So when we got our shop, the guy gave us some cylinders... 1 acetylene, 5 oxygen, and 1 argon tank... When we closed the shop I took them with me since I still needed them.

Now my question is this, since I own the tanks, how do I go about filling them? Everywhere I go wants me to swap tanks... I don't like that.
Plus I don't need all this oxygen... I need 1 oxygen, 1 argon, 1 75/25 mix and 1 argon/helium mix.... Can they fill the existing cylinders or how would I go about doing that?
Thanks

 

Pretty much standard practice here is to swap tanks. You own the tank "size" technically, and you just swap it out with a different, filled tank when you pay for a refill. That's how it is in pretty much any industry that uses these tanks if they're anything short of a large, fixed, commercial tanks.

 

i work for medicare and oxygen tanks we provide are ALWAYS swapped out, sry that dosent really help lol

 

ah, gotcha...
they are linde tanks but we only had airgas by the shop.... guy gave me so much **** because i had so many tanks, he was like "those are our tanks" im like no... see the linde on the tank? not yours....
i only got one tank from them. Problem is where I am now there are welding supply stores but no one that has gas.. go figure

 

I just wish I had a few smaller tanks, like for the 75/25 and stuff
I have 1 300cf acetylene tank, 3 280cf o2 tanks, 1 150cf co2 tank, 1 125cf o2 tank, 1 300cf argon tank, and a 100# propane tank (might use it as a supplement air tank to my compressor)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndGB-...&feature=inbox

Different places do it differently, some place rent tanks and then people sell them or give them away. There are a lot of old companies that have been bought out, and the new companies still own the tanks. The best thing to do is talk to your suppliers before you go down to get them filled. Some places will refill other companies rented tanks.

 

we either rent or buy. i bought both of my tanks, and i just walk in and exchange whenever mine runs low. put down the initial payment to "buy" the tank, then pay $30 each time i come back to exchange for a full tank

 

What's the average price? Dude at airgas was charging over 75 each time for a 300cf argon tank

 

i only get 80's since i don't do this for a living. it was $175 for my 75-25% mix, $30 per refill, and $190 for my pure Argon, with $38 refills

 

i dont see why I should put down a deposit when I already have a tank...
I dont do it for a living either... i just happen to have very large tanks.

Im pretty sure my storage unit people would be thrilled to know I have everything but the argon in storage.... full lol

 

300cf argon bottle shop price is like 35 or so, but we have to drive to them.

 

i drive to them too... im still trying to figure out where this 75 came from... it might have been more but I cant remember

 

You can have new valves pressed in the Oxygen tanks to use them for Argon and Co2. I would just tell them you want to keep your tank and have them fill it. I have a brand new cylinder and an Aluminum one that i refuse to swap for, so they just fill them on the spot. I pay $55 for a 330cf tank or Argon or Argon Mix.

 

i believe all my tanks are threaded.. I'll have to double check

the best part was when I asked for argon i somehow got 75/25 and didnt even notice it until I got back to the shop and started welding and couldnt strike an arc.... brought it back and the ***** tried to charge me... AGAIN

 

I've had it both ways. For several years I owned my argon cylinder. Upon purchase of my welder I paid 130.00 for my argon cylinder. I then paid to have it filled. From that point I was traded full cylinders and basically just owned a cylinder of that volume.

When I opened my larger shop where we had multiple welders, the company ran a credit check and obtained references under my company name. They basically provided the cylinders and rotated them with full ones.

In the latter situation, if you closed the shop and rolled out with the cylinders...they aren't yours to keep because you have done nothing to cover the cost of the initial cylinder.


As a side note...when I was in fire school my instructor always said "Tanks are in the army, gas comes in cylinders"....lol. So I have to call it a cylinder. We'd refer to our SCBA oxygen cylinders as "tanks" and he'd snap out.

 

We basically paid for the tanks when we obtained the shop, transferred them from his company to ours or something like that. When we closed the shop I just took them since they were paid for and all were full. No point in leaving that much money and gas behind. So I guess whoever I go through now I'll have to redo the deposit because I'm not driving over 100+ miles round trip to go back to that ******* at airgas.

I've always called them cylinders... they are just too big to be "tanks" "tanks" hold fish lol.

At least when I'm having a bad day I have o2 around lol

 

They always just exchange the cylinders. Even better that for only $5 a month to rent it, they will even drive out to my place to exchange them out for me. Saves my gas and time. Can't beat that.

 

I might rent a smaller cylinder for my mig... No point in carrying around a huge tank for a tiny welder i'll seldom use