Thread: Swap 'D' oxy & acetylene bottles for empties

The acetylene bottle is full of acetone, the acetylene is dissolved in the acetone. Hense without gauges you really cant tell how much gas is left.

The walls of the oxy bottles are also about 100 inches thick (may be a slight exaggeration), so judging the quantity of gas by the bottles weight may be misleading.

But a spare set of bottles lying around at home WILL always come in handy.

The last lot of bottles I got from BOC were barcoded and scanned by the bloke at the loading dock. When I inquired as to why this is done he told me it is to stop people swapping bottles and bringing back someone else empty. And sure enough it was barcoded and checked when I returned it.

I used to handle oxy & acetylene bottles every day quite a few years ago so I'm just going by experience as to what might be left inside.

I use a D argoshield myself but it's been a few years since I changed over bottles. There was no barcode scan done last time for mine & by the dust on these 2 bottles, there wouldn't have been a scan done on his either.

There's also a couple of very large, very old bottles that he appeared to have scored from somewhere.

how long ago did he get the bottles scotty?
boc at morebank have only been scanning their bottles for the last 4 months. have a look around the neck of the bottle for a stamp thats been painted a pinky colour, it looks like a mickey mouse head. thats the id for scanned bottles.

if they dont have the stamps you might be in luck....

i'll have a look at what i have, 4 months ago i had 20 odd bottles un stamped at work.....

ill pm you with what i find.

cheers phil

Years ago they used to record the bottle numbers on file cards. A friend took an argon bottle back that had been provided to him over ten years before by a mate for work on a ski racer and in due course was told about the ten years rent owing. He had to open an account in his name to get an exchange bottle.

Originally Posted by discowhite

how long ago did he get the bottles scotty?
boc at morebank have only been scanning their bottles for the last 4 months. have a look around the neck of the bottle for a stamp thats been painted a pinky colour, it looks like a mickey mouse head. thats the id for scanned bottles.

I don't know when he got these bottles but he hasn't used the oxy set for over a year now so I would be guessing at 3-4 years ago.
I'll check the bottles tonight & see what's on the neck.

I was down at my BOC 3 weeks ago and no scanning there in Dandenong.

I dont see why they would bother as they know who took the bottle and they just charge rent on a bottle, doesnt matter which one.

In the past when I was working on site I used to use BOC's all over Vic, 1 in SA and a couple in NSW and never had any trouble swapping bottles over.

You will need to put a guage on the Gas but the Oxy you should be able to get an idea by rolling it back and forward to see how much is left.

the idea is to stop people like me getting free gas!
if you rent a set, oxy and acet, then ''find'' the same size but empty or almost, you then take the empty ones back and you dont have anything listed on your account.

can you now see why they are bothering

cheers phil