Anyone here still welding with a torch?

Plus you can warm up spanners, dollies and steel toe caps in the winter, as well as boiling water for coffee and heating a bbq plate. Handy to have a gas plant in the shed.

 

LOL yeah I once reheated some taco bell with mine!

 

I have three MIG machines, two TIG's, and I still gas weld quite often. I am doing it right now on some patch panels on an o/t 65 mustang.I learned it 40 yrs ago and still do it.

 

I have a copy of “Aircraft Welding” from Lindsay Publications, a reprint of a 1942 manual about oxy/acet welding, and mostly on 4130 chrome-moly air frames and structural components. At that time o/a was the accepted method for virtually everything structural on planes of the day. Just for interest sake, here’s some welds on the engine mounting structure for the big radials of a Grumman Tracker that was being shown at the recent air show in Hamilton. Considering the age of this plane (late 50’s), I’m guessing these were oxy/acetylene welds, with lots of finger straps, gussets, and beautifully constructed brackets. I only wish I could weld anywhere near as good as the craftsmen who built this machine.

 

I use the torch on all body panels except floors or structure. Wait until Mindover-David see's this thread. Get your filler rod at a welding supply, no coat hangers. And for bodywork forget about brazing too. It's a weak weld prone to cracking. I find brass I cut it out and replace it....

 

Dude, when I learned ta' gas weld back in High School auto shop from Mr. Wortmeyer, we called it brazin', but first he showed me how ta' run the cuttin' torch without settin' myself (and the shop) on fire.

I liked really, really liked cuttin; all them sparks......

Coupla' years later, I usta' watch old dudes weld stuff with coat hanger wire n' Blue Star flux paste, but I just googled Blue Star Flux Paste like some kinda' feeble-minded-sad-sack who can't remember nothin' anymore and I couldn't find it anyplace. So maybe it was called somthin' else....

Anyhow, I still got one of them portable O/A sets in my garage for little weldin' jobs that I can spray bomb with black paint when I'm done.

I think itsa' Victor set.

 

Start with a crap piece of body panel and chase the puddle across without melting through. When you get good at that then do the same thing only add filler rod. A neutral flame is always the starting point. For body panels I find that a slightly carborizing flame gives a better looking and less oxidized weld (pin holes). You really have to do this over and over. Your first welds will look like crap but if the flame is right and you have penetration (weld through to the back of the sheet) it will hold. The best part is if the weld you just made is kind of cobby you can go back over it without any filler by just simply chasing the puddle across the panel. I also have a TIG welder so I use TIG rod for my OA welding also. You can't use OA rod to TIG weld as it needs to be triple deoxidized to give a clean weld. This works for me, hope it works for you. Oh yea, practice, practice, practice......
Regards
Greg Hornbostel

 

You mean to say there are other ways?

 

When I chopped my top an O/A torch was all I had to work and most of the welds have held up for over 30 years.

I'm still wanting a Victor J-28 torch setup to do sheet metal welding with. I used one in a Midas Muffler shop 35 years ago and they are really easy to control as you work.

 

I have an o/a torch and a mig. Been repairing bicycle frames, pipes and random household items for a couple years with the torch. Still haven't gotten around to learning how to use the mig.

 

Chestnuts at work...I forgot to pierce the skin to let steam out and blew up most of them...

 

If you were using brass filler rod, then you were brazing. You can also weld with a torch, if you use steel filler rod instead of brass.

 

I built my first hot rod back in the early 50s using a torch and coat hangers. I'm using a torch now on my 37 Dodge truck, only now I'm using welding rods.

 

I forgot I had pictures of one of the 36 ford fenders I made. I did 3 sets of these using a torch to do all of the welding. Here is a link to more pics if anyone is interested. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=8333





I don't use the usual hammerwelding method anymore. I just tack weld every inch or so, and do the whole weld all in one pass, with filler rod. Your distortion from the weld is even that way and it's easier to keep the panel under control. Then I grind the weld down close to flush and go after it with my planishing hammer. So many people go to great lengths trying to keep the heat out of the panel to keep the distortion down. That's why so many people use mig and tig welding. The heat affected zone is smaller with mig and tig. When you gas weld you just need to learn how to deal with it.

The more you weld with gas the better you get at heat shrinking and reading panels. Sheetmetal work can be very fustrating at times. It takes alot of practice!!!

 

If he was brazing he was probably using silicon bronze filler rod.

