Thread: LPG heating torches - latest info??

I would love to have (and learn to use) an oxy setup but cannot justify the bottle rental.

I did the numbers on my argoshield bottle for the MIG and it cost me $500 in rental before i had even emptied it. (i dont weld very much)
I got onto the disposable bottles but went through 3 in about 12 months, so not cost effective either.

Hypothetically, if you were to buy $15 worth of fittings for each of these bottles, you could take them to your mate with a big rented cylinder and pay him $10ea to fill them up, and have the best of both worlds. Hypothetically of course. The label states the bottles are non-refillable so i am not condoning this process and nor do i do it myself

Originally Posted by andrew_mx83

Hypothetically, if you were to buy $15 worth of fittings for each of these bottles, you could take them to your mate with a big rented cylinder and pay him $10ea to fill them up, and have the best of both worlds. Hypothetically of course. The label states the bottles are non-refillable so i am not condoning this process and nor do i do it myself

Yes, that will work very well. Provided you know what you are doing. And you accept, that you or your kids will not be able to sue anybody if the cylinder you are filling explodes. You see, if you use a 170Bar cylinder to fill disposable cylinders rated for some 30 Bar or so, you cannot afford to do a mistake. But you can BUY new argon cylinders from a seller in NSW via eBay for $200, and these you can pretty safely fill from the large cylinder of your mate: Argon GAS NEW Refillable Cylinder | eBay


I do something similar, I hire a mid size cylinder and fill the Argon into three G size cylinders with expired test date that I own. That is very safe, as each cylinder ends up with only a fraction of its rated (and expired ) pressure. The transfer is very quick. There is no noticeable warming or cooling of any cylinder. This is the contraption that I use for the gas transfer:

DSCF0064.JPG

Just be careful what you do. Do not do it if you are not 100% sure what you are doing. Chris

The disposable cylinders are rated to either 100 or 130 bar, i forget which.

I cant help with the fushion welding side of things as I've never used oxy /lpg.
With cutting it doesnt matter what fuel gas is used as long and the temp is high enough for steel to burn in pure oxy. Once that point is reached you can turn the fuel gas off and keep cutting. You arent(well you shouldnt be) melting the steel out of the way, you're burning it(rusting in fact ).

I do wonder if there is more to it, as why would cutting tables used oxy/acet as oxy/lpg would be much cheaper? speed? finer control?

Stuart

Hi Guys. Me again.
oxy propane uses more oxy. (4x i think) that's why it is so good for cutting (oxidising) (rusting) so the propane is cheaper but the oxy is dearer
kim

Originally Posted by BigStick

Hi Guys. Me again.
oxy propane uses more oxy. (4x i think) that's why it is so good for cutting (oxidising) (rusting) so the propane is cheaper but the oxy is dearer
kim

Is that just for cutting or for heating as well. That's a lot of oxy compared to what the acet oxy uses.
At least there is no rental on the propane bottles.
Ew

Originally Posted by Ueee

Is that just for cutting or for heating as well.
Ew

Yes. the LPG/Oxy flame is an oxidising flame, I believe you can not get a neutral flame with LPG/Oxy which is why it is no good for welding steel. Too much oxygen into the weld. Unfortunatley (due to the cost of cylinder rental) that is one thing that Oxy/acetylene is the only thing to use for. I'd think that the amount of oxy welding that is done these days is quite small compared to, say, 30 years ago though. It would certainly take me a while to get a decent weld with the oxy these days. Particularly on thin sheet.


bollie7