Get the biggest tank you can....you won't be sorry.

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Originally Posted by Steve

Big bottles require a big cart. It depends on the size of the wheels and the design of the cart as to what size bottle can be safely used mobile wise. I planned ahead in case I wanted or needed to go to a larger size tank. The mod to my cart was easy to do. The 4 wheels each can handle up to 350 lbs. for a total of 1400 lbs. so with all my welders,cables and tanks on the cart the total weight is around 450 lbs. which has plenty of safety margin. My cart is 2 and a half feet wide at the wheels so it is plenty stable. The larger wheels roll over obstacles easily. I see no problem with rolling the 350 tank on the cart. The only problem I see is when I get older and the 350 or even the 250 gets to be too much to lift onto the cart. Lifting 170 lbs. of dead weight is not a problem right now, but in 20 or 30 years from now, it might be.

The other big thing is transporting the big bottles. The 125's fit perfect in the back of my car. The 250 I have to move my front passenger seat down and have the bottle hang into the front seat. The 350 is going to be a monster. It is heavy and it is big. But, it will save me tons of gasoline and cheaper to fill volume wise so it is worth the hassle to haul it back and forth from the LWS. $85 for a complete fill for three times the gas at $45 in my 125 is a no brainer. I will save $50 on gas for the 350 over the cost of filling the 125 three times. like getting a third 125 free!

Quick connect fittings I have heard may leak as they are less secure as a screw on fitting. Just something I have read somewhere else. May or may not be valid. I have not seen very many quick connect fittings for shielding gas so there must be a reason why they don't offer them. Automotive type quick connects always leak on me. The quick connect on my Powertig 250EX seems to leak a little. The direct connect on my Hobart holds the pressure of the argon / co2 forever while the quick connect on my Powertig loses pressure after a few hours. I have a direct connect barb from the regulator to the back of the machine and of course the quick connect at the front. Could be an internal leak or a leak right at the connector. Not sure. The leak is not enough to affect the weld so I just let it go.

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I use standard 1/4"npt quick connects on my PP256 and they don't leak at all. I have a female coming from the welder solenoid, a male for the argon bottle and two males (one in, one out) on the air pressure regulator. It's a very simple setup and works well.

Standard like in compressor/airline fittings? May I ask what brand, every damned one I have leaks a bit, I've bought from HF, Home Depot, Lowes, they all leak either constantly or at certain angles. Compressed air is pretty cheap, gas isn't.

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Originally Posted by Trip59

Standard like in compressor/airline fittings? May I ask what brand, every damned one I have leaks a bit, I've bought from HF, Home Depot, Lowes, they all leak either constantly or at certain angles. Compressed air is pretty cheap, gas isn't.

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Northern tool. The males should have nice clean edges and if a female leaks, toss it an put on a new one. I turn the gas bottle valve off when I'm not using it.

The Grizzly air connectors I got don't leak... I don't know if they would have the right stuff though...I've never done gas welding.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/category.aspx?key=110

I have never seen any trucks around here delivering and they never even offered it to me even after asking about transporting in my car. My quick connect on the front of my PP256 holds the pressure and I also turn off the valve when not in use.

Howdy, Just wondering if there's anywhere that has a mobile welding gas service, kind of like propane. I know that the tough one to fill is acetylene as it requires some multi-stage process with acetone (wiki explains it). But how about a truck that carries bulk argon, co2, helium, and spare tanks. I've never seen such a thing, but it would be nice to order ea refill just like ordering a pizza for those of us whose use is sporadic. And I think if a guy got enough customers on board he could make a go of a regular weekly/bi-weekly route.

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Originally Posted by hooda

Howdy, Just wondering if there's anywhere that has a mobile welding gas service, kind of like propane. I know that the tough one to fill is acetylene as it requires some multi-stage process with acetone (wiki explains it). But how about a truck that carries bulk argon, co2, helium, and spare tanks. I've never seen such a thing, but it would be nice to order ea refill just like ordering a pizza for those of us whose use is sporadic. And I think if a guy got enough customers on board he could make a go of a regular weekly/bi-weekly route.

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So basically you want Jimmy John's to bring you some argon and a sandwich? :)

it wasn't quite like ordering a pizza, but the airgas my dad uses delivers every other friday out to his area. back when it was AGA, the driver would stop by every friday carrying spares even if you didn't order anything. part of that was because they always had big oxy bottles to drop at the (now closed) hospital. still, linde bought that store before the hospital closed and the driver was only out every friday if you ordered a bottle. after airgas bought linde's welding gas distribution, it dropped to every other week, and I don't think it's free anymore.


still the same driver, though, after all that. hell of a nice guy. I'm pretty sure his name is chuck. I think he walks faster spinning a bottle along the floor than not.

