OK. Only vaguely metalworking related, but not at all political.

I left the valves on my oxy-acetelyne rig on for a week a couple of
months ago. Aside from the fact that I stupidly wasted a bunch of money
(at least they were the little tanks, and one was nearly empty), I also
have found myself _constantly_ thinking of all the jobs that I can _only_
do with that rig, even though I didn't need to do any of them for months.

So, at any rate, my model airplane club's lawn roller broke, it needs
welding and some brackets -- flame cut, of course -- to make it happy
again. So OF COURSE I had to run down and get gas.

Whee hee! I can ignore all those welding jobs with impunity now, because
I can do them any time I want, now!

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:07:26 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

OK. Only vaguely metalworking related, but not at all political.

I left the valves on my oxy-acetelyne rig on for a week a couple of
months ago. Aside from the fact that I stupidly wasted a bunch of money
(at least they were the little tanks, and one was nearly empty), I also
have found myself _constantly_ thinking of all the jobs that I can _only_
do with that rig, even though I didn't need to do any of them for months.

So, at any rate, my model airplane club's lawn roller broke, it needs
welding and some brackets -- flame cut, of course -- to make it happy
again. So OF COURSE I had to run down and get gas.

Whee hee! I can ignore all those welding jobs with impunity now, because
I can do them any time I want, now!

I've never undersood why, but one of my tanks always quits shortly
after noon on saturday in the middle of a hot job. The tank place
closes at noon saturday till Monday morning.

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:52:03 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:07:26 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

OK. Only vaguely metalworking related, but not at all political.

I left the valves on my oxy-acetelyne rig on for a week a couple of
months ago. Aside from the fact that I stupidly wasted a bunch of money
(at least they were the little tanks, and one was nearly empty), I also
have found myself _constantly_ thinking of all the jobs that I can
_only_ do with that rig, even though I didn't need to do any of them for
months.

So, at any rate, my model airplane club's lawn roller broke, it needs
welding and some brackets -- flame cut, of course -- to make it happy
again. So OF COURSE I had to run down and get gas.

Whee hee! I can ignore all those welding jobs with impunity now,
because I can do them any time I want, now!

I've never undersood why, but one of my tanks always quits shortly after
noon on saturday in the middle of a hot job. The tank place closes at
noon saturday till Monday morning.

What, you don't have a store-room with a tank of each stashed away? At
least empties, waiting for a tank to get down to 1/4 full?

Tsk tsk.

When my dad's shop was still doing active custom auto body work -- which
meant lots of O-A welding -- there would be two OA sets always ready to
run, and if there weren't a fresh pair of tanks in the storeroom, then
someone would be scheduled to go to Landeen Welding and get more.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:52:03 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:07:26 -0500, Tim
wrote:

OK. Only vaguely metalworking related, but not at all political.

I left the valves on my oxy-acetelyne rig on for a week a couple of
months ago. Aside from the fact that I stupidly wasted a bunch of money
(at least they were the little tanks, and one was nearly empty), I also
have found myself _constantly_ thinking of all the jobs that I can
_only_ do with that rig, even though I didn't need to do any of them for
months.

So, at any rate, my model airplane club's lawn roller broke, it needs
welding and some brackets -- flame cut, of course -- to make it happy
again. So OF COURSE I had to run down and get gas.

Whee hee! I can ignore all those welding jobs with impunity now,
because I can do them any time I want, now!

I've never undersood why, but one of my tanks always quits shortly after
noon on saturday in the middle of a hot job. The tank place closes at
noon saturday till Monday morning.

What, you don't have a store-room with a tank of each stashed away? At
least empties, waiting for a tank to get down to 1/4 full?

Tsk tsk.

When my dad's shop was still doing active custom auto body work -- which
meant lots of O-A welding -- there would be two OA sets always ready to
run, and if there weren't a fresh pair of tanks in the storeroom, then
someone would be scheduled to go to Landeen Welding and get more.



I use less than a bottle full per year (but keeping it helps for
unexpected jobs) but for that privilege I am charged $362.47 rental per
annum on the bottles in Australia.

On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:38:06 +1000, F Murtz wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:52:03 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:07:26 -0500, Tim
wrote:

OK. Only vaguely metalworking related, but not at all political.

I left the valves on my oxy-acetelyne rig on for a week a couple of
months ago. Aside from the fact that I stupidly wasted a bunch of
money (at least they were the little tanks, and one was nearly
empty), I also have found myself _constantly_ thinking of all the
jobs that I can _only_ do with that rig, even though I didn't need to
do any of them for months.

So, at any rate, my model airplane club's lawn roller broke, it needs
welding and some brackets -- flame cut, of course -- to make it happy
again. So OF COURSE I had to run down and get gas.

Whee hee! I can ignore all those welding jobs with impunity now,
because I can do them any time I want, now!

I've never undersood why, but one of my tanks always quits shortly
after noon on saturday in the middle of a hot job. The tank place
closes at noon saturday till Monday morning.

What, you don't have a store-room with a tank of each stashed away? At
least empties, waiting for a tank to get down to 1/4 full?

