welding with disposable gas bottles

[adi]

Now then chaps, I've only ever welded with the larger welders with the BOC type bottles, and now I've been made redundant, no longer have the use of work's awesome cebora 200. So I've just bought a cheap SIP MIGmate 130. However I just bought one of those disposable argon bottles from machina mart, and nearly emptied it just setting the welder up! However I have managed to get it sort of welding right (I hate these cheaper welders with buttons for power instead of a dial) but the welds have light pitting in them, I assume caused by not enough gas pressure?

The little regulator I have has no guage, and a tap with a + and -, all the way to - I assume is the tap shut. So do I need to be messing with how far open the tap is to get rid of the pits in the weld? I want to get my subframe welded tomorrow but don't want to use up a tenners worth of gas just setting it up!

[bortaf]

I'm no welding expert but i bought an adapter for a larger argosheild bottle for my welder, way better than the bottles they allways run out halfway through a job IME

[SamR380]

I have a rent free Air Liquide bottle from their 'ALBee' range, got it from a welding shop in Sheffield. Probably not the cheapest way, but much cheaper than the little bottles. You pay a deposit then get refills like your Calor gas for the barbeque.

They seem to be aimed at the home/part time mechanic. They have a flow regulator and pressure gauge, but no flow gauge. Also, I got an adapter pipe as my amateur Clarke welder had a little gas pipe.

This site give an idea on price:
weldsafelimited.co.uk/albee-gas-cylinders

[stevel1]

Buy this item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=190701220111&index=4&nav=SEARCH&nid=43916994621

rent a co2 bottle from your local stockist
I pay £20 a refil I have a half sized bottle ,Not the skinny one
it lasts ages Nuneaton welding supplies is cheap

[rodney]

with the little bottles the trick is to turn it up full then back it off about half way so it still flows nice , lasts longer that way , turn it full and you can use it all up in 10 mins flat,.

[pantera2075]

I'm no expert, but,
SIP welder- fail.
titchy gas bottles, - fail.
I ran an SIP for years on titchy bottles, cost a fortune and did curse word welds. I've now got a Czech 180 turbo on a dumpy BOC argoshield bottle and a machinemart regulator. Hence, I can weld! SIP taught me well.

Polish the sip, sell it and buy ANYTHING else. Or at least make an aluminium strip that goes between the spindles on the wire rollers, and stops the cheap crappy mounts pushing apart.
Then, talk to BOC and see if they will do you a deal. You want a "Y" size Argoshield.

[sparkyt]

Don't use argon for steel mate use agoshield or co2 lots of places will sell you gas I pay 4.75 to have my small pub bottle filled and a regulator is easy to get hold of .. you got a migtigarc shop close by ?

[sparkyt]

Check out this item I found on eBay: pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=160854720778 get one of these perfect for setting up gas at the gun

[Dez]

BOC is massively cheaper that that ALBee setup you know. like half the initial outlay, rent is about £75-80 a year, and a fill is under £40.

if you look around the net you can find discount codes for BOC, it was offered on a forum i use and i took up their offer. and now pay about 50 quid a year rent and 25 quid a fill on a size Y.(i think its a Y the approx 3ft tall one).

[Dez]

also, if youre not doing tons of welding-

www.boconline.co.uk/products/products_by_type/industrial_gases/shielding_gases/argoshield/2_litre_argoshield_light_filled_cylinder.asp

massively better value than disposables.

[waveman1500]

The disposable bottles are really silly and expensive. As you say, they barely last long enough to do anything. My mate bought a welder to do his Mini. We used up at least one disposable bottle welding the roof and probably two on the boot floor. After that he got a BOC rental bottle of Argoshield and hasn't looked back.

[damien4884]

Silly thing here, on my sip the + and - are the wrong way round! You'll know if its wrong as your expensive gas escapes as you tighten it up.

I got a 10l bottle of argoweld 5+ from www.barnet-welding.com/ There is a thread by tonybmw in teal pages with a discount code (only on the gas). I use them because if i desperate i could drive up there and get one.

[captainmatt]

Daft gas bottles like this, is the reason I use my hobby MIG to tack things up (hold with one hand tack with the other sort of thing) and then do the proper run with MMA.
No use for people doing lots of thin sheet but I could use the MIG for that if need be

[sonus]

Aren't the pressure in the dispossable ones lower aswell? I bought a 5 liter Mison18 gass bottle and it's got 200bar pressure which would be approx 1000 liters at 1bar. I've been told to aim for 10-15 liters of gass per minute in gasflow. Don't know if this is correct as I haven't started using my welder yet, but if it is, the 5 liter bottle should last 60 minutes (?).

[1980escort]

I use the same welder and the same bottles as you and tbh I don't gave a problem with it, I just do things like body panel repairs nothing any bigger, one thing I do is I disconnect the bottle everytime I'm finished or if I'm going to leave the welder for any length of time as you lose the gas very quickly

[ax16vts]

go to the place you used to get your bottles filled from at work and make enquiries.

i bought a boc bottle from our local scrap metal yard for a fiver, and then take it to the local boc supplier who charges £20 exchange for a full size mig-mix - no rental, contract whatever.

[damageandy]

if you find a small decent old school welding shop, they often don't care if bottles are in date and will swap empty for full for about £20 for CO2

[adi]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I am struggling to get a decent bead off it, on the odd occasion I get a good one, other times its shocking. I find the initial pushing of the button harsh when the wire hits the metal if that makes sense, I swear the cebora 200 at my old work was much much smoother, but I hsould expect that from a cheap welder.

And if I'm honest, I wish I'd bought an MMA now, I was avoiding them even though they are sily cheap and easy to set up, but in hindsight I think I'd have been better off with one, its just the slag I dislike, and how you are kinda restricted in tight spaces with them.

I'm trying not to be tempted by flux cored wire, heard nothing but bad things about it, plus its expensive. Anyone here have anything positive to say about it?

I will try turning the tap on full then backing it off in future until this bottle runs out and see if I get any improvement in my beads (of the weld type, not the anal ones lol)

[optima21]

I have never used gasless mig wire, but if you want to try it, they are selling it cheap at screwfix.

www.screwfix.com/p/gasless-welding-wire-0-8mm-0-7kg/89474

I do use their 0.6mm wire for use with CO2 pub gas cyclinders that cost £20 for a refill

www.screwfix.com/p/mig-welding-wire-0-6mm-5kg/67724

[1980escort]

Just a wee thought for you, how about getting your hands on a second hand gas bottle ie from down the pub, and finding a fire extinguisher refurbishment place and ask them to fill your bottle