I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it.

[Markcuda]

Re: I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it.Another question added?

Shield Arc, I have read tons of your posts, I've came to the conclusion
that you have forgot more than I will ever know about welding

 

[Shield Arc]

Shield Arc, I have read tons of your posts, I've came to the conclusion
that you have forgot more than I will ever know about welding

Well thank you very much!:thumbsup:
But I'm still a hobbyist.

 

[Markcuda]

Lets talk tanks.
Do I want to buy a tank?
Should I rent/lease a tank?
What is a good cubic feet size?

 

[joshuabardwell]

Lets talk tanks.
Do I want to buy a tank?
Should I rent/lease a tank?
What is a good cubic feet size?

It is much more cost-effective to buy a tank, versus renting. If you can swing the cash, do it. Rental costs may be around $100 / yr or thereabouts, whereas a new tank may be a few hundreds of dollars, so after three or four years, you've bought your cylinder. If you're not sure you're going to be welding that long, maybe rental makes sense, or if you just can't afford the up-front cash of the cylinder, then at least rental will get you welding, but buying makes more financial sense, hands-down. If you do buy a cylinder, make sure you are buying from a reputable seller. If someone sells you a rented cyilnder, you are going to be up a creek when you go try to fill it and they just take it back and keep it. Not sure how you can tell if a cyilnder was rented or not.

It is much cheaper to fill a bigger cylinder, on a per-unit basis. On TSC's web site, for example, 40 c.f. of shielding gas is $0.79 / c.f.; 80 c.f. is $0.52 / c.f.; and 125 c.f. is $0.39 / c.f. That being said, you should not buy such a big cylinder that it becomes unwieldy to move around, assuming portability is one of your needs. A 125 c.f. cylinder is 7" diameter by 43" tall and weighs over 60 lbs. That might be more than you want to be rolling around on your little cart.

A bigger cylinder also requires fewer refills, which means less time spent in the car or truck going to get it topped off.

EDIT TO ADD: Also, if you buy your cylinder, you can get it refilled anywhere, but if you rent it, I believe that you typically can only refill it at the place you rent it from. Not 100% sure on that. I have been researching an acetylene rig this week, which is where my info is coming from. I have not personally owned any compressed gasses yet.

 

[Markcuda]

Thank you very much for the info.
I just read a couple threads on the Everlast forums about tanks and tank sizing.
They talked at length about buying off Craigslist, make sure it is NOT a rental
tank.
The 150s are looking ok for me.
I did a Google search on different size tanks, they gave cylinder diameter and
cylinder hight, and the weight of it.

 

[k0ua]

I chose a 125, based on size to fit my cart, and also approximate welding time I would get at about 15 Cubic foot/hour. I wanted the biggest tank I could get and put on the cart easily, taking into account the economy of scale for refilling.. YMMV.

James K0UA

 

[Markcuda]

I was just on eBay looking at 125cf cylinders and they were going
for about 275ish, new, with shipping.
On Wednesday, I will call my local gas supply guy and get some
prices on rent verses buying.
I would buy a 150 cubic foot tank if the price is right.

 

[dstig1]

You need to find out what the local gas suppliers do before you do anything on a tank. Here, I can buy only up to 80 cf, everything bigger is rental. But the LWS I use will fill any bottle you own, no matter the size, with the hitch being that it will have to be sent out, filled and returned to you (same cylinder) which could take a week or two. These guys will swap out an owned cyl 80 cf or under, but since they don't sell the bigger ones, they will only refill and return it to you. They don't seem picky about what is on the neck ring as long as you certify that you own it.

They offer a lifetime lease on the bigger cylinders (shorter terms too) but the LL is very much worth it, if you plan to keep it longer term. They charge a $15 fee every 3 yrs for hydro too, but the lease price is one time and is way less than buying a cylinder would be. My 120 cf tank was $150 lifetime lease and fills are $35-40 with C25.

From what I have read, this is far different than others see, around the country. The LL with these folks seems like a no brainer, but that doesn't appear to be the case in a lot of places. I wrote this all out to give you an idea of how different it can be. So before you do anything, call your normal supplier from work, then call whoever else is in the area and get a full description of how they handle owned vs leased and what all the restrictions and special cases are that they have. Your work supplier may be nicer to deal with since you already have a connection (which you should mention if you don't deal with them directly at work).

 

[Markcuda]

Dave, thank you for the info. also.
I am going to call my gas supplier, ILMO welding products
in Decatur,Illinois.
They deliver to the place I work at.
All Barton employees (where I work) get a discount on every thing.

 

[Shield Arc]

Personally I like the 250 tanks. My C-25, argon, and oxygen are all 250s. My acetylene and helium are 135s. 135 are not shown on this chart. For the life of me I cannot remember what a paid for them.:confused3: