dfoxengr

you can get them at lowe's, or online...etc.

ive been wanting an oxy setup for years now for cutting, heating, and alittle welding, and im pretty much set on the firepower portable oxy setup. its about 275$ online, and has a 10cu. ft acetylene, and 20cu ft. O2 tank as well as regulators and all that.

my question is if anyone here uses a portable kit, theyre basically all the same, and how do you like it.

how long do the tanks last , and what type of work do you do with yours

ive been using a 40cu ft(pretty sure) 75/25 tank for my mig for over a year, i dont do too much welding, but it seems to last. im sure the oxy kit will be used about as much as the mig.

19civic93

to me those are too small. if your gonna use it to cut you'll run out of oxygen really fast. get at least and 80 cu. ft. and up. it will save the trips to get them filled. not sure how portable you want it but the 80's are still very portable. it won't cost you much more either. maybe 100-150 more. it's well worth it tho.

dfoxengr

really want someone with personal experience to chime in...

space is the biggest criteria i have. these seem to fit the bill perfectly.

19civic93

trust me you'll regret it. those are just way too small to use for cutting. cutting uses a lot of oxygen. but i guess the only way your gonna find out is by trying it. i have an 75 for acetylene and 80 for oxygen. i only use them for cutting (which is hardly) and to me these sizes are just right for me. on days when i really use my mig and tig which both have 150 cu.ft. bottles i do notice the pressure drops pretty quick. it's up to you to but bigger bottles don't take up much space. they are tall not wide.


Modified by 19civic93 at 1:32 PM 11/23/2005


Modified by 19civic93 at 1:32 PM 11/23/2005

dfoxengr

i know how big they are, and the portable will be the most useful to me, now anyone with real experience please chime in.

Kookz

Not happy with someone's real experience eh?

dfoxengr

i was talking about experience with the small units.

19civic93

yeah, what do you mean by real experience? when i do use mine i really use it. i use it to cut 3/16 to 1/2 plate. you might not find someone that even owns those small welding outfits. and if you do i bet some will say yes it runs out in seconds and some will say it last pretty long. it all boils down to the user. you need to figure how much your actually gonna use it and what your gonna use it for. a bottle that small may only give you an 1 hr of cutting. contact a welding shop that sells gas cylinders and they will give you the hr. usage based on bottle size. sometimes even they might not be able to give you an answer. like i said it depends on the user. most people buy more than they need to be on the safe side of things. its like buying a compressor and thinking that the things you will do with it will be small and won't require much air. then somewhere down the road you realize your wasting a lot of time waiting for air to build cause you compressor can't keep up. say your working on a project and you run out of gas. now you gotta go get a refill. what a waste of time. most people waste more money tryin to save money cause they always end up replacing what they thought was adequate at the time.

19civic93

maybe you just get it and see for yourself. seems like you have your mind set on it regardless on what others say anyway. if you don't wanna take my advice then maybe reading this might help you out. http://www.hobartwelders.com/m...power

dfoxengr

thats cool thanks for the input.

what i meant by real experience is that i wanted people who have actually used the small ones to speak up.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dfoxengr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my question is if anyone here uses a portable kit, theyre basically all the same, and how do you like it.

how long do the tanks last , and what type of work do you do with yours</TD></TR></TABLE>

as stated in my original post.

dfoxengr

anyone use one?

dfoxengr

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dfoxengr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anyone use one?</TD></TR></TABLE>

dfoxengr

snoochtodanooch

did you read the hobart welding forum? A guy on there said specifically that you would run out of O2 while cutting in a very short time. I have i guess what would be consider a medium sized setup. Its 80 tanks I think. It is on wheels and is very portable.

dfoxengr

no i didnt.

interesting. i wonder what he considers a short amount of time?

say 10 minutes. then your 80 cu ft tanks would only last 80 minutes technically.(for example)

snoochtodanooch

well his short amount of time was 4 minutes,

and the ability to do between 7-8 big jobs or barely getting one job done before a refill is quite a consideration.

why don't you read the hobart board to get your answer? those are welding guys that know what they are talking about.

dfoxengr

yeah thats not too much there.

ok i didnt know they had a board. ill check it out.
thanks.

19civic93

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by snoochtodanooch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">did you read the hobart welding forum? A guy on there said specifically that you would run out of O2 while cutting in a very short time. I have i guess what would be consider a medium sized setup. Its 80 tanks I think. It is on wheels and is very portable. </TD></TR></TABLE>

this is what i've been saying since the beginning of this thread. i also left a link to the hobart site with all the answers to his questions. if you took my advice you would have got your answer by now. the amount of oxygen you use depends on the thickness of metal your cutting. thick metal more oxygen. more oxygen reduces the slag and gives you a cleaner cut. some guys have oxygen bottles twice the size of their acetylene because they do a lot of cutting with thick metals. here's a link to the hobart and miller forums.
http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/
http://www.millermotorsports.com/mboard/