I recently purchased a small mig welder from a guy and he gave me a tank with it that he said he "thought" it was CO2, but wasn't fully sure. He said he only ever used the flux wire in it and never used the gas. Is there any other way of telling if it is CO2 . there seems to be no valid indication on the tank itself. Are there any other gasses that it could have been for mig welding? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Duane
"69Rocketman" wrote: (clip) Is there any other way of telling if it is CO2 . (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you crack the valve on a tank of CO2, it should make a cloud of dry ice flakes. If you shake a tank of CO2, you should be able to feel liquid sloshing inside. A CO2 tank should have a tare weight stamped on it. The weight of the tank plus contents will enable you to calculate how much liquid is in there. The weight of gasses like argon, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, etc, even for a full tank, is not very great, since those materials are not liquid in the tank.
Another clue: if you use CO2 at a substantial rate, it will chill the plumbing.
It will only frost if the level is full enough and you crack the valve open sufficiently to carry up the liquid with the gas flow. Otherwise you must invert the tank so that the valve is at the lowest point. Then it will produce dry ice frost regards of tank level or the amount of valve opening.
If you shake a tank of CO2, you should be able to feel liquid
If it's a mini mig (read as little portable thing) with a disposable bottle AFAIK they all originally come with CO2 rather than argon or an argon mix HTH Jim
Look at the connection. If it is a flat connection, it is CO2. If it is tapered, it is something else.
Steve
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