bottle size - TIG, Ar shield

Dec 02, 2003 2 Replies
R

(I'm in UK at present)



I assume full-sized bottles - the ones you can only just lift by bear-hugging - are the ones to have if you are doing a lot of welding in a fixed location (cheaper per welding time, fewer stops for refills).



Not optimum if you want to go places with the welder?


Is there a solution? If you have one of these carryable inverter machines on a cart, is there a solution? Does it, in the final analysis, depend on whether you are willing to rent a large bottle and a small bottle and keep filling the small one from the large one?



How do you "cross-fill"? I have seen it described as "easy", but didn't find details.


Richard Smith



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G

Handtrucks. It is pretty easy to make up a bracket to carry the inverter on the handtruck too, so you have everything you need in one convenient wheeled package. If you expect to need to go up and down stairs a lot, a stair climbing refrigerator dolly would be a better base than ordinary handtrucks.

It is easy if you have the proper high pressure hose and fittings. Realize that if you try to fill an equal size bottle, you'll only get half a fill, ie ending pressure in both bottles will be equal to half the starting pressure. The bigger the source bottle is in relation to the destination bottle, the closer you'll come to getting a full fill.

But because of the necessary pressure drop in the source bottle, you'll never really get a full fill. You can use a number of source bottles, starting with the least full and working your way up to the most full. That'll give you the greatest amount of gas in the bottle being filled.

Gary

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R

First 2 links are CGA saftey posters. First don't transfill cylinders. Second Transportation of cylinders.

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Safety
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Oxide Safety and Security
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If your talking about trans filling welding shielding gas it can be done safely with clean charging hose with correct fittings and pressure gage. Gage is used to control charging rate and final pressure. Must read and understand stamps on cylinder shoulder to know max pressure and if hydro is needed. Should have procedure to keep air, oil and water out of cylinder your charging. Cylinder your charging will get warm to touch but shouldn't get hot to touch.

Never Trans Fill O2 Cylinder or Acetylene Cylinder.

If your charging CO2 must charge by weight, not pressure and know what your doing. It is possible to over fill CO2 cylinder leaving not enough head space for liquid. It is possible to get full charge in cylinder your trans filling by warming source cylinder and cooling cylinder your filling.

Much better if you can get someone to show how to do this safely.

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