What does your Tig gas cost per hour of welding?

[Pete.]

I've spent a bit of time doing gas price comparisons (still working on it) but I thought I'd post this up because of the surprise I got when I worked out what the gas consumption is costing to run a TIG welder constantly. Depending on what gas deal you get and how much you use, gas cost can vary a huge amount.

Anyway, here's what I worked out so far. Not responsible for any errors or price changes etc...

http://peterrimmer.myby.co.uk/images/gascompare.gif

 

[roofman]

very interesting and when you also factor in electric and consumables it works out a few quid to play in our sheds..

 

[Pete.]

You're not wrong. Ok I know we don't all weld flat out all the time but the cost of welding gas is a shock all the same.

 

[Paul.]

Interesting analysis Pete, but 10 lpm is about twice the flow that most people would use, I assume you have used a spreadsheet, it would be interesting to see the difference when calculated at 5 or 6lpm.

 

[Pete.]

I chose 10 simply because it would be easy to do mental arithmetic to quickly work out your own usage. For 5lpm just halve the cost.

EDIT: PDF attached to first post with values from 5-12LPM

 

[hotrodder]

I think the big curve ball is 'constant welding' which is probably grossly over estimated most of the time? Obviously depends a lot on what sort of work you're doing but, running beads on offcuts etc while learning aside, arc time with manual TIG is rarely (never?) gonna get above 50% of welding time* and is probably closer to 25% a lot of the time?

As part of the overall time/cost of making stuff it's even lower... for something that takes me 40 + hours to fabricate the welder may only be switched on for 4 or 5 hours

* welder switched on but taking into account fitting, tacking, tweaking, more tacking, stopping to move the part/yourself for access, regular pauses to grab a fresh length of wire, swap out/resharpen a tungsten after slipping and feeding a bunch of wire into it etc etc

 

[Pete.]

Granted but it's the only reasonable way of gauging it. Also as somewhat of a novice myself I tend to spend quite a lot of time in pre- or post-flow which is why when I'm welding tokens I keep the post-flow very short.

 

[zx9]

Granted but it's the only reasonable way of gauging it. Also as somewhat of a novice myself I tend to spend quite a lot of time in pre- or post-flow which is why when I'm welding tokens I keep the post-flow very short.

You need a decent post flow to protect the hot tungsten, stop it oxidising.

(Edit: SP)

 

[Charlie390]

Isn't the BOC Y size 20 litres rather than 10?

 

[zx9]

Isn't the BOC Y size 20 litres rather than 10?

^^^^^^^^^^^ WHS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Pete.]

Isn't the BOC Y size 20 litres rather than 10?

Damn it, my bad.

That just doubles your gas time, halves the cost. I'll amend the forms (but not right away because it's gonna take a while)

 

[backpurge]

You also need to factor in pre weld gas surge, particularly if you are doing a lot of stops and starts. Depending on the type of regulator you are using and how you have it set this can be over 50 litres/min, I do a lot of audits in companies and this is by no means unusual

 

[Pete.]

I don't want to get that deep into it - but it's interesting info nonetheless.

 

[backpurge]

Pete, I do a lot of stuff like this in my day job, I have examples where the pre weld surge has accounted for 20% of gas use, of course this is in cases where there the welding involves lots of stop starts and is probably "worst case scenario" but if you have a shop with 20 guys it represents a lot of waste

 

[Pete.]

Yeah I bet it does. That's why I open my flow meter valve fully out then set my maximum flow using the pressure gauge and then back the flow down when needed with the flow meter valve. I figure it keeps the gas in the pipe between the regulator and the gas valve at the lowest pressure to reduce surge volume.

 

[backpurge]

You're dead right Pete, open the flowmeter fully and set the flow rate using the pressure adjustment screw on the regulator and if you are using a single stage regulator keep checking your flow rate as the outlet pressure increases as the cylinder empties, either that or fit an autocontroller in the gas line as close to the gas solenoid as you can

 

[Pete.]

Original image amended to fix bottle capacity error.

 

[Maker]

You're dead right Pete, open the flowmeter fully and set the flow rate using the pressure adjustment screw on the regulator and if you are using a single stage regulator keep checking your flow rate as the outlet pressure increases as the cylinder empties, either that or fit an autocontroller in the gas line as close to the gas solenoid as you can

Doesn't Elga make a regulator to prevent this too?

 

[backpurge]

Any multi stage reg will stop will stop the pressure rising characteristics you get with a single stage reg, the elga type regulators will reduce pre weld surge but do not always eliminate it as effectively as a Autocontroller type piece of kit

 

[hotrodder]

I missed the size mix up last night, FWIW a BOC size Y pureshield contains 4720 litres https://www.boconline.co.uk/internet.lg.lg.gbr/en/images/Pureshield-Argon-factsheet410_54575.pdf

Granted but it's the only reasonable way of gauging it. Also as somewhat of a novice myself I tend to spend quite a lot of time in pre- or post-flow which is why when I'm welding tokens I keep the post-flow very short.

When you go watercooled you'll be able to get away with less post flow time as the tungsten cools a lot more quickly.
Reducing/eliminating the initial surge can help with arc striking accuracy/initial arc stability too albeit more noticably at very low amperages