Mig welding gas?

yomax4 · Apr 13, 2020

Believe it or not, CO2 is a pretty Hot gas. It's cheap and if anyone has a newer inverter mig unit you owe it to yourself to try it. Many newer inverters are designed and tested to run CO2. Transformer machines not as much. Cost savings could be major if your machine likes it. Good Luck.

Gary Fowler · May 2, 2020

yomax4 said:
Believe it or not, CO2 is a pretty Hot gas. It's cheap and if anyone has a newer inverter mig unit you owe it to yourself to try it. Many newer inverters are designed and tested to run CO2. Transformer machines not as much. Cost savings could be major if your machine likes it. Good Luck.

How much are you guys paying for 75/25? MY LWS told me that a refill on a 125 CF tank would be $35. I priced buying a bottle and $300!!! I decided to buy one of the online bottles for less than $90 and it supposed to be full when delivered. Might be a few months before it gets here from China though. My LWS said no problem filling it as long as it meets standard for High Pressure cylinders. Some folks have said their LWS wont refill bottles from other places and have to buy from the LWS. Mine says no problem, garage sale etc are ok. Just sign a paper saying you own it and they swap it with you. They will also take one with out of date hydro(BTDT)just have to pay a small few to cover hydrotest.

Gary Fowler · May 2, 2020

Just checked Craiglist in several cities and no luck finding compressed gas cylinders of any relevant sizes that I would want. Little 40 CF was all I found and that was medical oxygen and in Oklahoma so too far to go get it. Also LWS said it doesn't have to be Argon, any cylinder would be ok, I could just swap O2 for Argon

BukitCase · May 2, 2020

Gary, sounds like your LWS is as reasonable as mine about tank swaps, etc - most of my tanks are either 280 or 330 cf, seems like the last refill (C25) was around $50. Don't recall whether it was a 280 or a 330 cf. Typically tho, the larger the tank the lower $ per Cf.

I have 7 or 8 tanks total, 1 each for O/A (largest for both), couple Argon, 3 or 4 C25 (one smaller 150 to fit an "offroad" cart I built, rest 280 and 330 cf. I did the rough math awhile back, and if I'd been LEASING since 1978 instead of "owning", the cost difference would've paid for ALL my welders and the Hypertherm plasma (around $8k total).

It's really nice to be able to look at a tank and NOT think how much it's costing just to SIT there... Steve