Buying an argon cylinder

[Shield Arc]

Years ago a kid who use to be my welder's helper ended up being branch manager at Oxygen Sales, now Air Gas in Bremerton Washington. He had a bunch of these bottles off to one side. A lot of them had been made into four little boxes to cover them up.

 

[Ted Summey]

Personally, I am wary of Craigslist ads when things don't add up quite right. I'm not saying this doesn't but you are justified in being wary as well. I've see a few things like this turn out to be stolen or defective for some reason. "Metal Supply" company? Is it a scrap yard? Are you familiar with the company? It sounds like AirGas is wary of cylinders they can't verify the origin on. The cylinders have to be certified/inspected don't they? Will these pass?

To me there are too many questions but you can only decide what you are comfortable with. I bit the bullet and got my cylinders from a well known welding supply house.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Well, I got another nibble. This time it's a guy who says he cleans out foreclosures. He's got what appears to be, from the height, at least a 250 c.f. cylinder, stamped and labeled Holston Gas. Holston is a smaller gas supplier here in the southeast. I told him it was almost certainly a rental, and the right thing to do was to take it by Holston and return it. Or empty it out, cut off the bottom, and turn it into a wind chime or bell, because I don't think anybody is going to have any luck getting it filled.

 

[CliffordK]

I bought an oxy-acetlene set a while ago. Good price. When I took the oxygen bottle to be refilled, the gas company took it, and kept it.

I barely convinced them that I had put MY cap on it for transport, so they gave that back to me.

Anyway, talking to a different company. If the large bottle has a company logo embossed on the collar, then 99% of them are leased. Don't waste your money on them.

If the bottle has a plain collar (or perhaps customer owned), then it is likely private, and you should be fine.

You can exchange CO[sub]2[/sub]/Argon bottles with pure Argon bottles. And, I presume also helium mix bottles. It is quite possible that Oxygen tanks could also be exchanged for Argon tanks.

Talk to your local gas vendor. If I remember right, there were 3 sizes. The short ones (3' or so) are 100% customer owned. There was also a medium size (not sure of the capacity, but I think they were "nipple height") which were also typically customer owned. Then the tall ones were typically leased, but if they had a plain collar, they were ok.

 

[Arc weld]

All the high pressure cylinders are interchangeable(different valves) and not all smaller cylinders are customer owned. Smaller cylinders can also be leased.

 

[CliffordK]

I've always wondered.
If a company looses a leased cylinder. Then are they charged for the cylinder. Then if the cylinder is later recovered, do they get a refund? It sounds like quite a racket.

I've talked to and returned the small cylinders (3') at several stores, and never had anyone express the slightest concern. Perhaps if they are leased, the company would get charged if lost, so they still wouldn't be a problem.

I don't have any of the mini cylinders, or the ones without caps. Portable tanks might be nice, but I still don't want them without caps.

 

[ultrarunner]

I bought a home with a set of Airgas cylinders left behind... the O2 was 7 years out of date.

Airgas said they would give me 5 years free rental for bringing them in...

I brought them in and left it at that because I had my own cylinders that I owned.

 

[Arc weld]

It's definitely a racket. Cylinder audits are common and sometimes there's some really PO'd customers. All it takes is for someones inventory to be off. A friend of mine used to lease cylinders and returned them when he bought his own cylinders. A few month's later he got a bill saying his lease was do. He called and said he returned the cylinders and cancelled his lease. They said they'd look into it. A couple weeks later he gets another notice saying his lease is due. Well, my friend is probably very similar to Shield Arc on here. He went down to talk with the manager. The manager insisted he never returned his cylinders. My friend said to look up his account. No record of the cylinders being returned. Then the manager accused my friend of trying to pull a fast one. BAD move! My friend pushed the managers desk, with him behind it, up against the wall in his office. The manager was pinned against the wall and threatened to call the cops. My friend told him to go ahead since he was being accused of theft. My friend left and searched through his old invoices and found his receipt. All because some paper work got lost.

 

[Stimw]

I have had people give me cylinders. I wait until I need a fill on mine then I return the given cylinder if it's not customer owned. I usually get a free fill on mine or some other consideration.
A lot of people steal rental cylinders from their work then dump them when empty because they can't get them filled. The company ends up paying for the missing cylinders.

 

[caps]

I bought a large oxygen cylinder several years ago at Roberts Supply in Maryland. I used it for three years and when it was empty I took it back for a refill. They insisted that it was a leased tank and wanted an outrageous amount of money for a lease payment. They would not believe that I bought it and when I refused to pay, they confiscated the tank and were quite nasty. I went home and found my bill of sale with the serial number of the tank on it and took it back to them. They gave no apology and still refused to return the tank or fill it. I told them I was calling the police to press charges for theft of MY tank and as soon as I took out my cell phone they got all huffy and agreed to "give" me a smaller tank as consolation. Their excuse was that the employee that sold me the tank was wrong and and had since been fired. Never got any sort of apology and they were as rude as they could possibly be. I will never go back there again.