Welding

Greetings to everyone enjoying savings on the Volkszone offer.
Just an update on current prices for anyone else.

Monthly rental now £3.74
Y Bottle refill now £32.29 inc environment and energy surcharge
Both prices include vat.

Still think the BOC deal is better if you use a reasonable amount of gas.

Did a huge amount of research before I changed over, main reason being that when I bought the X bottle refills were £40. Cost had doubled when I moved to BOC.

Cannot find anyone else who will fill the X bottle so just use it when I need to be mobile.

Had a look at Adams prices and they are filled to a lower pressure so contain only about 50% as much gas, equivalent running cost for an X bottle would be around £70 which is a reasonable saving of £15. For that cost with BOC you get twice as much gas per year.

P.S. Bottle needs a spanner which is not supplied, naf all use without.
£1ish on fleabay or welding suppliers, BOC £3ish plus use couriers so £8.50 charge per order.

AndyT wrote: Update on the gas side. Got a nice big BOC Y bottle (40kg) this afternoon, found a special deal for diy bods. Gas is £24.48 a refill and annual rent £34.15 + vat of course. No stupid contract, monthly bills. Normal prices are £50.36 and £105.06.

Edited by Serge - 30 Jul 12 at 15:55

Found the info on the mig welding forum.
Just ring 0800 111333 and ask about the Volkszone offer.
Only catch is it's Y size only, reasoning being that it fits in the boot!!.

Update on the gas side.
Got a nice big BOC Y bottle (40kg) this afternoon, found a special deal for diy bods.
Gas is £24.48 a refill and annual rent £34.15 + vat of course. No stupid contract, monthly bills.
Normal prices are £50.36 and £105.06.

Right fellas, just my tuppence worth but if you going to do the welding lark, don't go for a gasless model, go for at least a 150 amp gas fed model (it's worth spending the extra). There's lots of places you can get gas from, admittedly it comes with a bottle rental fee which is about £18 a month. A full bottle of either argoshield light or coogar 5 should set you back about £75 notes depending on if you use air products or BOC. If your new to welding get some practice on scrap material first and with mig clean material is really important. Then it's up to you experimenting with the amount of current and wire speed. If your stuck ask someone we all had trouble at some time.

for the people who keep running out of gas quickly..
turn the wire speed down and hold the torch near youre cheak,
the purge of gas should feel simular to breath on the back of youre hand
if you have to much gas, this can drag air into the sheid of gas which will give you porosity.

ive been working as a fabricator for the last 5 years and this is how i always metre
how much gas i need. also if you use 0.6 to 0.8, welding body panels is far easyier and stronger
as the you get full weld penatration rather than if you use 1mm up you will end up with cold lap
as you have to run the welder on a low setting with not much weld penatration

hope that is of some help

You are certainly correct about BOC Andy. They suck! But if you need the gear as we do they've got you up against a wall for sure. Argon mix on the MIG does make it a lot nicer though!

Oh, forgot to mention... Oxy/Acetylene bottles are available on the 'black market' but they are inevitably empty and you will have trouble getting them filled if you don't have a trusted friend with a proper BOC account...