Well finally got around to visiting BOC at the weekend to check out prices .... arghhhhh

they want £37 + vat for a regulator (ok thats quite reasonable)

they also want £46 + vat for a years rental of the gas bottle with an aditional £37 +vat for a filling it

- OUCH

seeing as I am not building my own chassis i think I will stick to hobby bottle from halfords for £8 for the time being

What size bottle was that for?. I fell out with BOC years ago over added charges and went over to Energas.

yours, Pete.

not sure on bottle size - he said it was '12- 15 hours supply'

3ft bottle about 8" across

[Edited on 12/1/04 by protofj]

I had a BOC bottle while i was building my car ,but it was not worth the rental to keep it on when I finished ,so i went back to the small disposable bottles which work quite well.

Also whenever I went to refill with BOC the only had the more expensive argoshield ,and never had the much cheaper Co2 only bottle in stock!!! ,Which i believe gives more penetration which is handy if your welder is not that powerful.

Where are Energas what other options are there can you buy a bottle and then not have the rent to fork out........

I was told by the bloke at BOC that they couldn't sell me a cylinder because of the law..... this may be a fib I don't know but the bloke seemed quite genuine and helpful

Try going to an independant Pub supplier weve got a couple locally and get al bottle of CO2 off of them last time I did this it was about £12 +VAT.Or have a word with the landlord of your local boozer to see he he'll do a deal for a tenner for a bottle of CO2.Ive moved on to Mison now at a cracking deal from one of my customers.
You can get a regulator from Machine Fart no worries.
Cheers
Bob

If you are using a lot of gas, I would suggest that BOC are a reasonable source, even including a years rental. In the final analysis, their bottles are larger and are filled to 230 bar.

The bottle size Protofj talked about looks like a size Y, but I thought that for Argon / CO2 mixture it was cheaper than quoted, more like £20 or so for an exchange bottle. I know pure argon (I'm welding stainless) is £40ish

I've had pure argon via my local welding supplies shop. However, volume for volume the gas is marginally more expensive, as the bottles are smaller, and are not filled to the same max pressure. In addition they are sometimes substantially under-filled.

I do agree, however, that when I have finished my chassis, then it will make more sense will relinquish my BOC account and obtain the odd bottle (diving bottle size) from my local welding supplies shop (Kays in St Helens).

John

I am also welding stainless. I use high purity argon from energas.

The bottles that I use are mini pack bottles (around 3ft by 8". The cost of a refill is £22.97 and the monthly rental is £3.50 for the bottle.

So it would seem that BOC are a bit on the pricey side then