How Much gas do you GTAW guys use????

admin

Good morning everyone,I searched through the old threads and couldn't come up with something asking my exact question so decided to post it here.  I am wondering how much gas (Argon) on average you hobby / home GTAW guys use in a year?I got a quote from my LWS, and trying to decide between buying a small bottle (largest one they will sell me is 80 cu ft), or leasing a bigger one (155).  The owned bottles swap for about $0.45 cu/ft and the leased swap for about $0.22 cu/ft, and after factoring in the lease cost and the purchase costs, have figured out the break over point for the leased bottle to be cheaper long-term is about 300 cu/ft per year of useage.  Less than that and its cheaper long-term to buy, more and its cheaper to lease.  I've also figured it takes about 5 years to break even regarless of useage (due to up front buying costs).I used to weld in our shop at school building tube frame chassis (avitar pic), and we'd go through a 336 cu ft bottle in about a month if we were going hard (and gas was free from Airgas....), but now I've graduated its just me and no sponsored bank account to buy stuff with , so it will be mostly repair stuff, some ornamental work for around the house, and stuff for the truck.Thanks in advance for your input everyone,  I hope to get my Aerowave up and running soon, got it all cleaned up from its previous home, and have the power run, just need gas and comsumables at this point and we are ready to rock.    I will post up a new thread with pics when I have a chance of the welder and my setup.Thanks,SteveIf it doesn't fit, you aren't hitting it hard enough!Miller AerowaveMiller Radiator 1A4.5" DeWalt (with the paddle switch!)Jackson NexGen Helmet