I love my oxy-acetylene cutting torch but acetylene is expensive and doesn't last all that long. Does anyone regret going to propane? I heard it burns slightly cooler and uses more oxygen... I'm mainly heating up rusted bolts and cutting steel no more than 2/3 inches thick. How do you find propane to live with?
propanes more sloppy with way more slag, on the plus side you can get a big tank, and if you want to bbq you can just hook it up to your grill
Propane uses ~3X more oxygen to do the same job So if your costs now for oxy acytelene are: (your price may vary) Acetylene $70 Oxy $20 ---------------- Total $90 Then figure in changing to propane and using ~3X more oxygen... Propane ~$50 Oxy $20 Oxy $20 Oxy $20 ----------------- Total $110 I don't see a savings, Do you? Plus, it will take longer to get your job done... It will take longer for you to stand there and preheat your metal due to the fact that you have lost considerable BTU's which means you compensate by preheating for longer periods of time while using more gas and oxygene. You also loose some of your maximum cutting temperature as well. This makes it harder to make a cut as well as keep the cut running. (oxy/acet burns at a hotter temp than oxy/propane) ------------------------ As others have stated, the cut is sloppy and the slag is much thicker as well as harder to clean. -You loose time and you spend more money when you change to propane. I work in the Oil and Gas industry in the cold north as a Journeyman welder, my wage is well above $30/hour. Up here, 95% of all shops and job sites (the big players) wisely supply their (expensive) Journeyman with the most economical tool that will get the job done without adding extra cost/hours to my already high wage pay check and to the bottom line. Looking at it from the other side of the coin, if it really was more economical to use propane then that %95 figure would be reversed. One last thing, propane stinks and that smell is very obvious (obnoxious?) when you change to oxy/propane. jmho. moe .
Propane doesn't burn anywhere near as hot as acetylene, so you have to use a much bigger flame to get the same heat. Also because it does use more oxygen you can get problems with pinholes. On the plus side its much better for soldering or annealing than acetylene, and it's a shitload cheaper. Virtually as effective as oxy/propane (and even better for soldering) is compressed air/propane, but you can't really cut with it. Moefuzz: You're right. I forgot the extra oxy cost in the "shitload cheaper" part...
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