Hello Orchidmunity… I have a new Hoke torch that has a cruddy
valve on it. The gas knob at the torch doesn’t stay where I put it.
I turn it on to a certain level and it bounces back to a different
level. The happens on the gas knob. The oxygen knob has it’s own
peculiar personality too. It wants to stay shut…it’s like taking a
lid off a jelly jar the same time, I swear. You end up using so much
force that sometimes the thing opens up super wide and the oxygen
kills the gas flame! What a hassel.
I had a Meco before…but lost that in a custody battle …so I
got the Hoke. I’m starting to take a dim view of the Hoke and
thinking about sucking it up and buying the Meco again…it’s such a
nice torch. But…since money is always an issue and there are other
things I’d rather put in the budget right now, does anyone know what
I can do to straighten this torch out? I got it from Contenti a few
months ago. Thanks in advance for the wisdom and experience!
Have you tried to loosen and/or tighten the nut (use a small wrench
or pliers) around the fuel controls? They will adjust the 'pressure’
it takes
to turn them.
does anyone know what I can do to straighten this torch out?
The Hokes sometimes tend to have quirks like that. You can savely
use a little light silicone lube (not oil. Use the spray mold
release lubes) on the valves, which will help a little with the
stickiness. Note that this is only on the torch valves, which
operate at low gas pressures. NEVER use any such lubrication on
regulators or higher pressure gas connections. You can also use a
bit of graphite, but I like the silicone lubes better. It doesn’t
fix it all, but it helps. Also, remember that tightening or
loosening the cap nut on the valves (it’s the hex nut with a hole in
the center, through which the valve stems protrude) will adjust the
turning tension on the valves. Sometimes, all the valves need is a
bit of loosening of those nuts. Don’t make them looser than you
need.
And Lane Trubey, a now happily retired very fine platinumsmith who
probably no longer reades Orchid (hey, step in if you’re still here,
Lane), once suggested to me to try the modifications he’d made to his
Hoke. he drilled holes in the center of the valves, and inserted
carefully lathe turned replacement mating ends turned from Teflon.
These had no stickyness to them, and mated with the valve seats much
more smoothly, giving his valves a much better and more responsive
feel. One of these years I may yet get fed up enough with the
shitty Hoke valves on my torch at work, to follow his routine. The
torch I use at home is a Meco, though, for that very reason. The one
at work? well, it’s my bosses money. If he wants to pay me to waste
time fighting with the torch, well, that’s fine by me. I’ve told him
often enough that the torches are crap. But then so are the benches,
and quite a bit of the rest of the tooling we’ve got there… You
should SEE the fascinating texture those old corroded rolling mill
rollers leave on our sheet metal… (sigh).
does anyone know what I can do to straighten this torch
out?
The Hokes sometimes tend to have quirks like that. You can savely
use a little light silicone lube (not oil. Use the spray mold
release lubes) on the valves, which will help a little with the
stickiness. Note that this is only on the torch valves, which
operate at low gas pressures. NEVER use any such lubrication on
regulators or higher pressure gas connections. You can also use a
bit of graphite, but I like the silicone lubes better. It doesn’t
fix it all, but it helps.
A safety warning… make sure that anything which might come in
contact with pure oxygen (soap bubbles etc.) is NOT oil based. Oil
becomes explosive in the presence of oxygen from a torch. I once saw
a regulator which had the adjusting screw blown out due to oil
getting on the connection while changing tanks, it went thru a man’s
chest!!
Dan Wellman Speedway IN Home of the 500 and the old Linde plant (rumor
has it that there are lots of old Linde Stars buried on the property.)
…so I