I have an old Smith torch which seems to be in fine condition except a bit of
the nickel plating has worn through. It has 2 welding tips and a cutting torch
attachment which uses the old-style threaded cutting torch tips. I am getting
ready to sell it locally, and I'm anticipating questions. I have never done any
brazing and my gas welding experience adds up to minutes, not years, so I really
don't know much about this stuff. What's the difference between a welding tip
and a brazing tip?

By the way, I found out something. On a regulator, when the secondary pressure
slowly creeps up, I was told it is always a bad seat. I also have a pair of old
Smith regulators, and the oxygen reg had this creep. The torch repair place said
they'd rebuild it, that it's massively worth it since when this was made it was
Smith's top of the line regulator, but that it was designed to have a
user-replaceable seat. Even has a little place where you unscrew a cap and lo
and behold there are 2 extra seats! I was able to fix my own seat and now this
regulator set works perfectly again. Really nice too, only a little dirty. I'm
writing this about replacing the regulator seat because I believe I remember
recently reading where someone had this exact problem.

Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington