Advice on old gas welding equiptment please

[the familar]

Hi there, Been reading a lot on the site recently and have managed to aquire some oldish oxy acetylene equiptment. I did a gas welding course at a local college a few years ago so am comfortable with safty and using but have no real savvy about different torches ect as this was never covered.

I have been given an old portapak with the following items included.

TROLLEY
SAFFIRE 3 with a cutting torch, heating torch and about 5 heads for attatching nozzles.

lots of no.3 nozzles
lots of no.5 nozzles
lots of big nozzles inluding sizes 38 and 45?

a saffire fn50 torch with 2 cutting heads inc nozzles and various welding nozzles.

nozzle cleaners, goggles ect.

regulators and hoses.


I have two questions primarily!



firstly the regulators do not have dials on them they have the small cylinders that show pressure on them? Are these any good as I am used to twin dials. Is this because this is the portapak and if so any advice please?

the second question is about the different torches. I want to do creative welding with this set up. I only want to make sculptures with scrap metal Ie. old washing machine panels lightweight tube and steel rods.
The saffire 3 with the big cutting torch and large nozzles is very cumbersome as I am not a big bloke. is there anything I can't do with the smaller fn50 torch and cutter?

Sorry about the length of this question but I dont want to make mistakes and dont like owning tools I dont need as they just sit there when they might be used by someone.

Cheers in advance.

Gregg.

 

[Charred fingers]

Hi mate,
Q1 I,ve used regulators without gauges, have a look at where the
adjuster screws in, there will probably be pressure markings round
the shank, you set them by screwing the inner face of the adjuster
to the relevant mark. The settings may not be particularly accurate
but you will be in the right ball park.

Q2 The combination guns are absolute dog to use, heavy cumbersome
difficult to get into awkward spaces, If I were you I'd keep the best
one in case you want to do some cutting, sell the other (ebay maybe)
and put the money towards a decent dedicated lightweight welding
torch. I bought a cheap Butbro 20 years ago and am still using it.

 

[Weldingartisan]

The regulators you have were made for rough site use, but I haven't seen them for years so make sure they are suitable for current cylinder pressures. I'm assuming the small cylinders you mention are the stepped contents indicators that pop out when the cylinder valve is opened? This being the case the outlet pressure is shown on the barrel of the regulator body, similar to cheap argon regulators. You will struggle to get constant low pressure suitable for small nozzles from this type of regulator. Consistant low pressure output requires two stage (not two gauge) regulators which are not cheap.

 

[the familar]

thanks, Had a quick look and yes theres markings to set pressure. Given that everyone is concerned about saftey is there any real reason I wouldent want to use the regulators and fork out for new ones.

Another question,

Do all size oxygen bottles fit the same regulators and the same for actylene?

I'm having a right job trying to find out what size bottles to use in terms of cost/refilling ect.

I know how long a piece of string is but given that I want to weld and cut metal 1mm to 3mm working in total(fabrication/cutting/welding) 2-3 hours per day then what size bottles should I be using?? Cost is not really an issue in terms of boc rental its more important to have the right size for me and not have to refill say more than once a fortnight at best.

 

[the familar]

posted before I saw second reply, will look at new regs! so 2 stage is more important for lighter gauge materials

 

[Charred fingers]

The weldingartisan is right about the regulators,smallest nozzle
I could use with them was a 5 , the acetylene reg was worst
literally just cracked open. As for bottles the portapak ones dont
seem to last five minutes if cost isn't a prob the bigger the better
if you're working from a fixed location (no site work)

 

[the familar]

It doesn't need to be mobile, All I seem to be able to find online is that different bottles have different letters but can not seem to find anything that relates the amount of gas in the cylinder or a chart to tell me the consumption with different nozzles thickness of material ect. a rough guide would be a start!

 

[Paul.]

Does this help?, clicky
And maybe this

 

[the familar]

I swear I spent over an hour on the boc website lookibg for that! now if I could just find a chart with gas consumption with different nozzles...

 

[Paul.]

here you go, halfway down page 2, or even better here,

 

[the familar]

A genuine thank you for that mate.

 

[pedrobedro]

I open the valves on my torch then turn the regulators up till I get the flame I want. It seems the easiest way to do it with the regulators which are the same type as you have with the little pop up things on top.

 

[Bsmith]

Hi there, Been reading a lot on the site recently and have managed to aquire some oldish oxy acetylene equiptment. I did a gas welding course at a local college a few years ago so am comfortable with safty and using but have no real savvy about different torches ect as this was never covered.

I have been given an old portapak with the following items included.

TROLLEY
SAFFIRE 3 with a cutting torch, heating torch and about 5 heads for attatching nozzles.

lots of no.3 nozzles
lots of no.5 nozzles
lots of big nozzles inluding sizes 38 and 45?

a saffire fn50 torch with 2 cutting heads inc nozzles and various welding nozzles.

nozzle cleaners, goggles ect.

regulators and hoses.


I have two questions primarily!



firstly the regulators do not have dials on them they have the small cylinders that show pressure on them? Are these any good as I am used to twin dials. Is this because this is the portapak and if so any advice please?

the second question is about the different torches. I want to do creative welding with this set up. I only want to make sculptures with scrap metal Ie. old washing machine panels lightweight tube and steel rods.
The saffire 3 with the big cutting torch and large nozzles is very cumbersome as I am not a big bloke. is there anything I can't do with the smaller fn50 torch and cutter?

Sorry about the length of this question but I dont want to make mistakes and dont like owning tools I dont need as they just sit there when they might be used by someone.

Cheers in advance.

Gregg.

I have used Sapphire 3 for around 40 years now and find it a great little versatile set, my present set has done at least 20 years and is still good. The Sapphire 3 set should include a shank (handle) with O/A control knobs, a mixer which screws on the shank and which the welding nozzle screws into, around 10 welding nozzles ranging between No2 and No 38, and a cutting torch attatchment. For the welding you will be doing I would think a good No3 and No5 nozzle will be all you need. The guages and settings are not too important as your flame is controlled by the knobs on the shank. I have heavy hoses coming from the cylinders which are joined to around 2 mtrs of light hoses for flexability at the torch end. Works for me anyway. Brian (",).