Welder dust cover....Where are they?...Vote/Poll...Who's in?

[wileyone123]

This thread is silly.

Why on earth would This thread be 'silly' ?
The comment seems unjustified.....and the post contradictive.
I was simply wanting to get ideas/thots for a cover...and possibly even twist someones arm(Everlast) to consider manufacture of said covers.

Dust covers are heavily marked up items, like undercoating for cars, with the idea that if you don't buy it you are risking your $$$$ actual device/car/sailboat/plane/whatever.

The idea that the raw materials are expensive is absurd. You can buy 4ft x 5ft transparent welding curtains from McMaster for $22, which as we all know is about 300% the cost you'd get for the same thing from China (or AirGas for that matter), who then also mark their stuff up to make a profit. And those screens are for use around welding, not as a mere cover, so any flammability concerns are moot.

Agreed!...100%

I think Everlast just has other things to focus on, which is reasonable.......

But I think they should reconsider spending some time to make SOME kind of dust cover.

If i understood correctly, this seems contradictive....???

I don't even want to think about whats all over my welder circuit boards from the 4 years of that fan running in my machine shop before I made the dust cover.

Obviously, U agree there is a Need for covers....hence the plastic drop cloth on yours ...(flame retardant?....Hmmm)

Its simple, there are situations that having a dust cover is needed/preferred....and at worst, helpful.

Other company's make them for the same reasons.
Im sure that if covers were reasonably priced, most everyone(non-commercial) would own one for their machine........and use it!

Again, Why would this thread be silly?.......as it has been very helpful to me so far.
I think i am going to make a cover for the whole welding cart...and not just the welder.
....as i plan on installing the plasma cutter on it as well.
Cart mods currently being done to my likings.

[acannell]

Why on earth would This thread be 'silly' ?
The comment seems unjustified.....and the post contradictive.

sorry, not the thread, the ideas about just how difficult and complex it is to get a simple product like a dust cover to market.

I think its just slipping through the cracks at everlast, but the consolation is that they have been up to very good things instead..

Also, I dont understand the need for a welder dust cover to have any special flame retardant nature beyond what a typical weld curtain would be made of. My welder is surrounded by flammable materials and the last thing I'm worried about is the dust cover catching fire. How about the workbenches, oily machinery, random pools of gas I leave laying around, sticks of dynamites, my cat etc..

[performance]

It's not slipping through the cracks...It is a low profit, high labor type product. A term in economics called "normal" profits apply here. That's the cost it takes to make it, plus the "worth it" factor in relation to what offers the most bang for the buck for our staff, warehouse space and time we have. We've looked at it, and had some produced and they weren't satisfactory to our expectations. SURE...people say, we just want "something", yet when they get it, they are going to nitpick and nah nah everything to death and tell us the way it should be done for just "a couple pennies more" etc. No, this would satisfy noone, particularly when we weren't satisfied with what we got. And we have to be concerned about flame retardance. It's just not so simple in China where that kind of specialty fabric in the color you want, and additional materials are limited and minimum order quantities into the 10's of thousands of dollars are required to produce the fabric (as everything there these days are produced on "demand" instead of ready stocked and require minimum qty's). We have other priorities, and this is one low down on the list as it can get right now.

[wileyone123]

I personally think the whole Flame Retardant thing is over-rated.
Flame-proof is foolish overkill....obviously.
Flame retardant is mostly due to legality issues....but still, Guarantees Nothing!

Just wondering, is the Denim tig torch lead cover Flame-retardant?....if not, Why not?.....as it would be much more susceptible to fire hazards than any dust cover!
If so, change the dye to Green, and voila'....instant fabric source!
I highly doubt anyone has complained cuz the lead cover has been damaged or caught on fire.


There is absolutely no way of keeping everyone from having normal mishaps.....due to oversight, neglect or just plain stupidity. (mostly the latter)

As mentioned previously....adhere a disclaimer tag to the product....just like is done on a $5 pillow or mattress...."against Federal Law to remove this tag except by the consumer"
....or just like on plastic bags..... "keep out of reach from small children; product can cause suffocation".
There are disclaimers on common products every single day.....why should a simple dust cover be any different?

As cheap and easy as it would be to make a nylon cover (and work just fine for 98% of us), i would probably say a better choice for production should be some sort of a lightweight cloth or canvas.

I think Nylon would be just fine for dust and most grinder sparks(from a distance)...but not so much a berry from a welder or plasma cutter (just my .02).

Im all for Everlast offering some sort of stickers, patches or iron-ons.
Stickers and patches are simple marketing and advertisement tools....more so than an iron-ons.
Im actually surprised that they are not already offered.

[Rambozo]

Just wondering, is the Denim tig torch lead cover Flame-retardant?....if not, Why not?.....as it would be much more susceptible to fire hazards than any dust cover!
If so, change the dye to Green, and voila'....instant fabric source!
I highly doubt anyone has complained cuz the lead cover has been damaged or caught on fire.

