Thread: mig gas cylinder volume ?

I will get the yellow pages out and get some prices from as many local gas suppliers as possible.
Thanks for the help guys
cheers

Originally Posted by martrix

Gday DJ, I was told by BOC that the bottle I have is the smallest they rent out for Argoshield light in Victoria. You can get them in NSW but not in Vic.

That is bizarre. Consider there are more people in Vic than Qld and certainly more general industry I can't fathom that. I can walk into my local BOC agent and walk out with an E size bottle.
The other thing I find weird is that people are saying how wonderful this other mob is in allowing monthly yearly etc rentals. When I set up my BOC account I had the option to pay monthly, 1/.4, 1/2, 1 yr or 2 yr from memory.

With a company the size of BOC I find it hard to imagine that they don't have consistent product and policy from State to State. You mexicans need to ring BOC direct and find out what the story is.

What I am struggling to understand is 'bottle rental up front'.

I walked into a BOC outlet, asked for mig gas, they gave me Argoshield light, and said there you go. I asked about bottle rental and all the rest, they said something to the effect of we will bill you.

Bill never arrived, so I didn't pay it. However, since I came here, a friend grabbed the mig and bottle, used it up, trotted it back to BOC, coughed up the cash (not that bad I was told), said he was me and put the account on hold or some such thing. I still have an account (whatever the heck that means)...

He switched to Supagas, since they were more willing to go the extra few yards to be nice (he lives way out past Warburton) and they were cheaper all round.


I dunno. I know I never paid a cent and walked out with a bottle of gas and used it on and off for about 5 months still without paying a cent.

Maybe an accounting foul up of some kind?

Probly a case of 'Big Companies make b'rall out of little blokes' so they either...
1.) do there best to P them off.
2.) force them into an up sell.
3.) don't bother charging them at all.

Lots of times I've gone into one of the local bolt shops around Cairns looking for a weird nut or bolt to replace something that was lost or buggered in a bit of electronics/computer/ATM/woodwork gear & they have dug out a near enough replacement & tossed it over the counter to me.
Once I went in looking for 8 longer countersunk allan key screws for a lathe chuck so I could make up some weird attachment, they had them & all I had to do was chuck a $2 coin in the drink money tin.

BOC they always over charged me every month then x2 next bill it was
out of control. said it was the shop. ???????

BOC billing can be funny.

If you buy from a BOC agent as opposed to BOC itself (ie fill out a paper form versus being invoiced direct to your account) then it can take some time for the paperwork to find its way back to the accounts people. In my case I scored 3 months free rental, but i'm not going to complain......

As far as I have seen BOC rental is paid in advance unless it is a daily or weekly rental in which case it is invoiced at the end of the month.

Also can someone confirm this 'supagas is cheaper' idea?

There is only one thread I can see an apples to apples comparison, and they are actually dearer than BOC.

I would not be surprised if one of the big industrial gas suppliers are providing supagas with an entire welding gas solution and the bottles are just rebadged. Lets face it, there must be a limited number of gas wholesalers/manufacturers in oz (BOC, Air Liquide, any others?) and it is much easier to 'resell' and distribute rather than investing in a bottle fleet, managing it and trying to compete with relatively little buying power.

Can't confirm that Supagas is cheaper or not, but at the time of getting them (4 or 5yrs now) Supagas worked out pretty much similar in price and the reason why I choose them over BOC was that they do free next day delivery. This is great for me as it's a 2 1/2 hr round trip for me to swap bottles.

I dunno if they are still there now, but it was a BOC shop, near enough to Kilsyth-Bayswater, whatever. They just threw a bottle at me.

I can't say that Supagas is cheaper since I am not paying that bill, but my mate said it was slightly cheaper (maybe a dollar or two) and they do go further to make life easier. I can't confirm the price, but the service is definite.

Not forgetting that Supagas do LPG, I don't think BOC do that at a retail level, must be a pretty big earner for Supagas which lets them be more mobile and give better service.

I am not against BOC (another mate and his dad worked for them), but they are a very big mob, and act accordingly.

Originally Posted by Schtoo

I dunno if they are still there now, but it was a BOC shop, near enough to Kilsyth-Bayswater, whatever.

Yellow/White Pages say they're on Dorset Road cnr of Ramage St. SupaGas are in Kilsyth, on Canterbury Rd, just east of Colchester Rd.

Originally Posted by hux

I can walk into my local BOC agent and walk out with an E size bottle.

Don't you mean D size?

Originally Posted by hux

That is bizarre. Considering there are more people in Vic than Qld and certainly more general industry I can't fathom that.

That ones easy. More people in Vic forced to pay the higher rental price= more $$ for BOC.

I got a D sized bottle of Pure Argon (I weld aluminium as well) about a fortnight ago.

Supagas was cheaper than BOC, though only by a few dollars on refills, and only marginally cheaper on rental. The BIG difference is that you can speak to your local bloke, free delivery next day, and you don't get the 40 minutes of "pressing buttons on the phone for the next option" routine.

And please fella's (and I'm not trying to upset anyone here), in Australia it's MATHS, not math. Cheers.

Originally Posted by Beerbotboffin

And please fella's (and I'm not trying to upset anyone here), in Australia it's MATHS, not math. Cheers.

I know.

I'm not in Australia, so I can spell it however the heck I want to.

But, I have to teach American English () more often than not, so I do find that on occasion, the American spelling/intent simply works better than what I learnded at skool.

Keep trying, I got a million excuses, none of them very good.

mmm Ive been playing around with my new mig over the last few weeks... using the gasless method... and now this thread has me curious

What is the difference in weld results with gas?
What is the difference in gas mig to wire usage? is it the same as gasless or use more or less?
With gas can I weld ali? Actually can I weld ali with the gasless option?
Which gas is the most versatile? there appears from reading this thread that theres 3 varieties
Which gives the best results gas or gasless?

ooh and who would I get a bottle of gas from here in the wild untamed and 10 years behind the eastern states 20 years behind the rest of the world West Aus?

Cheers