Question for people with welders at home

[cheese910]

Do you rent your gas bottle or do you own one?

I'm going to be welding lots of little patches on my winter project so I need to sort out gas for my mig welder.

What does everyone else do? What is cheaper? How does it all work?

My welder is really nice and welds great with just C02 so i'll probably go with that instead of agrosheld for cheapness.

[85_Z31]

The old Man Owns his bottle and gets it filled at Southern Gas in CHCH
I think it was pretty expensive to buy the bottle though, like $700 for a medium / small bottle

I don't think BOC lets you fill an "owner bottle" they only rent their own bottles out.

As for C02 VS ARGO

At CPIT welding class we got to experiment and test welds and whatever else.

so far what i have found is that

*Argon welds look slightly nicer
*Argon is way fussier ( metal has to be shiny and ground up clean ) or it spits and fucks around
*When we have put our welds in the press to break them to see how strong they are, the argon welds would break faster unless you cranked the settings higher than what you would use for C02

Argo seems pretty expensive for all the extra hassle. C02 is your friend for at home.

Word on the street is that CO2 gets a bit better penetration too.

Disclaimer > I'm just a student so this is my personal experience, I'm mostly spouting back what we were told at CPIT.

[cheese910]

Co2 news sounds sweet.

Is anyone renting?
It's looking like the best option since I can return the bottle after winter so I don't have to pay for it when I'm not using it.

[fast4motion]

We rent, but only because we have no option in Napier (BOC won't fill private bottles). From memory a small bottle is about $15/month to rent, but you still have to pay for the gas/refill.

[DJZ]

My mate rents a bottle or two off Air Liquide, I rang them and BOC not long ago. The lady I talked to at Air Liquide was extremely useless.

From the notes I've got written down, these were for D sized bottles I think.

BOC - $71.29+gst to fill the bottle, $14.22+gst per month for rental

Air Liquide - $59 to fill the bottle, $143.75 per year for rental, I think the next size up bottle was $161 to rent, $128 to fill.

Don't quote me on those though, I had a lot of trouble getting a proper answer from Air Liquide.

[DAT620]

I got my own bottle for C02 it is a converted fire extinguisher, get it refilled at Wormald.

Interesting point about the co2 vs argon thing.

all I know is if your going to weld Stainless or Aluminium you can only use Argon or else your welds will look/be shit.

[Bartman]

I own my bottle.
BOC (Bunch of cunts) can go fuck themselves.
Southern gas FTW.

[160jsss]

We rent BOC makes you feel like they use a hedgehog to pull money out of your rectum .

I got my own bottle for C02 it is a converted fire extinguisher, get it refilled at Wormald.

Interesting point about the co2 vs argon thing.

all I know is if your going to weld Stainless or Aluminium you can only use Argon or else your welds will look/be shit.

Sounds cool write up could be needed how much to buy a new one refill your own

[160jsss]

Also CO2 FTW I'm a arc weilder CO2 looks more like a arc and I have less blow through

[TWZTID]

we rent, I heard theres a place out rolleston or burnham way thats cheaper than BOC, but I've have to double check with the old man