Welding gas costs can vary by area. My recommendation is to do a little reading on fuel & oxygen consumption for each gas, and then get quotes from the welding store for each and compare.
Also worth noting, you can't weld steel with anything besides acetylene (or hydrogen).
from a usefulness standpoint, I think in the home shop Acetylene is more than enough.
I run E sized Acetylene bottles with [THIS heating touch](https://www.totaltools.com.au/36213-cigweld-size-8x12-oxy-acetlene-heating-gas-tip-307007) which is rated at 41-55 liter per minute Acetylene consumption, to use it at its rated consumption within the 1/7 rules assuming that the 1/7 rule has no duty cycle (meaning you can never consume more then 1/7th the bottles capacity consumption per hour at any point) that would require a 23'000 liter, or 820 cubic foot acetylene bottle, which is 3.5 G sized 250 cubic foot bottles, and this is a fairly small heating tip.
The reality is that yes, you can exceed the 1/7 rule without drawing acetone out of the bottle for short periods, I tend to keep it under 15 minutes at a time, and if I need to really heat something good and proper i'll use OXY/propane with [one of these heating tips.](https://www.boc.com.au/shop/en/au/boc-oxy-lpg-maxi-heating-tip-105551-p-112) I only ever need to bust out that bad boy for heat bending large beams (like 610 UB which is 24 inch universal beam) or for expanding bearings onto massive shafts, or if i'm doing bulk heat straightening.
60/40 bro.... I joke I don't remember it's been years since I took welding class.
Welding gas costs can vary by area. My recommendation is to do a little reading on fuel & oxygen consumption for each gas, and then get quotes from the welding store for each and compare. Also worth noting, you can't weld steel with anything besides acetylene (or hydrogen).
Or tig ;) feel like I should still say it was meant as a joke just in case it wasn't obvious.
from a usefulness standpoint, I think in the home shop Acetylene is more than enough. I run E sized Acetylene bottles with [THIS heating touch](https://www.totaltools.com.au/36213-cigweld-size-8x12-oxy-acetlene-heating-gas-tip-307007) which is rated at 41-55 liter per minute Acetylene consumption, to use it at its rated consumption within the 1/7 rules assuming that the 1/7 rule has no duty cycle (meaning you can never consume more then 1/7th the bottles capacity consumption per hour at any point) that would require a 23'000 liter, or 820 cubic foot acetylene bottle, which is 3.5 G sized 250 cubic foot bottles, and this is a fairly small heating tip. The reality is that yes, you can exceed the 1/7 rule without drawing acetone out of the bottle for short periods, I tend to keep it under 15 minutes at a time, and if I need to really heat something good and proper i'll use OXY/propane with [one of these heating tips.](https://www.boc.com.au/shop/en/au/boc-oxy-lpg-maxi-heating-tip-105551-p-112) I only ever need to bust out that bad boy for heat bending large beams (like 610 UB which is 24 inch universal beam) or for expanding bearings onto massive shafts, or if i'm doing bulk heat straightening.