Acetylene torch advice..

It's a small welding tip, Dana.

Enjoy your o/a setup. Welding, soldering, brazing with a torch are way fun.
 
It is a very small tip that is 1 step above the largest Little Torch tip, I use it for soldering and silver brazing. Gib
 
I just completed the order. $213 for all. This includes the 000 tip.

Thanks for all the help!

Dana
 
A 000 welding tip is a itty bitty thing that will allow some pretty delicate soldering or brazing work to be done. However if you intend to WELD anything you will want a larger tip. Your local welding supplier should have a tip chart that will give you an idea of the capabilities of different tip sizes. Myself for cutting, I generally have a #1 tip in the torch for 90% of the cutting work I do.
 
Fellas,
I originally bought my setup for brazing/oxidizing work a while back, and now I find myself wanting to go out and weld stuff.
What metals is OA capable of welding? Just need to get a basic idea of what all types of metals I need to be on the lookout for. I'm going to gather some scraps and start practicing.
Also, what kind of rod(s) should I use for OA welding? I know welding shops are better, but I have a Home Depot very close by, and I noticed a ton of MIG/Stick/Tig electrodes/rods, but only a few other small rods, that were called "brazing rods" (forgot the code on them.). The back of the package on these "brazing rods" said they were nickel alloy? I think, and could also be used for welding.
Just looking for a good rod to OA practice weld with.
I'm looking to hone my skills, and start playing with a TIG welder...
 
Razor, you are on the right track if you want to learn to TIG weld. When I went to welding school, long, long ago, you were not allowed to do any kind of electrical welding until you had mastered the art of O/A welding, brazing and cutting. A good cheap way to learn is to use scraps that are no thicker than .125. They heat up quickly and you can use a small tip to make butt welds and fillet welds. Move to .187 or .250 stock and larger tips when you get the hang of things. If you can master gas welding, TIG welding will be a breeze. We used to use wire coat hangars for cheap, practice filler material when good steel rod was not available.
 
Thanks Fox,
I was also wondering what type of metals are best to practice with?
Also, I will try the coat hanger thing, but would also like to know what kind of rods should be used? Are they just referred to as "steel rods"? Thanks bud.
 
Torch might be different but from my experience your best bet is to learn with plain old mild steel. Its cheap for one thing, and it welds pretty easy. Higher strength/carbon steels take more heat to weld, and then you have the issue of hardening it and having brittle welds and all that to deal with. Stainless steel supposedly welds the easiest (at least electric welding) but its too expensive to play with when your just starting out.

I don't know what all materials its possible to weld with O/A.

In the fabricating class I'm in we started welding on a torch and we weld 14 gauge sheet metal. They don't let us use filler and it drives me nuts cause you can't put anything back when you burn too deep. Started out running flat beads, then a 90 butt weld that we had to flatten in a vice for grading.
 
razorhunter said:
Thanks Fox,
I was also wondering what type of metals are best to practice with?
Also, I will try the coat hanger thing, but would also like to know what kind of rods should be used? Are they just referred to as "steel rods"? Thanks bud.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of different rod types available, depending you what types of steel you are using. As Matt stated, use mild steel if you have it. Most welding shops and home supply chains carry plain, mild steel welding rod. It is usually coated with a copper plate or wash. If you are welding specialty carbon steels you will need rod specifically for that purpose. For learning, your best and cheapest bet is to try and find mild steel and use the coat hanger solution. As you become more experienced then you can try some other steels if you want to find the right rod. For the most part, specialty steels are welded with electric arc using special rods and fluxes, or with TIG and special filler rods with helium or argon coverage.

As a side note, you can actually do some nice brazing with TIG. Years ago we used to use a bronze alloy rod called Everdur. Rather than using a torch with brass and flux, you could get small locally heated brazes by heating your steel close to the melting point and filling with the Everdur. It was pretty slick stuff and very, very strong. Eutectic makes some incredible fluxes and rods for welding and brazing dissimilar metals.
 
First bottles. In my part of the world, you can rent, lease or by your bottles out right. The smaller bottles have to be refilled, the larger ones can be exchanged. If you buy your bottles, you just exchange them for full ones when their empty. The bottles you get from your gas supplier will have their name on them and you cannot get them filled anywhere else. If you move or want to change suppliers, you show them proof of ownership and they give you unmarked bottles that you can begin exchangeing somewhere else. They take care of the hydro testing, bottle repairs etc. I have both small and large bottles. The small bottles are great for portability and storage but since they are refilled, not exchanged, I have to have them tested occasionally which costs you in time and money. Renting and leasing are usually not bad options but in the long run, you will wind up paying for the bottles many times over.
Now wire. For thin mild steel, especially for practice, you cannot beat baling wire (please with hold all farmer comments). Im not talking about tie wire from your hardware store but real used baling wire from hay bales. Find a stable or farm and they will give it to you by the truck load. Due to the increasing use of twine and pellets, it is harder to find but there are still tons of it out there for the taking. For brazing, you will need quality rod and flux. Your can weld aluminium with your torch with the right rod and flux and lots of practice. I have yet to master it, but you can use aluminium arc welding rods with your torch to. If I remember right Eutectic (sp?) is supposed to make some awesome gas welding fluxes for aluminium and others. Don't overlook silver brazing (sometimes called solder but definitely not solder) as a source of strong welds. Silver brazing is strong enough to braze bandsaw blades together. A few lessons will go a long way, a good book will help to. A little learning will save lots of headaches. Oh, yeah, Victor gets my vote too. I'm the king of cheap, but sometimes a little extra money is well spent. One last word of advice, just because it looks like a wrench should go on it doesnt mean it should. Read the instructions to avoid ruining you seals!!!
 
Baling wire is a great idea, hadn't thought of that. FYI most farm stores carry it, a 100lb roll (minumum 6500 FEET!) is around $35. You could do a lot of welding with 6500 ft, and that way its clean and not all kinked up.
 
For brazing flux don't by the expensive flux, go to the grocery store and get some laundry Borax, works great for both brazing and forge welding. Gib
 
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