Sheild gas thoughts?

[spursjingles]

I bought my tank after researching & calculating lease vs. Buy. Tanks need a hydro test every 7 years, which costs $25. Generally you hand in your old tank & get another tank back full. You still own a tank, but what tank that's changes. I've had my tank filled & returned occasionally too though.

I hear some places don't like customer owned tanks & will not fill them or not fill them without ownership documentation. Haven't ran into that or any issues showing up with just a tank & no paperwork myself at the couple local welding shops I use here in Colorado. They are more mom & pop types though. Big guys like Airgas might be more picky.

You don't get hit with hydro test charges if you lease, but $25 every 7 years is a lot cheaper than a $10-30 annual lease.

I just upgraded from my 150cf? tank to a 250cf? tank if I recall. Cost $70 & apparently happens a few times a day at my local welding shop with people needing more capacity or more portability.

I buy lease a large tank and have the correct hose fittings to fill my small bottle for easy transport. As i do, the pressure is less per fill. But worth it.

 

[Jeepnford]

I hear some places don't like customer owned tanks & will not fill them or not fill them without ownership documentation. Haven't ran into that or any issues showing up with just a tank & no paperwork myself at the couple local welding shops I use here in Colorado. They are more mom & pop types though. Big guys like Airgas might be more picky.

.

The guy I buy my tanks from is I guess what you would call an independent dealer for an airgas distributor. After I bought some tanks with no proof of ownership I asked him if it would be difficult to get them filled. He said "nobody cares anymore". Apparently he was right.

 

[PJSprog]

We tried some Stargon with one of our MIG welders earlier this week. Wow, what a difference. We use it for our robotic welders, but the rest of the human shop uses CO₂. Someone decided to try it on a new prototype part, and the company President was so impressed he now wants to consider using it throughout the shop. I suspect he'll reconsider when he sees what that will cost versus CO₂, but even one of our mediocre welders admitted he's rarely made welds that clean. Very little splatter, and a pleasingly smooth sizzle.

 

[BukitCase]

PJ, do you have an approximate price comparison among CO2, C25 and "stargon"? Praxair is pretty tight-lipped about how much of each gas is in it, I'm guessing OTHER suppliers' "tri-mix" may be similar? Thanks... Steve

 

[yomax4]

It's a trade secret for some reason. When i worked at Prax they would only say it was 3-5% O2. I personally don't care for tri mix on mild steel. Beats CO2 though if you are running transformer machines.

 

[BukitCase]

Agreed, thanks - when I bought my transformer mm211 I'd already done enough research (our weld shop at work employed 18-20 weldors, 2 of which were on the rotating crew I ran :thumbsup to know I didn't want CO2 for my projects - (closest thing to slag I see is maybe a bb or two)

Then about a year later I found an irresistable deal on a MM252 with dual running gear and an UN-USED 30A, so I just up-sized/added bottles - currently have C25 in 2 "K" size tanks (200cf) and a "S" (150), and Ar in another "S" and a smaller "Q" size (80cf) -

I'm finding I don't use enough Ar to warrant a backup tank, plus a buddy gave me some stainless scraps and (for those smaller projects) I'd like to just stick a 2# spool of stainless wire in the 30A and go - this would ALSO NOT be close to a production situation, so I'm thinking about just finishing off the smaller Ar bottle and swapping for tri-mix next fill.

My LWS is NOT Prax-air and I've had some of my owner tanks with them (O/A) since 1978, and they're NOT shy about questions so I'll be with 'em til one of us croaks - so next time I talk to 'em hopefully I'll actually REMEMBER their tri-mix #'s ...Steve

 

[Big Barn]

I used my LWS (Air Liquide ) trimix" (91%Argon-5%CO2 and 4%Oxygen) for several years before switching back to C25.

During that time my weld quality showed no notable improvement and I didn't date ANY supermodels. :=)

Terry

 

[yomax4]

In the old days ( prior to pulse ) Oxygen was added to Ar Co2 to enable the smaller machines to be able to get close to spray transfer. It kinda worked but in my opinion it simply added oxidizers to your weldment. For the same or less cost you could go with 90/10 or 95/5 and do well with out the oxidizers. trimix stargon still seems to appeal to some as it is pretty common out there.

 

[BukitCase]

I've had no complaints whatever with C25, do too much out of position to be interested in a separate bottle (or the extra cost) for spray - only thing I was looking at tri-mix for would be occasional stainless MIG.

If I ever get off my heinie and get a water cooler and water cooled torch for the TIG I probably won't even do THAT, just keep C25 and Ar.

Must be the "Old Fart Syndrome", FINALLY the hot young ladies smile at me - probably 'cause they KNOW I'm harmless/too old to take YES for an answer - ...Steve

 

[dragoneggs]

I used my LWS (Air Liquide ) trimix" (91%Argon-5%CO2 and 4%Oxygen) for several years before switching back to C25.

During that time my weld quality showed no notable improvement and I didn't date ANY supermodels. :=)

Terry

But did you stay at a Holiday Inn? :laughing: