helium?

Helium was what TIG welding started with - Heliarc was Union Carbide / Linde's trade name for the process. You can use straight helium for TIG welding, it gives more penetration than argon. The arc length is also very critical and I think it is mostly used for machine TIG welding now.

As long as it really is an owner cylinder, you should have no problem swapping for C25, argon or some more useful gas.

Good Luck, Bob

Heli-arc was the early term for TIG IIRC.

It is very light weight so shielding is different. Good for parties with balloons as well.

My guess is they would swap metal for metal only and not pay you for the gas - as it could be anything or any mixture due to a bad value in a mixer...

Those are my inputs - don't know for certain. Suspect the last is on target.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Grant Erw> I just picked up a 251 cf cylinder of helium along with some other stuff

I asked my supplier about a tank of tri-mix I had. They would bleed off the contents and refill, but would not swap tanks, for the same reason you stated. I hate like hell to waste it, though I need another Argon tank for a spare. Ive already got 3 C25s on hand, full.

It is fun filling balloons for the grandkidlit and the neighborkids though. But its gonna be a shitload of balloons before its empty.

Gunner

Got a lawn chair? You too could be a hazard to air navigation. Of course that will likely get you a SAM in the keister these less tolerant days.

How much stainless and aluminum do you do? It's possible to setup a mix your own rig that will allow you to make which ever mixture you need for the job at hand. Like a trimix for stainless, helium-argon mix for aluminum TIG, 95-5 argon co2 mix for spray mode MIG, etc.

I want to add a helium tank to my mixing setup some day for when I'm doing stainless. I'm currently getting by with a argon co2 mix but it's not ideal.

Interesting, Wayne. Have you put together such a mixing network? What does it take to do that?

Grant

It takes flow meters for each tank (preferably with the same pressure supplied from each), check valves to prevent back flow, and possibly a restricter at the wire feeder. My setup is that I've got a Miller Dimension 400 welder which is a 400 amps 100% duty cycle (500 amp and 60%) CC and CV power source. I've got a cart where I've got both a Miller S-64 wirefeeder and a Cobramatic push pull wire feeder mounted (as well as the water cooler for the Cobramatic). I've got the cart on a 50' "umbilical" cord which has the cable to the welder, the control wire for the welder, the 110v wire for the Cobramatic and water cooler, and two hoses for the gas at the moment (yes it's big and heavy especially with the 00 wire).

When I first set this up I just had my co2 and argon bottles behind the welder with the flow meters right on the tanks. I just Y'd them together and ran one hose the cart. However I had problem with the hose acting as a tank and when pulling the trigger there was a huge rush of gas for the first few seconds. This had the effect of messing up the weld for the first little bit due to the mixing of air with the high flow of the gas. I then added another hose and leaving the regulator on the tanks I then moved the flow meters to the cart itself. This improved things a good bit but I'm still getting a small rush of gas out due to the hose on the cart which goes to both wire feeders. I've not had time to refine it further from there. It works pretty well with the aluminum in the push pull and pure argon. However I still have some trouble with the mild steel not stabilizing quick enough at the start of welds when I mix the co2 and argon. I need to get around to putting in the check valves (I didn't have them at the time when I made up the system since I had to order them). I also believe that a restrictor (like a needle valve) at the inlet of the S-64 feeder to prevent the small inrush of gas would help the system tremendously.

After going through all this and learning more I believe that having the flow meters on the tanks with check valves and a flow restrictor at the wire feeder would work fine. With the flow restrictor the only advantage to the flow meters being on the cart is that it makes it easier to adjust them when changing the settings (the purge switch is right there to allow adjusting).

There are gas mixers out there made specifically for doing this. They bring big bucks usually though I nearly got one on ebay once. Smith is a big name in this area.

You can see some pics of my setup here.

These where taken before I got around to moving the flow meters onto the cart.

Are your cylinders, flowmeters, etc. somewhere in those pictures?

Grant

Don't let them go! Anywhere you go up here in the high Sierras you find ballons. You wouldn't throw garbage in front of your home, where at least a street sweeper goes, would you?

Not really. The cylinders are in the corner formed by the welders and the old commercial freezer. Along with my oxy and act tanks as well as my stock of tanks for customers (I'm what's called a drop dealer).

Actually..I do let them go. I find the thickest aluminized Mylar balloons I can find, hang long strands of bare copper wire from them, tied to rabies infected bats and burning candles, then cast thousands of them adrift when the wind is from the west. I understand that I actually burned down Chicago once when the jetstream was perfect.

Everybody needs a good hobby.

Your concerns are noted. When hunting..I occasionally find balloons from the other side of the Coastal Range here in California..80 or more miles away. Oftimes they have a note tied to them, with either an email addy or phone number. It appears to be a common childs birthday party activity in some Democrat strongholds such as the Peoples Republik of Santa Barbara and so forth, based on my contacting the addy or phone number and giving them a distance report. I actually found one from San Francisco, that had been released 3 months before, draped over a sage.

If my grandbaby releases a balloon, I shall shoot it out of the air, and then lop off the offending hand it was released by.

Now..if people had the same concern about condoms..all those poor sea otters and other ocean animals would not die in such agony.

Gunner

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist

Drifting off thread slightly but... I have assumed that the traditional latex balloons were subject to bio-degradation and/or breakdown from UV. Does this actually happen?

As for condoms, they were known as Thames flatfish at the power station I did some work at, downstream of London. They tend to block the condenser cooling water drum screens.

Mark Rand RTFM

It does here in the Central Valley. Ive found a tiny twist of balloon, turning into dust tied to a streamer and a note, many times.

Indeed. Trojan Jelly Fish among other regional names

I was at the beach, when a pretty young thing came prancing out of the water, all curvy and teenyweeeni kini and was parading along the sand with one stuck to her shoulder blade. There was quite the commotion when her friends saw it.

Gunner

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist