Propane substituted for acetylene

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Great thread you have going here! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] When you begin discussing acetylene vs propane vs MAPP gas, it's like a discussion of what brand of motor oil to use or....shudder.....what religion is best. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] I consider myself a REMBRANDT with a cutting torch, and I have a personal relatioship with a Victor Superange that goes waaaaay back. Here is the official scoop on gasses............ [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
Radiator shops use natural gas because it is a colder, gentler flame. Scrappers use LPG because it is (1) cheaper, and (2) will cut through crap better than ACE-TY-LENE will. Yes, it does take longer to get warmed up with LPG, but you can cut a stack of plates whereas acetylene will not cut through a stack. MAPP is more costly than LPG, but it is hotter and will also cut through a stack. Both MAPP and LPG use a two-piece tip with scads of preheat holes in a circle around the center blow hole. Acetylene uses a single piece tip with maybe six or eight holes. On a service truck, gimme acetylene.....period. The wind doesn't blow it around so badly. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] MAPP is Methly-Acetyl-Propadiene. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Oh, and one more point......cutting speed is independent of the gas used since the cutting is actually just done with Oxygen. A good hand with a torch can get a cut started and have his helper valve off the gas. The torch continues to cut as an "Oxygen Lance". [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[Pat]

CJDAVE (AKA Rembrandt) It just keeps getting better... Know I know I need a different torch to optimize cutting with Propane. How poorly will a "regular" torch perform on propane compared to the right one?

When it comes to welding expertise my claim to fame is that I once reattached a leg that was broken off of a cast aluminum table using flux coated aluminum electrodes and got a nearly invisible patch. It was certainly more luck than skill and the only successful aluminum weld I ever made. I used scrap aluminum window screen pieces for extra filler material.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] All you have to do is change the cutting tip, Pat, and you would be all set. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Someone on the thread mentioned welding with the torch and I forgot to include the best "tip" of all, which is the regualtor settings for welding: 13 on the gas and 33 on the oxy will do a great job. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Here is a story about a torch: In 1968 I was looking over the shoulder of an equipment dealer in Southern Utah who was installing some irrigation equipment mfg by the company I worked for. I was "Thet factory guy from the city." The irrigation project was fairly extensive and had a few miles of steel pipe bringing the water in from the pumps that were on the bank of the "crick". When it came time to do a flow test and do some sample watering, we discovered that the flowmeter was missing, and that left a hole in the pipe about ten inches in diameter. The meter had been damaged and was sent to Salt Lake City for repair. It was a HUGE disappointment that we could not run water, but there was nothing they could do since "THE WELDER" was gone for two days to visit his folks in Logan. The circular patch that they cut out of the pipeline when the meter was installed was still sitting right there, and all we needed was a welder. One of the local farmers mentioned that he: "Had just got a brand new Sears Robuck cuttin' torch mail order." (This remote community of 99 folks literally LIVED out of the Sears catalog)
I asked him if he had tanks too, and he said he did so we all jumped in pickups and beat feet to his farm. There in an old tool shed was the new torch, unassembled, and unused because "Welder Guy" had not yet had time to teach him how to use it. I checked the box and luckily there were some welding tips in there so I picked one out and asked him if he had any torch welding rod. He didn't have any so I told him to go in the house and ask his wife in a nice way if she could spare twelve wire coat hangars. Once we got the hangars the whole entourage beat feet back over to the pipeline, and: "Thet dude from the factry" proceeded to weld that hole closed with coat hangars. When I had finished astounding the whole bunch we took the torch back and I wrote on the tool shed wall: Cut...40 and 8; Weld: 33 and 13. The Sears Robuck mail order torch was now an integral part of that little community. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Pat]

CJDAVE, I don't gas weld, prefering stick or innershield gasless MIG. I did braze once.... OHBOY was that U_G_L_Y but it was liquid tight.

EXCELLENT story. A friend of mine's highschool buddy has a muffler shop and used a lot of coathangers.

Out in the Imperial Valley in SOCAL there is a lot of irrigation. Much of it uses portable aluminum pipes that clamp together and take down easily. Most of the repairs are welding the aluminum. During the time I had available I never did get any of the portable battery operated welder prototypes to stick weld aluminum worth snot. If I had they would have sold like hotcakes to the guys out in the Imperial Valley as well as THE VALLEY up state and I'd probably have a much larger bank account. Oh well...

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] yep.....sold a lot of that portable aluminum irrigation pipe in diameters from 1-1/4" to 12". I've spent many hours moving pipe, too, irrigating alfalfa for the quarter horse clientel that we sold our hay to in Oakdale California; SEAT of the professional rodeo cowboy industry. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] What folks sometimes don't realize is that aluminum is the fourth best conductor of heat that you would encounter on a daily basis.....Silver-Copper-Gold-Aluminum (Sport-Cars-Go-American), and when you weld on that stick of pipe, the whole pipe gets hot! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]