I'm curious what you guys are paying for pure argon in your area. I have been using Airgas and the price just keeps going up and up. I own two 125CF cylinders and exchange them alternately when one runs out. I went in a week ago Thursday with an empty cylinder and they didn't have any 125CF pure argon but I left my empty cylinder with them. They told me they should have some Friday but I forgot to go down because I got busy. On Monday, I drove down and they told me they still didn't have any. I was getting pretty pissed because my second cylinder was almost empty at this point. I went ahead and picked up some TIG rod while I was there. I waited until Friday and called because I had to have some argon or we couldn't work over the weekend. Finally, over a week later, they said they had one set aside for me.

So I went and picked it up. It was almost $100 out the door with their bullshit hazmat fee and taxes. I got home and looked at the receipt for my TIG rod and it has a hazmat fee on it too. THIS IS MILD STEEL TIG ROD (ER70S-6)!

I originally had 150CF cylinders but Airgas consolidated all of their 125s and 150s into one SKU. I try to get 150s but they keep telling me that they hold the same amount of gas. BS. They fill them to the same pressure and I am smart enough to know that a larger cylinder at the same pressure holds more gas.

Anyhow, I'm paying $79.76 for the gas, $13.69 for the hazmat fee, and the rest is taxes. Total is $96.91. The 10 pounds of TIG rod is $31.40 and the hazmat fee is $7.69. Total with taxes is $40.54.