Gas connection

[subjated]

hi all. im new to the forum and just after some advice.....

Ive been welding for years, and never needed a welder at home untill now (car restoration) and my boss has had an old murex tradesmig 165 sitting around doing nothing, so i asked him if i could have it, few pound notes later and i brought it home.
now the problem is gas; i have a regulator for it so can use the normal bottles, but the trouble is where to get one, i had a word with our supplier and he said you have to hire the bottle (at about £30 a month) and then pay about 60 quid every time you fill it up, now not only is that a stupid amount of money, i wont use it often enough to warrant doing that.
so (my rather long winded) question is how do i go about fitting disposable bottles to it? or where do i get a proper bottle at sensible money from?

many thanks in advance

 

[SirDick Diodenob esquire]

Have a look at the Volkzone offer for Argoshield from BOC , I dont do much welding myself but its about £62 now and I can see mine is going to last me a full year , beats buying those disposable bottles ( there is a thread on here about it ) .

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum.

I've moved this to the "Shielding Gas" forum, have look in the Gas Suppliers List in this section.

Disposables aren't a viable option really.

 

[subjated]

has that offer ended now? dont mind renting one as long as the cost is reasonable.
still like to know how to connect those disposables onto the mig, because there's a strong chance i might be doing some alu welding with it too, wich means ill need pure argon, and the cost of have a bottle of that too would be completley pointless as it might only get used once or twice a year.
so any light that can be shed on the subject of either, much appreciated!

 

[Rooster#1]

To use disposables, you will need to replace the regulator... most weld shops will carry them, and its the same one for all disposables.

Around £15... theses are a "push-fit" onto the small white gas pipe leading to your welder, so if your "real" reg connects to the smaller pipe already, you can change them at will.

 

[subjated]

thanks for that, so that is to say if the diameter of the gas pipe on my welder is different from that those disposable regs use, id need some sort of addaption joint?

 

[Rooster#1]

thanks for that, so that is to say if the diameter of the gas pipe on my welder is different from that those disposable regs use, id need some sort of addaption joint?

Depends on whats fitted to YOUR welder ! The reg I pictured accepts a "standard" (well - it is on what Ive seen ) 4mm plastic pipe.... as fitted to most portable units, more up-market unit will probably have a connector fitted to the units body, in which case you need an adaptor pipe with the relevant fitting... any welding shop should be able to help, our local one even carries loose "fittings" so you can make up your own.