# Shield gas prices



## "Mike"

OH MY GAWD. Just had a argon co2 tank filled/exchanged. About a 60 cu ft size. $86.00! How in the he!! are you supposed to be able to afford this and still charge a reasonable rate when you do it for a living. I don't anymore-out of the body shop business but my gawd, that's out freaking rageous. I may have to go to flux cored wire and say the heck with it. I know the wire's high but this is ridiculous. And that's the smaller tanks. I'd hate to have to fill the 250 cu ft tanks like we used to have at work.


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## Tony Wells

Seems to me that everything at the LWS has skyrocketed in price.


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## Redirish

YOU GUYS ARE SCARING ME!!  I own my tanks, Argon and oxy-acetylene, about due to have them filled. I know the oxygen tank is past due for testing, looks like I'm going to get hit pretty hard.


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## brucer

jbltwin1 said:


> OH MY GAWD. Just had a argon co2 tank filled/exchanged. About a 60 cu ft size. $86.00! How in the he!! are you supposed to be able to afford this and still charge a reasonable rate when you do it for a living. I don't anymore-out of the body shop business but my gawd, that's out freaking rageous. I may have to go to flux cored wire and say the heck with it. I know the wire's high but this is ridiculous. And that's the smaller tanks. I'd hate to have to fill the 250 cu ft tanks like we used to have at work.




 was it at an Airgas?


Airgas tried to pull that crap with me last year, I told them their bottles would be sitting at the end of my driveway and they could pick them up anytime, as I wouldnt spend anymore of my time or money with Airgas...

I went to a different lws and now I pay like $30 for 120cf bottle 75/25..


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## Tom Griffin

Yup. I just noticed that mine is bouncing on empty, I'll need to take the hit soon. The last time I had it filled, the price had doubled what it was previously. 

I don't get it. Nearly 1% of the air we breathe is argon so what drives the price up so much?

Tom


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## brucer

TLGriff said:


> Yup. I just noticed that mine is bouncing on empty, I'll need to take the hit soon. The last time I had it filled, the price had doubled what it was previously.
> 
> I don't get it. Nearly 1% of the air we breathe is argon so what drives the price up so much?
> 
> Tom



 homeland security..


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## Tony Wells

I don't think I could produce it for the current price. Fractional distillation of LOX? I forget what I paid for my last bottles of oxy-fuel, but I asked the guys at the place if it had gone up, or was going to....they said nothing major had happened and they had heard all the rumors too. Still seemed like it was up to me. I don't use a lot of it, but a friend does, and he watches it closely. I asked him, and he hadn't noticed.


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## irishwoodsman

to many people are gasping for air because of inflation thats why argon is going up lol:lmao:Mac


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## DMS

I only paid $38 for 75/25. I believe my tank is an 80cu ft. I got it at a local supplier (Clark Industrial in San Jose, CA. Great guys). As I understand it, Airgas tends to be on the expensive side.


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## Tony Wells

One of our locals was recently bought out by Matheson. I haven't been in there much since then, but it's the same old guys.


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## "Mike"

This was at a PRAXAIR distributor.  I HAVE a couple of tanks that are Airgas and I'm REALLY scared to get them filled. This was a tank that I bought that I think they called C Q  or something like that. I'm about to put up with the splatter and go co2.  Geez.


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## Rbeckett

Compressed gas in general was projected to go up 40% from last year.  Lack of production facilities and mini monopolies combined with the new DOT requirements and Hazmat fees have made compressed gasses a pink elephant for industry.  Large users who have on site production facilities like steel mills and ship yards will do somewhat better, ut the average Joe with a couple of bottles of this and that is going to take it in the shorts.  The new safety requirements and tank filling procedures are time consuming and generate a lot of mixed flush residue that now must be disposed of and documented.  Acetylene was the first to hit the rocket ride to the moon followed immediately by welding grade helium (99.9995%).  Argon and O2 are next with 75/25 following up and dragging good ole CO2 in it's wake.  Tank inspections are going to be charged to the customers from now on whether you own or rent as well as mileage and delivery fees are going up too.  Welding is taking it in the shorts this year, maybe if we stopped welding politicians cars together so well they would get the hint?  Oh yeah, forgot that the filler market has forecast another year of meteoric rises especially in flux core and exotics like titanium and specialty aluminum.  That little "It will only take 5 minutes" job is gonna cost you 15 bucks in materials and gas to do soon.
Bob


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## brucer

jbltwin1 said:


> This was at a PRAXAIR distributor.  I HAVE a couple of tanks that are Airgas and I'm REALLY scared to get them filled. This was a tank that I bought that I think they called C Q  or something like that. I'm about to put up with the splatter and go co2.  Geez.





 shop around...    see if there is a Weldrite or Weld Rite near you.. This is where I went and they treated me far better than airgas... 


