SUN CITY WEST METAL CLUB

Club Special Board Meeting – December 23, 2022

Meeting called to order 10:00a.m. by President Dave Price. Present: Joe Faraone, Ken Booth, Lee Schwartz, Bill Smith, Don Mellum, Wendi Boos. Absent: Alan Green, Gary Konop.

Dave stated the purpose of this Special Board Meeting was to review the plasma machine issues and status:

• Overall, Purpose to select purchase of new plasma machine:
  • Involve more members who use these machines in the decision-making processes
  • Find a local supplier for support and service
  • Joe researched several firms; we thank him for his efforts.
• On-site Vendor Presentations: Two presentations conducted:
  • Weld-Rite owner James and his son came to club, 15 members attended his presentation. Presented 3 options:
    • New Weld-Rite plasma machine
    • Retrofit existing Laguna machine
    • Purchase Weld-Rite and get trade-in for Laguna
    • Each option was about $20K cost
    • Tucson location but building another shop in Phoenix
  • Airgas Rep Chris made presentation to 5-10 members at the club. Lee provided this lead from a conference he attended.
    • ArcLite Pro was the preferred option based on our operating needs – Phoenix service location
    • Cost about $19K with $3500 year-end discount
    • 4-6 week delivery; training provided by company for 1-3 club members to become familiar with machine
    • Optic feature could replace Navigator down the road
• Field Trips: Three trips with club members have taken place:
  • Two trips to Sun City Metal Club – Jack is their Plasma contact at club. They have Westcot machine for $25K, but he was interested in ArcLite prior to joining club.
  • Trip to Glendale ArcLite customer – purchased machine from factory in Oregon. Excellent customer support after having machine for 5 years. They have a 4’x8’ table. Highly recommend Airgas as vendor.
• Design Software Programs: Airgas recommends Inkscape as the next generation of software. Public domain software, training videos available on Airgas site. Will take .dxf files from any source and convert them to cut on machine. Software feature will not allow poorly constructed files to operate on machine to prevent equipment damage.
• Status of Laguna Machine: To meet our expedited delivery request in 2019, sold us machine ‘on the shop floor’. Company customer support very poor, several members have tried to fix machine with no success.
  • Airgas Tech will be scheduled in Jan. for possible repairs
  • $3500 unit may solve cutting issues, more info needed
• Lee stated that club needs to have factory trained technicians service our machines rather than our members who each have their own way of repairing equipment.
• Dave stated that based upon a review of all information, he recommends the ArcLite Pro machine.
• Joe made a motion for the “Board to recommend for General Membership vote the purchase of the ArcLite Pro with 4’x4’ table and options not to exceed $20K and to continue to find a remedy, if possible, for the Laguna”. Ken seconded this motion. A roll call vote was taken:
  • In favor: Don, Bill, Joe, Ken, Wendi; Opposed: Lee
  • The motion carried and will be presented to the General Membership at the next meeting on Jan. 12, 2023.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Don, seconded by Bill. The meeting adjourned at 10:30am.

Submitted by Wendi Boos, Secretary – December 24, 2022

Special Board Minutes - December 23, 2022 View original site