Johnny

Posted this in another group.. Mighta been the wrong group in retrospect!

Have a (possibly) simple question for you. I've been trying to make some nice clean cuts on 1/4" but I seem to be having some problems. not very well versed in the cutting at all.. How I'm doing it is, setting acet to about 5 psi, and oxygen to 20-25.. I open the acet until it's pretty large and making a wooshing sound, then turn on the o2 at the top of the torch (The bottom one is wide open).. At this point, there are 3 flames.. The orange flame, then the middle one, and then the 5-6 little small ones around the circumference of the torch.. What I'm doing, is opening the o2 until the middle flame meets the little ones around the base, and then a tiny bit more so that when I hit the trigger, the flame doesn't really change (Well, I believe it gets less visible).. Is this completely wrong? I've heard people say that you have to adjust the middle flame for the thickness of the metal I'm cutting, but that would mean closing the oxygen from where I'm setting it now.. then when I pull the trigger, I assume that middle flame would get bigger.. It also seems to take longer to heat the metal if I leave the middle flame there (Although with the way I have it set now, I have to get the torch about 2mm away from the metal I'm heating)..

Now it 'works', but it's not a very nice cut, and half the time, the metal flows right back in to where I just cut and I have to go over it a few times.. Obviously making more blobs on the metal.

I'm not sure of the tip I'm using. Can't see any markings anywhere, but i get the feeling it's more in the settings where I'm going wrong.

Any advice is appreciated. THanks!

Well, there shouldn't be a middle flame- the central hole is for oxygen only. But that may be just too much acetylene clouding the picture, so to speak.

Try adjusting down the acetylene valve, and in step with that the upper (closer to the tip) oxygen valve.

When its right the flames should be neutral, or a little oxidizing- that means just enough O2 to get rid of the 'feather' in the flame. They should be fairly quiet, no orange, just bright blue in the center of each little flame in the ring of holes and blue.

If cutting back on the acet. and O2 valves doesn't give you a nice set of flames, you need to clean the tip.

If you hear any shrieking from the torch housing, or it gets hot, shut it down right away (close the torch valves), this means its burning inside the housing.

I really reccommend you get someone to give you a quick check-out in person on how to do this.

Dave