With your help I have purchased a Meco Midget torch. It’s all hooked
up and ready to go. I read the archives for how to light it. I have a
refilable propane & oxygen tanks. And am having problems with blowing
out the torch when I add the oxygen.
But I am still confused…the tips I got with it came from Grobet
and are: Tip 1/0. tip 1, tip 2 They appear to be the N1, N2, N3 tips
in the Otto Frei catalog & are the ones that came with the torch.
I looked in Otto Frei at the NG tips, but they say they are for
“natural gas only”. But! in the archives I find everyone referring to
using NG tips from Otto Frei with propane on the Meco Midget.
Has the catalog changed and the NG’s are no longer for propane, is
the catalog wrong?
One other concern/thought…when I hooked up my hoses to the torch
the hoses all ready had a fitting on them. So I took off the fitting
that came with my torch. To my naked eye, the fittings on the hoses
had a slightly larger oriface then the torch fitting. Is this a
problem?
Carla - tips for the Meco Midget are a bother. Don’t get me wrong,
I absolutely love the torch. Since Victor bought the Meco company,
they have done a lousy job of keeping up with what we need. What’s
worked for me is the following - a #40 tip for small work and medium
gold stuff. I have, but don’t like, the N-0, N-1 and N-2 tips. My
work horses for silver are the ventilated tips, #3,5, and 7. Now
all I can find to replace them is #0, 1, and 2.
The reason your flame is blowing out is that you have too much
pressure from your oxygen bottle. I use a two stage gauge made by
Meco that lets me read low pressures accurately. I have residential
natural gas pressure, the 4 oz kind, and set my oxygen to deliver at
8 pounds. I originally had a conventional two stage gauge on the
oxygen bottle, and it did exactly what’s happening to you. I
vaguely recall that ottofrei has the low pressure gauge. The max
pressure this gauge delivers is 60 pounds, and it is graduated in 2
pound increments.
You may also note that sometimes very tiny orifices on your tip will
require an even lower pressure initially.
With your help I have purchased a Meco Midget torch. It's all
hooked up and ready to go. I read the archives for how to light it.
I have a refilable propane & oxygen tanks. And am having problems
with blowing out the torch when I add the oxygen.
Did you set the gas/oxy pressure at the regulators to
specifications? 5 - 7 lbs is usually sufficient.
One other concern/thought...when I hooked up my hoses to the
torch the hoses all ready had a fitting on them. So I took off the
fitting that came with my torch. To my naked eye, the fittings on
the hoses had a slightly larger oriface then the torch fitting. Is
this a problem?
It shouldn’t be. As long as the fitting seats to the torch body,
there shouldn’t be a problem
Thanks for the suggestion on tank pressure, regulator pressure. You
all were right. Once I backed off on the pressure my tips stayed
lit.
But as to those different Meco Torch tips. I have yet to get an
explanation of the difference between the flat straight drill N
tips, the NR tips and the NG tips. Now I am driven by curiousity on
these damn torch tips. If you have a Otto Frei catalog on pages
340-341 there are 3 different torch tips. The basic ones that came
with it, on page 340. Then the recessed tips on top of page 341 and
the ventilated tips below that, that several people use and like a
lot. Otto Frei could not tell me the difference. Tin Man could not
tell me the difference. Ack. So I ordered one of each and am going
to see the difference for myself. My concern is that a friend sez
she can’t use her smaller tips as they blow out. So I am wondering
if these other tips work better at the lower end. Plus at this point
I’m just plain curious.
I will report back my findings.
Thanks for all your help as I learn how to use my new toy…er tool!