[Space] Inert gasses

[Christie Dudley]

Great call there!  I went ahead and called Atlas and they not only had way
better prices, are open Saturday and rent the regulator, they had some
interesting things to say about which gas to use.

Costs:  N2 $28.77, CO2 $23.90, rental $0.26/day, reg $40-$100 to buy,
$8/month to rent.

They also deliver for a charge of $20.

The guy also explained to me why we don't want to use CO2.  It apparently
changes volume considerably when it expands and contracts.  Also we'd have a
hard time making it not come out as snow and freezing up the regulator and
all sorts of other problems.  The guy there indicated that it'd definitely
be far more trouble than the $5 we'd save on it.

He also explained to me that the balloon filler would be much slower using
nitrogen than helium.

So I guess if we want to go this route (which sounds appealing) we'd not
need to decide "rent or buy" before tomorrow.

Christie
_______
Getting to the bottom of the hill is convenient. The view from the top of
the hill is stunning. Where would you choose to live?


On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 2:17 PM, someone wrote:

> Atlas Welding in Berkeley will rent you a regulator along with your gas; I
> dunno if they have co2, I know they have helium.
>
> --S
>
> On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Christie Dudley <longobord at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I talked to airgas and praxair.  They each like to have an account.  They
>> also have different sized tanks for the nitrogen.
>>
>> Airgas was $41.03 for N2 and $43 for CO2.  Their tank rental was
>> $0.85/day.
>>
>> Praxair was $40 for N2 and $35 for CO2.  Their tank rental was $0.12/day.
>>
>> We will also need to buy a regulator, as these guys don't rent them at
>> all.  I inquired about the low end regulators:
>> Airgas starts around $130-140
>> Praxair starts around $90.
>>
>> Both places said you needed to set up an account with them because tank
>> rental is done monthly.  Praxair was clearly the better deal so I asked them
>> about terms.  They said that if we absolutely needed to have the stuff today
>> then they could work it out with a $250 credit card deposit refundable when
>> the tanks are returned.  Tanks would have to be returned Monday morning.
>>
>> So...
>>
>> 1) Is it worth the $35-$40 to go for the fill test this weekend?
>> 2) We're ready to buy a regulator?  This would be what we would want to
>> use for the helium as well, but not flammable gases like propane, as it
>> won't be reverse threaded.
>>
>> Christie
>>
>> _______
>> Getting to the bottom of the hill is convenient. The view from the top of
>> the hill is stunning. Where would you choose to live?
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> --
> Shannon Lee
> (503) 539-3700
>
> "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
>
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