What other expensive almost unobtainable piece of equipment do I need?

[DevilDriver]

Hello. I recently bought a clarke welder etc, im chomping at the bit to get started but between trying to find gas without paying BOC or AirGas astronomical rental fees, trying to find a regulator to fit the gas bottle ive sourced and various other annoyances...Its proving difficult.

My latest problem is this...The regulator supplied by Clarke didn't fit the bottle (it had a male thread, i needed female), so i scoured the country and found one that was suitable to "all mig welders" for the pricely sum of £60. It fits the gas bottle and seems to be a better job than the clarke reg as it has two dials, one showing the pressure of the tank and one where you can set the flow (handy for dialing in 10l). The connection though for the nylon hose from regulator to mig machine is too large! The Clarke reg had a 4mm push on hose connector that would connect to the hose, but on the sealey reg, its just a stepped cone shaped brass connector that you slide the hose onto and jubilee clip it. The diameter is much too large to fit the nylon hose...What do i do? See attached pics for reference. Thanks very much, im at the end of my rope with this stuff.

 

[shenion]

What rubber hose?

You could probably swap the two output fittings on the regs.

Weldequip on the top of the page would be able to provide the correct hose.

BTW, the Clarke reg is for argon/CO2 mixes, yours is for CO2.

On mine, I used a small piece of rubber hose about 4mm. on the reg and slid the plastic hose into it. I roughened up the outside of the plastic hose and put some super glue on it as it was not a real tight fit.

 

[DevilDriver]

Its the hose coming from the welder dude, its a 4mm external dia and ~1-2mm internal, its tiny. I had thought i could do what you suggested, but i want to eliminate any chance of a leak.

EDIT, i have already tried swapping the outputs on the regulators but they are of slightly different threads. EDITEDIT, its a nylon hose :P

 

[shenion]

It is a 4mm nylon hose, not rubber

I bet weldequip would sell the hose and 4mm push-on connector cheap.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

You could try sticking the hose end in boiling water to soften it, then push it over the stepped spigot.

If that fails, there's always the alternative above ^^.

 

[hairymel]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mig-welder-gas-pipe-adaptor-connector-to-large-regulator-3-8-BSP-to-4mm-tube-/160776681977?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item256f0979f9

looks like what you need - basicly cut off the brass union and jubilee the pipe to your new reg

if you have a suitable bit of pipe there are just the 4mm adaptors available - search 'mig 4mm' or 'mig adaptor' on ebay

personally, on my little mig, i have a bit of suitably sized pipe from the reg and have just pushed the 4mm pipe into it

 

[Wallace]

If you don't want to swap the hose fittings on the regulators (or the threads are different) you need a 4mm nylon female push fit to 6mm hose barb adaptor and a short length of rubber hose. This is for nylon to nylon but would probably do as the pressure should be quite low.

All you needed regulator wise was to select something from here....

 

[richiegallon]

hose

I recently changed from the very expensive disposable bottles to a hobby weld bottle, I bought a new reg from machine mart along with a whip hose from the same place, this is a bigger diameter hose which fits onto the reg and it has a fitting on the other end which you push the plastic pipe from the welder into, works a treat, hope this helps.
Richie

 

[Dev]

A.G. Air in Mallusk do those hobby gas converters, but they'll be no cheaper than that eBay link.

You can get rent free argoshield bottles from ffyfes in Balyclare or Dunmurray.

 

[voipio]

Would any of these do?

http://www.technobotsonline.com/pneumatics/pneumatic-fittings/push-fits/bsp-female-stud.html

 

[DevilDriver]

Success!! I used the idea from that ebay link and botched this up. Its a piece of clear rubber hose i found in the shed, one end goes onto the thread of the 4mm push fit connector, the other side slides over the top of the stepped push on brass fitting, i had to hack the tip off a small rawl plug and slide this over to pack out the diameter some to ensure a tight seal, and then tightened them up nicely using jub clips.

Thanks very much for the help! Works a treat

 

[Mikey D]

Top bodge especially like the use of the rawlplug

cheers mike