My acetylene finally ran out and been looking forward to swapping to a oxy propane setup due to the massive price increase in Acetylene and just the ease of getting my tank refilled and affordability.
Not to mention I should be able to knock some of the price of converting with being able to trade my old tank in towards the tips and regulator I’ll be needing. Anyone else here run an Oxy/Pro torch setup? What size tips and regulator should I be looking at to help out with the conversion?
Velocipede salon has a ton of info on this. I believe doug fattic has covered it at length.
Funny because I took my framebuilding course from Doug but we were still using acetylene at the time. I had to reset my PW as I’ve havent been on VS in a couple of years. How many people here run LPG instead of Acetylene?
This thread is a goldmine:
I pieced together a makeshift setup from that thread that thread with a BBQ tank, oxygen concentrator from Craigslist, Uniweld 71 torch handle, Victor UN-J mixer/elbow, Tinman Tech Lightweight hoses, and the Victor TEN style tips that have the small recess in the end for LP/Natural Gas/Propane.
If he’s an expert and both at prefers OA, it’s a strong vote in favor…
I want to do a propane and oxygen setup since it’s much cheaper i I work in my attached garage.
The tread is too long to read. I need a cliff notes version of it.
Buy this. Buy that. Light up and start brazing.
Get a 5 liter per minute oxygen concentrator. Get a Harris J 28 (or clone) or a Smith A1WA. Get the Paige tool tips, they have a framebuilder set. Paige tools It’s really nice to have kevlar hoses for the weight, but a beginner might want to skip them since flux can burn through them. You are still going to have to go to the local welding supply to get fittings for the propane and the oxygen concentrator.
I used to have a Oxygen Concentrator but sold it when I moved cross country. I have a AW1A torch so I’m building a cart in Cyberweld with the AT61 mixer/elbow so I can just replace the tips instead, new hose and regulator. Then I should be off to the races and cheaper flames.
I have basically the same setup. I also have the Paige tips. I can trade in my empty 20lb propane tank at the hardware store that’s walking distance from my home. Easy peasy!
Another one with this same set up and sourced from the knowledge shared by Doug.
I’ve also added a Gasflux inline fluxer and it works well.
Next I’d like to give the Paige tips a go. Anyone comment on going from the TEN multifuel tips to the Paige tips? Does it give a sharper tighter flame?
I use oxy/chemtane. I bought the chemtane about 10 years ago and don’t know if it’s still a thing, but it is a hotter burning LPG like MAPP. Central Welding in Seattle filled a BBQ cylinder for me.
I like it, it’s kind of a mix between the properties of acetylene and propane with the easier handling of propane. I used propane for years before that and think that I can do fillets better with chemtane (or maybe I just got better).
I have been searching for an oxygen concentrator on FB marketplace and CL. Nothing close and cheap enough.
Will get the torch and hoses while I am searching.
I just looked up the local medical supply place called and asked if they had a used one.
Got it even cheaper because the case had some mark in it that i couldn’t even find.
They kept calling me a year later saying it was of great concern as it needes annual service. They stopped calling after i explained it wasn’t hooked up to a human but rather hooked up to a torch.
FWIW, I was given a set of Paige tips because their previous owner found that they clogged up with flux from his Gasfluxer.
What size tips are you using?
Found one of these local on CL and it’s reasonable.
Will this work for a torch setup?
I have plenty of propane tanks.
5LPM is the magic number. Should be good to go.
Great to know. Thank you
I have been using oxy propane for 6 years, and only just moved to acetylne 2 months ago. Obviously the propane worked fine as I built around 55 frames with it, but I have to admit it is easier and much faster to put down some decent fillets with acetylene. I tried a lot of different tips for the propane setup but always came back to a tiny nr0 / 1mm. Anything biggger made it a lot more difficult to get enough control over the molten metal and I found myself burning more flux and filler. I did however use the tip with more pressure than advised, around 3 bar for both oxygene and propane. Biggest downside I found was more bubbles in the edges of the fillets, probably due to working with more oxygene to get it al nice and hot. And I got really annoyed having to refill the 10l oxygene bottle every 2.5 frames.
I am currently using the propane setup for smaller silver soldering and the acetylene setup for the bigger fillet.
