Technical Alternatives to Oxy/Acetylene Torch??????

It's too bad that I just sold my small portable OA setup last month. It would have been a long drive, but I sold it for 40 bux, including the extra A tank. No torch.

 

Torches are a tool that once you have them you well wonder have you lived without them, but I will also say I have seen far more wishbones heated and kinked then I have ever seen heated and bent.

Pie cutting and welding is the way to go.

How I did mine.

 

I like those gussets!

 

Thats a good deal Blues 4 you posted, tanks too. Has the OP abandoned us ?

 

Check your local classifieds , facefart marketplace , swapmeets etc .

I bought a bunch of torch stuff 2 heads , multiple heating and cutting tips rose bud , brazing tips , 2 sets of hoses and a bunch of gauges .for 200 bucks .

there was more then enough for 2 sets , I sold a set to a buddy for $100 bucks and he bought a new hose set at princess auto for dirt cheap .

I was lucky and got a set of tanks from work that were not expired and had them filled .

absolutely the one tool once you have it you cannot live without it .

 

<<absolutely the one tool once you have it you cannot live without it.>>
Virtually true: When I turned 13, I bought a '36 three window coupe. One of the members of 'Hernando's Racing Team' was the bodyman at United Motors. He liked my enthusiasm, so brought me his home set of Oxy Acet torshes, standard size Victor.
After a 'crash course' in welding sheet metal, (he stood and supervised 'til I was on a path (!)
Stopped by every day after work, was surprised at the improvement.
I chopped the top on that car. Mistakes were made, then corrected.
Loved that torch! Did lots of jobs with it...Practice made perf...Well, improvements. Took awhile, but I ended up doing wonderful tiny welds that surprised me...

 

cut and weld or hydraulic press sound like good alternatives. or set it up in some sort of jig and use a long pipe...
“Give me a firm place to stand and a lever and I can move the Earth.”

 

I'm thinking that the OP may have been blown away with the number of off the wall and rather goofball suggestions.
The best were find someone with a torch that can help do it or take it to as shop to have it done. Some were a bit beyond lame.
I built my T bucket with the help of friends, Either by carrying the parts up to Paul Charles to have him weld them or have him heat and bend something. A few times I packed a piece to the local job shop weldigng shop to have it welded. I never owned a Torch or welder until long after I built that car.

 

As an alternative, fabricate a simple jig and take the parts elsewhere to be modified / bent accordingly to suit jig. That way you know parts will fit.

 

All I can add is if you buy used tanks, be sure you have someplace you can exchange or have them filled, before you buy. Many welding gas suppliers around here have restrictions on tanks they can take, especially tanks larger then 100 CF. There is a company name just under the collar, when I was a sub-dealer for a large welding supply near here, I could only exchange tanks with 4 different names on them, I could not accept none of the others, especially local competitors' tanks.

In my welding shop, over 30 years, I probably averaged using my torch about two hours combined time each year. When you need it, its invaluable, but most of the time it just occupies space. Be sure you close the valves tight when your done using them, or the next time, there probably won't be enough gas left to get the job done.

 

No. like others have said, buy a used setup....it's worth it. Don't be afraid to drive far to get one and find one with the most attachments.

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/tls/7565465880.html 2 for 1

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/tls/7565681063.html

https://santamaria.craigslist.org/tls/7562700364.html

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/tls/7557748164.html

 

I've got to admit that my torch set is the least used tool in my shop.

I don't seem to cut anything thicker than maybe 1/4 steel so on that stuff I use the old 4-1/2 grinder with a cut off wheel. And since most everything I bend seems to be as thin I bend most things cold.

In 8 yrs I've only changed out my smaller bottles only once.

But when I need it I do have it!

.

 

Some good advice from @gene-koning on tanks. I have a long rant about tanks here, perhaps move on if bored easily. So, my first victor torch set I bought new, in about 72. Next I got tanks thru a lease deal from the closest place, thats how they did it, not too bad, about 75 bucks every 5 years for 2 tanks. In 77 I moved to the farm and the closest place was now a farmer who was a gas rep for a side job, life was great as I could get a refill any time, any day 5 miles from home. Perfect ! outa gas at 10:00 Saturday night? Call him, he'll be waiting for ya. Sadly, he died, and then the dealership was taken over by the gas station in town. Well, they close at 5, and not open on Saturday's. I worked road construction much of my life, so getting home about 8 or 9 at night was the norm, and for many years I had to beg one of the neighbors to get my tanks filled by 5. Some where along the line I added a tank for the mig welder, so the cheap lease was up to about 300 every 5 years. In 2010 I had a fire in the shop. Fire is bad, we wont discuss that now. So in the fire, 3 tanks burned. There is a lead plug in these tanks that is designed to melt out to prevent explosion. Hard to see until its melted, but trust me they all have it. So the lease company charged me 300 per tank, x3, 900 bucks, and my contract was due again, which was now up to 500 for 5 years. I payed the 900 as I have a perfect credit rating, but said fuck the lease, I have been paying that for 38 years....I want my own tanks. So, one by one I found tanks to buy, then I needed a new company to fill them. The first place said bring em in, we'll look at them. They had an agreement with a couple companys to not accept their tanks, but luckily mine were accepted. The guy there said" if you have a collar on top with a name on it, grind it off"!
That place closed in the scamdemic, and I now have two others that exchange the tanks which by now have been exchanged many times, I own them. Now have 2 pairs of oxy and accet, and mig mix, and pure for tig. All the tanks I have bought were out dated, its 35 bucks to be certified. Combustable gas every 5 years, non combustible every 10 years. Wake up....I'm done

