oxy acealine torch adjustments

Here's a copy of my past recomendations that might help:

UpDated 03/26/05:

A trick I use for accurate free hand cutting is using a sanding disc to knock off the heavy scale and then use a scratch awl for my lines. The line is very thin so it makes following lines very easy.

Another is to stop cutting when you feel your hands or torch get out of balance. When that happens, stop and reposition the torch then continue cutting.

The cleanest cut comes from a clean tip. After you clean all the orifice bores in the tip, fire up the torch and set flame for cutting, then depress the cutting lever and observe the flame.

There should be a long very "uniform" inner flame cutting cone. If that inner cone is not "very" uniform then your cut will be ragged just like the flame cone is and the back of the metal will have slag. Reclean the center orifice until it's very uniform.

A cut with a clean tip will have a very smooth cut surface with very little (if any) slag on the backside of the cut. If either one of these is not present reclean the tip.

The center bore orifice can get deformed and the tip needs replaced or cut off. It's really important to hold the cleaning file straight in the bore hole and just removing enough material to clean the bore to make the tip last a long time.

I've never used a new tip that was clean enough for cutting right out of the box.

To expand on my thoughts:

Altough theres many different tip sizes, I have a found a No3 makes for a all around good cutting tip as it will cut upto 1-1/2" or 18ga sheet metal depending on the preheat setting.

Another consideration is as the tip size becomes smaller so does the orifice size and it becomes a bare to clean them ity bity holes. If using an automatic cutting machine then changing tip size would be a production benefit.

Setting the proper neutral preheat flame, the orifice holes around the center cutting orifice, can be observed by the tip of the inner flame cone. A neutral flame has a blue colored flame outer sheild with a light blue to white inner cone flame that is slightly rounded at the cone tip. A oxidizing flame (too much oxygen) has a sharp pointed very white inner cone. A reducing flame (not enough oxygen) would have a very round to a ragged thrid inner cone.

I have found 5psi acetylene and 30psi Oxygen while cutting to be a good all around setting for upto 50ft of 1/4" hose. Your final pressure setting is regulated by the needle valve adjustments on the mixing body.

For brazing or welding a size #0 tip works well with 5psi Acetylene and 20psi Oxygen. Again the needle valves on the mixing body sets the final pressure needed at the tip.

I also use the above settings to preheat 2" round bar without any problems using the #0 size tip or the rose bud tip.

The advantage to using a rose bud tip is that it expands the flame temperature over a wider area vs using a #0 size tip. I very seldom use my rose bud tip. Preheating with LP saves some expensive gas then finish heating with Qxy/Acet.

Never run Acetylene above 15psi for any reason! T_Bone

If you are talking about flame adjustments at the torch, unless you have special needs you should adjust for a neutral flame as explained here. If you are talking about setting regulator pressures, "it depends". It depends on the torch and the tips used. I would not do what somebody else does but would search out the recommendations of the torch manufacturer for the exact torch and tip(s) you are using. That should be fairly easy nowadays even if you don't have the literature that came with the torch because of manufacturer's web site information. Generally however, for heating and welding or brazing, equal oxygen and acetylene pressures are used at the regulator. The pressures increase with increasing tip size but do not exceed 15 psig due to safety issues with using acetylene at higher pressures. Cutting tips have different pressure requirements because in addition to a neutral preheat flame, they need to provide sufficient additional cutting oxygen for the tip size and thickness of material to be cut. Again, the acteylene should never exceeed 15 psig but the oxygen can and does get significantly greater - even as high as 60 psig or more, depending on tip size and material thickness. You will always get the best results and have the safest operation by obtaining and following the manufacturer's specific instructions, regardless of what somebody else does or does not do.

Rod

The normal procedure is to set your gases too high and never clean your tips. The beauty of this method is that you don't have to know anything to use it. It's a little like kicking in the front door when you've locked yourself out instead of going clear around to the back door where there's a key hidden.

Here are a few representative settings from a Victor chart:

Welding metal 1/32-5/64", Tip 0, Acet 3-5, Ox 3-5; metal 1/8-3/16", Tip 3, Acet 3-6, Ox 4-7; metal 1/2-3/4", Acet 6-9, Ox 7-14

Cutting metal 1/8", Tip 000, Acet 3-5, Ox 20-25; metal 1/2", Tip 0, Acet 3-5, Ox 30-35; metal 1", Tip 2, Acet 3-6, Ox 35-40; metal 2", Tip 3, Acet 4-8, Ox 40-45. What changes the most in cutting is the travel speed.

T_Bone uses a slightly different approach for a specific reason. Here's his posting on this forum from 2002:

GAS SETTINGS FOR CUTTING
Posted by T_Bone on March 02, 2002 at 10:28:03 from (207.173.149.126): In Reply to: Re: Re: Cutting Torch Question posted by Gregg on March 02, 2002 at 04:43:24: Hi Gregg, I use two settings for all my cutting and brazing.
Cutting 40oxy/5acetylene
Brazing 20oxy/5acetylene Acetylene is set with gas flow on at the mixing chamber and gives about 7psi at the regulator when shut off. I control all final pressures with the mixing chamber. The reason for the above pressure settings is on the job with a 100ft of hose stretched out I never had to readjust my regulators. You might want to do a search on this forum as cutting/brazing has been talked about a lot this past couple months. Glad we could help.
T_Bone

T_Bone once posted the best advice about clean cutting you're likely to read anywhere. I don't have the date of it, but if you do a search of the archives looking for the words "dingle berries" (the slag drippings on the bottom side of the metal from a dirty cut) you'll probably find it.

