Welding Tips and Tricks

So I've been trying to build up my skills in the world of oxy acetylene welding and brazing. The equipment at my high school is old and wore so I have limited tips that are still good and not out of round. I can't get an accurate readout in the regulator either it seems but close enough to get a neutral flame. Today I was actually able to lay a decent weld down after I cleaned up a couple pieces of 1/4" angle and did a little edge weld that was pretty good in my opinion. Forgot to take a picture though. I did some brazing yesterday that held but didn't look really good. Also I determined two of our torch heads leaked and all of a sudden there is fire coming out of the torch where their shouldn't be. I seem to be kind of sucking. I feel like 3/32" filler is to big for 1/8" material but 1/16" is too small and seem to be always cooking the material and causing weld failure after a little destructive testing but I am only going as fast as the puddle will allow and I am trying to focus the heat as much as I can but nothing seems to work. So what tips and tricks have y'all got for me? Stay warm!

I am not great with Oxy but for me the revelation was...being able to see properly!

When I did my course the teacher was an old guy who was meant to be teaching us stick, Mig, Tig and Oxy but in truth his first love was oxy and the rest barely got a mention. In fact he spent just one lesson out of about 20 on Tig!

I struggled with oxy. We were using dark glasses and I just couldn't see the puddle properly. Maybe I just have weird eyes, but I switched over to an auto darkening helmet (much to the teacher's disgust!) set on low shade and suddenly it all came together.

There are others on here wiser than me who will no doubt have some other tips for you though. Have to say meanwhile that those leaky torches sound pretty scary!



K

In the absence of pics I cannot comment on your weld results.

If the combination of fuel and oxygen in a flame out of a tip can melt, cut or burn steel then having that flame come out of other parts of the rig its not supposed to then the result can’t be good for human flesh.
The lesson here is to stop using it until it has been repaired.
It’s also not a good look for the school to have such standard of equipment for its students.


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>>"I can't get an accurate readout in the regulator either it seems but close enough to get a neutral flame."<<

Flame adjust occurs at the torch knobs. Or did i misunderstand?

I'd agree with Coldman, alert the right people at school to have that rig taken out of service and sent for repair. You can't learn on defective equipment and someone can get hurt.

Artie F. Emm wrote:>>"I can't get an accurate readout in the regulator either it seems but close enough to get a neutral flame."<<

Flame adjust occurs at the torch knobs. Or did i misunderstand?

I'd agree with Coldman, alert the right people at school to have that rig taken out of service and sent for repair. You can't learn on defective equipment and someone can get hurt.

I told my teacher and then took off the defective rig and replaced it with another. When it had a leaky valve, it was weird because up until then it gave no issues and all of a sudden did the other day. I'll take a picture f the weld today and let you all criticize accordingly.

I decided to try some lap joints today and determined that I need to work on my heat control because my weld size is not consistent at all.

I'm gonna try some 16 gauge tomorrow and let you all know how that goes.