was welding up a downpipe for a 6g72 last night and went through a 75CF tank of argon just backpurging it and even then it wasnt enough to finish it completely.
am i doing something wrong?

 

pics of the DP

 

What are your flow settings for the back purge?

 

the flow on a backpurge shouldnt be over 10cfh.. i usually use ~5cfh

 

wow. worst pictures of all time.

 

10cfm on backpurge. sorry about the pics, cant find my camera so gotta use iphone.

 

Step up to a 250. 75 is a damn small tank .. What are you paying for argon? I would turn your purge down to 5.

 

i have a 120 tank but it was hooked up to my shiny new dynasty 350 :D
i think it was 40 bucks to refill the tank.

 

Yah, your getting bent over. We pay $27.50 per 250 private. I would get bigger tanks and renegotiate those rates!

 

I pay about the same and I know I don't use nearly as much as CRMB, yeah your getting stroked. And yeah, turn down the cfm on the backpurge, and what are you running for post flow? (maybe decrease the timer)?

 

holy ****, thats cheap adam!
i need to find a diff supplier looks like
what about welding rod? what do you guys pay for 309l 1/16th? i pay about 8 bucks/lb is that norm?

the welder gas usage is fine, not worried about that. its the backpurge thats killing me. would it be worth it to tape up the tacked joints to prevent excess argon escaping then take them off as i get to them to weld?

 

We use a 244 bottle.
We have 3 owner bottles and keep 1 full at all times just so to never get caught without argon. We get ours refilled for $32 a bottle. AOC tries to rip us off and charges us $75 a bottle, on top of that they always take our owner bottles, give us a rental, then we have to fight them for about a month to give us our owner bottle back because no other weld shops will accept a rental bottle from a different company.

As to how long it last's

A single 244 bottle will usually last me about 2 topmount manifolds or so. Note that is fully purge welded on top of that.

 

also make sure you check for leaks..

 

Also... you're fairly new to TIG, so you probably weld slow as *****. But other than what everybody else said, your doing good.

 

i wouldnt say im very slow. and if i ever stop to reposition or something i shut off the purge gas then turn it back on before welding. from what james says it seems that purge gas is just something you go through very often.
i dont mind it, as long as i can find a supplier that wont rape me on refil pricing

 

The key to a cheap bottle rate is to let them think they'll earn your business for the rest of your supplies for a quickly growing company. Your 308 is a couple dollars per pound higher then we pay as well. For that kind of money we get 347.

 

Wow, I complain that the most expensive part of fabbing stuff is the argon. You think he's getting hosed, locally I'm paying $96 for a refill of argon on a 250cf bottle that I own. So I called their supplier which is about 50mins. away, and they tell me $123 dollars for the contents. Wtf?! You're telling me you guys get the same bottle filled for $27-$32! If so i'm getting f**ked in the ***. I'm located in southern Oregon. I don't know where else to get gas cheaper.

 

well i just went and talked to the guys at fresno oxygen, i bought my dynasty 350 from them and my rep was really cool and gave me a much better deal than what i was paying. im getting rid of my 125cf tank and upgrading to a 280. so now i'll have 2 280cf bottles and each one will be 50 bucks to fill up. im happy with that!
he also dropped the price on my welding rod a bit woot!

im still wondering if it would be cheaper to buy welding rod from somewhere online. opinions?

 

Russian, a couple bucks per pound shouldn't be that big of a deal, But at least you got a better deal on your gas! I'm gonna have to go chew some *** at my local supplier. I bought my sync200 brand new from them too. I just thought that's how much argon was. Damn. Nice welder you got by the way, lucky s.o.b.!

 

thanks, i thought i was getting raped earlier im glad i posted this lol!
definately go talk to your guys they should be able to cut you a deal especially since youre spending big money with them on equipment.
on an off note: i purchased a syncrowave 200 from them at first and then quickly found out im gonna need something more powerful with how much stuff i was doing, something to think about if youre going to be doing a lot of work, especially aluminum.

i cant be any more happier with my dynasty, even tho i havent played with about 80% of its features yet :D

 

DO NOT turn down your purge below 10cfh for 2" diameter and larger tubing, the advice to go down to 5 is poor. I do agree with the need to get larger bottles and better rates however.

 

As you know dave, what works for one may not work for others. We purge at 5-7 all the time. I run 18 hours of welding seat time everyday and have for the past 4 years. No problems with 5-7 here.

 

wouldnt amount of flow depend on how good your gaps are(how much gas is escaping?)

 

What gaps? that may be your problem right there. if you do have gaps(which you shouldnt on tubing) wrap the joints you arent welding with tinfoil to keep the gas from escaping. On pipe you should wrap with tinfoil (or some super expensive tape) and only uncover the 1/4 of the pipe you are putting your root into.

 

i try to not have any gaps but no joints will seal perfectly anyway, i will definately try to wrap the joints im not welding to help conserve gas.