used a cutting torch for the first time today,
 

i must say, i like it. i had a ride on mower im making into a racer, the last few weekends i have spent a few hours taking all unneeded parts off. using a cutting torch i got everything i needed off in 45 mins. where has this tool been all my life? just thought i would share my new experiance.

I'm sure you're too smart to do this but I read of a guy who was cutting off some parts from under a car in some kind of wrecking yard and he nicked a gas line and burned the holy hell out of his face.

They are cool though. I took a welding class last spring and that was the first hands on thing our teacher had us do.

wow, yea i was thinking about that today, how bad it would suck if that happened. i havent oa welded yet, just cut, but man does it work good. if i had the room i would buy one.

The horror stories can be good to have in the back of your mind to remind you of just how wrong things can go if'n you flock up.

They had a picture of this guy in some magazine. His face was nothing but scar tissue and a few orifices. Goodbye social life, the best parts anyhow.

Nothing say's "I am a man" like cutting steel with fire. Or I just got a bad welding flash and cant see a goddamn thing Honey can you take me to the hospital!

Hint.

When you light the tourch turn on a little oxygen with the acet. Otherwise you create a huge cloud of very black and very sticky soot that will make your workshop look like a coal mine in a few years.

To get the right flame add oxy until the orange flame retracts to a blue sharp flame. Turn the oxy back and forth until you see the 'feather' disappear off the end of the flame. Don't add more oxy, it only cools the flame. If you are using Mapgas the above does not apply.

When you cut keep the tip of the flame just above themetal. Any further back you get the cooler the flame.

For most cutting about 4-5 psi of acet. and 20 psi of oxy will do the job. More of either is just a waste.

Learn to weld thin steel with the tourch.

:D

Ain't it the truth. That stuff is serious business. Cool though, feels almost like alchemy, specially oxy/acet welding, though that's not too practical any more.

kmaysob, I urge you to take some community college classes in welding. It's good to be up on the safety stuff from the git-go.

anyone get into plasma cutting?


We got into it just as school was ending, so not a lot of cutting was done. VERY fun to do.

i would love too,but i dont have the time. i learn alot at work and i have read alot into all the types of welding. i work for an equipment company 60 hours a week and there is allways welding and cutting being done. i do agree, i would love to take a class.

thats a machine i hope to own before i die.:D

They are getting cheaper. $3000 will get a very nice machine that can cut 1/4" steel. $4000 can get you cutting 1/2" steel. :D

I posted the following on another thread (not about welding...:o ) a while back. Interesting stuff:

My welding teacher was telling me about a gasoline/oxy cutting torch -- that's right, reglar ol' gas. He says they acutally cut faster and through thicker steel than oxy/acet and people do demonstrations to prove it. They're more portable because you can pack a lot more BTUs per unit of volume with gasoline than with acet. and you don't need a heavy steel cannister for the gasoline. And, gasoline is much cheaper than acetylene per unit of service.

Then he asked, do you know why you don't see these for sale down at the welding store??

He said that those businesses are almost all owned by the manufacturers of compressed gasses. They have gloves, helmets, etc. to help draw in the customers for their real money making gig: tanks of gasses. Why would they want to promote something that'll lose them money?

Who knows?

http://www.petrogen.com/welcome.html

ive got one in my shop at school, havent used it yet.. or the mig welder

Mig welding is by far the "easist" of them. I took mins about 10min. of practice before I could lay down a nice bead - much easier than tig/stick/oxy.


I've seen plasma rigs go for as little as $1200 - you just have to goto a machine auction and find one. parts for them are still outragious in price (even the "cups" and the copper electrode)

got a load of spare parts for the welder and plasma.. they are fairly new.. maybe 3 years old at most.. i need to get some scrap and learn how to lay a bead... its a useful skill

The reason that you don't see the gasoline system in use is that it is incrediably dangerous. Imagine a tank of gasoline in a welding area. Not a pretty thought. The lack of popularity has nothing to do with who own the aceyylene companies, it has to do with common sense and safety.

The 'latest' gas is called Mapgas. It is a mixture of acetylene and natural gas. It burns hotter than acetylene but requires slightly more oxy to operate and takes a bit longer to heat up. It also requires a different style tip on your tourches. The barrel and cutting attachment remain the same. We use it exclusively where I work. It is noticeably cheaper than acet. and safer. Mapgas does not spontaniously explode as will acet. at over 15 psi.

If you are working mostly with relatively thin metal, say under 1/4" or non-ferous metals, then plasma is the way to go. It is clean, doesn't distort the metal like oxy/acet., and is a lot cheaper to operate. Reasonable rigs can be had for about $1,200. They often show up in pawn shops where you can bargin them down to $800. The draw back is that they do require a small compressor.

For welding thin metal mig is the way to go. TIG is very handy if you work with non-ferous metals, esp. aluminum, but on an average day you would rarely use TIG.

I imagine you're right about the gasoline cutter. My teacher said where they are really good is for emergency work in the field cause you can haul a lot more cutting power on your back. I don't know the specifics but it makes sense -- 2 gallons of liquid gasoline would probably have the BTUs of a much heavier and larger acetylene tank.

Also, with the portable applications, you don't have the problem of having gasoline stored in a welding shop.

cmac,

The 'amount' of heat available doesn't really matter since all you need is enough to get steel hot enought quick enough to oxydize in the presence of oxygen. If you are trying to weld 2 railroad rails together that is another matter. For that you really need a lot of heat, in which case you use Thermite welding.

I don't mean to sound overly cautious about safety but I am over 60 years old and have been working with cutting and welding for about 50 of those years and in heavy industry for about the last 35. I would say 'luckily' I still have all my fingers,toes and eyes but in reality luck has nothing to do with it. I am always very conscience of safety around my work place and I must say that having a couple of gallons of gasoline in and around where I am using vast quantites of heat and oxygen would rate right up there on my safety meter as something that I might want to avoid.

Thermite is some crazy stuff. I've heard of people grinding steel, then grinding alumn. and having it randomly explode on them - thats scary...

MAPP is what we use here, Instead of propane (it's over doube the price, though)

i do belive i posted a thread on Fun With Thermite..

Well, I'm not trying to sell the damn things. My teacher was pretty savvy and he thought they had some excellent uses. He said emergency personnel were using them because they were lighter and more compact. They could haul them on their back up a ladder much easier and with more staying power than a similar acet. unit.