acetylene price

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How much have yall been getting charged for acetylene?  Last time I swapped a 75 cu. ft. bottle it was almost $40.   I almost sh*t.  I'm kinda stuck having it swapped at one place here in town (the other place wouldn't swap out).DewayneDixieland WeldingMM350PLincoln 100Some torchesOther misc. tools
Reply:If you are only cutting and heating, then make the switch to propane.  12dollars for 20 pounds.  It has been a while since I purchased acetylene.  I keep a cylinder of acetylene for occasional welding.  Last time I purchased acetylene I think I paid about 40 dollars, however TSC upgraded me to the next size for the 75cu ft price.  It will last me quite a while.There was a thread started a while ago where there was a debate about acetylene versus other gases.  I checked around here and many people do not use acetylene.  Where I purchase metal they use chemolene on there burn table.  The supervisor said he used to use natural gas where he used to work.  They are getting strict about swapping cylinders. I used to get mine filled.  The company stopped filling bottles and now I can only swap them at one place, also.  I was also informed that if you have a cylinder with a company name on it and you cannot produce paperwork proving you purchased or leased it, then they can take that bottle.If cutting and heating is what you do, then you will not miss acetylene.
Reply:I recently swapped out a 75 and a 140. The 75 ran me 25 bucks and the 140 was about 45 bucks. That was last month I believe.
Reply:I had my 280cuft cylinder filled for ~$90.  The O2 tank, 280 cuft, was $35.
Reply:Yet another reason I run Propylene(I own the cylinder), it is 40 something bucks to fill my 30 pounder, and my 280 O2 is only 19 bucks.Disclaimer; "I am just an a$$hole welder, don't take it personally ."
Reply:What exactly are people talking about here? Propane or propylene? They are *NOT* the same chemically - hence, they don't have the same properties / characteristics.If it's PROPANE, then for welding I was told (and found!) it was pretty much a non-starter. For cutting, it worked as well as acetylene, certainly for the fairly crude cutting I did.
Reply:Acetylene costs to produce have risen sharply over the last two years, for us the problem has been the supply of calcium carbide, which is only available from 1-2 suppliers. You can about imagine what the price will do of anything if there is only a couple suppliers of that item in the country. Due to the price increases of acetylene i've had several customers switch to propane or propylene, one drawback of those gases is they don't braze near as nice as acetylene, and your preheat time is longer versus acetylene, which causes you to use more oxygen. If all you do is cut and heat, propane or propylene would probably be the way to go. All the scrappers, and metal recyclers I call on use propane, or propylene.