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WANTED: Argon tank

painly

painly

Member
Hi all, this is a great resource here for all things canadian metal working!

I have purchased my first tig, and I am looking for an argon tank to own. I simply don't weld enough to rent a tank. Looking for 80cu but will consider less.

I am in saskatoon but am will to drive a bit if need be to get it (alberta/manitoba)

Thanks.
 
Thanks Tom. That is what I did with m oxy/acetylene tanks some 15 years ago. Kijiji got me hoping something might be out there centrally in canada that I could reap some savings on. a new 80cu tank is $547 filled at liquid air :(
 
The next size up tank is almost 50% bigger for just $20 more. 115cu ft. I think that is probably the best compromise. I bought those. I can’t believe the refill prices around Calgary. Simply ridiculous. Kms is half and still expensive. I was reading a similar fill in LA (los angeles) is about half KMS. The dealers like oxymoron air liquide praxaire omg. Kms seems to be best for supplies too.
 
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I have a spare 115 cu. ft. tank (requires re-certification).

$75 the way it is - you get it re-certified.

$150 certified.


I also have an 80 cu. ft. one. It was tested 02/12. It has the * certification; should be good until 2022. It came with my TIG welder - I switched to a bigger tank.

$125 for it.
 
Now, being in saskatoon. I wonder if liquid air or prax will refill other tanks. @RobinHood , i am pretty sure the 80 isn't an issue but I will phone about the 115. Where are you located? text me at 306-230-4259 if you wish.
 
I may also be looking at a used tank for my MIG welder - I currently have 250 tank for Argon TIG. It is a big beast but lasts me over 1 year per fill! Got it used and filled for free for like 300 few years back.
 
I was in touch with both praxair and liquid air after I read Robinhoods offer. LA told me they won't touch anything bigger than an 80. they don't sell anything bigger and therefore won't exchange that size. Praxair on the other hand said they wouldn't exchange EITHER tank, because their sale size is the 55cu! BUT, they could send either size (and i must assume ANY size) to their filling plant, where in sask, is regina. But with this comes a 3 week wait. Food for thought is all. I see this forum is populated mostly with Alberta residents so this info may not be of relevance, however, in case you ever move, expect to be involved in some of these gas-fill politics!
 
Check down south from you whatever there are places in the US that will sell you tank cheaply and fill it in as well. Also look at independent welding shops. Liquid air and Praxair must be giving the offer to the amateur market as no serious welder would consider their offer - you need to see where professionals get their gas & use that place. Gas in more populated areas of the US is rather cheap AFAIK.
 
You might want to try princess auto. They have 20cuft on their website. I don’t know if they have or will refill larger ones.
 
YYCHobbyMachinist said:
I got one from PA to use for heat treating. Couldn't keep the darn thing lit. Gave up on it.
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Are we talking about the same thing?

Around here propane is about $20 to exchange a normal BBQ tank, when I priced it acetylene was well over $100 to refill a bottle

Yes, I know that acetylene technically gets hotter and is better for brazing. I don’t braze and can’t justify the added expense

I can roughly go through 10 K sized cylinders of oxygen for one BBQ tank of propane
 
That propane oxygen setup you’ve got there will it do welding? Can you run an oxygen cutting torch ? I was told by an instructor you can’t weld with propane but he worked for one of those industrial gas suppliers so I now wonder if that was accurate.
 
We used to use propane/oxy torch on the farm for cutting. I can’t remember how well it worked but it is a lot less expensive.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I've often wondered about this. Some folks, particularly smaller scale crowd use propane/oxygen. But they also do a lot of brazing, silver soldering or basic melting. I always assumed it was driven by cost + lower temp range + the propane tank/supply would be easier to get, or more manageable quantities. But I think you are still back to the welding gas suppliers for gaseous oxygen, no? And yet you see jewelry scale torch setups using acetylene.
 

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