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Originally Posted by hooda

Howdy, Just wondering if there's anywhere that has a mobile welding gas service, kind of like propane.

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I don't think it could be done profitably... usually each of those gases are stored in their liquid state until they are pumped as a gas into high pressure cylinders, and the liquid requires cooling to stay in liquid state. Mobile liquid containers are temperature sensitive so they vent gas that has phase transitioned from liquid because the container is getting hot, for instance. You'd need to move a high pressure pump around, too, to presurize cylinders. You could manifold 6 or 8 or 10 high pressure cylinders together and fill empties- almost, because you could never exceed the max pressure inside the manifold- from there, but the pressure in the manifold setup would eventually bleed down to where it would no longer fill empty cylinders even most of the way full.

If everyone in your town was a welder there might be a call for it, but part of the reason that food delivery services work is that everybody eats and it's still profitable to send a guy and a car to your house because he's delivering to your neighbors too. If enough people wanted argon, WalMart would sell it- right now its limited to slightly mainstream retailers like Tractor Supply. Propane is more stable in its liquid state- less temperature sensitive- and lots of people use it, so WalMart *does* sell small containers.

sadly i think the best option is just to take your empty bottle in and get er filled. unless your running a big shop and paying for them to deliver. i know our shop gets all of our gasses delivered (ar, propane, nitrogen, polyproplene, oxygen, acetylene). im sure we pay for it too though.

I think the title says it all. Last time I ran out of gas I was in the middle of welding and was kicking my self for not purchasing a larger bottle.

Airgas will deliver to me every 2 weeks when they run a truck to all the small towns surrounding their base of operations (for a small fee).

Thurmond

Yes, most welding supply stores have a truck that runs. If you tell them you need something, they will usually have it put on the truck and charge a very small delivery fee. You'd be surprised what else they carry on the truck...things like welding caps, torch tips (oxyfuel), fittings etc.

Is it possible or practical to swap the valve out of a high pressure cylinder? For instance, if you owned a 125 cf oxygen cylinder but needed an argon cylinder, couldn't you ask the filling company to swap the oxygen valve for an argon valve. They probably wouldn't touch the bottle if you did it yourself, but it seems do-able.

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Originally Posted by Tritium

Airgas will deliver to me every 2 weeks when they run a truck to all the small towns surrounding their base of operations (for a small fee).

Thurmond

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Is that to a location zoned business or a residence/home shop?

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Originally Posted by DaveO

Is it possible or practical to swap the valve out of a high pressure cylinder? For instance, if you owned a 125 cf oxygen cylinder but needed an argon cylinder, couldn't you ask the filling company to swap the oxygen valve for an argon valve. They probably wouldn't touch the bottle if you did it yourself, but it seems do-able.

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All my LWSs will swap HP for HP same size no charge. Far as what is on the truck, bought a jacket in a pinch right off the truck and they just tacked it on the account.

It shouldn't matter what the location is zoned as long as your place is accessible with a truck within 30-40 yards.

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Originally Posted by MigPlazArc

So basically you want Jimmy John's to bring you some argon and a sandwich? :)

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Yes, exactly, and whenI call, If I pay the driver an xtra $5.00 tip, I want him to stop and pick me up cigarettes on the way.:D

I have 3 major LWS and 2 family types by me. I would only count on the big ones to deliver and would not expect anything off the truck but welding products and a limited line if any. But maybe the driver smokes?

If you have a few LWS dealers around you, it is best to do some shopping around for the best price on welding gasses.

I have found that one gas dealer charges a lot more than another. But they have better prices for consumables like tig rods, torch collets and such. But in order to keep the goodwill with the cheaper priced gas dealer, I buy my consumables from them also. In a pinch, I may buy from the other higher priced dealer but I want to reward the dealer with the cheaper gas as that is my highest cost for tig welding.

You will get a better deal on gas if you pick up yourself. Yes it is convenient to have the tanks delivered but you do pay for the delivery service.

As far as transport, the largest bottle I now have is a 300 cubic foot tank and it is 9 inches in diameter and 5 foot tall. It fits in my little 1991 Honda CRX HF with the passenger seat folded down. It weighs around 180 lbs and it a bear to lift. But I don't have to buy gas every other week as I did with the 150 cubic foot tanks.

I also have a spare 150 tank just in case I run out on the weekend. Why is it that the gas always runs out on Saturday or Sunday?