On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 01:33:43 +0000 (UTC), Ian Stirling wrote:
Gary Coffman wrote:
On 25 Jul 2003 09:07:53 -0700, (Joe) wrote:
Hello everyone, I'm in the market for an oxy-acetylene welding/cutting
snip
The thing you can't do with O/A, at least you can't do it well, is to
cut non-ferrous materials. A plasma will cut anything conductive,
but O/A works by using a jet of oxygen to burn iron that's been
preheated to ignition temperature. That won't work cleanly with
other metals (doesn't even work with cast iron).

Can you cut aluminium?

Not the way you'd cut steel. Hitting the oxygen lever just makes
a godawful mess (aluminum oxide has a *much* higher melting
point than pure aluminum). You can melt through it with a welding
tip, and since aluminum is hot short, it can be convinced to drop
out, but the cut will be ugly and very ragged.

Gary