut this down to 48" for you, but there will be a cut charge.")....He didn't say that, but we both knew he was thinking it.

Yes, the 3" worked perfectly for my 17 aircooled torch. I assume the 4" is for watercooled torches...or? Luckily my nerve damage is NOT from doing shop related work. Everyone I know that has had an accumulative injury from working in a shop has major issues with their body (worn knees, worn discs in their back, worn rotator cuffs in shoulders, neck problems, de-arched soles in their feet, etc.....all of which my father has!). Instead I went through nearly 8 months of chemotherapy to get my nerve damage. It was around 8 years ago, but the effects have stayed with me and will continue to do so. I ended up losing my fingernails and toenails, plus the skin on the bottom side of my hands and feet continually peeled to a lovely shade of red. Not fun, but you'd think that I wouldn't be able to use my hands at all after going through that. Luckily I can still have my fun metal working, sewing, working on cars, etc. I just don't have the ability to do it everyday, or for hours on end like I used to. It's good to get away from that stuff and take breaks anyways! Less stress!