Tag Archives: acetylene torches
Oxy-Acetylene Welding is the welding process of heating two pieces of metal to melting point, bringing the parts together and while still in a molten stage hammered together to form a joint. Learning how to weld using this process will give a complete overview of welding.
The Oxy-Acetylene Welding process requires the use of a special welding torch that mixes oxygen and acetylene gasses that can produce a small intense flame heat of up to 6300 degrees. This temperature is more than twice the melting point of most metals.
This process has been widely used in the past for the manufacture of wrought iron projects such as iron gates and fences. These methods have widely been superseded by the introduction of electric arc welding.
Today Oxy acetylene welding is generally restricted to industries that work with copper pipe and the joining of copper and brass. Other specialized applications include such as building up of brass wear plates and the welding of cast iron housings that may be cracked using brass or bronze rods as a filler.
Gas Cutting Using Oxy-Acetylene.
Most gas torches include a function for gas cutting. This is in the form of a lever style valve that allows an extra burst of oxygen through the cutting torch to the work that has been heated to melting point.
This injection of oxygen to the work causes the parent metal to burn away with great force and speed, producing a small narrow cut in the metal.
Using this method has allowed metals to be cut easily either manually or by machines called profile cutters. Gas cutting manually can easily cut metals of 1/16 of an inch and up to two inches where as profile cutting can cut steels up to four inches thick.
Many profile cutting machines now use LPG gas instead of acetylene as the flame and cut produced is cleaner. Propane torches for auto and manual cutting are constructed differently to acetylene torches and also require different cutting tips
When choosing welding rods try to avoid buying inferior quality as the better your grade of material in the welding rod the better the end result will be.
Your welding rod is used to lay over additional metal to the weld therefore it needs to match the parent metal. If the metals are dissimilar then best efforts to locate a filler rod comprising of a composition of the two metals. For example if welding manganese, or nickel specific welding rods of specific alloys are recommended.
Welding wire and Oxy-Acetylene Welding rods are most always of Norway steel. This grade is most pure and gives a sound soft weld especially suited to machining if required. When welding aluminium the proper rod is most important as aluminium is difficult to weld and requires alloyed rods to ensure even flowing.