Flame retardant is just another chemical treatment, and I would expect those are treated. The problem with your idea, is that I doubt Everlast even makes those. They just buy them from probably the torch supplier.

While they could probably buy some kind of generic cover to sell, as has been mentioned, people would whine about it for sure. So they would have to seek out another contract manufacturer to make them, and then you bump into volume and lead issues. Or farm it out to a small business in the US and the price would rise above what most people would want to pay. I totally understand this, but if enough people ask, then it might move up a little on that long list of things to look at. For now, anyone who really wants one can always have one made.

For a case of sticker shock you can price out what you want HERE

This PLACE also does customs and probably at a little more justifiable cost.

Or just seek out a local upholstery shop, seamstress, sailmaker, etc. and there you go.

This is much like the welding cart issue. Everlast does offer a generic welding cart. While not made specifically to suit their machines, it works good enough for those people that have no desire to build their own. But for something specific to the machines you own, most build their own. I think this works much better for a generic cart, than a generic cover, but maybe I'm wrong and a simple one size fits all cover would satisfy those looking for just protection?

[performance]

Rambozo
You understand it pretty well. The cart is often picked apart too. It's a good one. I have two of them. Not perfect, but good and works fine. I've had people complain there weren't detailed instructions on how to assemble it, though it comes with a parts break down. Some people complain because they couldn't match up every screw or a washer was missing and insisted that I send the missing washer, though I know there are usually a couple left over, others complain that the cart did not fit their welder "well" enough, though there's plenty of room, they wanted a glove fit, some who said the scews were were too long for some parts, or that the water cooler had to go on the bottom shelf rather than the middle one...and then several engineering minded people who went through the rigamarole of explaining that we needed to tell the factory engineer that we needed to redesign this or that part and insisted we have them send them the "new" part when it was available.

After a while, you become a little jaded to some of the recommendations. Patches, iron ons etc, aren't really advertisements for us. It's cool, sure. But there's a cost attached to it that most people don't think about. Patches/iron ons usually don't get rolled out on the town to advertise. They stay put inside a dusty shop. If the name on the side of the welder isn't enough, then when people come into the shop, they aren't going to notice a small iron on patch. Sure you could say a cover without a patch won't tell people what the product is...but how many people run into someones shop just to see what type machinery they are using???How many people are going to even be able to tell you what they saw in the shop the next day?

And, if we did it, most people would request one "free". It might end up being free for them, but that is another cost added back to the cost of the welder eventually. The cycle never ends, and you loose sight of your main goals about improving the product and service. If someone is assigned to this task, this takes away from more important meaningful ones that they can accomplish that make more fiscal sense, especially with our smaller staff. No one at Everlast is at the point of sitting down and "looking" for something to do. There's always things neck deep to get done.

[youngnstudly]

Rambozo
You understand it pretty well. The cart is often picked apart too. It's a good one. I have two of them. Not perfect, but good and works fine. I've had people complain there weren't detailed instructions on how to assemble it, though it comes with a parts break down. Some people complain because they couldn't match up every screw or a washer was missing and insisted that I send the missing washer, though I know there are usually a couple left over, others complain that the cart did not fit their welder "well" enough, though there's plenty of room, they wanted a glove fit, some who said the scews were were too long for some parts, or that the water cooler had to go on the bottom shelf rather than the middle one...and then several engineering minded people who went through the rigamarole of explaining that we needed to tell the factory engineer that we needed to redesign this or that part and insisted we have them send them the "new" part when it was available.

After a while, you become a little jaded to some of the recommendations. Patches, iron ons etc, aren't really advertisements for us. It's cool, sure. But there's a cost attached to it that most people don't think about. Patches/iron ons usually don't get rolled out on the town to advertise. They stay put inside a dusty shop. If the name on the side of the welder isn't enough, then when people come into the shop, they aren't going to notice a small iron on patch. Sure you could say a cover without a patch won't tell people what the product is...but how many people run into someones shop just to see what type machinery they are using???How many people are going to even be able to tell you what they saw in the shop the next day?

And, if we did it, most people would request one "free". It might end up being free for them, but that is another cost added back to the cost of the welder eventually. The cycle never ends, and you loose sight of your main goals about improving the product and service. If someone is assigned to this task, this takes away from more important meaningful ones that they can accomplish that make more fiscal sense, especially with our smaller staff. No one at Everlast is at the point of sitting down and "looking" for something to do. There's always things neck deep to get done.

I agree with Mark completely. I have never seen a welding cover as something that will make others go out and buy an Everlast welder. My idea's on welding covers are mostly to make them look aesthetically pleasing to me, since I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. I don't even know that many people who weld anymore, and the ones I do know will probably never even show interest in seeing my welder and it's cover. And I wouldn't have interest in showing them anyways, even if they did. They know I have the welder, I know I have it, end of story.

Mark,
Do you think everlast could make up some iron on type decals where if people made there own cover, we could at least make them look more official! ?

I keep thinking about stitching the Everlast "E" logo on my next cover, but I may decide to just leave it simple and plain. No sense in advertising to myself.