# Gas bottle regulator connection types?



## graham-xrf (Nov 8, 2022)

Now that I have to set up new kit I actually own, I find the variety of gas connector styles one can use is (kind of) standard, but more than one is widely used, and it complicates things when going for a bottle supplier compatibility, or instead, getting regulators that fit. I think I need adaptors, or get more regulators. So much good-looking kit as advertised has to be passed over, just because they use a style not suited to my gas bottles

The one that I think would be familiar to many is this type ->>



I have two gauge regulator sets like this, one to go on the oxygen bottle, and the other onto the fuel gas bottle.
I have one one argon bottle that mates to this style, but it does not have a flow regulator (yet).

The gauge set for my MIG is completely different. It came with the (very nice) 200bar bottle.
Of course, the connection is very different to that used on the supplier bottles -->>



Many dual-gauges and puff-ball flow-meters available on eBay and Amazon do look like this.

Then there is another apparently popular sort which works (I think), much like the first, though I it is the wrong sex to fit on my bottles, and I suspect the rounded end would not seal, even if one could screw it down into place. I think this kind is mostly Asian Chinese. The one in the picture has the substantial size regulator diaphragm body. I have to pass on this kind, partly because it's so Chinese, but mostly because I would need to change the input tube with a replacement  that will fit my (more normal) bottle -->




*The thing they have in common?*
That would be what looks like 1/4" x 19TPI BSPT going into the body of the regulators.
There are a whole lot of good-looking choices which I cannot go for, just because the style does not match my bottles. I have been hunting around for a version of the long inlet tube that has the connection type shown in the first picture. That is, one one end having the 14TPI seal collar to match the bottle, and the other end with  1/4" 19TPI BSPT, to screw into the regulator body.

Are brass bits to fix this widely available separately? So far, I have struck out.


----------



## G-ManBart (Nov 8, 2022)

This what you're looking for?



			https://www.amazon.com/CGA-580-Nipple-Regulator-Fittings-Nitrogen/dp/B06WPBXB89


----------



## graham-xrf (Nov 8, 2022)

@G-ManBart  : Thanks very much, it looks just the thing!
BUT..
Amazon supply into UK looks like this --> LINK
£34.88 translates to $40.43 ! 
I could buy a whole regulator and unscrew the 3" pipe off it for less than that. 
It seems a bit steep for a brass tube with a collar nut.


----------



## Provincial (Nov 8, 2022)

Some (perhaps many) vendors use female threads on their rental gas bottles.  They use male threads on the non-rental bottles.  You can buy an adapter to change the thread types, or have the connector on the regulator changed.


----------



## graham-xrf (Nov 8, 2022)

Non-industrial consumers in UK have a difficult time getting gas bottle supplies without all sorts of stupid lock-ins and bottle rental schemes, and regardless the connector, suppliers only fill their own. Many have sliding scale on how much they charge beyond the gas content, depending on how long you have the bottle. Usually, up to three years, and you are up to full deposit.

 I found a supplier where there is none of that crap. The deposit on the bottle is taken only once, however long you keep the bottle, no limit! Also, not too far from me.

If I have to add adapters to get my stuff connected, that's OK, so long as the returned bottle is exactly as when it was sold. I did my first try-outs with MIG using the gas setup from a pal. I have returned it, and now, I am getting my own stuff all figured out and set up.

I found a eBay connector tube to fit into the regulator, with CGA-580 male to make it suit the bottle.  It was *£15.50*. That's still a substantial fraction of the flow meter cost, but a whole lot better than the *£34.88* from Amazon. Think more than $40 bucks. The tightwad in me was making a din!


----------

