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#11
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Harry (finally) lights the torch! ...and etches some zinc offtoo!
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. |
#12
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Harry (finally) lights the torch! ...and etches some zinc off too!
"jan olieslagers" wrote Help help help! Even disregarding the elusive vocabulary of a certain guru, it is most obvious welding will NEVER be my cup of tea. All of the above pitfalls were clear to me with only a hacksaw, a screwdriver and a broom in my "workshop"; actually I am beginning to wonder what keeps me lurking around here. Sigh. 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! Then, and only if you are in a place where nobody will call the cops when a loud bomb sound goes off, and you are not in a building where you could blow windows out, tie the bag off, relight your torch, and stick the flame up against the garbage bag. To say that you can expect a really loud bang is possibly the understatement of the year! Fun stuff, I tell you! -- Jim in NC |
#13
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Harry (finally) lights the torch! ...and etches some zinc off too!
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. |
#14
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Harry (finally) lights the torch! ...and etches some zinc off too!
"Morgans" wrote in message ... "jan olieslagers" wrote Help help help! Even disregarding the elusive vocabulary of a certain guru, it is most obvious welding will NEVER be my cup of tea. All of the above pitfalls were clear to me with only a hacksaw, a screwdriver and a broom in my "workshop"; actually I am beginning to wonder what keeps me lurking around here. Sigh. 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! Then, and only if you are in a place where nobody will call the cops when a loud bomb sound goes off, and you are not in a building where you could blow windows out, tie the bag off, relight your torch, and stick the flame up against the garbage bag. To say that you can expect a really loud bang is possibly the understatement of the year! Fun stuff, I tell you! -- Jim in NC Wowie ! 32 whoe gallons of WHAM ! Jim, couldn't you advise him to start small, like maybe a 16 oz styrofoam cup, then covered over with a sheet of paper and detonated off the bench? Even that is enough to mimic a minor blizzard with flakes of the white stuff sixteen feet into the rafters. 32 gallons ? I must have been a bit shy in my youth, because I never got over a gallon lunchbag tied off and dropped on a neighboring workbench - then do a sudden move to the back of the shop awaiting the fun. But I only did this to McClintock because he stuffed a piece of turkey skin from HIS lunch into the nozzle of my mig gun when I wasn't looking. And the day after that Mac wiped a bunch of peanut butter in the joint where Jimmy had to start up after lunch. And Mac also put a cloth soaked in varsol in the half-full 10 gallon galvanized trash can under my bench while I was up on the bench, inside a big fit-up . . yeah, it caught. And the fun continued for a season. Flash |
#15
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DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
"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'. |
#16
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DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
On Feb 18, 12:01*am, "Maxwell" #$$9#@%%%.^^^ wrote:
Something as small as a half gallon milk carton can be deadly, and plenty of bang for the buck. A garbage bag could easily kill someone. Naw. Been there, done that. But I won't do it again ........ at least not from rag wrapped welding rod ignitor distance :-) Fortunately the garage door was open or I'd have been replacing some windows. Eh? What was that you say? SPEAK UP MAN! Core fracture on a large (H) homemade rocket motor is much more impressive. Found out months later the neighbor thought our grill propane bottle had blown up. The fact that he didn't call 911? Let's just say he has seen us in action before ......................... Said HIS house didn't get any fall out and he didn't see any flames so everything was good. ======================= Leon - still have all fingers and toes - McAtee .. |
#17
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DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
wrote in message ... On Feb 18, 12:01 am, "Maxwell" #$$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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry Leon, but I don't believe you either, and it's very irresponsible to spin such nonsense on a public form. Someone might very well try it. But I will leave it to the general readership to test this myth.... Everyone take an 8 ounce foam cup, and place it upside down on the very edge of a table. Leave just a 1/4" crack or so to fill the cup. Put on your safety glasses, I personally recommend a full face shield. Now start your torch and adjust it for a nice clean, but not lean burn. Something that gives you the best welding or cutting action. Gently touch the tip face down on piece of scrap wood or metal. It will pop and go out. Now fill the cup for a few seconds. Withdraw the torch and strike it quickly to light. Then immediately pass the torch near the edge of the cup. You should be able to do this in just a couple of seconds. After experiencing the report of the cup experiment, about 10 times the pop of a cup type striker, try to imaging multiplying the magnitude of the cup experiment by 500 and let us know what you think. For those of you with pacemakers, just pop a well mixed torch with a cup type striker, and multiply by 5000. |
#18
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DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
On Feb 18, 9:12*am, "Maxwell" #$$9#@%%%.^^^ wrote:
wrote in message ... Sorry Leon, but I don't believe you either, and it's very irresponsible to spin such nonsense on a public form. Someone might very well try it. Believe what you will. I'm comfortable with what I know. ======================= Leon McAtee |
#19
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Harry (finally) lights the torch! ...and etches some zinc offtoo!