All the best, Stan

Well I checked and didn't find what you were refferencing to "dingle berries" ? Maybe I missed it or say something that may help refresh my memory. No guantee's tho...LOL

T_Bone

When I type dingle berries in the Search For box and hit Go, it takes me to a list of postings. Yours is from 01-24-02. Try not hitting the keys so hard (I like to offer advice even when I don't have any.) Here's the whole post in case something's not working right for you.

Stan
******************************************
T_Bone 01-24-2002 16:36:44
207.173.149.113
24689

Report to Moderator
Delete

Hi Tim, Congrats Tim as you have just learned a great leason, live with-in your means...foolded you huh? LOL Franz done give away my secerts :) Now that your wanting to learn, I'll Tell you anything I know to steer you in the correct direction. When I made the statement it doesn't matter what cylinder you have , as you'll never be close to over drawing any acetylene cylinder. Why?
Too many welders think that you need to turn up the pressure to achieve a god like weld. ha ha it was a mistake...good I ment..I'm in a very good mood today so bear with me...
The opposite is true. For my example with Branden on a 1" plate test, I would use 5psi of acetylene and 20psi oxygen with a #3 tip, just so I could have the speed to whoop him as normally I would use a #0 or a #00 tip but notice I didn't say anything about upping the gas pressure on act or oxy as it's not needed. Why?

I use two gas pressure settings for all my cutting and welding needs:
There's three gas valves located on the torch, two on the mixing chamber (the part of the torch closest to the gas supply hoses) one oxygen valve and one acetylene valve and there used for controlling preheat. The third valve is on a cutting chamber is up forward of the other two valves is for setting th oxygen mix of the preheat flame. If you had a welding/brazing tip on the torch, just the two valves on the mixing chamber would be used and if the cutting head is attached then the oxygen valve on the mixing chamber is set too wide open and the oxygen is controlled by the most forward oxygen valve and sets the preheat for cutting. CUTTING:
1) I use a #3 cutting tip with pressure set at Oxygen 40psi and 7psi acetylene. Don't matter if I'm cutting 24ga or 1" plate I use the same tip and pressure settings. How about them dingle berries on the back side of the cut? I don't have any when I'm done if I done my homework!!! Why? Damn given-up more trade secerets but hey I have nothing better to do. I told you thats I was in a good mood :)
What causes the dingle berries? A very CLEAN center hole in the cutting tip along with the correct speed controls the dingle berries! PERiOD!!! Reread this as thats the seceret to cutting very well without slag on the back side!
On a cutting tip you have two types of mixed gas discharge holes. The outside gas holes are for base metal preheat and a center blow hole for discharging the base metal you just preheated. So with that I've have just explained how clean is clean for the center blow hole? Glad you asked!
After cleaning the center tip hole, fire the torch up with a little act/oxy mix. I hate those black carbon fluffies that fly around when you have too much acetylene. :) Set the acetylene too keep the flame, without oxygen, in touch with the cutting head tip. If there is a air gap between base of the acetylene flame and the tip, then you have too much acetylene. The next step id too set the oxygen.
Oxygen is set by turning the green knob on the mixing chamber: LMAO
Oxygen mix is correct when then the heating flame is just cone shaped with a "rounded cone" top to the flame tip. Reread this as it's important. A sharp point cone is too much oxygen added and is called an oxidizing flame! Anotherwords too much oxygen. An that you don't want!
Now that you have the preheat set correct it's time to set the cutting flame, the center hole gas mix. The forward gas valve controls oxygen on the cutting head. Next depress the cutting lever. Thats is what blows the preheated metal away and cuts the metal. This "center" flame cone should have very clean lines on the cone edge extending out to the end of the flame cone. If the edges of the cone are ragged looking or the center cone is very short, then the tip center hole needs cleaned once again, thus reapeating the test for a clean center flame hole. It may take you several trys of cleaning the center tip hole to get the flame cone correct but that is the first seceret to burning a slag free basemetal underside. 2) The second influnance on cutting a slag free cut, is the cutting speed that the torch is moved forward for a given amount of base metal preheat BTU. Although this travel speed is important, it's much more important to pay attention to the cleanness of the center blow hole when free hand cutting. Automated Machine travel cutting will tolorate a more dirty cutting hole than hand cutting. GAS WELDING:
1) I use 20psi Oxygen and 7 psi Acetylene. Pressures are set with torch valves OFF! Same with cutting pressures. The only reason I drop the oxygen pressure while brazing/welding is to keep from blowing my flame mix out if I bump the oxygen control valve. The same procedures are used for setting the welding flame as setting the preheat cutting flame. Pay close attention to the cone. A nice rounded cone flame tip is what your wanting. Notice that I never raised my acetylene pressure for either cutting or welding thus it never over draws the acetylene cylinder size. I also use these pressure settings for the acetylene "B" tanks and never over draw them. I buy the largest cylinder size for cost efficetiveness and so I don't have run and get them filled all the time. Thats the only reason tho. Get what ever size you feel you can handle weight wise as they do get heavy to lift if you don't know how to lift them. I'm sure I have forgot something so e-mail me if you like as I don't post my e-mail addy for spam concerns. adgadg10@yahoo.com T_Bone