[TheForge] Re: MAPP gas vs. acetylene

[Mike Spencer]

PF wrote:

> I've been torch welding a long time, and have become quite
> opinionated.

Ha!  We knew that. ;-)  Me too.

I got a Craftsman oxy/acet set in '67, before I got my first forge &
anvil.  The regulators have long since died and the cutting torch is
so-so.  But the welding head came with several tips.  The smallest one
has a thin extension brased into massive part that threads into the
torch head. That tiny tip can do all kinds of neat tricks, silver
solder, butt-welding sheet metal etc.

I've been thinking it's time to replace the aging set but whatever I
get has to allow continued use of that tiny tip.


BTW, still working on the 300# A&O which now runs well.  Does anybody
have a trick for making 1/2"x13 threaded holes in a piece of metal (in
this case, the upper die) if it turns out to be too hard to be tapped
in the conventional way?  I'm making a bolt-on attachment requiring 4
threaded holes in the die which is not so hard that a file glides of
but it files real hard.  If my retired machinist friend says he can
drill but can't tap, is there some trick with inserts or something
that I haven't heard of?

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^