another noob

tim.mecklem · 2007-10-26T19:57:08+00:00

I'm getting into welding as a way to continue the tradition from mygrandfather (Navy airplane mechanic/GE aircraft engine inspector untilretirement) to me and get a chance to hang out with him. He's got aLincoln buzzbox and a MIG setup, and I'd like to complement those witha gas setup of my own. I've read through Welder's Handbook by RichardFinch about 10 times and I've got most of my setup planned orpurchased, apart from the actual torches and tanks. I'm stuck on whether to get the portable tank/torch kit and doexchanges on that to get started, or to jump right in and get a torchkit and lease some ~120 cu ft tanks. Anyone have any recommendationsfrom having been there? Also, I don't know much about my area(Northeast Cincinnati) in terms of good welding supply places, so cananyone point me in the direction of a good supply shop? I'm leaningtoward Weiler Welding or Airgas for the tanks at the moment, but Iwant to make sure it's a friendly shop and one that's willing to bepatient with a lot of basic questions.Tim

Oct 26, 2007 21 Replies

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Ernie Leimkuhler 18 years ago

You can't weld with LP gasses (propane, propylene, propadiene, chemtane, methane, MAPP, flamal) because of the hydrogen infused into the weld puddle. It makes the weld incredibly britile.

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Bruce in Bangkok 18 years ago

Years ago I was working in North thailand and acetylene was out of stock. I made an adapter to connect to an LPG bottle and it worked well for cutting and brazing but when one tried to weld steel with it would pop and blow the torch out about the time the puddle began to form.

I assumed that temperature had reached some critical figure and the LPG was exploding and blowing the torch out. We stopped trying to weld and did repairs by brazing until we got a new supply of acetylene.

Never did know why and always wondered.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap)

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