 

I've used wire coat hangers but you really want to get the copper coated steel rod for your filler. If it's an old torch check to see if it has flashback arrestors.

 

I love gas welding, it's easy to work while still red hot, and if done right, the joined metals finish flush, no build up that needs grinding off like a mig produces.
As other HAMBers have said, learn how to get a pool, and run it across a piece of scrap panel, when finished the run, check on the underside for penetration.
When you achieve this, repeat with filler rod ( In New Zealand, the smallest rod size is 1/16") which is ideal for panel steel. Any mild steel will do tho, e.g. offcut panel steel strips.
A neutral flame (soft) is required, 50/50 oxy and acetylene, too much oxy (roars like a jet) and it oxidizes the weld (pits/holes) too little oxy, and the flame is not hot enough (very hard to get the pool).
If you are joining 2 panels together, point the flame along the seam, not across, as this will throw too much heat to 1 side of the join, and the edge will melt away uncontrollably.
Have a wet rag close while doing panels, weld a bit, wipe it cool, weld a bit more wipe etc etc, helps control heat distortion..
Good luck..

 

I don't torch weld but my nephew recently received a promotion to crew leader for SoCal Gas Company and he had to take a welding class and he said all they used was a (torch) O/A welder. He had to pass the class in order to get the promotion. In short the SoCalGas still relies on good old fashioned O/A welding.

 

When I chopped my Fiat 600, I used a O/A torch to weld it back togeather. Worked just fine. Ran 11.90's with that little car. Wish I still had it. I still do my exhaust work a torch.--TV

 

Iused to use old coat hangers as a filler rod,butt welds or 2 pieces welded at say 45deg can be fuse welded,these days i use TIG,advantages-less heat on the panel,you save heaps on gas and you can get the gun in places a torch can't,hope this helps,Gaz!

 

No one has mentioned that today's coat hangers MUST be made off-shore. Probably VERY poor grade of steel, not like the old days. I wouldn't use them, except maybe on exhaust work.

 

With the price of oxygen and acetylene these days, the added cost of real welding rod is a really small expense.

 

I still use the torch. It is more forgiving than the mig, even though the mig is great for fabrication. I too started with wire coat hangers and occasionally still use one but the welding supply place usually carries a soft rod for body work. Like stated, practice on some old panels first, heat a small spot to red and inject the tip of the rod into the intersection of the flame and the steel and watch it flow together. I keep a five gallon bucket of water with a rag in it nearby to periodically cool the panel to reduce warping. Good luck!

 

I gas weld often but I don't do auto bodywork or car stuff. I weld 4130 tubing in aircraft structures. Most of the time I use the gas torch is when I'm repairing an airplane from the 30's or 40's and I like to match up what the original weld process used. I Tig weld plenty but I love ox/acet welding. I have quite a collection of torches but for the last five years or so I use the Meco midget from Tin man tech, that's a great little torch.

 

I have O/A, MIG and TIG welders and can weld with them all. I like fusion welding bodywork with O/A if I can but its just not feasible for me cost wise.

My O/A tanks are empty and noone will fill them because they are an old valve design. I will have to buy or rent new tanks, then get them filled which is going to cost around $500.

It just soo much cheaper to run my MIG or TIG A refill on the bottle of gas is $34, and the 10lb spool of wire was around $24.

I think that is why its quickly becoming a lost art. Much like leading.

 

DOES ANYONE HAVE A PSI SETTING AND TIP SELECTION CHART FOR CUTTING AND WELDING FOR PUROX STYLE TORCHES???

Something similar to thishttp://www.hoopersupply.com/tipchart.html

Apparantly Purox uses a different size system???

 

I learned to weld and lead with a torch in auto body class at the local vocational school 35 years ago. I haven't done either in a whole bunch of years but, I recently picked up a torch set to see if I could still weld with a torch. I was astounded how quick everything came back to me. I did bring home a whole handful of coat hangers from work (the uniform delivery guy will never miss them) to practice with...they also work pretty good for things like exhaust hanger brackets on the daily driver and such. Now I need to pick up some real welding rod to see if I can make some nice looking welds on some sheet metal.

Doc

 

I worked in a couple muffler shops back in the 60s , we used a #3 tip on the midsize Victor barrel and 1/8" hi tensile rod , man you could do wonders, fill gaps , weld hangers on , heat ,bend, and even cut or melt by cranking the oxygen way up after you got a good puddle going , no where as neet as a cutting head, but it worked in a pinch.

 

......

 

That says it all right there ^^^^^^

Viva