On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 23:58:23 +0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded
wrote:
In rec.crafts.metalworking,
Don Foreman wrote:

I would recommend going with a 20 cu ft acetylene and 40 cu ft oxy.
The cost isn't much different and they cost about the same to fill so
your gas cost goes way down and you don't have to get them filled as
often. It doesn't take long to deplete an MC acetylene even with
light torchwork. They're a little heavy to "tote" both at once, but
they're very easy to handle on a small two-wheel dolly.

I've seen those kits availble with and without the cylinders. So
you'd recommend I get one without the cylinders and get bigger ones?
I haven't found prices for cylinders online. My local gas supplier
would probably be praxair and I can't find any prices on their site,
nor even what cylinder sizes they would have. Maybe I'll have to
stop by the store.

Rule #1 - Whatever you think you want to work on now, inevitably
you'll end up doing bigger things. Today tire-iron sculptures,
tomorrow I-beam sculptures.

Rather than buying too small and having to replace everything later,
I went with a better Victor Contractor Plus welding kit, which will
handle the big jobs, then got adapters to make the full-size
regulators work with the smaller B and MC Acetylene cylinder fittings.
(And then I got two sets of 50 CF oxygen and B acetylene bottles so
I'm never left hanging.)

You can always get small welding and cutting tips to fit on the big
torches, but you can't go the other way.

I've used those Porta-Torch kits with the smallest MC (20 CF?)
Acetylene cylinder, and they are only good for brazing or welding very
small stuff like air conditioning linesets - they simply don't have
enough gas to do big jobs. If you try, as soon as you get the flame
set right the bottles go dry. Been there, Done that...

Even a B Acetylene can't do too much big work, since you can't use
more than 1/7 of the acetylene cylinder capacity per hour - but when
you start doing really big jobs, you will probably get a rental set of
large gas cylinders delivered to the jobsite. Just remove the B
adapter and attach your regulator to the big bottle.

-- Bruce --
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
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