Cheapest welding o2

[Pete]

What is the chepest way to get welding o2?

What sizes is it sold in? and how does cylinder rental etc work?

[-]

just go to a grow shop, ffs :-)

[mrcheerful]

get a bottle from a scrap yard and get them to refill it, rental is seriously dear.

mrcheerful

[Andy Dingley]

How ? BOC and friends are _incredibly_ fussy about paperwork before they'll refill a "foreign" bottle.

Don't ever be tempted to refill your own oxygen bottles either. This is _very_ dangerous.

[Mike Harrison]

Especially with oxygen as opposed to other gases, as traces of oil/grease can spontaneously combust under pressurised O2

[Andy Dingley]

spontaneously combust

That's not what I was thinking of. I was thinking more of the critical temperature and runaway overheating. This is a big surprise to the people it kills.

[Rob Morley]

It used to be that they didn't really keep track of bottles, so if you could pick one up from an unofficial source you could swap it for a full one from someone with an account, and only pay for the gas. I believe they now have systems that track each bottle, so anyone returning a bottle that wasn't issued to him is going to have a problem with his account (but that's just hearsay - I haven't dealt with them in quite a few years).

[mrcheerful]

Although all the bottles are numbered, they don't check that the bottle you return is one that you have already been given. So once you have a bottle (not too difficult) just get a scrapyard or blacksmith to get it swapped for a full one.

mrcheerful

[John Schmitt]

Long term, an oxygen generator.

you need a lot of it, a LOX silo (ever wondered what those big silos at hospital sites inscribed BOC contain?).

The standard economic rules apply. Small quantities cost more. Blue Circle regarded my previous company as a small user eligible for a small discuont because we were only using abuot 80 tonnes a month.

John Schmitt

[Will Dean]

How do you know?

Will

[Alan]

I rent an "Argonshield" cylinder from BOC, I think O2 rental is similar cost.

The cylinder rental is something like £38 per year, and the gas fill about £30 ish each time I refill. Cylinder about 3' tall, not sure how much gas it holds, but I get about a year per fill!

I have an O2 cylinder which I bought as an outright buy for the cylinder from my local welding specialist shop (in Dunstable) and that cost something like £150 a few years back and refils are £20 ish I think, but no rental.

Alan.

[Ian Stirling]

Do you happen to know how hard it is to buy small (25l dewar refills) of LOX? What sort of paperwork on the dewar is likely to be required?

[John Schmitt]

Commercial or personal? Personal is about impossible, commercial normally carries a monthly charge and a per-litre price. If you get the dewar from BOC, it will have all the paperwork sorted, with a three-yearly (more dough) inspection and re-certification. You will also have to satisfy BOC that it will be properly stored. A small roofed and lockable outbuilding with mesh door or walls should suffice. You can get a rep to call by for an informal chat.

John Schmitt