Oxy-Acetylene Price Question

This concept of owning Gas cylinders is a new concept to me. I have yet to meet a person in Quebec who owns their welding gas cylinder. Too many hoops to jump through. I know of those who drive to Cornwall ON and back just to escape the trouble here.

My work place rents from Air liquid. The environmental chemistry uses 5-10 cylinders of elemental gases per week, single-handedly making the subscription worth while. For welding purposes in the depart, a 50L 3000psi cylinder of argon is 20-30$, 80-100$ for Oxy to refill/exchange, 0.15$ a day poses. Very reasonable. The sticker on the elemental gas cylinders disclose the purity and the breakdown compositions of the impurities. Needed for the Chemists, though just a kind gesture to the welder.

Mig gas is a nightmare. Every person trained in welding, all the text books and manufacturer documents amuse you know the elemental composition of your shielding gas. So one can order their preferred blend of CO2, Ar, He and so on. Not BlueShield. I want 75% Ar, and 25% CO2 for my purposes. The refill price varies from 25-264$ per 50L cylinder for those middle options below. The representative on the phone has never welded, and know little other than what is written on the application form. They will not disclose their gas blends.

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@ddickey

You can also look at whether or not the setup you are buying has flashback arrestors. If not, you can add them if you feel that you want this additional safety feature.
 
@ddickey some torches have built in flashback arresters. If not they can be bought and added to the hoses. In my opinion these are not optional but a required safety item.
 
I think $500 is a little steep, especially with tanks of unknown provenance. I had a friend with an 80 cf bottle that only the owning store would fill. You had to drive quite a ways up the peninsula, then pay a high price. He tried to give it away for free, but nobody wanted it. I paid about $100 for a 40 cf tank on Craigslist that the local store assured me that they would fill, along with a propane brazing torch. Eventually, I found an oxy-acetylene torch for cheap at a garage sale.
 
While I tend to agree I bypassed the whole thing and bought a little set they used to sell at the welding stores and even at the big box stores. Paid less than $200 for small tanks, cart etc. I upgraded to 40cu tanks but like I said I don’t use the cutting torch as that eats ox in a hurry. Around here there is constantly rigs for $3-500. I like my smaller torch and especially my Mecco torch for the kind of work I do. Besides the issue with the tanks you have no idea if the regulators are ok etc. even my little tanks last me over a year before refill.
 
erikmannie said:
@ddickey

You can also look at whether or not the setup you are buying has flashback arrestors. If not, you can add them if you feel that you want this additional safety feature.
Click to expand...

You could just purchase new flash arrestors , their kinda a good idea and I wouldn't see them as an optional part. (not that spendy for what they do).

Stu
 
I built a Dyke Delta with oxy-ac using a Harbor Freight torch. I was using a lot of gas, so I borrowed bottles from my uncle. I only do small jobs now, so I bought the small kit from HF that comes in a plastic carrying case. It works just fine, and I can swap the bottles at any Tractor Supply or HVAC supplier.
 
I've got two o2/C2H2 setups taking up way too much floor space. I've had plasma for over 20 years, so I only use gas for heating (90%) and brazing/specialty welding (10%). Specialty is either special alloy or powder spray.

I wouldn't want to be without the ability to heat things. Gas welding is occasional. Cutting with gas is for field conditions or mega-gouging (with a carburizing "seed") when the work is over 1" thick. You can do some neat tricks with a cutting torch, but plasma is always better where it works.

Edit: If you take a gas bottle to (for example) Praxair, and it doesn't say Praxair on the collar, they'll swap it as a customer-owned cylinder unless it's totally trashed. I've never had any issues on the west coast with exchanging compressed gas containers of any type. If the salesman starts giving you any grief, just start asking questions about an expensive welder on the floor or something like that. We'll have that cylinder right up for you, sir.
 
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