21 replies to this topic

[mini670]

Well i've got about 24" of seam welding to do and probably around 40 plug welds to do.

Whats the deal with renting gas bottles? Did you pay the full amount upfront and keep the bottle or pay as you use it?

Hmm,

I might be tempted with disposable bottles, if you are sure thats all you have to do. Im wishing I`d had an account bottle as I got a load of other stuff that the welder would come in handy for (but it`l get done at work with sticks instead).

Ill have a look for an excell file that shows costs of different price/rental plans.

[Kerrin]

The gas bottles are rented by the day, mine works out to about £10 per month for a big Argon mix bottle. and each refil is a set amount, £40 ish, which will take me ages to empty.

However there is a company advertising in the recent mini mag who do not charge rental, if you are mainland UK (sorry forgot to check before I posted) you might be able to get one from there. the little disposables are ok for a practice but you will get through loads if you use it a few times.

If you can wind off the rusty wire and use the clean wire underneath it may be ok, but if all the wire is rusty, just buy a new reel, it will just cause problems otherwise.

As someone else mentioned, this is a good forum.Mig Welding Forum

If you can get that MIG cheap it would be well worth it, the old Clarkes are good welders and would do most/all of the welding you need

[mini670]

Here is an old (2007) excel file showing gas price comparison, its from Mig Forum.

Spreadsheet

[mike.]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but on that spreadsheet whats the cost in the years column? The cost over a year?

[rosco454]

From the looks of it it just needs a bit of a freshen up.

A new steel liner,swan neck liner,tips,shrouds etc are generally available as a service kit so fit one of those,clean the feed rollers thoroughly,get some new wire,some gas and off you go assuming the rest is in good order.

Cheers Ross.

EDIT - My bottle rental is about the £50 mark for a year (boc argo shield light)

Edited by rosco454, 11 January 2011 - 03:57 PM.

[ibrooks]

I use the disposable bottles from Machine-mart. I go for the higher capacity ones than the ones you linked to and I'll get a couple of days of solid welding out of them (OK not solid welding but cutting rust out, making/trimming the patch, cleaning the area and then welding it in and repeat). I can't see how you coule empty even the lower capacity ones in 15 minutes without a serious leak in the system.

Iain

[mike.]

Cool. Sounds like its worth a go then.

I'd probably get a couple of the little gas bottles for practice and then the next time my car needs some more major welding i'd look at getting a bigger bottle.

Now I just need to see if the guy wants to sell it