Question about a gas torch

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I have heard that if you buy a oxy actelyne setup (tanks) local shops won't fill them. Have you ever heard of that? I want one but I don't need a big tank. The small tank is mpre than 1/2 the price of a full size unit. You can buy the tanks on ebay NEW and they are a good price I'm worried no one will fill them.Any body know a good place to buy
Reply:i have heard of suppliers being a little ticked at little 20cf size tanks, sometimes they have to order them inStangnetShop Full Of Stuff. Joey
Reply:The local supplier around here will fill anything(that's legal).  I'm sure they have their preferences, but it would be a little silly to turn down a sell.Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Reply:I'm just a home hobbyist but I bought small (don't remember size) tanks from the local welding supply place. Two years ago I upgraded them to bigger sizes. They had a chart that showed trade in value and new value on bigger tanks. I can even upgrade them later to even bigger tanks. They gave me like 80% trade in value.The welding place just exchanges the tanks to refill them. I know that some welding places only deal with their own tanks. Check out if they can be refilled locally (ask the local guy) before buying tanks from somewhere else.
Reply:The mini-torch kits are often called 10-20's, referring to the tank sizes (10 cu ft acetylene, 20 cu ft oxygen). The tanks are about 14 inches tall, about 4 and 6 inches in diameter for acetylene/oxygen, 300/3000 PSI, just like the bigger ones. They are often sold in the US as "Port-A-Torch" kits, where both tanks fit into an included little plastic carrying caddy....10-20's are "different" than other tank sizes, because the 10-20's are generally accepted for free exchange at any shop you go to. You just leave the empty tanks and pay the refill fee ($25 or so) and they give you full tanks. And you can take those tanks when they are empty later, and exchange them at any other shop. The 10-20's are considered "portable" this way, in that they are not tied to any one shop. 10-20's are very much a "standard" tank size, and they cannot be shipped with gas in them. The local shop would prefer you buy them there, but it is not necessary.-----Larger tank sizes are usually not purchased but leased, and the lease contract states that you will only get them refilled at that particular shop. A shop you don't have a lease with generally will refuse to exchange a larger tank. There might be justifiable reasons, I never pressed the local guys for details.----The 10-20 kits work quite well, the torches are a smaller-than-normal size but they have the same features that the larger ones do, manual controls and different sizes of welding and cutting tips available and are made by "real" torch companies, Lincoln or Harris. If you later want to get larger tanks or want to run a regular-size torch off your little tanks, you can get tank/hose adaptors to go either way.~Last edited by Bullwinkle8357; 09-28-2004 at 09:09 PM.