The V8 Owners Forum -

I'd definately advise you go with the full size bottle if you can, the difference in cost over the half size is not much and the big bottle holds almost 3 times the gas. I use Pureshield argon, it's great for ally and steel.

whats the difference between CO2/ARGON MIX 5 and CO2/ARGON MIX 20, and how big are the bottles from Adams in feet and inches please rich,

Think it's thicknesses of steel, something like BOC or Air Liquide sites say what mix for what. Adams one is 26" to base of valve, the litres and pressure etc are on their site - used to be quite hard to find, it was white text on white background!!

Argoshield/shureshield/cougar 5 - will weld 5mm steel comfortably, it would push to 7mm (not very well though)
20 would go for 15mm - 20mm (if pushed)

Most your bodywork etc I would recommend using 5, as the higher Argon content will give you a better weld, not as much spatter etc...

I don't go through a lot of gas - so I go down the rent free route. I use a company called Hobbyweld. they do rent free bottles, there is a deposit of £60 to start up. the fills aren't too bad - I get a "hobbyweld" 5 (the same as argoshield etc.. filled for £29.99. they have a branch near to me which is handy, but I think they do delivery too. worth giving them a shout i reckon www.hobbyweld.co.uk

Much cheaper than disposables... If you go through a lot of gas its best to get a larger cylinder on a rental basis, theres loads of companies doing that, BOC/Air Liquide/Hunters Carlisle/SIG/Dixons of Westerhope etc.....

honjon wrote:Argoshield/shureshield/cougar 5 - will weld 5mm steel comfortably, it would push to 7mm (not very well though)
20 would go for 15mm - 20mm (if pushed)

Most your bodywork etc I would recommend using 5, as the higher Argon content will give you a better weld, not as much spatter etc...

I don't go through a lot of gas - so I go down the rent free route. I use a company called Hobbyweld. they do rent free bottles, there is a deposit of £60 to start up. the fills aren't too bad - I get a "hobbyweld" 5 (the same as argoshield etc.. filled for £29.99. they have a branch near to me which is handy, but I think they do delivery too. worth giving them a shout i reckon www.hobbyweld.co.uk

Much cheaper than disposables... If you go through a lot of gas its best to get a larger cylinder on a rental basis, theres loads of companies doing that, BOC/Air Liquide/Hunters Carlisle/SIG/Dixons of Westerhope etc.....

Worth knowing about.
I'm paying about £90 for full size bottle of argon - it lasts me years!

Hi
I use 10kg bottles of Argon, rented from a place in Dunstable, I pay about £30 a fill, alot cheeper than disposables.
Mike

Here's another option that deliver

http://barnet-welding.co.uk/

Motorserv in Wolverton, Milton Keynes are hobbyweld stockists. £50 deposit and £51 for Argon +vat.

It's taken me about 8 years to consume my mid size bottle of air-products gas which is costing me £120 a year to rent - so happy days.

Worth noting about the Volkzone deal with BOC

It effectively halves the price of gas and rental.

This makes it far far more attractive than the Hobbyweld stuff

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/thre ... fer.45824/

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/thre ... 05/page-21

I actually cancelled my MIG bottle with BOC in favour of Hobbyweld before I heard about this. If I'd known, I wouldnt have went with Hobbyweld

I've switched my pure Argon to the Volkzone deal. Circa £65 a year rental on the size Y and approx £40 refill.
That's the 4-5ft fat bottle.

In this bottle there is probably about 7x the amount of gas as in a Hobbyweld bottle

The Volkzone deal should be available through any BOC agent, just ask about it.

Worth changing if you're paying full whack !

It's the size Y that I've just emptied over many years. I'll see how long the hobbyweld one lasts - at the moment I only weld very occasionally mainly due to building and moving into a new house. Welding projects in the lat 12 months have been shelves for the garage and alleyway gates!

Eliot wrote:It's the size Y that I've just emptied over many years. I'll see how long the hobbyweld one lasts - at the moment I only weld very occasionally mainly due to building and moving into a new house. Welding projects in the lat 12 months have been shelves for the garage and alleyway gates!

Size Y on my MIG lasts ages, with the TIG, I use a lot more.

I'm pretty slow with the TIG, so that's no real surprise, it just uses more.

I dont think I could ever recommend HW for a TIG.

I did a lot of work over the Xmas period and had changed to HW just at start of December. Got a new bottle of both gases around that time.

I used a full bottle of Argon size Y, and I'm now on my 3rd HW bottle for the MIG. So cost has added up, although workload has went down to very low as normal. So hopefully it will be some time before I need a new one.

With hindsight, now knowing about the Volkzone deal I'd prefer not to have changed to HW. But at the old prices BOC were charging it was just mental.

There is about 7x as much gas in a Size Y as there is in a single small HW bottle.

I wouldn't mind paying £120 a year if I at least consumed a bottle a year, but looking back on my website - it was when I was doing the turbo conversion in 2004 that I bought the argon for the tig - so about 9 years to consume a bottle!

Eliot wrote:I wouldn't mind paying £120 a year if I at least consumed a bottle a year, but looking back on my website - it was when I was doing the turbo conversion in 2004 that I bought the argon for the tig - so about 9 years to consume a bottle!

Volkzone is about half that, so really not bad at all. Plus a refill is only £40...not £90-100

So far since I started the HW, I paid the £60 up front and I'm on my 3rd bottle, that's £120 paid so far.

Now compared to normal BOC prices over the year and future years I'll still do well as long as I dont weld too much.

The Volkzone prices are much much better though