40 replies to this topic

[Merryck]

So I went in there today to pick up some of those disposable welding gas bottles to get my practise on.

 

I ask the nearest employee to show me to their disposable welding gas bottles and he walks me over to the butane for the blowtorches.

 

Great.

 

Thanks.

 

I'll just go over here and stare at this wall.

[Carlos W]

I've got one you can have

[Tamworthbay]

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Our local halfords is pretty good but there is the odd one in there who is useless.

[sherly]

I've had mixed experiences with my local Halfords.  In trying to buy some inner tubes for my road bike I actually had to back away from a potential argument where the guy was trying to convince me that a 1 1/4" wide tube was bigger than 1 1/2" tube (4 is bigger than 2 right?)

 

I then popped in a few weeks later to buy some new spark plugs for the mini, not expecting much success, asked the guy behind the counter and he replied, without looking at any flip-chart books "you'll be wanting BPR6E's I reckon."   

 

I nearly fell over in surprise.............but he was obviously an enthusiast.

[Alex_B]

That would be rather amusing, Mig welding with flammable gas! one arc and bye bye eyebrows! 

[Merryck]

Yeah there used to be a load of enthusiasts at Canterbury's Halfords and it was awesome! In fact, three of them came and replaced my suspension once.

 

Carlos, if I can't find one in Canterbury would I be able to come by yours tomorrow morning and pick it up?

[Carlos W]

Yeah there used to be a load of enthusiasts at Canterbury's Halfords and it was awesome! In fact, three of them came and replaced my suspension once.
 
Carlos, if I can't find one in Canterbury would I be able to come by yours tomorrow morning and pick it up?

Away until Monday mate!

If you pop up next week you can have it tho

[Merryck]

OK cool, I'm trying to get a larger bottle so I may not need it.

 

I'll probably drop by at some point though just to check out the mini!

[Carlos W]

OK cool, I'm trying to get a larger bottle so I may not need it.
 
I'll probably drop by at some point though just to check out the mini!

I commented on another thread, Adams gas are good! The disposable is yours if you want it thoc

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Not everybody in the alcohol section at your local ASDA is a wine connoisseur. It's a retail store selling not only specialist parts but stuff like camping gear and bikes. Most of the kids are only part time and are doing it to get them through college and uni anyway, give them a break 

[JustSteve]

In my local Halfords the welding gas and blow torch gas are next to each other on the same shelf

[GrahamHill]

Not being funny but why are you buying them from Halfords? Buy from a local welding distributor. 1. they will be cheaper 2. you will likely get served by someone that knows what they are talking about. If you don't know your local one ask me and I will try to give you details of your local :) (Machine Mart doesn't count as a welding distributor either... just a different sort of Halfords!) 

[AVV IT]

I use Halfords for one thing, and one thing only "Sunday Opening"!

I stopped buying model specific parts from them years ago, on the grounds that they seemed incapable of ever supplying the right part. They're really no different to any other large retail chain store business though to be fair (DIY Stores, Supermarkets, Electrical Suppliers etc) They all tend to have a high turnover of staff, often resulting in poor product knowledge, and customer service. I much prefer to support small local businesses (motor factors welding suppliers etc.) where I can instead, but sadly like Tesco, B&Q and Comet, they have a big convinient car park and are likely to still be open when I need something, but everywhere else is closed.

[GrahamHill]

I hear you on that one. Sometimes though - if it is a family business like mine and you have a phone number for them it may well be worth giving them a call. If we get a call at the weekend or after hours you may find we say 'just pop down, we're in' 
I doubt we are the only ones that do that. 

After work on week days is a good one to try - we stayed open till 7pm yesterday for one customer. 

[Dan]

Not everybody in the alcohol section at your local ASDA is a wine connoisseur. It's a retail store selling not only specialist parts but stuff like camping gear and bikes. Most of the kids are only part time and are doing it to get them through college and uni anyway, give them a break

And if someone who maybe didn't fully understand what he was doing took this kid's advice and managed to bodge a bottle of flammable gas onto his welder, and killed himself, the kid would be blameless? No. They need to know when they don't know enough to answer the question.