NEW to MIG Welding Looking to get a Gas bottle !

[LEVEL]

Hi,

I have just bought myself a nice MIG welder and am exciting to give it a try. I need to get some Gas and have been reading about the different types.

I am looking to weld Mild Steel, and am under the impression a mix of Argon and CO2 is best... I read a lot about 25/75 ratio.

I would appreciate any advice people have on this topic as I feel a bit in the dark here. Do I need a regulator ? Is disposable or rental my only options ?

I am worried disposable will run out in 10 mins and don't really want to rent a big bottle. Is their nothing in between ?

All opinions and advice gratefully received.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Richard07]

If you look in the mig tab at the top of the page theres some good info and examples of welds with different gasses. I dont think any one here will recomend you go with disposables. You can get co2 pretty cheap ane personally i dont think its too bad but ill admit i use argoshield light and it does produce much nicer looking welds than pure co2. Give boc a ring and ask for prices on the volkzone offer as its aimed at the hobbiest user and is much cheaper than the trade price.

 

[Norm]

Hi Level, have read of this post which pretty much answers your question, theres a list of suppliers in the shielding gas section of the forum best to have a read through that as sourcing gas has been covered many times.

Hi Danny, an Argon/CO2 mix like you're using is the best Mig gas, but the tiny hobby bottles are exactly that, tiny. If my memory serves me right you get about 60 litres in a bottle, which doesn't last long. Weldequip has 110l bottles which I think are a taller bottle.

Straight CO2 is probably a better bet in the hobby bottles as it's a liquid when in the bottle under pressure. That's why CO2 is sold by weight. Again if my memory serves me right, you would typically get 180 litres of gas out of a 390g one. Weldequip has 600g bottles so maybe 280 ish litres. It's still suitable for mild steel, but will be more 'spattery', and I believe it welds hotter.

You will use gas at a rate of about 8 to 10 litres per minute, so you can see you don't get much from these bottles.

Big bottles (10 litre and upwards) will contain a lot more gas. I use a 10 litre bottle of Argon/CO2 mix, that I think is supplied at 137 Bar. This gives me 1370 litres of gas. You get bigger bottles, and bottles at higher pressures. These bottles normally have to be rented. You can get CO2 bottles as well.

The bigger bottles will require a suitable regulator (a CO2 regulator is different to the Argon/CO2 one) and maybe an adaptor to the small gas tube on your welder

The final best choice of how to source your gas will depend on your usage. For some pricing see http://www.weldequip.com/regulators-gas.htm

hope that helps Norm.

 

[daleyd]

Whereabouts are you? Sgs (Southern gas supplies) have rent free gas bottle stockists around the country, you stump up a refundable deposit (£80 or something like that) and then pay for the refills. You don't get as high a pressure fill as boc do (175 bar as opposed to 239 bar) so you get less gas, but the advantage is no rental.

If you are going to be using more than 1 bottle a year then the boc offer beats it, but use less and it becomes more attractive as you don't have the yearly rental. There are other suppliers as well, worth checking and ringing some gas suppliers in your local yellow pages to ask what they do. I heard of one near me the other day which was a better deal than what I have now but I didn't think of trying them at the time.

 

[LEVEL]

Fantastic thanks for your comments. I think I am going to steer clear of the tiny bottles

 

[Mr shiney]

I use a Y size Argoshield Lite from BOC on the Volkszone deal. As has been said, get a big cylinder as the smaller sizes are false economy. I am just a hobby welder and use 3 a year of the Y size. I will probably use a little less as I am doing more TIG at the moment but I went Y size for the Argon as well.

 

[Monkey Harris]

I use a Y size Argoshield Lite from BOC on the Volkszone deal. As has been said, get a big cylinder as the smaller sizes are false economy. I am just a hobby welder and use 3 a year of the Y size. I will probably use a little less as I am doing more TIG at the moment but I went Y size for the Argon as well.

+1

 

[Agautosport]

Fantastic thanks for your comments. I think I am going to steer clear of the tiny bottles

Southwest Gas Supplies Ltd. Also known as SGS Gases have distributors in London who supply 10 litre, 20 litre and 30 litre rent free cylinders at 200 bar .
All distributors are listed on the sgsgases website.

 

[turbo turbo mig]

is the offer of £20 back on bottles still running, just found this site and has some very interesting reading, i got my sgs bottles on 6/8/14 i got 1 oxygen 20l & 1 argonmix 20l bottle both full and inc surcharge £ 308.33 so would be nice to get a few quid back. ive also got my mate to use your gas and hes had 2 bottles from you as well as a few others ive told about your gas, i wait your reply agautosport