cutting torch

[Ken O]

If you are going to use the torch for melting, get a heating piece for your torch. Just above the handle you will see a large hex nut, unscrew this and screw in the heating end. You can buy many sizes for soldering all the way up to very large preheat/melt. They dont have replaceabe tips, you get the size you want. They are very inexpensive.

Make propane forge for melting and casting aluminum. Here's a link. Ron Reil's sites are golden.

http://www.metalwebnews.com/fd.html

[Danco]

for 3/16 to 1/4 steel, you should be using a 00 or 0 tip #. the 8 acet, 30 oxy settings are good. are you using tip cleaners regularily? i open my acet slightly and a little oxy before i light my torch....this eliminates the soot from just acet. when you have a good flame you should see sharp short pointy flames at the tip when the handle is not depressed, and stronger, but not less sharp flames at the tip when depressed. hope this helps. be careful and practice, practice, practice

[hoffman7476]

Noob, yep that's me. I was adjusting the ace. to a blazing flame and then cranking the oxy. until I had a perfect blue cone. When the cutting handle is depressed it turns to a white flame. I only fooled with it a few hours the other day to cut some stuff for making a cart to haul the rig around. Funny, that's the first thing I did when I got my mig. I have a couple of really cool carts for both my outfits now.
The main reason I bought the outfit is to melt down some pistons for filling the exhaust crossovers in a set of Pontiac heads. Speed shops want $200 to do it and I got my outfit and leased tanks for a lot less than that. The outfit is one of those Harbour Freight/Victor clones. Looks like it's built really good.

[DocSavage]

Whoops I forgot to add - for cutting be sure to have the oxy valve at the base of the torch open all the way and control it from the valve on the cutting tip.

In addition we were taught after getting the neutral flame - depress the cutting handle and readjust to neutral...

These things are not intuitively obvious to us noobs!

[DocSavage]

Not to teach my grandmother how to suck eggs - but I will stick my oar in here - since I just finished up with my welding class what I learned and did not know before was how to adjust the torch flame.

After lighting the torch with acytelene only adjust the flame until the smoke almost disappears.

Start adding the oxygen and you will see a pale blue cone form around a darker blue. if you left it alone you would have a carborizing flame. which is used for i dont know what

Keep adding oxygen until the pale blue cone meets the darker one. You now have a neutral flame. That is where you do most of your work.

I found a great book called "Weld Like The Pros" by Richard Finch that has a lot of good info. You can get it at Home Depot sometimes or from Amazon....

BILL................. I DON'T holler.................. ...rock[email protected]

[Mark Whiddon]

you might also angle your torch slightly (where the flame is pointing toward the direction of the cut) and maybe move a bit faster. If you see the side of your metal start to melt (outside of the cutting area) than you are traveling to slow and run the possibility of welding the kerf together.

[hoffman7476]

Thanks guys. I'll go by the library this afternoon and check out some books. I have the regs set at 10/20 per a little booklet that I got when I leased my tanks. I think it would be real helpful to look at some color photos of what the flame is supposed to look like. I figured that the slag filling in was just poor technique but the soot must be from improper mixture.

Must following right procedures every time when gas welding and cutting.
Modern flashback arresters also helps protects you from your mistakes or equipment failures causing flashback.

Go to your gas supplier and they will have free booklets from gas welding manufacture such as Victor that they will give you. Buy a welding book or check out welding book from library.

It sounds like your using a carbonizing flame. Must readjust flame with cutting 02 flowing to neutral flame.

With correct sized tip correctly adjusted, must maintain cutting travel rate just short of going too fast and loosing cut. Slower and you end up welding cut kerf with slag.

[BillC]

Please hit the caps lock!

Matt, or FIXXXXAH,

Please don't type in all caps. It is perceived as yelling and is hard to read.

On this list, ALL CAPS is kinda reserved for ROCK... When we see all caps we know who wrote it...

Thanks!

[FIXXXXAH]

OK, IF I AM TELLING YOU STUFF YOU ALREADY KNOW, FEEL FREE TO REPLY THAT I'M A JACKASS, I'M JUST POSTING THIS BECAUSE YOU SAID THE INSTRUCTIUONS WERE CHINESE
roughly [EMPHASIZED SO I DONT GET JUMPED ON] 5-8 PSI ON THE ACYT. , 20-30 ON THE OXY, WITH A NUETRAL FLAME, AND MAKE SURE WHEN YOU ARE CUTTING THE THE HANLDE IS DEPRESSED FULLY WHEN YOU ARE CUTTING, AS HAVING IT NOT WIDE OPEN, COULD CAUSE THE ROLLING BACK YOU DESCRIBE-

SORRY IF I'M REPEATING WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW

MATT

Re: cutting torch

Originally posted by hoffman7476
I just bought an oxy/acetylene rig and was fooling with the cutting torch today building a cart for it. (I have a Hobart Handler mig which ROCKS!) I was cutting some 3/16 and 1/4 steel and while cutting the metal kept rolling back into the cut and re-fusing. After cutting I noticed some black sooty residue on the metal. The instructions are kinda vague chinese translations so I'm on my own. Any advice would be most welcome.
I used to check this forum about a year or so when I first got my mig. Been through 3 rolls of wire and 1 tank of gas without a hitch. I do mostly auto/hot rod stuff.
http://motorhead.iwarp.com

Sounds like you're out of oxygen.

[hoffman7476]

I just bought an oxy/acetylene rig and was fooling with the cutting torch today building a cart for it. (I have a Hobart Handler mig which ROCKS!) I was cutting some 3/16 and 1/4 steel and while cutting the metal kept rolling back into the cut and re-fusing. After cutting I noticed some black sooty residue on the metal. The instructions are kinda vague chinese translations so I'm on my own. Any advice would be most welcome.
I used to check this forum about a year or so when I first got my mig. Been through 3 rolls of wire and 1 tank of gas without a hitch. I do mostly auto/hot rod stuff.

http://motorhead.iwarp.com