 

Chino is near Cucamonga.

 

Excellent Dave, reminds me of a world I used to know. Sadly, its gone now

 

Wow $35 to re-cert a bottle ? Your lucky! A friend just had 2 330s re-certified $110 each, but then our money is worthless. I'm guessing the smaller one have the same valve likely the same price. Plus they only do Oxy & mig gas if you want acetylene redone the bottles have to be shipped to Great Falls,MT.

 

I use oxygen and LP gas to cut with or heat but you can't weld but much cheaper to use.

 

Here is how I set up my torches. I'm too lazy to do much changing, so I put a "T" off the tanks and mounted two sets of guages and hoses. That allows me to have a small torch with a smaller and easier to use hose for times when I need minimal heat such as welding sheetmetal or small heated patches for shrinking something.
When I need major heat from a cutting torch or a rosebud, I turn on the large torch. It also saves somewhat having to readjust pressure as a rosebud setting is a lot higher than a welding setting. The guages basically are already set depending on which torch I need. Only need one set of bottles as well. Be advised that the torches for sheetmetal are often much smaller than what you "interchange" on a large torch. "Aircraft" torches are sized more correctly for thin work. If you buy a large "cutting" torch, you can heat with it but its nice to have an interchangable "rosebud" for heating stuff. The "interchangable" tips for "welding" are mostly too large for any thin work and when anyone does something thicker, they usually use a Mig these days. So those extra tips are often useless.




Oh, by the way...........this wasn't my idea. I stole it from the local aero club.

 

I guess it depends on what other stuff you have, and what type of work you're doing, and how seriously you get into doing things the old way. I use my torch quite a bit, I used it last week to weld a trunk latch striker back together.

 

I like it, I something similar on my large tank set…but just to hold a propane tank.
When I said “small” I meant my small tanks vs large tanks. I try not to use the small ones much, but I wheel it out back through a walkway I have.

 

@ekimneirbo I just read your captions, you mention “not having to adjust gauges”. Safe practice is to back the regulators off all the way when not in use.

 

An acetylene torch comes in handy for all sorts of things. Right now, on my current car, I use it to heat up all those stubborn rusted bolts that penetrating oil does nothing to.

 

@gene-koning you would be the one to ask. I was told years ago that to certify a tank, a “ring” would be dropped over it to make sure it wasn’t swelling, etc. Is there more to it than that?

Maybe better to ask what is the process to certify a tank?

 

The gas and air are the expensive part. The torch set is not all that expensive. I’m lucky in that I just get my bottles at work. I don’t use my torch very often, but couldn’t live without it.

 

Yup ^^^, I have the biggest bottle for my tig welder, and that size argon refill is about like a house payment. TURN IT OFF damn it ! Anyone ever forget and find an empty tank? or am I the only dim wit here ?

 

Nope, things here seem to get dimmer by the day. I turn the tanks off everyday and then I end up rechecking everything before I go in for the night. I learned to do that by having tanks go empty when I "thought" I had turned them off.

Probably best, but I don't do it. Just too lazy I guess.

 

The other bonus to winding your regulators all the way out is it gives another layer of shut off.

Phil

 

Put a little sharpie mark on the gauges

 

If you buy used tanks they should be what the welding industry refers to as “customer owned”. They do not have a neck ring with a name on it, and you can exchange this type of cylinder at any welding supply for a full “customer owned”. Tanks with neck rings that have a welding supply company’s name on them are usually “rental cylinders”. As the name implies, they are rented from the welding supply and remain that companies property. You DO NOT want to end up buying this type of cylinder.

 

Another tip, take a soapy water spray bottle with you when swapping tanks, my dad always checked his when he got home. Once he had on leaking somewhere around the valve, had to take it back. Alway been spraying them on pick up since. Only found one leaking is the last 30+ years though, but sucks when a “new bottle” is damned near empty when you go to use it.