Welding Tips and Tricks

I have never seen this before, but it may already exist. Is there such a thing as a gas bottle regulator with a longer tube between the bottle shut off valve/outlet and the pressure regulator gauges? I am forever scraping my knuckles on the gauge glass side when I go to turn the gas off! Just an inch or two more space between the two would save me a lot of bandages.



Other Steve

Delraydella.

What is the manufacturer and model of your regulator?

Alexa

delraydella wrote:I have never seen this before, but it may already exist. Is there such a thing as a gas bottle regulator with a longer tube between the bottle shut off valve/outlet and the pressure regulator gauges? I am forever scraping my knuckles on the gauge glass side when I go to turn the gas off! Just an inch or two more space between the two would save me a lot of bandages.



Other Steve

I know what your saying brother, I'm sick of it too. Don't know if they make them like that or not, but they should.

IIRC, there is a maximum that the regulator can extend away from the bottle. Don't remember where I heard it so it may be a myth. Has something to do with safety, with regards to the closer the regulator is to the tank, less chance of it getting broken off in a knock down, or something like that.

Might be easier to make an adapter for the valve handle itself, that you can just slip on and off that brings your hands 'above' the regulator.

Messing with the high pressure of the gas bottle or being successful in making a longer adapter to attain the clearance you want may not be the safest solution. Have you thought about being able to extend just the tap handle portion vertically. I have an old propane bottle (tap) handle that has solved this problem with small alterations.

Hope this helps... on the other hand after you scrape enough skin off over the years it is no longer a problem.

bap

On the liquid hydrogen trailers I work on, there's a pair of helium bottles located 35' from the regulator.

Schedule 80 pipe and 3000# fittings. Oh, and two braided flex-lines on the bottle-pressure side. Usually charged to 2600+PSI.

While the bottle adapter fittings come in different lengths, they're usually no more than 4" total. There's no reason you can't separate the fitting from the regulator body, and add a 3000# coupling and a 2" sch. 80 nipple (all 1/4" NPT). Use a good quality pipe dope, and bubble test it.

As long as the bottle is secure while in use, I don't recall any regulations regarding the plumbing.

Steve S