but I wanted to tell you all that I found a book which had the
secret: Light the damn thing like a one gas torch! Add oxygen after
lighting. (Remove the oxygen before turning off the fuel) That
about right?
Yes, that’s about right. I’ve use oxy-acet and air-acet torches for
40 years, since I was 14, welding, cutting, soldering, brazing,
melting, burning, emergency lighting, whatever needed heating. It
takes some practice but it’s possible to turn on both gases at once
and light the thing with a nice, loud, satisfying pop. For more fun,
empty cans or pop containers can be filled with a mixture and
ignited, for cheap, easy, projectiles or just more loudbangs. But do
not try this at home; I’m a professional. (^8
here’s what i learned when i first started lampworking: POOP. ok, i
know it seems childish but it means propane oxy for turning it on
and oxy then propane for turning it off. in essence fuel oxy–on,
oxy/fuel–off. since propane is used in lampwork, thus the acronym.
but it applies to whatever fuel is in use. i’ll say this for
POOP–you never forget it.
I use Sievert, a Swedish brand and widely available in Europe, the
reason I prefer propane above butane is that propane create more heat
and is cleaner than butane I have 5 interchangeable tips with it, one
for melting, one for big works like bracelets, 2 different sizes for
smaller works and one fine one for small chains or? ( I never use it,
it came with the package)
here is an overview from the various interchangeable tips,
Alma, It depends somewhat on what gas you are using. If propane,
what you describe is great. If acetylene, lighting the gas first
results in black parachutes all over the place, in you hair, on your
nose, etc. Get the picture? When lighting my acetylene/O2 torch I
crack the O2 just a bit and then the gas. It does make a little pop
but the flame is nice and clean. Re turning off, for the past 50+
years I have always turned off the gas first then the O2. Why? So the
O2 purges the torch tip and clears any lingering gas or lit soot. No
sure it is really a big difference…more a choice.
Heading for Tucson tomorrow at 0 dark thirty hours! If anyone gets
out to Electric Park, stop by the Graves Lapidary tent and introduce
yourself.
For more fun, empty cans or pop containers can be filled with a
mixture and ignited, for cheap, easy, projectiles or just more
loudbangs. But do not try this at home; I'm a professional.
Part of my miss spent youth involved filling ballons with a proper
mix of O2 and acet. Nice flash and noise. Big mistake handing a
large balloon to a co worker. Straight acet and black snow every
where. It took hours to clean up the mess before the boss came back
from lunch. He never got near my torch again.
I was a professional at the time (main goldsmith and some management)
but a little kids brain fits into a fat adult skull with room to
spare.
Thank you Don for explaining the procedure with acetylene. I was
referring to propane and should have specified it. I did not know
that lighting an acetylene/O2 was a different procedure. Learn so
much for all of you.
When I learned I was told to follow GO GO. Gas on, Oxygen on. Gas
Off, Oxygen off. Or simply Gas On, Gas Off. Oxy follows after the
gas has been either turned on or off. Simple to remember.
I learned Poop : Propane, oxygen, oxygen, propane. At least we agree
on the “On”-order.
Yes, with oxy/acetylene torches, the welding people had me (when I
was a wee welder of 14 ) turn the gas off first instead of the O.
Keeps the acetylene from burning all by itself aand giving off that
nasty soot. Same deal when turning on; gas plus a little O ignites a
flame that doesn’t put out soot. The only time I had a real back
flash was welding with too weak of a flame using a huge tip ; a
spark went up the tip and kerblooey !!!, what a bang THAT makes, and
not the good kind, because you’re not expecting it. One of the more
interesting things I did with the (Old Faithful) torch was use the
cutting head to weld some 1/2" steel pieces on a bracelet doming
‘machine’ (talk about ‘Old Faithful’) many moons ago. Even the
biggest normal torch tip wasn’t cutting it (I mean ‘welding’ it !),
so cranked up the heat and got 'er done (gitted 'er done ?).
Well Andreas, I didn’t do a good job of clarifying my GO GO, I work
in Acetylene, not propane, so perhaps that could account for the
difference. Today I use only Acetylene, Atmospheric Air, no Oxygen.
But in my training, I used Acetylene and Oxygen so it was important
in class to get it right, hence the GO GO which helped us remember.
I can’t speak to Propane because I have never used it other than on
my bar-b-que grill.
Jeff, I never tried loading baloons with gas but it sounds like fun.
One good thing about having parents who were not involved in the
parenting process is that I was left to my own devices in a lot of
ways, and allowed to have things (welding torch, chemicals for
fireworks, model rockets, etc.) that afforded me a certian amount of
creativity. One fun thing I discovered with a co-worker, when the
boss was away, was to get a big coffee can and set it upside down,
loaded with gas, with a lighting hole poked in the bottom (now
facing up). Those make a great big bang and shoot the can up a good
15 feet. Of course, the boss wasn’t happy when he found out from the
boss of the shop that shared the building with us, who’d told him
that his workers were freaking out, very stressed about the noise.
Our boss was at least as crazy as my worker friend and I, and we
didn’t even get a slap on the wrists. I haven’t thought about this
guy for a long time, but he was practically certifiable. Often when
he was working on the other side of a partition in the shop, random
objects would come soaring over the partition for no apparent reason
; a phone book one day, empty pop cans, just little reminders, I
guess, to let us know he was there. Pretty cool, as bosses go, in
other words. Sigh… not that I miss working in jewelry sweat shops.
