Harry (finally) lights the torch! ...and etches some zinc off too!

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

Oh, and don't forget one of the greatest tricks of all!

Set your torch just right, then snuff it out on a piece of wood, without
turning either gas off. Stick the end of the torch in a garbage bag, and
fill it up. Use a kitchen size, if you fear the big one!


You are either really bad at adjusting a torch, or you have never really
done this.

Something as small as a half gallon milk carton can be deadly, and plenty of
bang for the buck. A garbage bag could easily kill someone.

I saw a 6' joint of 4" heavy wall pipe launch a dead rat over 1000'.

On Feb 18, 12:01*am, "Maxwell" #$$9#@%%%.^^^ wrote:

Something as small as a half gallon milk carton can be deadly, and plenty of
bang for the buck. A garbage bag could easily kill someone.

Naw. Been there, done that.

But I won't do it again ........ at least not from rag wrapped
welding rod ignitor distance :-)

Fortunately the garage door was open or I'd have been replacing some
windows. Eh? What was that you say? SPEAK UP MAN!

Core fracture on a large (H) homemade rocket motor is much more
impressive. Found out months later the neighbor thought our grill
propane bottle had blown up. The fact that he didn't call 911? Let's
just say he has seen us in action before .........................
Said HIS house didn't get any fall out and he didn't see any flames so
everything was good.
=======================
Leon - still have all fingers and toes - McAtee
..

Maxwell wrote:
....

I saw a 6' joint of 4" heavy wall pipe launch a dead rat over 1000'.



Now I've heard plenty of gas torch brags, but doesn't this one
just beat the band?

:-)

Brian W

"Maxwell" #$$9#@%%%.^^^ wrote in message
...

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

Oh, and don't forget one of the greatest tricks of all!

Set your torch just right, then snuff it out on a piece of wood,
without
turning either gas off. Stick the end of the torch in a garbage
bag, and
fill it up. Use a kitchen size, if you fear the big one!


You are either really bad at adjusting a torch, or you have never
really
done this.

Something as small as a half gallon milk carton can be deadly, and
plenty of
bang for the buck. A garbage bag could easily kill someone.

I saw a 6' joint of 4" heavy wall pipe launch a dead rat over 1000'.




Seems to be plenty of people out there doing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4USIrt8aWk
Several other videos on the same page.

We used to go fishing for catfish in a local creek when I was just a
kid, using carbide lantern pellets.

--
Anyolmouse

wright1902glider wrote:
Behold fellow aviators, for I have finally lighted that damned welding
torch that I got for Christmas...last year. Yep, bought a "b" tank and
an empty 40cu/ft oxy. tank off Ebay from Indiana Oxygen Co. Shipped
out next day and items were exactly as described. And free shipping!
Swapped it out at AirGas here in Boulder and paid way too much for the
refills, but... Also got my requisite RG45 rod and shade 5 goggles.
So far so good.

Went home, followed directions, purged, set up, connected, checked,
tested, etc. Turned on gas and sparked. Nuttin. Lady-friend is
standing there with camera in hand freezing, giving me the "Princess
Leia is ****ed at Han Solo" look. Sparked again. Nuttin. Not good,
especially since its Valentine's day and she's waiting to be taken to
dinner. So the torch waits while we have dinner at Olive Garden and
take in a movie (Coraline in case you were wondering, yes it was worth
$19.50).

OK, so I was lighting a torch. Sunday comes and I start checking. Gas
at the tank valves, check. Pressure on both reg. guages for each reg.,
check. Gas at the end of the hoses, check. Gas through the torch body,
check. Gas at the tip??? nope. So I take a close look and remember
VeeDubber's mantra about everything made by H-F. Take it apart. Clean
it out. Adjust it. Put it back together the way it was supposed to
have been. Seems some (insert slur of your choice here) varnished over
the end of the tip and clogged the lil' hole. OH, so THAT'S what that
nail-file and set of feeler-guages in the case are for. They ain't
feeler guages at all. They're tip cleaners. So I file the end of the
tip square, just enuf to get the varnish off. Then a dip in acetone,
followed by poking a hole in the "hole" and repeating with
progressively larger cleaners until all of the varnish has been
removed.

Reattached the tip to the torch body, cracked the valves and
Hiiisssssssss. Sounds good. With torch in one hand and striker in
other, I open the acet. valve, squeeze the sparker and POOF!

Yes my friends, I've made fire! Quickly opened the O2 valve and
adjusted the flame. WOOHOO! Looks just like the book! Called
LadyFriend to come with camera. Shut off torch. She comes out with the
"now???" look. Then its "Hey honey, watch this... hiss, poof, roar,
squeeeee, AAAHHHHHH! (angels singing in background). She takes a few
photos for posterity.

