4 replies to this topic

[Fish Lord]

Hi all,

Was practising my welding skills on the old wing I cut off last night.

Removed all of the paint on a large area so it was bright shiny metal and proceeded to try and get some nice beads of weld.

After about 20 minutes I go the tell tale splatter associated with no gas...and sure as cats eat fish, the bottle was empty!

Now, it was a brand new bottle that I bought on Saturday from Halfords (SIP Argon/C02 disposable 60 litres)..all sealed and in the bag with the little green top on.

My question is, should it only last this long?..do you think it had leaked?

When I got the welder, it came with the same size bottle of Co2 and this lasted ages..a lot longer than the one I bought.

Does Mig welding use Argon/c02 mix faster than c02 only?...Hope not as the mixed gas was a lot smoother to weld with.

Also.....(Sorry for all the questions!!) are there any bigger bottles I could get?..and if so, where? (I am in North Kent near Dartford).

It's gonna be a pricey project if the £9 bottle only lasts 20 mins...considering the amout of rust I have to deal with!!!

[dan__wright]

how high did you have the gas? if you had it verry high it will run out quickly.

you can buy a big gas canister from a tool shop and then a regulator, you can get this refilled for about £10 and it lasts ages

[Steamo]

I had the same problem the other day - got one patch out of a full bottle. I put it down to a leak in the regulator and borrowed my mates huge bottle about 1 and a bit metres high with a proper regulator on it.

You get them from BOC and just get them refilled once they are empty - £30 per refill IIRC

Its a much cheaper way of doing it I'll be getting my own soon.

[Garagiste]

Not that long, but it shouldn't be that quick!
Is the gas only coming out when you push the switch on the torch? I got through a load of gas before I realised that the gas hose on my (brand new) welder had a split inside the torch....



It's also worth unscrewing the regulator from the bottle when you're done.
Bigger bottles are available from BOC and the like - from memory you have to rent the bottle for £50 a year or something - do a search and you'll turn up some old threads with the info.

[Leonard]

we use the big bottles at work. they last about a week and a half ish doing full time welding.