Jon,
I had been independently looking at multiprocess welders and had independently come up with a Miller 220 as a good choice. It was a little pricey for me so I didn’t pull the trigger. I’m really glad to hear that we are purchasing one.
I would be happy to help set it up if it has arrived. And I have a little bit of time over these next three days and will then be pretty busy after that. If it needs to be unboxed and physically connected, I could do that if you are busy. I definitely need to work on my TIG skills and would defer the fine-tuning do you or Joe. I have a project which was designed for me to practice TIG.
I am just offering help if it’s needed. I’m perfectly happy if you would rather do it yourself.
1 Like
OK I assume the old argon bottle is still there. Do we have a another cylinder of MIG gas? I assume we want to hook up both cylinders as the 220 can take them simultaneously. If not I’ll just hook up the argon
The machine’s all unpacked and inventoried; you just need to hook it up. The cart it’s on only holds one bottle, but you can chain up a second one next to it temporarily if there’s a second MIG bottle in the shop that isn’t empty.
the manuals are on top of the machine. All the accessories are either on the cart below it (behind the tig grinder) or balanced precariously on top of it 
I expect we can leave the stinger coiled on the cart.
1 Like
I took a mig bottle to refill. We will have a mig bottle by Monday. I will design and cut double bottle holder. Someone can weld it up.
The owner of the old Miller took his bottle with him. We are talking to welding gas company about buying bottles.
1 Like
I’d just like to thank you all for being so on top of everything. I am very impressed how quickly this is being accomplished. Good Job!
2 Likes
So it sounds like no Argon right now. I understand there’s a steel shortage right now and the local suppliers are not eager to sell tanks. They are leasing them. I had looked into pricing on a lease. The best pricing I had found was $67.50 a year from round rock welding. That’s for any size tank. Texas welding supply was about $81 per year… linde was even more.
I don’t know what size tank we’re looking for. The ones I could find for sale for 125 size. The 250s and 300s were not for sale. They are for lease. The 125‘s we’re running about $385. One company said they didn’t sell them but you can order them from Amazon prime. The biggest size I saw on Amazon was 125
I checked on the sale prices as well. I just checked round rock welding who is closest to me. Prices may vary at other vendors
For a 300 cf size tank $62.15
For a 200 CF size tank $52.46
For a 125 cf Size tank $42.38
The yearly lease price for all of the tanks is $67.50 per year
Ithey do rent the tanks for $0.27 per day
It seems to me that the lease might be the way to go. Even for the smallest tank which sells for about $400 it would take six years to recover the cost of the tank versus A lease. This would be a lot longer recovery time for the bigger tanks. If the tanks are not mobile, the bigger tanks would be more economical. I’m sure Joe knows a lot more about this than I do. Just throwing some data out there.
If the gases are not available, I guess I will wait on the set up as there is not much to do without them
Alamo welding does a deposit lease program. Leave a deposit for the bottle, and just pay for the refills as needed. When you return the bottle, deposit is returned.
Sounds like a good deal. I guess it depends on the amount of the deposit. The ROI could be 6 to 10 years versus Lease and cylinder size (we probably won’t be turning the cylinders back in) I’ve thought about doing one in my own name just to get us going. The rental rate is 27 cents Per day or $67 a year Plus the cost of the Fill. Either way we should make a decision soon. I don’t think any of them are open on the weekend. I will be out of town the first four days of the week. I’m open to any solution.
Joe said The owner took his bottle. We only had one argon bottle. What size do we want?
@JoeN has already reached out to a company he’s worked with a lot on a monthly gas exchange where they deliver to us monthly. Something along those lines has been on our list for a while now to ensure we’ve got gas on hand and not stuck at the mercy of people having to go do exchanges themselves. He requested at least 2 125g bottles. Let’s see what we hear back on that in terms of the long term solution here.
Great! Thanks as usual to Joe. We are lucky to have him
The new welder is mostly setup. The mig bottle will be in tomorrow. The tig bottle will hopefully be handled this week. We need someone to fabricate hangers similar to the Everlast welding cart. I will cut a piece of steel so we can hang 2 bottles off of the back. Someone can weld that. I will take back the single bottle restraint.
1 Like
Any chance the Argon is in? Would be glad to help out with any welding if someone gives me a drawing/picture of what is needed. Might be able to get to it on Monday.
Sorry it is not. There is a scarcity of tig bottles.
Our board members are on top of it and let me know that we have (2) 125cf argon bottles coming in the mail. The delivery person will not be happy.
Does anyone know if the argon tanks have arrived yet? And are they going to arrive empty in need of a fill. I’ve got a few days off and could help out.
They have arrived. I’m modding the tig cart today to accept the new bottle and move the rear wheels further back. The new welder is a lot lighter and is tippy