CO2 Mig welding bottle

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Hello all.

I have a nearly empty 10L co2 gas bottle i need refilling, i have had this bottle a long time and cannot even remember where i had it, does anyone know if i can get this refilled and if so where locally to Birmingham.

Thanks.

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Donation to local FB? Is it still in test? Pub suppliers? BOC?

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Its a bass bottle, no idea if its still in test, will have a call round and see what i can find out but am guessing its a replacement job..

[Nathan SharpeParticipant @nathansharpe19746]

Hi Brian, I don't know who in your area but most local/small/family run fire extinguisher service firms are worth phoning. They tend to decant/refill the extinguisher charge bottles themselves and (round here ) are happy to recharge after test or if the cylinder is still within it's test date. I used to use pub gas and had no problems with refilling. Nathan.

[Nathan SharpeParticipant @nathansharpe19746]

Hello again Brian, have you considered the BOC/Volkszone deal? Initial cost 2016 was £82.50 and this years invoice was rental only at £54.00. Refill cost is around £35 for a Y sized bottle. Nathan.

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Thanks Nathan.

I will give that a try.

Cheers

[JohnFParticipant @johnf59703]

Brian try these guys see if they have a distributor within reach, I get my Oxy Acetylene, Argon , Argo shield [re Co2] from them

**LINK**

John
PS no worries with cylinder dates you get a new one every time you exchange, one off initial payment for the cyl then just the refill cost.

Edited By JohnF on 07/06/2017 22:31:35

[Russ BParticipant @russb]

I'm with JohnF on this one ie. a LiquideAir customer "ALbee™ Weld"

it's a 200 bar 11 litre bottle, they now do a larger 300 bar 13 litre.

The real benefit is the bottle comes with the regulator and a fill gauge, and the reg. dial has a flow graduations around the edge, which are pretty accurate as measured against my gauge. You buy the bottle, so there are no rental charges, and you can sell the bottle when your done with it (paperwork is required to transfer it to another owner)

The bottle and reg are covered under warranty and refills range from £35 to £50 depending on where you go, AirLiquide used to advertise around £35 rrp, and you can arrange an exchange door to door with their head office directly.

The purchase price of the bottle with gauges was around £230, but that's it now for life, no rental to pay etc.

Edited By Russ B on 07/06/2017 23:01:50

[JohnFParticipant @johnf59703]

Russ, my cylinders were no where near £230 but I have had them for some time now but I think they were in the region of £80 -£90 each and this included the first fill of gas ?

[Russ BParticipant @russb]

John,

I called a few suppliers out of curiosity and they both quoted £185+VAT for the bottle, which I think is about what I paid, plus I bought an adaptor (which in the end, I didn't need). One however wanted £74.64 for the refill – which is bordering on extortion, must be a 300-400% margin (WECS) and the other quoted £51.60 (Eng Weld)

I think both are a bit pricey to be honest, but considering it's rent free, £51.60 seems fair enough, I've had it at least 3 years and it's only just nearing a refill, it's nice to have it there without the worry about any contracts or ongoing costs, thus if it doesnt get used, I don't mind.

When I first got my little welder, I got 3 or 4 of those little 1 litre bottles – they last about 3-5 minutes each cost £10-£15 each from memory – now that was expensive!

edit* 

Worth mentioning, the chap at EngWeld said there are other cheaper rent free cylinders available, but I didn't go in to it as I didn't want to waste his time, I made it clear I didn't need a bottle but he was happy to chat prices for a few minutes and weigh up the pro's and cons, we roughly concluded that unless your using a couple of bottles a year or more, it's probably not worth renting a cylinder – note, a rough conclusion

Edited By Russ B on 08/06/2017 10:09:31

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Hello all.

Thanks for all the replies.

I have phoned a number of local firms but all said they would only deal with their own bottles.

Tried a local fire extinguisher place as suggested and yes.. no problem just bring it in.

I forgot to ask but am guessing this would only be Co2 and not mixed, but I managed fine with this before and for the messing about I do it will be fine.

Thanks again.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

The Albee cylinders seemed to work out quite expensive compared to the BOC Volkzone deal. Refills are £45 inc vat for 5m3 Y size and the rental isn't bad at £54 a year inc vat.

Air Liquide Albee pricing is likely to be fairly consistent eg this. You have to be careful with some of the other "rent free" contracts. They reduce the amount of deposit refundable after a year or 2, so you effectively rent or buy them anyway. It's Catch-22 in some respects – even if you don't use much gas, you end up buying the expensive cylinder and the expensive gas anyway. And given the size of some of the "deposits", you may as well rent them. At least when you croak or pack it in you'll get something back.

Murray

Edited By Muzzer on 08/06/2017 13:16:14

[Blake NesbittParticipant @blakenesbitt59110]

Depending on where you are in Birmingham these guys might be able to do a delivery, Or you could go collect.

They don't have CO2 on the site but they have welding mixes, And I'm sure if you call they will be able to tell you over the phone if they do plain CO2.

http://www.fossegas.co.uk/

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

I use straight C02 and get my bottle filled at a local fire extinguisher supplier. They can test as well if needed.

I also use **LINK** for my rent free oxy/acet'/argon supplies.

regards Gary

[steveteeParticipant @stevetee]

If Its Bass bottle just exchange it at your local brewery suppliers. Or fiendly pub landlord. Pub bottles are used to pressurise ber, there are thousands of them on circulation at licenced premises. Nobody seems to worry about them too much.

Edited By stevetee on 08/06/2017 20:38:12

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Well….

Have just been informed that the bottle i have is a mixed gas, 70/30 nitrogen / co2

apparently this will explain why i have been having so much trouble with my welding…

Been told to stop messing about a get a bottle of ar/co2..

Anyway, still going to take this bottle into the fire people to see if they can fill it with Co2.

Does anyone know why some bottles have a male thread and some a female ?

Cheers

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

"Does anyone know why some bottles have a male thread and some a female ?"

Different types of gas are stored at different pressures in the bottles. LH/RH threads are used as a safety feature so the wrong pressure regulator is not used. eg. oxygen & acetelene.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Brian

Try Jawel Paints in Brum

[John ReeseParticipant @johnreese12848]

Posted by Paul Lousick on 10/06/2017 23:46:29:

"Does anyone know why some bottles have a male thread and some a female ?"

Different types of gas are stored at different pressures in the bottles. LH/RH threads are used as a safety feature so the wrong pressure regulator is not used. eg. oxygen & acetelene.

Sometimes it depends on the vendor. I have used acetylene bottles with a male thread on the bottle and some with female. Both were left handed. I believe all fuel gas bottles use a left hand thread. Ditto hose fittings.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, all portable fuel gas equipment have left hand threads, all portable non combustible gas equipment have right hand threads. This is to prevent fuel gas being connected to a potentially dangerous fire or explosive risk. e.g. you would not want acetylene or propane accidently connected up to your MIG welder for instance, otherwise you would end up with a big bang and/or a big fire ball in your hand when you strike up your arc.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 11/06/2017 22:25:01

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