ned
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| posted on 12/1/05 at 11:48 AM |
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disposable mig gas bottles
I've run out of gas and hopefully haven't got much welding left to do. A local auto factor sells the disposable mig gas bottles of co2 (i
normally use argoshield light i think) for around £10 irrc. Will these be the same fitment to the regulator i've been using on the boc bottles
and will i notice much difference in welding with co2 as opposed to argoshield stuff?
Oh and for a bottle just over a foot high how long shoud it last! - ie is it a false ecenomy.
cheers,
Ned.
beware, I've got yellow skin
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v8kid
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| posted on 12/1/05 at 12:16 PM |
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I'm just the opposite been using disposable bottles and have a substancial collection of empties - wish I'd bought a refillable at the
outset.
Last about 20 min thats all.
CO2 is like night and day compared to argon. CO2 much cooler gives higher bead and less penetration, needs more amps - I use it for bodywork thats
all.
Cheers
David
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DaveFJ
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| posted on 12/1/05 at 12:59 PM |
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halfrauds and B&Q sell CO2/Argon mix in disposable bottle for about £9
doesn't last long but I would have said a lot more than 20 mins.....
disposal of the old bottles is a pain though
Dave
"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always
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britishtrident
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| posted on 12/1/05 at 04:19 PM |
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20 minutes is about right -- if you can reverse the polarity on your welder you mind find it makes mores sense to use "gasless" wire it
produces not bad bad welds but they do need wire brushed after each run.
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AdamR
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| posted on 12/1/05 at 06:47 PM |
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I've been pleasently surprised using disposable bottles. Have so far tacked 70% of my chassis, and must have done about 30 fully welded joints
of the usual 16swg 1" SHS and I'm still on my first bottle. I seriously expect to only use 3 or 4 bottles to do my entire chassis. OK,
maybe 6 by the time I have the floors welded in.
I learnt to weld with argoshield and I'm now using C02. Personally I really dont think there is must difference. The C02 is noticably colder and
you get a bit more brown residue, but I find it no more difficult to get a good weld. I do use a high power though.
If the gas does last for twenty minutes, that is still quite a lot of welding when you consider it takes less than 5 seconds to do an inch or so of
16swg mild steel.
You're price isn't bad, but you can get the 600g (50% more gas in the same size cylinder) disposables from Machine Mart for less than a
tenner.
[Edited on 12/1/05 by AdamR]
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andyps
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| posted on 12/1/05 at 06:58 PM |
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You should get about 2 hours from a CO2 bottle, but only about 20 minutes from an Argon one.
A friend of mine did manage to refil a disposable bottle for me, but then changed jobs so couldn't do anymore. It always seems very wasteful
throwing them away to me - there should be a return deposit on them I think.
Andy
An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less
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NS Dev
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| posted on 13/1/05 at 01:32 PM |
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I use CO2 in a "pub type" (size Y I think) and pub type regulator, from Nuneaton Welding Supplies (NWS Gases).
This is £12 for the big bottle! No, little bottles make no sense!! One pub bottle will do at least a couple of chassis!!!
Yes, argoshield is much better for thicker work, but costs much more (especially including bottle rental) and I still do a lot of bodywork, where CO2
is nice to keep the weld temp down on very thin stuff.
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 13/1/05 at 07:07 PM |
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I did pretty much all the main welds on my chassi with one of the high capacity disposable CO2 bottles from Machine Mart.
The last bottle I bought I went for Argoshield, and the difference is surprising. You need to spend quite a while messting around with the current
and wire speed to get decent welds after changing the gas. At least I did, but perhaps I'm just rubbish 
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