Argon cylinder

[TimS]

Warning - potentially silly question ahead!

Are there any problems with mounting an argon cylinder horizontally? I am considering building a small cart, and would like to make it as small and stable as possible so I am wondering if anything bad would occur if I mounted the cylinder flat along the bottom. I have an 83CF cylinder so if that is OK, the whole setup could be pretty compact.

Tim

[DSW]

Since it's a silly question not a stupid one I'll answer you. :D

No the tank position won't matter if it's lying down for Argon or C25. Possibly for CO2, if it's a liquid tank.

The big concern would be damage to the valve and regulator. Things down low tend to get banged around. As long as reasonable care is taken to protect the valve /regs you will be fine.

Personally I am not sure I want to bend down all the time to turn off my gas however. Also, an 80 cf tank makes for a long cart with it lying down. The cart will be stable if the tank is down near the floor, but the higher up you mount it the less stable the cart will be.

[tasslehawf]

I have a seen a few carts with 300cf cylinders sitting at 45 degrees. This seems to be a good compromise between vert. and horiz.

[Laiky]

One problem i see is when you get fed up with the 80 and want someting bigger you won't be able to use it. I started off with nice small portable tanks, then quickly realized that bigger tanks save you a bunch on refills and wasted trips to the welding supply. Just my opinion!

[TimS]

Thanks - those comments make sense. One of the good things about mounting the cylinder horizontally is that I could build a guard around the reg, protecting it from getting whacked. I see a lot of small carts with the cylinder chained to the cart, but nothing keeps the whole thing from going over and the "track" of the cart is often not that wide. So I was thinking that horizontal could actually be safer.

The biggest negative is about changing cylinder size - have to think on that one.

Tim

[Broccoli1]

Thanks - those comments make sense. One of the good things about mounting the cylinder horizontally is that I could build a guard around the reg, protecting it from getting whacked. I see a lot of small carts with the cylinder chained to the cart, but nothing keeps the whole thing from going over and the "track" of the cart is often not that wide. So I was thinking that horizontal could actually be safer.

The biggest negative is about changing cylinder size - have to think on that one.

Tim

1. Just build a strap system to the cart, eliminate the chains.

2. If you think you need bigger bottles, build a bigger cart

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

This just reminded me that my service truck many years ago in the military had the welding mix bottle mounted horizontaly across the top / front wall of the tool box body and the torch bottles stood upright in one corner door. I wondered back then why they did that, (instead of all 3 in one spot) but I'm guessing just cause they could, and to save space.

[DSW]

The acetylene bottle needed to remain upright for use. Most likely they just kept the acet and O2 together for change out rather than laying the O2 bottle down.

[hankj]

The cart I built for the TA185 is only as wide as the welder, and has an upright 150 ft³ Ar cylinder on the back end. It's plenty stable, and takes up less room with the cylinder upright.

Hank