[TheForge] Oxy/Propane reprise

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Paul N wrote:
> Well, I managed to gather my stuff together for a brief trial tonight, 
> following the advice of the group. While I'm still not completely 
> satisfied with my technique, I was much happier with the result.
> 
> Once I got going, I was probably moving at perhaps as much as 15"-20" 
> per minute (far cry from my earlier attempt) and my cut was a LOT cleaner.
> 
> I still need to get a little more familiar with the flame/cone pattern.
> 
> I was trying to get a set of sharply defined preheat cones,
That's nice, but not critical.
  but at that
> mixture, the tip was popping fairly frequently,
Popping..underfired?(more gas perhaps)..Leaking between the cutting 
attachment and the tip, or even between the cutting attachment and the 
Butt ( check the O rings carefully), Tighten the tip with a wrench( 
another indicator of tip leaking is soot around the tip seat.)
  so I richened the
> mixture a bit. I think I may have been hitting the gas valve while I was 
> cutting, because that re-occurred a few times, and I had to repeat the 
> process. As it was, while the flame was completely blue, the cones 
> weren't what I'd refer to as "crisp", and were a little fuzzy. Still 
> quite a bit shorter than what I think I recall from using acetylene.
Fire that puppy up more and see what happens.
> 
> I was on a time crunch (only had about 1/2 hr for setup, cut and 
> cleanup), and didn't have time to make more than a couple cuts, so I 
> still have some more practicing to do, and I still didn't do anything 
> about the rust. While it seemed to slow the initial preheat, I found 
> that I could start cutting before I got what I'd consider a good red 
> heat all the way through the piece.
You just need a wee spot of red...on heavy pieces one can start the cut 
by chiseling up a little curl of steel and starting the cut on that.
Oh..and , start the cut moving towards you, not away.
> 
> Thanks for the hand-holding.
Blush
> 
> **Paul
> 
> Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer wrote:
>> Paul N wrote:
>>> probably based in the assumption that I knew what I was doing :-)
>> That helps me make my mistakes.
>>> I looked back in the earlier messages, and yes you did raise that issue. 
>>>   But I don't think I quite understood the mechanics, and probably still 
>>> don't. I hadn't had an opportunity to drag my stuff out again yet, and 
>>> my wife has this thing about my lighting fires in the house.
>> \What's-a matter her?
>>> I'm still a little unclear on the 2 O2 valves. I had assumed that the 
>>> bottom valve controlled the mixture of the preheat, which left the other 
>>> for the cutting jet. Obviously, that's not the way it works.
>>>
>>> I'd been looking for a schematic of the torch "plumbing" to help me 
>>> understand it better. While I only spent a few minutes web searching, I 
>>> haven't found anything yet.
>> Paul; when you plug in the cutting attachment, O2 control is shifted 
>> from the torch butt to the cutting attachment. The torch butt valve is 
>> opened up wide and left that way.
>> Mixture adjustment for the preheats is done at the cutting attachment 
>> for O2, with the oxy lever depressed.
>> I suspect you'll find you don't need quite as much O2 regulator pressure 
>> for that thickness steel, either.
>>
> ...
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