On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 07:33:53 -0700, Eric R Snow
wrote:

Greetings Don,
I don't know where you are but here in the seattle area I mostly use
Central Welding for my tanks. The tanks that I have are "owner
bottles". These are sizes that Central Welding and Airgas only sell,
and do not lease. So maybe you can get the size of your bottles,
(tanks, cylinders, etc.) from the stampings on the bottles and find
out if they are "owner" sizes. When re-filling Central offers two
options. You can have your bottle filled, but may have to wait days,
and pay for the hydro test. Or, you can exchange your bottle for one
the same size on the spot and they hydro the bottle when it needs it
at no charge to you. BTW, even though I started out using Central
Welding I have had bottles filled (exchanged actually) at Airgas that
came from Central and then had those bottles from Airgas filled at
Central. Being "owner" bottles it makes no difference.
Cheers,
Eric

That must vary from vendor to vendor too.

The most common size for shade-tree mechanics is probably the
125 cylinders. (I assume that means 125 cubic feet)
Big enough to get the job done, small enough that just about anyone
can pick them up and load them into the back of a pickup.

But I also own a few 200, and even a couple of 300 cylinders.

I think the 300 cylinders are as big as they get for spun steel tanks.
(at least I haven't seen any bigger) They are bigger than any of the
oxygen tanks I've seen the contractors use that are working on the
local bridges.

All listed as ownership, at Airgas.

I almost got my hands on six 300 tanks certified for 6000psi from a
local fire department. They were going to be free to me, until
another fire department found out they were available. errrr

Dave