I am a hobbyist blacksmith and I need to use a cutting torch sometimes. I saw a Victor Proline and a Cutskill medium duty outfit both being offered on e-bay. What are the differences between the various Victor product lines and is either one of these setups appropriate for me?
Thanks, Rob
On Jan 24, 3:10 pm, "Rob" wrote:
Hopefully the new google groups interface will pass this try on.
I'd say that you'd need to google up Victor's website and see what's included in the kits. I'm personally not a big fan of kits, the ones I've seen have a handful mid-range welding tips and include one cutting tip that's usually too large or too small for the work at hand. The regulators included are usually the economy single-stage ones and probably wouldn't work with the larger cutting tips. The best you can say is that you CAN cut and you CAN weld with the set, maybe not with the optimum tips for the thickness of work you've got.
Victor has three sizes of handles, plus some dedicated(large) cutting torches for demolition and shipyard work. There's cutting attachments to match each handle size. A #1 tip handles the same size work whether it's for the largest or smallest handle, the physical size is different for each handle size, though. So there's three series of tips, you have to know not only what tip number you want but which handle size you want to use it with when you buy one. My approach would be to find a local welding supply shop that carries Victor and check out the goods in person. The small handle is very handy but it's small enough you could get hand cramps if you have large hands and it's limited to the size of material it can cut. The large handles can take the largest cutting tips but are bulky and, for me, a real pain to use for a long time. Caffeine addicts may like them because they damp out the tremors, though. If you're doing only sheetmetal, you may want just the small handle and cutting attachment or get a plasma cutter. If you're cutting up battleship armor, you're going to need the big handle and biggest tips. If you do JUST cutting, you may want to look into propane cutting tips, they're not included in any kit I've seen but the savings in gas cost would make them worth while. In any case, you need the tip charts to figure out which tips you're going to need, how big the work is you can see yourself doing and how big the tanks are that you're going to need. The tip charts list the flow rate for each tip size, you can only pull 1/7th the contents of an acetylene tank per hour, the bigger the tank, the faster flow rate you can have. Tip charts used to be on the Victor web site for download, suppliers usually have them out for gratis.
If all you want it for is cutting, just get a handle and cutting attachment with your selection of tips and a good set of regulators. Sometimes suppliers have used equipment or stuff left for repairs that they flog cheap for the cost of the repairs. Some of the ones around here would give you discounts since they KNOW your're going to be back for gas
Stan
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