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Hi Dwayne!
1.) This gentleman has some very good MSN Excel based welding software for cost estimating, and at a reasonable price as well... Btw, Pipewelder 1999 (Gerald) recommends his products as well... Here's his link:
http://www.mruczekweldingengineering.citymax.com/software.htmlHere's the products page:
http://www.mruczekweldingengineering.citymax.com/products.htmlhere's a link to the ESAB university site which will give you a free lesson on how to estimate welding costs:
http://www.esabna.com/EUWeb/AWTC/Lesson9_1.htmHere's one from Canada's Conestoga College:
http://www.cwa-acs.org/members/journal/CWA_Winter2008GallowayCostCalc.xlsScroll down towards the bottom of the page... It's the second to last software application named: "e-weld 3.0 ML" click the download button and you'll see a .exe file to save and check for viruses on the lower right side of your screen.
http://www.sharetool.com/Business/Calculators/Download_List_3.htmlNow, If you want what looks like the "Cadillac" of welding estimation software, then TWI (The Welding Institute of the UK has a software application that goes for over $500.00, but it covers just about everything you cna imagine and looks very user friendly, so here's the video demo link:
http://www.twisoftware.com/demos/flash/Welding%20Estimator.htmHere's the main page fo it as well:
http://www.twisoftware.com/products/products.jsp?product_id=10This one is called "MIT Calc 1.50 and all you need to do is to click the download button on the lower right area of the box and an .exe file will appear for you to save it where you want it, so you can check it for any viruses before opening it first! So here's the link:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/welding-24723.htmlMetarinka who participates in here, has an MS excel based software application for cost estimating and a weld strength calculator, but bear in mind that it's formulated for GMAW (MIG) and GTAW (TIG) only, yet I think it can be modified somewhat (You might want to pick his brain on that ;) ) in order to be used in estimating weld costs with the FCAW-S (Flux cored self shielded) process as well... here's the link to the thread where he posted this software application. Look for it on the last post in the thread:
http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?pid=105308;hl=calculatorThe Procedure Hand book of Arc Welding has a very good chapter on estimating welding cost also, so if you have the 13th Edition or better, from Lincoln Electric and you're pretty good with MSN Excel software, you could probably develop your own software application that would be tailor made to most of your type of work besides large diameter piping as well.
Anywho, I'm tired and gonna hit the rack so, I hope this stuff helps friend! ;)
Respectfully,
Henry