It looks like boc is $149/year which gives you 1 full bottle at the start and refills at $149, but I guess you pay the $149 a year regardless of needing a refill in the second year
Any better ways to do it? The bunnings deal looks good. Also I already have a dual gauge argon regulator on which I guess the fitting to all bottles apart from disposables is the same. Could I add a flow gauge The disposable ones also say they need their own type regulator which does not have a flow gauge. Could I add one, or is it possible to get an adapter? And where do i find the bard/hose fittings to get the right size and thread for my tig torch https://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/product/549-toolshed-regulator-mini
tweake,
Nov 1, 9:26am
forget the disposable bottles of gas. way to expensive for the amount of gas.
D size bottles don't last all that long. ok for small projects but bigger projects you will be going through bottles. one issue with Tig is its fairly slow process so you tend to go through the gas. if you do stainless and use purge gas you really chomp through it.
bunnings is quite good, open in the weekend. but they have some weird rules. have to keep receipt and present it when getting a new bottle, meant to transport bottle on ute deck or trailer.
however at the risk of being insulting, do you know how to weld? have you already got arc or mig welder? tig is not really for beginners. start with arc welding. fortunately most tig welder are also arc welders. box of electrodes and your away.
don't forget tungsten sharpener. i use a bunnings electric blade sharper. also decent tungsten (2% lanthinated works well for everything) also with the price of gas you will want gas savers or gas lens for the torch.
any idea of what machine you want to get?
tweake,
Nov 1, 9:31am
to give some idea, 4l/min is on the low end. i use anything from 5-30l/min. realistically you probably have 20-30 minutes per bottle which makes it really expencive.
tweake,
Nov 1, 9:35am
the dual gauge is a flow meter (or sorts). it should work fine (unless its a complete garbage one, some simply don;t read low enough to be actually usable).
tygertung,
Nov 1, 9:35am
I bought an ownership bottle off ezi-tools and get it filled at Southern Gas Services for about $40 or $60. Lasts for ages because I don't do much welding. Renting is a real rip-off as after about 2.5 years you could buy your own bottle.
Tig isn't too tricky, but you would want some kind of training first I would say.
godimento,
Nov 1, 11:35am
I would not say I know how to weld, but I understand the basics, my mig skills are probably just moving out of the bird poo range, I have done a small bit of tig under guidance. I have a combo machine with lift tig. I want to learn tig for a stainless project.
tweake,
Nov 1, 12:17pm
what muilti machine have you got? there is a few good ones out there but most are pretty poor for tig.
i think the first thing here is you need to be able to weld quite well. start with stick. your multi probably came with stick leads. get stuck in and burn some rods. get good at it. it makes things a lot easier for later.
tig is complicated. a lot of variables and hand eye coordination. if your trying to learn to weld and learn tig at the same time it can be a complete nitemare. to many things going on at once.
stainless, especially thin stainless i find to be the trickiest to do. it also LOVES argon.
tygertung,
Nov 1, 12:37pm
I find tig way easier than arc as with tig you can actually see the weld, whereas with arc all you see is a bubbly puddly mess and you just have to hope that the weld is attaching to both parts of the metal, or the rest of the time you are getting deep valleys of slag or blowing holes in the base metal.
tweake,
Nov 1, 1:23pm
what rods are you using? some can be difficult to tell flux from the pool.
however the difference is you know to look at the pool. when your learning tig you have so many other things to do you tend to forget to read the pool. with stick its simple, there is only a few things to do which doesn't take long to learn. then you can concentrate on the pool and adjusting to suit.
Yes it does have a stick lead I guess there are good principles to learn etc I just don't see myself using stick as I understand it is mostly for thicker and less clean metal. My current use with mig is car body stuff and odd jobs. The tig will be stainless tubing about 1.5mm thick
tweake,
Nov 1, 2:23pm
its not about actually using stick, its about learning to weld. stick is still the best way to to learn.
plus stick comes in handy. i often just grab the stick because its quicker to setup than the mig or tig especially if you often do small bits. you can do thin wall tubing with stick if you ran out of gas.
i don't know that welder. it will have a valved torch so you will waste a bit of gas with that. just have to see what the lift start is like. i have a multi here that has a terrible lift start.
tygertung,
Nov 2, 1:07am
6013. I never really had any training in arc welding, just learned a bit of tig when I was posted in the weld bay during my apprenticeship.
I taught myself to braze, which is my favourite as it is so relaxing.
tweake,
Nov 2, 2:12pm
6013 has a really runny fluid flux so need to tilt the rod over a lot and use the arc to blow back the flux. prone to slag entrapment.
marktt1,
Oct 27, 11:53am
https://eziswapgas.co.nz/ is the company i used to get my bottle though as i was sick of going though the toolshed bottles so quickily
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