Now, for the really fun part. 50/50 mix of water and muriatic acid.
Add nasty old chunks of galv. fence railing. Bubble, bubble, hiss,
hiss! My future welding coupons go through the whole mad scientist
routine. And I dunno what those fumes were coming off the metal, but
gawd man, don't breathe them! 3 minutes later, one end of each of
piece is etched and zinc-free! Cool!

I'm sure its been done millions of times before, but to me it felt
like a rite of passage. I've wanted a welding torch since I was about
6. Now I've got one. Lookout!

Harry Frey

PS: Thanks VeeDub, Mike H., FighFlyer, and everyone else over the past
8 years.


Well, Harry, like Mrs. Hickam told Homer...

"don't blow yourself up!"

cavelamb wrote:
wright1902glider wrote:
Behold fellow aviators, for I have finally lighted that damned welding
torch that I got for Christmas...last year. Yep, bought a "b" tank and
an empty 40cu/ft oxy. tank off Ebay from Indiana Oxygen Co. Shipped
out next day and items were exactly as described. And free shipping!
Swapped it out at AirGas here in Boulder and paid way too much for the
refills, but... Also got my requisite RG45 rod and shade 5 goggles.
So far so good.

Went home, followed directions, purged, set up, connected, checked,
tested, etc. Turned on gas and sparked. Nuttin. Lady-friend is
standing there with camera in hand freezing, giving me the "Princess
Leia is ****ed at Han Solo" look. Sparked again. Nuttin. Not good,
especially since its Valentine's day and she's waiting to be taken to
dinner. So the torch waits while we have dinner at Olive Garden and
take in a movie (Coraline in case you were wondering, yes it was worth
$19.50).

OK, so I was lighting a torch. Sunday comes and I start checking. Gas
at the tank valves, check. Pressure on both reg. guages for each reg.,
check. Gas at the end of the hoses, check. Gas through the torch body,
check. Gas at the tip??? nope. So I take a close look and remember
VeeDubber's mantra about everything made by H-F. Take it apart. Clean
it out. Adjust it. Put it back together the way it was supposed to
have been. Seems some (insert slur of your choice here) varnished over
the end of the tip and clogged the lil' hole. OH, so THAT'S what that
nail-file and set of feeler-guages in the case are for. They ain't
feeler guages at all. They're tip cleaners. So I file the end of the
tip square, just enuf to get the varnish off. Then a dip in acetone,
followed by poking a hole in the "hole" and repeating with
progressively larger cleaners until all of the varnish has been
removed.

Reattached the tip to the torch body, cracked the valves and
Hiiisssssssss. Sounds good. With torch in one hand and striker in
other, I open the acet. valve, squeeze the sparker and POOF!

Yes my friends, I've made fire! Quickly opened the O2 valve and
adjusted the flame. WOOHOO! Looks just like the book! Called
LadyFriend to come with camera. Shut off torch. She comes out with the
"now???" look. Then its "Hey honey, watch this... hiss, poof, roar,
squeeeee, AAAHHHHHH! (angels singing in background). She takes a few
photos for posterity.

Now, for the really fun part. 50/50 mix of water and muriatic acid.
Add nasty old chunks of galv. fence railing. Bubble, bubble, hiss,
hiss! My future welding coupons go through the whole mad scientist
routine. And I dunno what those fumes were coming off the metal, but
gawd man, don't breathe them! 3 minutes later, one end of each of
piece is etched and zinc-free! Cool!

I'm sure its been done millions of times before, but to me it felt
like a rite of passage. I've wanted a welding torch since I was about
6. Now I've got one. Lookout!

Harry Frey

PS: Thanks VeeDub, Mike H., FighFlyer, and everyone else over the past
8 years.


Well, Harry, like Mrs. Hickam told Homer...

"don't blow yourself up!"


Or, as most mothers would say "If you kill yourself don't come crying
to me."

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

"wright1902glider" wrote

Add nasty old chunks of galv. fence railing. Bubble, bubble, hiss,
hiss! My future welding coupons go through the whole mad scientist
routine. And I dunno what those fumes were coming off the metal, but
gawd man, don't breathe them! 3 minutes later, one end of each of
piece is etched and zinc-free! Cool!

Welcome to the world of constructive fire! My favorite mantra is "control
your molten puddle." Learn how to keep it at the right temperature, and to
move it around at your command, and you will be well on your way.

One thing about this zinc thing that you may not know. It is really bad,
bad stuff to breath, and it does not take much to mess you up.

If you want to have a bad case of the "I wanna puke, and die's" or reverse
of that order, work with zinc heated to high temps, without the wind (or a
fan) at your back, for 5 minutes. Then you get the headache that make most
hang-overs look like no problem at all. Oh, and it will last until you
sleep it off, in most cases.

