Bad bottle, again.

[tigman250]

Originally Posted by arizonian

I'm confused. From steel to aluminum without changing anything but the bottle and filler mat'l?

Originally Posted by digger doug

You too Shade ????
I was too, but seeing the OP' 'tude, I'm not wasting any more time trying to finger out what they are trying to explain, nor provide some help....

Originally Posted by Shade Tree Welder

I am really confused as well...

Glad I wasn't the only one, perhaps the attitude wasn't necessary......

[Gadgeteer]

Originally Posted by mccutter

Adding to what the others have said above:
You should have indicated you were using TIG, some were thinking MIG.

The following is part of my OP...

<Hooked up when I got home and went back to railing project. Gas inclusion in beads, so I switched to aluminum. Hard to establish bead, carbon contamination, little to no etching along beads. When I attempt to introduce rod into the puddle the end of the rod, immediately, balls up, inside a glob of crud. Just junk. 2,000 psi, running at 10 to 20 CFH at torch. Only difference in setup was new bottle.

I've had several bottles with bad gas, but it didn't show up until pressure got to about 500 psi.

Does anyone have tips on a sure-fire way to test jugs for gas quality?>

Perhaps, when I wrote, "...that I was introducing rod into the puddle," it might have given you a clue that I was using tig.

[Gadgeteer]

Originally Posted by tigman250

Glad I wasn't the only one, perhaps the attitude wasn't necessary......

I'm miffed how many of you demonstrate that you have "attitudes" without any self-awareness.

If ya'll will bother to read my OP, you might find that all I requested was whether anyone knew how to test a bottle for contamination. I wasn't looking for all of the other reasons that might cause beads to go bad.

Also, I didn't realize that anyone had imposed a time limit on when an OP was required to respond. I'm sorry that some of you have been offended by my not responding in a timely(?) manner... I just closed on selling a building, and have been spending all of my spare time removing considerable stashed junk and stuff that we accumulated in the 25 years that we have owned it. The gas problem has been way down on my to-do list.

UPDATE! I dropped by our County Extension Agent, yesterday, and have her investigating how to test for gas contamination.

Also... even though I'm subscribed to this thread, I haven't received any notifications that anyone has been adding their posts...
Also... the site doesn't remember me when I attempt to sign in. So, I have to add my password every time... PITA.

[allessence]

From what I understand and from the information I was told by Fay Butler who is a sheet metal and welding expert.. All gases used in welding are contaminated.

He said " They don't test for what is inside the bottle when it is returned".. They barely test what they are putting in.. It's assumption-based by labels..

He then went on to tell me and show me his setup..

He had a drier and a molecular filter and uses Argon for tig welding steel or alum..

The molecular sieve he used had a finite life span but he can afford it right..

I looked and found a filter that was a regenerative filter so it had infinite life..

Because of the expense I never bothered to buy this filter instead I bought a scuba filter to remove most the bad stuff but never hooked that up either.

I will eventually..

So over the last 10 years I've had 5 bad bottles of gas.. If I had the filters installed it would not have mattered.

[Shade Tree Welder]

Yeah, Jen, your friend Fay is wrong, that is not how molecular sieves work.
Welding gases, argon, oxygen, carbon dioxide, helium, etc. are too small and
too inert to be filtered or absorbed by a molecular sieve.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_sieve

[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by Gadgeteer

UPDATE! I dropped by our County Extension Agent, yesterday, and have her investigating how to test for gas contamination.

Gas Chromatography...

https://www.srainstruments.com/wp-co...asAnalysis.pdf