Welding Tips and Tricks

So I've had my torch set for less than a week now and used extensively today. At around 9:00 this morning o realized my oxygen regulator was pulsing. After doing a little digging I read that it was most likely a bad diaphragm soni took it in and they gave a a brand new one. Last night I used the rosebud and it did one of scariest things I've ever seem or heard. Flickered on and of real rapidly due to the regulator and made my welding tip go nuts with the flame. Is this something common over years of wear or is it hit and miss. I've never heard of this problems till today. Still surprising that I've only had it a week.

If you have a check valve in the line you might try changing it as an experiment. I had a problem with my setup because I had a check valve and a separate flashback arrestor, the pressure drop across both of them was enough to make the gas flutter on and off at low pressures because it couldn't quite keep the spring on the check valve open. I can imagine the check valve spring getting into some kind of oscillation from the gas flow and causing the problem you describe, especially if you have more than one restrictive device in the line.

Nick,

I'm sure you're aware or familiar with regulatortorchrepair.com, but if not and you have a decent regulator, you can get it rebuilt for about $50 rather than getting a new one.

http://www.regulatortorchrepair.com/index.php

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer, they do good work IMO.

Alan

aland wrote:Nick,

I'm sure you're aware or familiar with regulatortorchrepair.com, but if not and you have a decent regulator, you can get it rebuilt for about $50 rather than getting a new one.

http://www.regulatortorchrepair.com/index.php

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer, they do good work IMO.

Alan

I bought it a week ago so they replaced it free of charge. I did take off the check valve and it helped but the new regulator had no problem with the check valve and has run fine so far.

Ah, didn't realize you bought it new, I thought you had bought it used...