FYI The worst thing you can do with regulars is leave them set and simply
turn off the high pressure valve on the tank. When you turn on the tank
with the pressures already set the little regulator valve is hammered closed
with such force that it damages the seat.
Smith are good quality.
Randy

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
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