low cost portable CO2 gas conversion kit for Handlers
For all of you who may have been interested in converting your Handler 135, 140, 175, 180, 187, or 210 to the MIG process; but haven't done so because you didn't want to invest in a large gas tank and/or didn't have room in your garage or shop for the tank; you should check out the CO2 Paintball Gas Conversion Kit being sold through www.amazon.com now.
The 20 oz. paintball bottle can be refilled at any sporting goods store that supports paintball activities.
With this kit installed, you can get approximately 2 minutes of weld time per ounce of gas in the bottle, so a full bottle will provide approximately 40 minutes of weld time.
Changing from your flux-cored tubular wire to solid wire with gas only requires installing the kit and changing the output polarity of your welder to electrode positive.
Another advantage of this kit is that it makes the welder set up for MIG extremely portable. It's difficult to lug a large gas tank around to remote locations, but with this kit installed, your welder is as portable as it is while using the flux-cored wire process.
Many paintballers refill their own cylinders from a large cylinder.
If you are handy, and want an adjustable regulator, you can purchase a paintball Universal Fill Adapter, the inert gas regulator of your choice, and high-pressure (Western Enterprises has a great selection) brass fittings to connect the two. No cheating with cheap no-name fittings, use the right parts, they are cheap. If the regulator will only be used with small cylinders, connect to Fill Adapter with appropriate nipple/reducer/coupling as appropriate to the regulator inlet nipple threads (usually 1/4" NPT, some are 1/8" NPT). If it will be used on a variety of cylinders, have a CGA 580 fitting for it to connect to.
Western Enterprises B-70 .965"-14 NGO, RH Female to 1/4" NPT will connect a CGA-580 regulator to 1/4" NPT, which you can step down to your UFA size with a BA-4-2HP
If you are really motivated, you could make up a transfill whip, and fill your paintball tank with any MIG gas mix you like!
Example whip connection sequence:
75/25 gas mix cylinder - CGA 580 nut and nipple -1/4"NPT x 24" (or whatever length you like) whip - Western Enterprises B4-2-HP pipe reducer bushing, male to male 1/4 NPT x1/8" NPT - Tippman or other UFA with 1/8" NPT female threads - paintball cylinder.
Every fitting but the fill adapter is available from the Western Enterprises catalog, via their distributors. Google for online vendors.
If you want to read line pressure on a whip with a standard regulator, get a CGA 580 tee, install that on the large cylinder you fill with, connect one side of whip to tee, connect regulator to other side.
A paintball cylinder filled with argon and connected to a regulator or flowmeter could provide TIG shielding gas to support any of the popular 110V Maxstar-sized inverters.
I transfill oxygen to small medical oxygen cylinders for portability when I do salvage yard work. I haven't had need for inert gas in paintball cylinders, but the process is the same except for different fittings and there is zero reason it wouldn't work fine and no more safety risk than ordinary paintball cylinder home filling.
All this sounds a bit wordy, but it's just high pressure plumbing.
Last edited by monckywrench; 07-07-2010 at 09:51 PM.
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