Oxy Acetylene gas cutting- where to get bottles?

who knows

Hi, i was just wondering about getting an Oxy Acetylene torch for burning and welding and id like to find out more information about the gas bottles.
Do you have to pay a yearly fee to the gas company for rental of the bottles? Do some people own there bottles or are they all rented?. Do the small bottles cost the same to rent per year as the big bottles? obviously the small are cheaper to fill each time.

Is there any alternative for heating parts such as bushings, exhausts etc.
Ive heard of plasma cutters but are they only for metal and are they hard to control?

Is the any other gas readily available that can be used for heating other than propane/butane?

Thanks in advance:D

jomo99

In the auto side of stuff, Oxy/Acet is dead. Nobody owns there bottle's, not legally anyway. There is a deposit to be placed on both bottle's, yearly rent, and the cost to fill, do you need to be using them for profit. Plasma cutter's are not difficult to control, my 11 year old has played with mine. Your better off to start with a MIG welder on a grinder with a cutting disc, smallest outlay.

John

who knows

jomo99 wrote: »

In the auto side of stuff, Oxy/Acet is dead. Nobody owns there bottle's, not legally anyway. There is a deposit to be placed on both bottle's, yearly rent, and the cost to fill, do you need to be using them for profit. Plasma cutter's are not difficult to control, my 11 year old has played with mine. Your better off to start with a MIG welder on a grinder with a cutting disc, smallest outlay.

John

Thanks for the reply John,
I would be more interested in the gas for burning cutting and heating rather than welding. You cant beat it for heating seized bolts or getting bushings out of suspension parts or seperating exhaust pipes joints. I got a little propane torch and it took ages to heat a part and the gas went low because of this.
Is there something similar to oxy/Acet that can be got fairly handy? I heard that the rental per year is €150 and a fill is €50 how much is the deposit on the bottles?

I also went about buying a mig welder before but the fella i was buying it off said i had to rent the bottle of gas for it which he also supplied. My uncle has a mig welder but he bought the bottle with it.
Can the bottles of gas for MIG welders be bought of BOC etc or do you have to buy them?

jomo99

I'll bet your uncle does not own the bottles legally, although I would be interested in finding out how he fills them, might be cheaper for me. As for the little torch, get one of the torch's that plumbers have, and the yellow cylinder instead of the blue one. People in hardware shops will tell you there the same gas, but there full of ****. I have been working on cars for over 20 years, and have no Oxy/Acet.

You can buy some of the cheap Plasma cutter's from ebay, there fine for up to 3mm, although they claim to cut 10mm, it's very hard on tips.

You cannot buy the bottles, it's the law, based on H&S. The gas supply companies are 100% responsible for there upkeep. Don't even think about pub gas, it's 100% CO2, the gas companies CO2 has 5% Argon, which gives a cleaner weld.

John

John

McSandwich

try a butane torch, like the type plumbers or roofers use. Butane burns much hotter than propane so you should get more out of a refill.

Curly Judge

Can a plasma cutter work on vertical material?
Any of the demos I've seen on You Tube seem to work exclusively on bench laid out material.

G-Man

Have you checked out OXY MAPP gas torches , its consumer safer version of Acetylene. The cylinders are disposable I think, but small and maybe pricy..

Kat1170

A lot has changed in the 7 years since this thread started. Check out http://www.stargas.ie/