On Feb 17, 11:17 pm, "Flash" wrote:
Wowie ! 32 whoe gallons of WHAM ! Jim, couldn't you advise him to start small, like maybe a 16 oz styrofoam cup, then covered over with a sheet of paper and detonated off the bench? Even that is enough to mimic a minor blizzard with flakes of the white stuff sixteen feet into the rafters. The last time I did the oxyacetylene-in-the-bag thing it blew up in my hand. Either a tiny bit of glowing carbon on or in the tip, or static electricity between the bag and torch. Anyway, there were a bunch of us that couldn't hear too good for a week after that. That was 20 years ago and I haven't done it since. We used to use a rolled-up paper fuse taped to the tied-off bag and get well away from it. The concussion is amazing. And we never used anything larger than maybe a gallon bag. 32 gallons ? I must have been a bit shy in my youth, because I never got over a gallon lunchbag tied off and dropped on a neighboring workbench - then do a sudden move to the back of the shop awaiting the fun. But I only did this to McClintock because he stuffed a piece of turkey skin from HIS lunch into the nozzle of my mig gun when I wasn't looking. And the day after that Mac wiped a bunch of peanut butter in the joint where Jimmy had to start up after lunch. And Mac also put a cloth soaked in varsol in the half-full 10 gallon galvanized trash can under my bench while I was up on the bench, inside a big fit-up . . yeah, it caught. And the fun continued for a season. In the shop years ago the practical jokes kept morale up. Grease--lots of it--in the hearing protectors. Putting a guy's radio in the cabinet pressure washer (80 degree water with caustic, sprayed under much pressure), especially if he liked music you didn't. Bringing an empty chip-dip container and putting Lubriplate in it and opening it at coffee time with some chips and letting the greedy guys grab a chip and a big gob of "dip" and scarfing it down. Screwing down a lunchbox to a bench. Plastic coffee cups: Drill a hole in the bottom and screw it down. Or drill a tiny hole just underneath the handle so it pees all over. Or just below the lip so it dribbles down the shirt when it's tilted. Lots of fun. The best one: I took some peanut butter to work and clued in all the guys except the new guy. Went outside into the compound, smeared some peanut butter on the edge of my boot sole, and went back in. One of the guys said, "Hey, Dan...you step in something out there?" I looked at it. "Yeah. Looks like it, huh? Maybe that stupid dog from the junkyard next door dug under the fence again. Wish he'd poop in his own yard." I scraped a big gob off with my finger. "Looks like his." Smelled it. "Think so." Tasted it: "Yup. It's him again." Ate the rest of it. The new guy's eyes were the biggest I'd ever seen. "You're weird! You eat poop! Get away from me!" Took some time for him to figure it out. Flash We had a guy we nicknamed "Flash." Because he was so slow until the break or quitting time buzzer sounded, whereupon his speed was amazing. Dan |
#20
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DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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 |
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