Rent free Oxy Acetylene bottles

Can anybody a good supplier of the above, Looking for 10ltr bottles.

I've just signed up with Hobbyweld for 9 litre oxygen and 10 litre acetylene. Of course one has to pay a deposit, but gas prices are on a par with my previous rental agreement with Air Liquide. My local Hobbyweld agent charges a very reasonable £6 for delivery, as opposed to the £60 Air Liquide wanted. When I signed the agreement and collected the first set of bottles the agent agreed with my reading of the regulations, ie, for small bottles, and as a private user, it is perfectly legal for me to transport the bottles in my car, provided I ventilate the cabin. In other words open the window.

Andrew

You can get Oxygen from almost any of the 'rent free' suppliers. Acetylene is not so easy though. I use an Acetylene cylinder from Albee **LINK**

The Albee Oxygen and Acetylene cylinders both come with built in single stage regulators. This is the reason I got my Oxygen cylinder from Adams Gas, allowing me to use my own two stage regulator. I used to have a rental agreement with BOC, not being a heavy user of Oxy Acetylene -but when you need it, you need it- having the rent free cylinders has saved me hundreds of pounds in rental in the last three years.

Here's my current setup on a home made trolley. the guage on the economiser is for Acetylene line pressure. The Albee built in regulator relies on an index on the regulator knob to set (or guess) the line pressure.

Usual dicslaimer re: the two suppliers, just a customer etc.

Thanks for the links, have some brazing to do but unfortunately the hottest heat source I have is mapp gas and as the components are quite heavy cant get them hot enough to get braize to work properly so will need something hotter can anyone tell me what sort of torches and hoses/ regulators I would need

Looking around Hobby Weld are as good as you get..

If you are thinking of using Albee cylinders, they come with built in regulators, so you will only need hoses and a torch. Appears from the Hobbyweld website that some of their cylinders don't have built in regulators., so they will have the standard 5/8 BSP 'bullnose' connection for regulators -right hand thread on the Oxygen and Left hand on the acetylene. Regulators are available in 1 or 2 stage options. The line pressure, and therefore the flame will be easier to adjust and maintain with 2 stage regs, but of course they are a bit more expensive than the singles.

With either the Albee or Hobbyweld options, you will need flashback arrestors -these are fitted between the regulator output and the hose -they're just visible in the photo I put up. Welding hoses come with 3/8" BSP threaded couplings for the regulator end, and either 1/4" or 3/8" BSP for the torch end depending on whether you have a 'lightweight' or 'standard' welding torch.

If you lay Acetylene cylinders down in the car let them stand for a few hours because if you don’t you could get a blowback.

Had you considered oxy Propane. I use it for both welding/brazing and cutting. There's no rent on propane bottles ! Noel.

For smaller or more precise heating jobs, I use oxy-propane, but with a medical oxygen concentrator, to save renting oxy bottles as well.
Not enough ftow for cutting, but it works well enough for silver soldering etc.

Bill

I was a B O C customer for for 45 years and am now with Hobbyweld, wish I'd made the move earlier!!!