 I hear differing opinions of lws', seems a lot of them like to cater to business's more so than individuals.

 I have also heard their will be a size limit on bottle leased to individuals in the future..


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## "Mike"

Problem is,  the tanks are branded with their name on them and nobody else will fill them. I OWN the small tanks for one set of oxy/acet and I own the tank for my mig.  Will the guys at tractor supply(thoroughbred, I think)  fill the tanks if they are yours?


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## Redirish

There are two welding supply places here, both told me that if I have the papers on my tanks they will exchange them, regardless of what brand they are. In fact, my acetylene tank was purchased from one, yet has the other ones' name on it.:thinking:


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## Kennyd

Two weeks ago I paid $63.00 to exchange my 80cuf tank of 75/25 at Roberts Oxygen.


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## Rbeckett

Tractor Supply has gotten kinda crappy lately.  They charge a 39 dollar fee to exchange a bottle that isnt there blue color.  If it is a rental size bottle they will not touch it at my local TSC, some do some dont.  I have used Thoroughbred for a couple of years on my mig and O2, but have other bottles for fuel and Tig.  Unfortunately the most signifigant cost associated with the compressed gasses is transportation.  The current price jumps are because of the regulatory requirements for special back ground investigations into the drivers to insure they aren't going to detonate the truck in front of a federal building or school.  I paid the state 100.00 to do mine and had to submit all kinds of personal info to keep it.  I am personally opposed to big brother knowing that much about my business, but if I wanted to haul Hazmat and earn that extra money then submit I would.  Worse thing is that now there is no premium for having that endorsement and no extra pay for the driver even though he is risking life and limb to provide a service to us.  Good luck with TSC, they vary so much that it is nearly impossible to predict what they will or will not do from day to day.
Bob



jbltwin1 said:


> Problem is,  the tanks are branded with their name on them and nobody else will fill them. I OWN the small tanks for one set of oxy/acet and I own the tank for my mig.  Will the guys at tractor supply(thoroughbred, I think)  fill the tanks if they are yours?


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## KenS

Our local AirGas is charging a $7.50 per bottle Hazmat fee. Fortunately we have more reasonable suppliers.


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## "Mike"

I had used my MIG almost exclusively for YEARS and hadn't even plugged my stck welder IN for probably ten years.  It goes to show you how spoiled you can get.  After seeing the price of gas,  I fired the mutha up and ran a few passes to make sure the old girl was still in there.  Welded like a charm,  of course. There's no substitute for old quality. I see rods are up too though. $30 for 10lbs of 3/32 6013's(pretty much all I used back in the day).  Guess NOTHING'S cheap anymore. I've got a bunch of the odd stuff in small quantities (stainless, cast, low hyd)  but for the junk I work on,  6013 is just fine. I guess it's time to burn up some of what I've got first!  Geez,  haven't chipped slag in years!  Mike.


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## jimbob

*Re: Shield gas prices & Hazmat*

Already gave up on buying gas for my mig. Don't do enough to spend the high prices. So back to stick and flux core wire.

As far as hazmat goes, my wife has a CDL license with passenger & air brake indorsement. She got it to drive the big blood mobile bus when she worked for the blood bank. Went to renue her license in Fl. and they wanted $100.00 extra and another test for hazmat. Guess they figure she would go roage and blow up the blood mobile. A dirty bus bomb using blood.


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## Kennyd

*Re: Shield gas prices & Hazmat*



jimbob said:


> Went to renue her license in Fl. and they wanted $100.00 extra and another test for hazmat. Guess they figure she would go roage and blow up the blood mobile. A dirty bus bomb using blood.


That's a Federal thing now.  They require fingerprints also...


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## jimbob

*Re: Shield gas prices & Hazmat*



Kennyd said:


> That's a Federal thing now. They require fingerprints also...




