[Noisebridge-discuss] Buying quality helium (Spacebridge folks?)

Reed Kennedy reed at notfine.com
Mon Dec 6 22:25:19 UTC 2010


Awesome. Thanks everybody.

I called up Sal at Airgas in SF and we came to an arrangement. I am going to
give him a cash deposit of $150 per tank + regulator and pay for fills of
99.5% pure helium. In exchange, he's agreed to not charge me for the tank
rentals and refund my full deposit when I'm done, so long as I bring them
back nice and early next week. This seems pretty awesome to me.

Best,
Reed

On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Christie Dudley <longobord at gmail.com> wrote:

> When I set up the tank rental for Spacebridge, I went to Atlas welding
> supply in Berkeley, not only because they're open on Saturday (although that
> was a consideration), but because they had better prices and more helpful
> staff than anywhere else around.  They're great at answering your questions.
>  We debated to a fair extent renting vs. buying, and after some discussion
> about trading in and commitment and damage to the tanks, it just made more
> sense renting vs. buying.  A full tank of helium was about $100, which is
> enough to fill about 1.5 balloons.  They do not offer any smaller tanks.
>
> Christie
> _______
> "It is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so
> important."
> Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 7:52 PM, Sean Cusack <sean.p.cusack at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Airgas in South San Francisco may have what you need. And they do sell
>> pure as in 99.999% pure helium. Prepare to pay for it though. We typically
>> use it in our labs for some fancy pants chemistry equipment.
>>
>> http://www.airgas.com/customer_service/site_locator.aspx
>>
>> Sean
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 4:38 PM, Andy Isaacson <adi at hexapodia.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 03, 2010 at 04:07:19PM -0800, Josh Myer wrote:
>>> > Comrade Kennedy,
>>> >
>>> > Any welding supply store should have what you need:
>>> > http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=welding+supply+near+noisebridge
>>> >
>>> > The standard tank is ~270cuft of helium, which costs about $100.
>>> >
>>> > Don't forget to rent a regulator!  The 1500psi in the tank is...
>>> difficult
>>> > to use as-is.  And you can't get the regulator at Home Depot.  If you
>>> look
>>> > trustworthy enough, you  may be able to put a deposit down at a party
>>> supply
>>> > store and borrow one, but don't count on it.
>>>
>>> Indeed.  If you only need 35 cubic feet, the smaller tank will work
>>> fine.  I bought a small tank (rather than renting) at Airgas, in the
>>> Bayview, a few years ago; including the regulator and the fill, my bill
>>> came to under $200.
>>>
>>> Of course, then you've got a helium tank.  In retrospect, renting would
>>> have been more sensible.
>>>
>>> Note that for "pure helium" (90% helium 10% argon, according to the
>>> internet) you want to go to a welding supply store, not a party store;
>>> I'm told that party store tanks are filled with "balloon gas", which is
>>> a mix of helium and standard atmosphere to reduce the cost.  (Kids'
>>> balloons still float just fine.)  Less float in there.
>>>
>>> Here's a helpful reference:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.airproducts.com/NR/rdonlyres/7CCE748B-35BA-45B2-93D4-48AE3D3EEDF3/0/reference_cylinder_information.pdf
>>>
>>> The "standard tank" jbm references above is a "high pressure A"; the
>>> smaller tank I bought is, I think, either D or 4X (I'll check this
>>> weekend).
>>>
>>> -andy
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/attachments/20101206/1ddf5eea/attachment-0003.html>


More information about the Noisebridge-discuss mailing list