[2360]

Hey guys,

Interesting idea!!! Is welding CO2 the same as the CO2 we use for paintball guns? I just got a welder and need to get a tank of CO2...I was thinking that I could just get a larger tank and a fill station for my paintball bottle. They I could get more use out of the cost for a tank...

Just an idea...anyone done it before?

Tucker

 

[709]

I would assume thats possible.

The paintball place I play/help out we just go down to the local hardware place.. and they give us bottles... the same bottles they'd give out if we were welding.

You would just have to swap the fill station top around with the welding reg every time you wanted to switch.

 

[2360]

I had thought about putting a T inline someplate so I could have both hooked up...or maybe use the welding reg. w/ some of the fill station parts...The reg would prob. bring the psi down much though...

Thanks for the info...

Tucker

 

[ricochet]

I was under the impression that you need a 75/25 mix of argon and co2 to weld. Atleast thats what is says to get with my Lincoln welder

 

[2360]

I'm kinda new to welding so I'm not 100% sure, but from what I read on Miller's page last night it said for reg. steel to use CO2 or a mix of CO2 and argon (75%/25%).

Mig Tips on Millers site

The page is actually really good...they also have a online class that I took...basic stuff but still good to go over and see...

Tucker

 

[Jim_Lou]

The gas mix that works best depends on what you're welding and what technique you're using, but a paintball gun isn't going to mind. 75-25 or tri-mix will be more expensive than straight co2, but probably will still be cheaper than paying to have your bottles filled.

Just make sure that the pressure rating on you paintball gun is up to the pressure in a welding tank. Or does the fill station have a pressure regulator?

 

[823]

I have about seven 20oz CO2 bottles for my paintball guns, so can I just hook my regulator up and use those? haha, I'm a cheap a$$ and don't want to go buy a big bottle but want to weld MIG style instead of flux core...hmm...wonder how long a 20oz bottle would last welding.

 

[Guest]

The CO2 is the same but in a different form.

For most welding the tank delivers gas.

For Paintball, you want Liquid CO2, so the tank is filled with liquid and has a tube to the bottom of the tank so that you get liquid out, not gas.

You can still use a liquid bottle for welding but have to vaporize the liquid before regulating it to you welding rig.

 

[709]

Sort of.

Paintball needs the high pressure at the reg.. so it uses a siphon tube to get the liquid off the bottom.

So if your using paintball tanks, unless you have anti-siphon tubes in them (an option for performance) you will need to turn them upside down so your dont spit out liquids.

If your using standard CO2 tanks and want the liquid you have to turn them upside down too.

 

[pontiac58]

I dont know anyone using CO2 for welding. Just get argon and CO2 mix. 75% argon and 25 % co2. We use that at work and weld everything from nasty old rusty steel, brand new no rust steel, new but has a light layer of rust, and all stainless. A friend of mine is running straight argon, for everything now. He got tired of switching the tanks when he went to weld aluminum and now just leaves the straight tank on and all is fine. Yeh it costs a few more bucks, but when you barely empty a tank every year, whats the difference.

 

[1816]

In reply to:

A friend of mine is running straight argon, for everything now.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm thats interesting. I ran out of the CO2 mix last year and tried using straight argon on steel and it didn't work out for me. The bead would just kind of lay on top and I couldn't get decent penetration even with cranking up the amps, I got my tank filled and all was fine with the CO2 mix.

Any ideas why?

 

[GoldToyBox]

Ask my nephew about this:

In reply to:

The guy is right you have to draw the liquid from the tank Tanks with the tube are useless for welding though You can also us a CO2 welding tank without the tube and turn it upside down and draw the liquid
Old buddy showed me that back when I used to paintball he used to fill them up for me But it had to be after 5 o'clock.
I went paintballing with some guys a year ago and they said that CO2 is hardly used anymore They used compressed air and just have a scuba tank there to fill up the little tanks MUCH, MUCH CHEAPER

[/ QUOTE ]
For what it's worth.

 

[709]

most fields still use CO2.

The compressed air has to be filled at a SCUBA station, because you cant get 2000+ PSI out of a compressor.

As well, compressed air is much more volatile. CO2 is a fairly stable gas form.

because of that, paintball guns use CO2 as a standard, and some of the VERY high end guys use N2 or Air.
But for a paintballer, to convert to air, is like one of us going from a 4cyl to a V8.. its lots of work in the grand scheme.

I know several fields, and out of problably 10.. only 2 provide N2, and they all have CO2, its much cheaper in practice.

 

[2360]

Hmmm...so maybe one of my first projects with the welder will be building a bottle holder for my CO2 tank that has a pivot, so I can flip the tank without any problems and fill my Paintball bottles.


Thanks for all the info!
Tucker

 

[spook2]

Actually co2 is fairly UNstable. The pressure in a co2 tank is highly affected by temperature and can fluctuate wildly. Compressed air on the other hand is only marginally affected by temperature and remains fairly stable and consistent in it's drop through use. CO2 does however run at lower overall pressures, with a operating range of between 500 -1800psi give or take. Compressed air systems operate currently between 3000-4500psi. None of that has any real bearing on why co2 is more or less the defacto standard at most paintball fields. Cost most certainly does. Back when the game got started, the power sources were the 12 gram co2 cartridges just like what was used to run your average pellet gun. People started shooting more and requiring a longer lasting power source and someone stepped in with 7,9,12,20oz. co2 tanks. Not because it was more stable than compressed air (back then no one had even THOUGHT of using compressed air) but because it was readily available, fairly easy to work with, and it was CHEAP. I won't even bother getting into whether it's a lot of work for a paintballer to switch over to compressed air (it isn't) since it doesn't matter here. For the fella that's talking about building some contraption for flipping his 50 pounder around. Be VERY careful with what you're doing there. Bust the valve off the end of that tank and you've got yourself a fairly destructive rocket on your hands...