Of course I know it's a Federal Law. It's a "blood mobile", NOT a gas tanker or loaded with thousands of lbs of flammable materials.


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## rustngreese

These horrendous gas prices are reflective of nothing but the producers finding excuses to use to make a ton more money.  Sure, some of this is due to ridiculous regulations and bureaucratic BS, but more of it has to do with gouging than anything else, as long as they can find an excuse to do it they will continue to raise prices.  The oil and energy producers figured this out about 10 years ago and now everybody is climbing aboard the profit train.  I live in CA which is not where you want to live if you are trying to get a deal on anything.  These people will not back off until demand diminishes to a level at which they begin to see market place resistance.  This is the world which we have to function in now, ethics are out the window.


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## GK1918

Wondering how many as myself has two little hatchlings.  One puts tools away and covers stuff like
his mig and has a seven foot high stainless tool box and locks it (full of snap on stuff)  I go to weld
a 50$ job the other day -0- argon, compliments of my other little boy.  I clean and sweep all machinery
next days like I didnt do a thing.  So if anyone owns one of these that refuses shop rules> I went to 
air gas and bought those covers that go on tanks with  pad a locks.  I am not going to fill it period..
too bad its handy.  I do just as well with my beauty, ac dc Miller gas job in my tool truck.


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## Rbeckett

jbltwin1 said:


> Guess NOTHING'S cheap anymore. I've got a bunch of the odd stuff in small quantities (stainless, cast, low hyd)  but for the junk I work on,  6013 is just fine. I guess it's time to burn up some of what I've got first!  Geez,  haven't chipped slag in years!  Mike.



Mike,
I'm with you man,  I have a bunch of 6011.6013 and lo-hy left from before.  Ive had em all in the airtight tubes so I'm just gonna burn them up first.  I'll have to relearn running a bead, but thats OK too.  Maybe when the gas dealers see how much they are losing they will come down to a reasonable level.  Hope so, anyway.
Bob


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## "Mike"

I actually emailed Thoroughbred about  whether they would fill MY tank if it's mine. I told them that I PURCHASED it and have the paper to prove it.  They were nice and replied imediately and told me that yes,  they would fill it and even hunted up the closest dealers and sent them to me(which I knew)  so they couldn't be nicer.  I DID however save the text of the email and plan on printing it out and taking it WITH me when I get around to filling it again.  It has the VP's name and everything on it!


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## jumps4

I purchased my tanks at tractor supply and went to airgas to have them filled because I was picking up a few other things
I think i screwed myself here
they exchanged my tanks they didnt refill mine
I dont own tanks anymore do I ?
steve


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## Splat

We've got a little 40cu pony bottle for tri-mix and my brother was having a hellacious time finding anyone that'd do it. It seems down in south NJ it was a lot easier to get an exchange or refill which is surprising since northern NJ is where the industries are. I would think it'd be easier up here. Anyway, finally found a Praxair that would exchange it but we moved up to a 55cu since that'll be easier to get next time. I don't know what he paid but I know he was surprised at the cost increase. I guess they're figuring like the gas & oil companies now. They know we need it so...


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## xalky

jumps4 said:


> I purchased my tanks at tractor supply and went to airgas to have them filled because I was picking up a few other things
> I think i screwed myself here
> they exchanged my tanks they didnt refill mine
> I dont own tanks anymore do I ?
> steve


You still own the tanks, but you might have a problem having them filled anywhere but an Airgas. I own all my tanks. I've been going to TechAir to get exchanges lately, but they wont exchange  a 60 or smaller with someone else s branding on it. I have a 60 75/25 from airgas that I have to refill at airgas. The guy at techair said if it was an 80 or larger he could exchange it regardless of branding which i thought was kinda weird. I didn't understand the logic.

Marcel


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## xalky

Here's another thing. When you get your bottles bring a squirt bottle with a soapy water solution to check it for leaks. I've gotten a few bottles that were leaking where the valve screws to the bottle. The first emptied out almost completely in a week, I had only used it for about 1 hr total. I brought it back and told him what happened and he looked at me like i was BSing him. So i whippped out my spray bottle and showed him...then he believed me. So he brings out another and it was leaking too. The third one was a charm. At these gas prices make sure you get a good bottle. The production guys wont notice a small leak because they exchange weekly but for us hobby guys, the bottle might stay parked there, unused, for months.....plenty of time for a bottle to empty out and barely being used.


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