How tall are these bottles? I can buy a 40 cu.ft bottle filled with C25 mix for $120, or, a 60 cu.ft bottle filled for $155. I'm leaning towards the 60 cu.ft bottle, but it'd be great to know how tall/wide these suckers are.

Or would I be fine with the 40 cu ft? I'd hate like hell to be always running out of gas, and running back to the welding supply store just to fill the bottle. Or, worse yet, running out of gas when I'm almost done with a job- and the store's closed.

I think I'd be a nutjob if I didn't buy the 60 cu. ft. But how big is it? Nowhere on the 'net could I find height of these things. Thanks! With luck I pick it up tomorrow, during lunch.

 

Anyone? It doesn't have to be exact! I'll take "about 3 feet", "as tall as my house", etc...

 

4' for the larger bottle, maybe closer to 5'

 

What size? There are 6½" and 8" diameter bottles in those sizes. A 6½" would be about 50" to the top of the valve handle.

 

Well I just bought a mig bottle for my welder. $100 filled with 80/20 ar/co2 from AGA. I dont know what the size is but It's about 3.5 feet tall. It's $20 to have it refilled. And its not like it just runs out all of a sudden, you can see the tank pressure on the gauge to know when you are starting to run out. The one I got was the largest one they sold outright. The rest I guess you rent or something.

 

Thanks guys! I picked up the bottle today; it's about 8" diameter, and a bit shorter than 40" tall. I went for the 60 cubic foot bottle; it was less than a foot taller than the 40 cu ft. It ran me $150; bottle was $27, fill with 75% argon/25% co2 was $23.

My dad didn't look thrilled at all; I don't think he believes me that the tank isn't going to explode and burn the house down. "Dad, look, it even says non-flammable right here!"

I also nabbed a 12.5 pound roll of L56 (ER70S-6) wire for $23. Lookout; I'm ready to weld! Er, well, that is, as soon as I put the GMAW conversion kit into my LE WeldPak-100. They only gave me the single gauge regulator with the conversion kit; I'll have to get one of those dual gauge regulators later. The guy wanted $95 for the dual gauge, and $110 for the gauge/ball float indicator one. I guess I "might as well" go for the better one, eh? But that's a few paychecks away... I have more important things to buy in the meantime. Like, oh, I dunno, a quarter panel, maybe?

How would I check the level of the bottle? Will it show me the level when I have the valve open and as I pull the trigger on the MIG? Or do I have to guess for now?

 

Set up at about 10-12 PSIG at the regulator and hope the flow is correct. That's why the dual gauge with the flowmeter ("floating ball") is really nice. You can monitor cylinder and line pressure, then adjust flow to suit the size of the weld area. You'll like the gas flux a whole lot better than the flux-cored wire, since the finished weld will be so much cleaner. It'll make you want to run right out and pick up a nice Linde or Miller TIG unit so you can really make things look pretty.

 

The regulator I got with my welder (millermatic 175) has one gauge for bottle pressure and the other gauge is a flow meter, at least thats how its marked. When youre running the welder it seems to read flow. When its not running it reads a higher number. Like, right now i've got the flow set to 20 cfm while welding, and the gauge moved up to 25-30 when its resting. The tank pressure when i got it was 1200 psi. I'm not positive but I'm assuming that these gasses change state to a denser one at lower then 1200 psi, so when the bottle pressure starts to drop it means you're down to just gas in the bottle and are about to run out. Is this right?

 

TomP- I hope you like your welder as much as I like my
Millermatic 130. I opted for the 100 cu. ft. bottle. BTW,
what did your lease on your bottle cost and how many
years is it?

 

Lease? Years?

I dont know the initial payment was for my 55 c ft one ..but the bottle is mine to do with what I want. Same with my oxy/aced bottles

 

Actually, you know what? I looked at the regulator last night- I can't adjust it! It's "pre-adjusted from the factory". Hm. I'll have to pick one the flowmeter unit soon, then. So, I wonder... maybe that gauge on the regulator really shows the bottle capacity! Why would I need to see how much pressure's in the line if I can't adjust the regulator? Damn. My brain is short on caffeine, so I can't remember the name on the regulator, but it is a name brand; the weld shop sold them. Anyone want to trade?

I am looking forward to the cleaner welds, though. I haven't had a chance to do any "real" work with the welder (made a tubing bender's frame, made a creeper frame and never bought casters, used it to remove a busted pipe plug by welding a bolt to it)... so now I can actually use this thing for bodywork/framework. I've got to figure out why people use flange welding instead of butt welding for panels, but at least I can weld up the crack I found in my driver's side inner wheel well!

Nordbert, I didn't lease it, I bought it, just like Engineboy. It looks like the shop does lease, because at the bottom, they mention creditors, and there's a spot for a signature- but all they know me as is "cash". I read on the 'net somewhere that it's a good idea to lease a bottle first, and that helps you figure out what bottle size you need; but I said "screw it" and just bought a bottle. Plus I like the idea that it's mine, all mine!