Mig Welding Gas sheilding or Gasless

Southbound wrote:

I have a good MIG welder from when I was self employed, nowadays it only gets used when I have a project. ATM BOC have the best deal on MIG gas at $108 per year for one bottle including gas. In the past I found CIG/BOC to be a terrible company to deal with, but now, the low price suits my needs.

Yes I'm the same, when I crunch the numbers BOC are a better deal for me than owning the bottles
I think the thought of paying rent every month is what drives most to buying bottles

A lot has to do with how much you use

Mind you, if your smart enough and lucky enough it is possible to beat the buggers at their own game and get them rent free

Paul

BOC have pulled their heads in as Bunnings cut into their market.........Not that Bunnings is any good.......none of the staff seem to like doing the gas,and often I have to go back to the counter twice to get some service.......bottles are always out of the way ,too...............Still I dumped BOC when they stuck me the annual rental $200,and about a month later sent me a bill for another $40......rental rise!........Then next you know,they are cutting prices all over....even sent me a credit of a couple of bucks........to keep the account open,maybe.

Dunno about you guys, but I buy my Oxygen from Bunnings, having already bought the actual unit, but can only get the intermediate size, NOT the large one.

My brother has told me many times he works with oxygen thieves, Ive always meant to ask if they have to rent their bottles or they steal them as well.

If you prefer to stick weld then those inverter welders are the go. I have one at home and they are a simple machine to use and easy to strike the arc as well.They can pump out quite a few amps on some of them and are not a pricey welder to buy.
Buying gas of any type from any supplier can be fun. The bottles by law must be stored outside as they are an explosion risk and the insurance companies would just love a reason to not payout on a claim. My local Bunnings can be impossible to get served with gas bottles too but it always and should be the case it is who you ask. There are staff there eager to help and others that run for cover. At one stage the local store showed stock of the CO2 bottles and so I drove the half hour into town only to find zero stock and no one able to tell me when the next delivery was due. Made a bit of noise at the counter but not blaming staff but after asking a lot of questions they slipped up about who does the ordering and it is done from Head Office. I went around the corner to the company that delivers their gas stock and he confirmed that Head Office has not placed any orders for any gas for the l;ast 4 weeks.
So off home I go and write a nice letter to Head Office about what my most recent experience was trying to buy gas. The reply was priceless with them blaming every one but themselves and sent their appologies. So now it was time to let them know who really was to blame and that they had not placed an order for gas because the stock control computer was out of whack plus the Store does not place the order as Head Office took that away fom them and that I had it confirmed by the deklivery company there is still no orders for gas.
This took less than half an hour to get a phone from them as I have a Power Pass so they had my details plus I offered them up. I was asked politely if I wanted to drive to Port Macqurie there was a bottle of gas waiting behind the desk with my name on it for free. Plus then another email came from the Store Manager asking very nicely that the next time I am in the store that I ask for him perssonally. Turned out that when I did go there he was ending a meeting and asked that I have a coffee on him and he would be no longer than 5 minutes. True to his word he turned up on time, introduced himself and appologised for the stuff ups and handed me $100.00 store voucher. He asked what it was that I said to Head Office as they had made some major changes. All I said was I told them the truth.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this topic. I have had similar issues with BOC in the past & the mig welder that I gave to my son still has an account with BOC for Argon gas, the rental is down to just over $100 per year with 2 free small bottles of gas thrown in.
I have bought a Unimig Viper 185 unit, has Mig/Tig/Stick leads etc. The unit can be used with gas or as gasless, I have bought the gas bottle to go with it also after reading some of the comments from the forum, for which I thank you.
I had given the other welder to my son when he moved to his own place as I was having eye problems & could'nt see to weld real good, however now after 4 eye operations I am back to 20/20 vision & able to see much better, thankfully.
Cheers & thank you all for your inputs. Tim

Good choice Tim, Unimig are a little diffrent in the settings and take a little getting use to so fiddle around and write down what works on what. 185 is up on the limit of what you can run of a normal power point so if you are using it at home, be very carefull with your earth clamp have a good clean up with a grinder before you clamp on if it's not new metal or new metal with mill slag, you can melt your green wire and back wire all the way back to the meter box with a bad earth, and your welds will be much improved, most important also for gassless, I have the 250 Unimig which is still take it to site size but I run it on a 3 phase 32amp 5pin plug on 1 phase and the neutral pins, or a generator. Mine has a burn back adjustment in the wire box, set it on half way and fiddle with it from there it will change the nature of your molten pool.
Just so you know where I am coming from I am a trade qualified Electrician, trade qualified Welder, and trade Qualified fridgie , my game is cable install and winching, including building all the cable supports, think cables as big as your arm up, and disconnect and relocate of electrical equipment, think cranes wide loads and heavy haulage, if there is not cranes involved I mostly don't go there, my price mostly keeps me out of the little stuff, although I am doing Exit lights in a factory at the moment, they are paying the price to keep me onsite for two big cable pulls in a couple of months.
Good luck with the welder it will take a little while and do not let the slag buildup on the shield touch the wire or the little brass screw insert they are never the same (smooth) after that.

I use the tiny oxy and LP gas for cutting .......the LP lasts for years ,even a 9kg bottle......anyway ran out of LPG ,bottle is 10 years out of date and a different shape ......so round to Bunnings for a new gas ..SwapNGo....new cylinder ?.....no way ...when I lifted the fancy tape ,the LP bottle had about 10 months left on the date stamp...................when I got back to the yard,the new owner says hes got a pile of LPgas bottles with gas in them from wrecked cars,and another pile of car gas tanks with gas in them.

This may help some of you fellows.

There is a huge difference between wire ....best Ive used is called "Welding Associates" made in the US......the Chinese wire is rubbish...welds like the before in the pic.