...leg? Last month I got my little (50 cu ft?) argon/CO2 mig bottle filled and it w*** like $46... ouch, I went back with it today and it cost me $52! I'm like, wtf, and the guy at my airgas place said "argon shortage." "Dude, your ****ting me." "No, really, the largest production plant in North America is in Canada, and they're on strike." What do you guys know about this, is it true, or bullsheet? later, J
Airgas told us the same thing about a month ago...something about a shortage. They sent us a letter with all the details. We called in to have another tank delivered last week...it still hasn't shown and we're running on "E".
We got a similiar letter about a month or two ago, but said the shortage was due to the hurricanes. last week we ordered 3 bottles and got them the next day. Working for the man has its perks
I just refilled my 80 cf bottle and it only cost me $36. Here in MD. So I havent heard anything at all about it. Sadly I just bought a bigger 180 cf bottle, which I actually bought it from my boss. I had 1000 ci left on my guage so, when its empty if there is a shortage...thats gonna ****. ~Rusty
Starting to sound like political factions (aka the MAN) jerking elements of the economy around to make some sort of political point.... ****py that we are PAWNS in this game.
its amazing that there can be a shortage seeing how the extract all their gases straight from the air. they have a giant sized stack that is venturi shaped. at different levels of compression they pull off all the gases that are normally in the air and bottle them up. the whole plant can be ran by just a few people. to me it sounds like a crock to get mo' money.
Sounds like you need to switch Welding supplyers. Here, Roberts Oxygen is the big scam...its like $56 for a small bottle I stick with the small shops.
Just run straight CO2...had a discussion with the AirGas man the other day on this... he said for sheetmetal welding, the C02 was actually better, as it cools quicker (or absorbs more of the heat from the weld, allowing less heat to penetrate the area surrounding the weld). More info was how the arc actually looked in slow motion.. with argon, the molten wire is dripping in a straight line, whereas with C02, it "dances' around, which is better for sheetmetal work as well.. he said for welds that did not need to be X-ray quality, and on thin materials, it was the way to go. Not to mention the C02 is cheaper.... Brian
Anybody else ever hear of this? Not that I don't trust you kustm52 but I've never heard of this before. Anyone ever try this co2 gas?
Someone had brought this up on the HAMB a while back...I think Tuck was the one who was using it..like you, I had questions, that's why I had the talk with the AirGas man... Be interesting to see other comments on this.. Brian
Paying $46 with one supplier for straight Argon. $42 for CO2/argon mix. Recently changed suppliers and now get st. Argon for $36 and mix for $32. We use around 2 bottles every 3 weeks when busy...and it's been busy for the last 2 years here. Building roll cages, all Chrome Moly and TIG is required. Have not re filled anything since early last week..will find out the "new" prices soon..both bottles getting low. Will let all know asap... In the North Dallas area here...Denton/Frisco, Tx. Mark
A few years ago I had a friend who could get the little CO2 bottles from the Pop dispensers. I used them for a long time ,the CO2 in my opinion does not leave quite as clean a weld, a little more splatter . Around here they stopped allowing private party's from refilling them ,figured everyone was ripping them off from Mcdonalds or something. But it does weld steel very well.
I've been running straight CO for awhile now on body welding, I like it fine. I like the price fine too. The one that's killing me is acetelyne. Every single time I go in to fill up it has gone up again, I've been shopping around town and everyone seems fairly in line pricewise. 75 bucks to fill that and Oxygen bottle every few weeks kicks a poor hotrodders budget right square in the ***! I haven't bought argon recently, so I don't have any idea how it is in this neck of the woods. Scot
I went to Tractor Supply a couple weeks ago and it was half what the welding supply had been charging me.
For 25/75%, AirGas charges more than double what a regional welding supply store (Norden-Smith) charges.
You know what the TreeHuggers(tm)are known to say:That they won't rest until all the greenhouse GASES ARGON!It must be an ETHANOL CORNspiracy! Sorry I couldn't help it;I'll leave quietly by the back door now.......
Although Argon CAN be manufactured (drawing off during process) there IS a large "pocket" of almost pure Argon north of where I live. I worked for the company that bottles the stuff (or puts in tank cars for shipping to the US) and I haven't heard of any strikes. (or any that lasted for very long) But a couple of months ago a freight train made up of several hundred tanker cars that contained Argon, derailed and split many of the tanks open. The incident MAY have created a TEMPORARY shortage, but I get a "sneaky suspition" suppliers used this as an excuse to "up the price." Hell, look at what they did with gasoline!
We run staight CO2 in our mig, it works great! and straight argon in the tig... I just filled up a 125 Argon and it was 45 something out the door, I don't go thru AirGas though....
I hope this does'nt sound like a comercial, but in so-cal we have a company named Accu-Air. They are great and always have stock. Good prices. Hopefully you all can try 'em out. Good luck.
While we're doing comercials..... I am a sub dealer for a regional welding supply company. They set the prices for me to charge once a year (around the end of Jan) i collect what they tell me and every month they send me a comission check. I have not seen or heard of any kind of shortage. The price from me and my supplier hve been the same since mid Feb. At the same time, there's a guy across town that adds a surcharge plus a HAZMAT charge to every tank that goes out the door, but that's the same guy that will put a fresh tank on his welder and use the first 500 cf, then get another tank. When someone gets a tank from him, its nearly always not quite full. He tells the guy "thats the way it came here, they must be ripping us off again! I'll call them about it." Maybe your supplier has been taking lessons from him? Gene
We got hit with price increases for some g***es at work. What I heard from our supplier was that argon production is tied directly to air separation units built to produce pipeline oxygen for steel and chemical customers. Argon is pulled off at part of the fractional distillation process of liquid air. Demand for steel has softened, so gas producers had a sharp reduction in oxygen demand from their steel customers. This forced th gas producers to either cut-back argon production or operate plants for argon only, which is a high-cost operating deal, and implement price increases. On top of that, their distribution and delivery costs went way up this past summer, but are now leveling off.
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