That welding shop in Gary taught me to never trust a used argon tank again

I picked up a used argon tank from a guy on Facebook Marketplace last month, figured it was a steal at $50. Took it to a job site down in Gary, Indiana, hooked it up to my Miller 252 and the weld puddle started doing this weird bubbling thing right away. Spent like two hours checking my leads, my ground, even swapped out the liner before it hit me to sniff the gas. That tank was filled with oxygen, not argon, and I felt like a total idiot (just glad it didn't blow up or something). The foreman walked over and said 'you smell that? that's your paycheck evaporating' and honestly that stung worse than the wasted time. Has anyone else gotten burned by a bad gas deal or am I the only one who skips the gas supplier sometimes?

3 comments

3 Comments

zarag1719d ago

Finding a buddy at a local welding supply fixed this for me.

kim_davis19d ago

Wait, does that mean I should stop using my oven mitt and channel locks combo for welding stuff? Tbh I tried the whole DIY approach and just ended up with a melted glove and a lot of swearing. Ngl I should probably just bite the bullet and make a friend at the supply shop like you did. Honestly my social skills are about as good as my welding though, so maybe I'll just keep using the mitt and hope for the best.

rose_clark8119d ago

Is @zarag17 just lucky or do welding supply guys actually like making friends? Either way I feel you on the social skills part, I'd probably end up awkwardly staring at the welding rods until I gave up and left.