So if you did not know about that, take heed. Zinc is for metal that does
not rust, not for turning into smoke and sucking into your lungs.
--
Jim in NC

http://www.airbum.com/articles/ArticleZenWelding.html

Back in the 60's (which really isn't all that long ago for some of us), one of
the tomes that was required reading for any-one seeking spiritual enlightenment
and the right to wear a tie-dyed shirt was the book, Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance.

The basic premise of the book was that the spirit of the Buddha (don't get me
off on religion, I was raised Methodist and didn't understand THAT either),
could be invested in things mechanical, like a motorcycle, just as well as it
could in living, breathing organisms. The author, Robert Pirsig, viewed the
motorcycle as a mechanical- spiritual organism and the repair of it as a
religious experience.

Yeah, I know. What does this have to do with welding?

I had totally forgotten the book until the other day when I was chasing the
front edge of a weld bead down into the metal with my trusty Smith airline
torch. My world totally disappeared and was replaced by one the size of a pea
that glistened and flowed at the end of the fiery blue cone of my torch. As I
sat there, postively disappearing into the warmth and liquidity at the very
front edge of the tiny, molten puddle, I suddenly felt as if I, too, was having
a religious experience, albeit, a hot one, but still an experience. It was as if
the puddle was alive and I was trying to train it to do my command. It was no
longer steel and fire. It was something growing that was striving to unite two
pieces of inanimate steel into something with a soul that flies.

Harry

A suggestion.

If you have a Comunity College close, check and they will probably
have a course in welding.

Use:

Their gas
Their torches.
Their practice pieces.
Their hands on instructor.

Not expensive and will give you some hands on experience before you
start at home.

The one I went to we basicaly stuck iron together but I still have
that as a back ground and have now welded some alum, etc.

Enjoy the set. Fun to play with and fix and make things.

Big John

************************************************** ********

On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:33:01 -0800 (PST), wright1902glider
wrote:

Behold fellow aviators, for I have finally lighted that damned welding
torch that I got for Christmas...last year. Yep, bought a "b" tank and
an empty 40cu/ft oxy. tank off Ebay from Indiana Oxygen Co. Shipped
out next day and items were exactly as described. And free shipping!
Swapped it out at AirGas here in Boulder and paid way too much for the
refills, but... Also got my requisite RG45 rod and shade 5 goggles.
So far so good.

Went home, followed directions, purged, set up, connected, checked,
tested, etc. Turned on gas and sparked. Nuttin. Lady-friend is
standing there with camera in hand freezing, giving me the "Princess
Leia is ****ed at Han Solo" look. Sparked again. Nuttin. Not good,
especially since its Valentine's day and she's waiting to be taken to
dinner. So the torch waits while we have dinner at Olive Garden and
take in a movie (Coraline in case you were wondering, yes it was worth
$19.50).

OK, so I was lighting a torch. Sunday comes and I start checking. Gas
at the tank valves, check. Pressure on both reg. guages for each reg.,
check. Gas at the end of the hoses, check. Gas through the torch body,
check. Gas at the tip??? nope. So I take a close look and remember
VeeDubber's mantra about everything made by H-F. Take it apart. Clean
it out. Adjust it. Put it back together the way it was supposed to
have been. Seems some (insert slur of your choice here) varnished over
the end of the tip and clogged the lil' hole. OH, so THAT'S what that
nail-file and set of feeler-guages in the case are for. They ain't
feeler guages at all. They're tip cleaners. So I file the end of the
tip square, just enuf to get the varnish off. Then a dip in acetone,
followed by poking a hole in the "hole" and repeating with
progressively larger cleaners until all of the varnish has been
removed.

Reattached the tip to the torch body, cracked the valves and
Hiiisssssssss. Sounds good. With torch in one hand and striker in
other, I open the acet. valve, squeeze the sparker and POOF!

Yes my friends, I've made fire! Quickly opened the O2 valve and
adjusted the flame. WOOHOO! Looks just like the book! Called
LadyFriend to come with camera. Shut off torch. She comes out with the
"now???" look. Then its "Hey honey, watch this... hiss, poof, roar,
squeeeee, AAAHHHHHH! (angels singing in background). She takes a few
photos for posterity.

Now, for the really fun part. 50/50 mix of water and muriatic acid.
Add nasty old chunks of galv. fence railing. Bubble, bubble, hiss,
hiss! My future welding coupons go through the whole mad scientist
routine. And I dunno what those fumes were coming off the metal, but
gawd man, don't breathe them! 3 minutes later, one end of each of
piece is etched and zinc-free! Cool!

I'm sure its been done millions of times before, but to me it felt
like a rite of passage. I've wanted a welding torch since I was about
6. Now I've got one. Lookout!

Harry Frey

PS: Thanks VeeDub, Mike H., FighFlyer, and everyone else over the past
8 years.