Tsk tsk.

When my dad's shop was still doing active custom auto body work --
which meant lots of O-A welding -- there would be two OA sets always
ready to run, and if there weren't a fresh pair of tanks in the
storeroom, then someone would be scheduled to go to Landeen Welding and
get more.



I use less than a bottle full per year (but keeping it helps for
unexpected jobs) but for that privilege I am charged $362.47 rental per
annum on the bottles in Australia.

Youch!

Can you do the buy/exchange thing over there? I think I'd have to give
up welding if I were in your shoes.

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:38:06 +1000, F Murtz wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:52:03 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:07:26 -0500, Tim
wrote:

OK. Only vaguely metalworking related, but not at all political.

I left the valves on my oxy-acetelyne rig on for a week a couple of
months ago. Aside from the fact that I stupidly wasted a bunch of
money (at least they were the little tanks, and one was nearly
empty), I also have found myself _constantly_ thinking of all the
jobs that I can _only_ do with that rig, even though I didn't need to
do any of them for months.

So, at any rate, my model airplane club's lawn roller broke, it needs
welding and some brackets -- flame cut, of course -- to make it happy
again. So OF COURSE I had to run down and get gas.

Whee hee! I can ignore all those welding jobs with impunity now,
because I can do them any time I want, now!

I've never undersood why, but one of my tanks always quits shortly
after noon on saturday in the middle of a hot job. The tank place
closes at noon saturday till Monday morning.

What, you don't have a store-room with a tank of each stashed away? At
least empties, waiting for a tank to get down to 1/4 full?

Tsk tsk.

When my dad's shop was still doing active custom auto body work --
which meant lots of O-A welding -- there would be two OA sets always
ready to run, and if there weren't a fresh pair of tanks in the
storeroom, then someone would be scheduled to go to Landeen Welding and
get more.



I use less than a bottle full per year (but keeping it helps for
unexpected jobs) but for that privilege I am charged $362.47 rental per
annum on the bottles in Australia.

Youch!

Can you do the buy/exchange thing over there? I think I'd have to give
up welding if I were in your shoes.



No options, can not own acetylene bottles, only option is to rent bottles
You can own co2 bottles and refill can own some lpg bottles but not the
normal size used to run domestic cooking and heating,have to rent these.
Although you can own giant LPG bottles for this purpose.

On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:38:06 +1000, F Murtz wrote:

I use less than a bottle full per year (but keeping it helps for
unexpected jobs) but for that privilege I am charged $362.47 rental per
annum on the bottles in Australia.

How many dozen bottles are we talking about here?
Can you buy used bottles in OZ?

--Winston

On 2012-07-20, F Murtz wrote:
Tim Wescott wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:52:03 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote:

[ ... ]

I've never undersood why, but one of my tanks always quits shortly after
noon on saturday in the middle of a hot job. The tank place closes at
noon saturday till Monday morning.

What, you don't have a store-room with a tank of each stashed away? At
least empties, waiting for a tank to get down to 1/4 full?

[ ... ]

When my dad's shop was still doing active custom auto body work -- which
meant lots of O-A welding -- there would be two OA sets always ready to
run, and if there weren't a fresh pair of tanks in the storeroom, then
someone would be scheduled to go to Landeen Welding and get more.

[ ... ]

I use less than a bottle full per year (but keeping it helps for
unexpected jobs) but for that privilege I am charged $362.47 rental per
annum on the bottles in Australia.

Hmm ... no option to buy your own (perhaps smaller) tanks, and
just pay for the refill?

I don't use O-A (yet) but I do use Argon for TIG welding, and
for my purposes, two of the smallest of the tanks work out well. I have
a spare to swap in if I run out on a weekend during a project, and the
empty one goes back and is swapped for another tank already filled for a
fairly reasonable fee.

Yes, if I had the full sized tanks, I could only rent them, but
the smaller ones (at least here in VA in the USA) can either be rented
or become "owner bottles". Essentially, they have recorded that you own
whatever number of bottles, so the swap goes smoothly. (And the fellow
behind the counter even remembers me when I pop back in -- for all that
I have been using it for less than a year now.)

I got the TIG setup at our metalworking club's annual yard sale
and picnic for little enough so I figured that it was time to start
learning to use it. The initial purchase of each bottle, interestingly,
comes with no charge for the Argon in it.

I already had a good two-stage NOS inert gas regulator, picked
up earlier in the year at a hamfest (UK call it a "Radio Rally" -- a
multi-party (mostly) electronics yard sale spread over quite a bit of
space -- usually at some fairground. I've gotten other interesting
metalworking tools at hamfests as well.

I figured that I would eventually go for TIG welding, so I
expected to use the regulator -- and it was not that long after I got it
that I got the welder. Only real disadvantage of the cheap Harbor
Freight welder is that it is DC only, so not suitable for welding
aluminum. Well ... the first couple of projects were better in steel
anyway. :-) Maybe someday I'll spring for a somewhat larger welder which
can handle aluminum as well, now that I know that I *can* weld, not
yet pretty, but satisfactory for strength.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
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