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  #11  
Old 02-15-2017, 06:52 PM
duck duck is offline
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Group, I just read the post on dirty gas. What is in the gas to make it dirty? Moisture or some other foreign substance? I may be using it but don't know it. What is it doing to the weld? Is this only true of welding aluminum? I don't seem to have a problem weld steel, or do I?

Learning a little at a time,

Duck
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  #12  
Old 02-16-2017, 10:11 AM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Originally Posted by Steve Hamilton View Post
Thanks Kent
That sounds like good value, for a clean gas.

Steve
Yes, the price is as low as we can sell them for.
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  #13  
Old 02-16-2017, 10:16 AM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Originally Posted by duck View Post
Group, I just read the post on dirty gas. What is in the gas to make it dirty? Moisture or some other foreign substance? I may be using it but don't know it. What is it doing to the weld? Is this only true of welding aluminum? I don't seem to have a problem weld steel, or do I?

Learning a little at a time,

Duck
Hi Duck,
We have not analyzed the dirt, just the problem. When you unscrew the regulator take a look at the exit hole on the bottle. Sometimes there is a wet gray ash-like crud built up on there.

It can affect steel welds but I only notice it on Chromoly tubing - and it could be mistaken for technique. The only problem is that technique alone will not fix the issue of having dirty gas.
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Last edited by crystallographic; 02-19-2017 at 09:00 PM.
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  #14  
Old 02-16-2017, 05:55 PM
Rick Mullin Rick Mullin is offline
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I have never experienced dirty acetylene. I have experienced dirty argon several times and it was a disaster. Is your filter specifically for acetylene? Once a bottle is contaminated, there is very little to be done to clean it. This is compounded by the fact that they usually do not mark a dirty bottle or pull it from service when it is returned.

A few years back there was a shortage of acetylene. Apparently, there are a limited number of manufacturing plants in the country. One of the big ones had an explosion and it was some time before they got back on line. I was told by my supplier that during that period, there was a cleanliness problem.
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Old 02-17-2017, 12:18 AM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Originally Posted by Rick Mullin View Post
I have never experienced dirty acetylene. I have experienced dirty argon several times and it was a disaster. Is your filter specifically for acetylene? Once a bottle is contaminated, there is very little to be done to clean it. This is compounded by the fact that they usually do not mark a dirty bottle or pull it from service when it is returned.

A few years back there was a shortage of acetylene. Apparently, there are a limited number of manufacturing plants in the country. One of the big ones had an explosion and it was some time before they got back on line. I was told by my supplier that during that period, there was a cleanliness problem.
Hi Rick,
I have known about the dirty Ar for many years, back to early '90's.
Our filter is .1 micron catchable, but don't know what type of contaminants are prevalent. I'd be happy to test a known bottle of bad Ar, to see. Or loan a filter out to test on a known bottle of bad Ar. ...

About the time our big supplier took their lousy acet generation off line to replace it the shortage came up. I remember when mag went up, first the major US stockpile burned for two weeks and then one of the largest mfrs went up. Price went triple in months.
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  #16  
Old 02-17-2017, 07:24 AM
cliffrod cliffrod is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crystallographic View Post
Hi Rick,
I have known about the dirty Ar for many years, back to early '90's.
Our filter is .1 micron catchable, but don't know what type of contaminants are prevalent. I'd be happy to test a known bottle of bad Ar, to see. Or loan a filter out to test on a known bottle of bad Ar. ...

About the time our big supplier took their lousy acet generation off line to replace it the shortage came up. I remember when mag went up, first the major US stockpile burned for two weeks and then one of the largest mfrs went up. Price went triple in months.
Never knew why the price jumped, just know that it did. I had chalked it up as similar to comparable fast price jumps in copper/lead/scrap in general (especially resulting wholesale batteries and tire prices) about a decade ago.
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  #17  
Old 02-17-2017, 09:59 AM
tom walker tom walker is offline
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In 2005 there was a fire at Praxair in St. Louis, a propane, acetylene etc supplier. This generating plant was located right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, I remember watching the news report, there were bottles exploding, flying thru the air and the heat from the fire could be felt from a quarter mile away! That incident probably helped fuel the price increase. Be careful out there, fellows.
Tom
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  #18  
Old 02-19-2017, 07:09 PM
Gando Gando is offline
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Kent
Thank you for sharing this info! For folks like me who are still on the steep side of the learning curve it is great to be aware of these not so obvious problems so we can focus on improving the human element. Less grinding is always a good thing too!
Gandy
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  #19  
Old 02-20-2017, 02:02 PM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Kent
Thank you for sharing this info! For folks like me who are still on the steep side of the learning curve it is great to be aware of these not so obvious problems so we can focus on improving the human element. Less grinding is always a good thing too!
Gandy
David Gandy
You are very welcome, Gando.
I know how hard it is or how long it can take to get accurate info - or learn the right widget to make that one task happen correctly ..... I'm very glad to help out.
(there are welders and there are grinders, but best to be moving more towards the former, and away from the latter.)

This is an O/H weld on an early P51, probably done by a young lady during WW2 ..... nothing beats doing a task 8/40 for skill level ....
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  #20  
Old 02-21-2017, 09:20 AM
cliffrod cliffrod is offline
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Originally Posted by crystallographic View Post
You are very welcome, Gando.
I know how hard it is or how long it can take to get accurate info - or learn the right widget to make that one task happen correctly ..... I'm very glad to help out.
(there are welders and there are grinders, but best to be moving more towards the former, and away from the latter.)

This is an O/H weld on an early P51, probably done by a young lady during WW2 ..... nothing beats doing a task 8/40 for skill level ....
Very well said and appreciated, Kent. I used to crash into a lot more things than I do now. Good info, good tools and people worthy of being considered worthy are more important than quick progress.

Gotta ask if you're working on a new underwater forming and welding video series while testing these filters underwater yet... Hope you and others here doing ok around all the wet weather out there.
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