Early yesterday morning I discretely tried to cut the base off of an old
die cart so that I could scrap the cart - and reuse the super heavy duty
castors on a small table that will become mobile. My workshop is
located in the garage of my former residence - now my rent house. Over
they years I have heard rumors that it is illegal to have welding tanks
(mine are commercial size) in a residential neighborhood - I have no
idea if this is true or an urban legend. I just try to keep them under
cover and only use them with the door closed. I have not used the
cutting head much the past few years and am out of practice.

When I tried to light the torch I kept getting a loud popping noise -
this was from acetylene only. Not the low key, discrete, 7 am torch
job. Once I finally got it lit, there was still an occasional popping
noise and numerous flame outs. I varied the acetylene from 4 to 6 psi
and the oxygen from 15 to 30 psi. The Harris torch (No. 62-3) was
sporting a Harris 3S tip. I tried to clean the tip but was unable to
find my tip cleaner - I finally found some MIG wire that was just the
right OD to clean out the cutting tip. Eventually I switched to an NTT
style 6290 No 1 tip. That seemed to work much better (virtually no
popping).

WHat am I doing wrong?
I noticed that the mixing head was very warm to the touch - is this normal?

You got dirt in one of your valves in your torch. It needs to go in for
repair. To avoid this, blow out your hoses before using them. - GWE

aribert wrote:

Early yesterday morning I discretely tried to cut the base off of an old
die cart so that I could scrap the cart - and reuse the super heavy duty
castors on a small table that will become mobile. My workshop is
located in the garage of my former residence - now my rent house. Over
they years I have heard rumors that it is illegal to have welding tanks
(mine are commercial size) in a residential neighborhood - I have no
idea if this is true or an urban legend. I just try to keep them under
cover and only use them with the door closed. I have not used the
cutting head much the past few years and am out of practice.

When I tried to light the torch I kept getting a loud popping noise -
this was from acetylene only. Not the low key, discrete, 7 am torch
job. Once I finally got it lit, there was still an occasional popping
noise and numerous flame outs. I varied the acetylene from 4 to 6 psi
and the oxygen from 15 to 30 psi. The Harris torch (No. 62-3) was
sporting a Harris 3S tip. I tried to clean the tip but was unable to
find my tip cleaner - I finally found some MIG wire that was just the
right OD to clean out the cutting tip. Eventually I switched to an NTT
style 6290 No 1 tip. That seemed to work much better (virtually no
popping).

WHat am I doing wrong?
I noticed that the mixing head was very warm to the touch - is this normal?

"Grant Erwin" wrote: You got dirt in one of your valves in your
torch.(clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Or a leak at one of the assembly points--a bad O-ring, or a nick in one of
the metal sealing surfaces.

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 23:18:10 -0400, aribert
wrote:

Early yesterday morning I discretely tried to cut the base off of an old
die cart so that I could scrap the cart - and reuse the super heavy duty
castors on a small table that will become mobile. My workshop is
located in the garage of my former residence - now my rent house. Over
they years I have heard rumors that it is illegal to have welding tanks
(mine are commercial size) in a residential neighborhood - I have no
idea if this is true or an urban legend. I just try to keep them under
cover and only use them with the door closed. I have not used the
cutting head much the past few years and am out of practice.

When I tried to light the torch I kept getting a loud popping noise -
this was from acetylene only. Not the low key, discrete, 7 am torch
job. Once I finally got it lit, there was still an occasional popping
noise and numerous flame outs. I varied the acetylene from 4 to 6 psi
and the oxygen from 15 to 30 psi. The Harris torch (No. 62-3) was
sporting a Harris 3S tip. I tried to clean the tip but was unable to
find my tip cleaner - I finally found some MIG wire that was just the
right OD to clean out the cutting tip. Eventually I switched to an NTT
style 6290 No 1 tip. That seemed to work much better (virtually no
popping).

WHat am I doing wrong?
I noticed that the mixing head was very warm to the touch - is this normal?

The mixing chamber is plugged as is part of the tip(s). The popping
sound was the flame sucking back into the mixing chamber. Hence the
warm head.

A complete and through cleaning is in order.

Gunner

Rule #35
"That which does not kill you,
has made a huge tactical error"

"aribert" wrote in message
...
Early yesterday morning I discretely tried to cut the base off of an old
die cart so that I could scrap the cart - and reuse the super heavy duty
castors on a small table that will become mobile. My workshop is
located in the garage of my former residence - now my rent house. Over
they years I have heard rumors that it is illegal to have welding tanks
(mine are commercial size) in a residential neighborhood - I have no
idea if this is true or an urban legend. I just try to keep them under
cover and only use them with the door closed. I have not used the
cutting head much the past few years and am out of practice.

When I tried to light the torch I kept getting a loud popping noise -
this was from acetylene only. Not the low key, discrete, 7 am torch
job. Once I finally got it lit, there was still an occasional popping
noise and numerous flame outs. I varied the acetylene from 4 to 6 psi
and the oxygen from 15 to 30 psi. The Harris torch (No. 62-3) was
sporting a Harris 3S tip. I tried to clean the tip but was unable to
find my tip cleaner - I finally found some MIG wire that was just the
right OD to clean out the cutting tip. Eventually I switched to an NTT
style 6290 No 1 tip. That seemed to work much better (virtually no
popping).

WHat am I doing wrong?
I noticed that the mixing head was very warm to the touch - is this
normal?


One other possibility: Did you agitate the acetylene tank? Or was it
nearly empty? It is possible you were getting a bit of acetone to the
torch. That can "pop" pretty good, too. Acetylene tanks need to stand
upright for several hours before use.

Jerry