[TheForge] MAPP gas vs. acetylene

[Bruce .]

Wow!  What a response!  I will have to go back and read through it all.

For clarification purposes, my current torches are a standard
(Bernzomatic-type) propane torch, and probably the identical Spitfire Model
VTK (300 Series) shown here:
http://toolingaround.ca/sb.html  (scroll down a very short ways).

The latter is excellent for what it is.  But it's an aluminum device,
showing its age, and the valve doesn't seal perfectly -- meaning I have to
unscrew the torch from the bottle between uses.  I'm really quite impressed
with the heat it delivers from propane and ambient air.  This is not to say
it could hold a candle to a two-gas torch.  Still, since this torch is no
longer available, I've been tempted to whip up an equivalent
propane-ambient-air torch from bronze components. (But haven't.)

One of my applications is brazing or silver soldering, which I need to
re-learn.  Another is preheating steel so my HF flux-core welder will
handle the big stuff.  That works quite well, BTW.  My welds are ugly as
sin, for which I blame myself and not the welder, but they hold well.

Bruce
NJ

On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 3:15 AM, Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer <
artgawk at thegrid.net> wrote:

> I think Harris made a lot of the Sears torches Mike. Kinda graceless but
> functional. Parts might still be available.
> Er....No one would publicly advise that you get a nice, small, comfy,old
> victor torch like a J27 or a 100 and take a comparably small , reamed out
> tip, cut it off and thread the end to fit your little end tips. That's the
> sort of crap i'd do.
> I used to be able to butt weld 26 ga, but my hand has deteriorated a lot.
>
> On Sep 21, 2014, at 11:34 PM, Mike Spencer wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>
> Aircraft style torches generally have quite small tips available and are
> much more pleasant to use.
> Low pressure torches like the Meco or the Dillon/Henrob run even smaller,
> but the Smith/Tescom "Little Torch" with the ruby tips are really, really
> dinky.
>
> Um,, carbide tap? Localized temper draw?
>
>
> 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/                        ^^-^^
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