A new mig problem for you...

[torker]

Reminds me...from last week. Had to get a rush job finished. Dang! Almost out of gas but maybe....I'd have enough. well you know how that goes. Friday afternoon...gotta rush down to the welding supply store to get gas. In a hurry...they load the gas...it was even the store manager.
whip home, unload and hook up the ugly heavy bottle.
Start welding...crap! The wire burnt back into the tip and the wire birdnested.
Fix it all up...does the same thing. Fix that...check everything over...put on a new tip. Start welding...crap...it's welding weird...burns back yet again!
Now I'm mad...tear feeder apart and check everything. Blew out the whip...put everything back...does it AGAIN!!!!
What has changed? The gas is the only new thing. I look on the bottle...
IT'S NITROGEN!!!!!
I was in such a hurry I never noticed the slightly different color of the beat up bottle.
GREAT! It's way past the stores closing time and I don't have any gas for the weekend.
Yup...they heard about it on Monday. Good thing I couldn't remember the managers last name or he'd of been down there on Saturday morning getting me the right gas.
Moral of the story...always check the bottles before you go home!
Russ

[camdigger]

And I thought it was just me made them blunders...

OTOH, It was a beautiful weekend to just go fishinguntil the right gas could be obtained...

[macona]

One thing to remember, color of the bottle means absolutely nothing. They could be painted polka-dots and it wouldnt matter.

I had picked up a little 20CF to do a portable tig job once. Got to the site. Hooked up a regulator. Nothing. Empty! And of course it was a saturday...

[torker]

One thing to remember, color of the bottle means absolutely nothing. They could be painted polka-dots and it wouldnt matter.

I had picked up a little 20CF to do a portable tig job once. Got to the site. Hooked up a regulator. Nothing. Empty! And of course it was a saturday...

Thanks! That.. I did not know. I'd never had anything to do with any nitrogen bottles before so didn't know if the slightly different color meant anything.
Yep.. I've been sold empty bottle twice now. When I'm not in a big rush I always check them to see if there's any gas in them before I take them. That's also another way to make sure I can get the cap off. I had one once that I absolutely could not get the cap off. Had to take it back and they couldn't get it off either.

[wierdscience]

Also check to make sure the bottle they give you is full.That happened recently to me,300cf 75/25,empty.They didn't give me any trouble,but they could have.

Oh and leaks,welding supply deliverd an acetlyne bottle that was leaking around the threads.Nobody noticed it until we saw 4' bright yellow flames coming out the top

[zukIzzy]

Thats when it is good to have freinds. I have borrowed bottles many times to finish stuff on the weekend. I always return them full makes it easy to borrow again if I need to. I have also rigged a regulator to my sons Paintball CO2bottles to finish a job. I never leave the bottle open till friday night for some reason.

[macona]

The miller passport actually uses paintball co2 tanks in it when you run fully portable.