Helium tank

[CAVEMANN]

I have an opportunity to buy an aluminum helium tank, I think it's about a 125 cubic foot bottle, they want $50.00 for it with a balloon attachment. Does anyone know if it could be filled with CO2 as I have no use for the helium, I think the price is very good, don't know if it has any gas in it or not. What do y'all think?

[M J D]

As far as I know helium uses a valve similar to argon , so co2 would be different.

[CAVEMANN]

I was thinking more along the lines, hoping my supplier would swap, they have offered to do this with one of my C25 bottles, exchanging for straight Argon and paying for the gas, completely fair IMO.

[smithdoor]

I would check to if been tested in last 5 years. If great it my have fail the last test.
If you fill with CO2 you can no longer fill with other gas.
I do not know why.
You will need to have a value for C02.

Dave

I have an opportunity to buy an aluminum helium tank, I think it's about a 125 cubic foot bottle, they want $50.00 for it with a balloon attachment. Does anyone know if it could be filled with CO2 as I have no use for the helium, I think the price is very good, don't know if it has any gas in it or not. What do y'all think?

[Sandy]

What are the typical helium tank pressures?

[CEP]

Helium comes in handy when Tig welding thick aluminum. Pretty much cut the AMPS in half from using 100 % argon.

[wb4rt]

Ask your gas supplier about exchanging for CO2. My dealer will exchange bottles of same size for different gas.

[CAVEMANN]

Helium comes in handy when Tig welding thick aluminum. Pretty much cut the AMPS in half from using 100 % argon.

I guess that would be great "IF" I had an AC machine for doing aluminum, or will helium allow aluminum on DC.

[CEP]

Yes you can use DCEN with 90 % plus helium.
https://www.esabna.com/us/en/educati...g-aluminum.cfm

[CAVEMANN]

Yes you can use DCEN with 90 % plus helium.
https://www.esabna.com/us/en/educati...g-aluminum.cfm

Thanks Carl
I have never messed with tig at all, and done limited amount of aluminum with mig and even less with the stick electrodes, I guess for $50.00 I'll grab the tank & play around some.

[farmall]

For 50 I'd do a visual and if it looks good grab it on principle. (IMO you can never have too many cylinders. I never run out of gas because since cylinders don't depreciate I snag all the deals I can.)

If it looks like this https://gascylindersource.com/shop/i...lium-cylinder/ then it's similar to the common CO2 cylinders and they may swap for one of those but CO2 has a different CGA-320 valve. You may also be able to swap for MIG mix or anything that comes with a CGA-580 cylinder valve.

[CAVEMANN]

For 50 I'd do a visual and if it looks good grab it on principle. (IMO you can never have too many cylinders. I never run out of gas because since cylinders don't depreciate I snag all the deals I can.)

If it looks like this https://gascylindersource.com/shop/i...lium-cylinder/ then it's similar to the common CO2 cylinders and they may swap for one of those but CO2 has a different CGA-320 valve. You may also be able to swap for MIG mix or anything that comes with a CGA-580 cylinder valve.

My thoughts too. If I can't use it as is I'll swap it for an argon cylinder and carry on.

[soutthpaw]

Balloon helium generally has a percentage of oxygen added to it for folks that suck on the helium for the old Mickey Mouse effect dont suffocate themselves. So it’s not usable for welding.

[rlitman]

Balloon helium generally has a percentage of oxygen added to it for folks that suck on the helium for the old Mickey Mouse effect dont suffocate themselves. So it’s not usable for welding.

While that is true for parade floats, it is not true for compressed helium cylinders nor the party tanks you can get in many stores. Those, and normal helium balloons all use pure helium only. Mixing oxygen into compressed gas cylinders that are prepared for inert gasses can be very dangerous.