Harold, I also live in Canada. How do you clear your own UPS packages
through customs. I'm curious to how you let UPS know that your clearing the
item yourself and what the process is?

BTW I ordered a plasma cutter from IOC a year ago and Bill with IOC was
great to deal with. I just sold my Heliarc machine so I planning to phone
IOC up after weekend and order 185TSW. The boss won't let me order the
machine before I got rid of my old one.

Kevin

wrote in message
oups.com...
I tried to buy the Thermal Arc 185TSW from my local Thermal Arc dealer
in Winnipeg but he was unable to get one because it does not have CSA
approval. I ended up ordering it from the Indiana Oxygen Company
http://www.weldingsuppliesfromioc.com for US$1630 plus US$56 for UPS
ground shipping. I clear all of my own packages through customs so
there were no brokerage fees. I paid customs 7% pst and 7% gst for a
total of C$272.90 and there was no duty on the welder or the included
accessories. IOC was a treat to deal with and were very comfortable
with shipping goods to Canada. I ordered the welder on Aug 24th and
received it on Aug 30th.

The power requirements for the two welders are quite diffrent but both
have a NEMA 6-50 230V 50A welding plug. The 185TSW draws a maximum of
38A in stick mode and 29A in Tig mode. The SW175 draws maximum 54A in
AC/DC stick and DC tig mode and 71A in AC Tig mode. On the other hand,
I ran my SW175 off of a 40A range circuit for a few years and never
tripped the breaker.

I hope this helps.
Harold