Can you substitute propane for acetylene??

Situation is this -
Been doing some finish work on steel barn & had some smoke wrench adjustments to do. Was nearly finished when acetylene ran out. I bought welding setup used & as of right now I have no service with a local welding shop for refill.

Neighbor has offered to finish effort in my absence (I am now in L.A. on business). He's an iron worker & said on jobsites they substitute tips with appropriate propane tips, hook up and go.

This sounds far-fetched to me but seeking some advice. This may be a cheaper way to go in the long depending on economies & SAFETY. Thanks in advance

--->Paul

That's my couple of cents worth. It works fine for me for cutting and heating.

Bob

Cuts slower is an under statement. act/oxy 5200f
LP/oxy 2800f
map/oxy 4600f and thats very noticeable slower

Why would you think it would be a safety issue?
I curious!
Most gases are treated the same when it comes to heating applications.

The lower the BTU/lb of a gas the larger the tip size reqiured and more gas/cfm.

act/oxy offers the best over all flame control, heat zone control and is more flexable as a welding/cuttting gas. So it's usally cheaper in the long run for general all around use.

Special cutting requirements then LP could be considered. Although LP gas welding can be done it has very limited applications and needs a huge heat zone.

A good comparrision would be to sweat a 3/4 copper joint with each gas and that'll make you stick with act/oxy.

T_Bone

For me, not having to rent & special fill that Acet tank is a real cost saver. Propane is so much cheaper all around that it makes up the little bit more of O2 used. I find propane easier to braze the thinner stuff I usually am working on. It meets my 'hobbiest' needs. As a farmer, I've got to have it, but it has rather infequent use. Propane meets those needs for me.

--->Paul

3/4"Cu takes a bit of heat on a solder slip joint and I find useful for gauging btu's needed for gas welding exspecially if your using silver solder. You are correct on soldering with 50/50 and I should have explained myself.

Gas welding CU with act/oxy gives a very good joint without CU splatter, inside or out. I feel it gives best solder suck-back control. Over heating of any metal will cause it to oxidize and or splatter. On a refrigeration CU joint, we purge the pipes with nitrogen or Co2 to keep oxides non-existant as they will plug the orifice on the exspansion valves. Acid is also not used on the CU joints for the same reason.

I also weld a fare amount of very thin gold and silver and act/oxy works very well for this application. I do have a special torch that I use, about 4" long with mixing chamber and tip included for very easy torch control usally wearing 4X magnifier visor. This torch looks just like any other torch other than being much smaller and using 1/8" cloth covered rubber hose.
Here again LP/oxy has too much of a heat zone to be effective.

Aluminum gas welding is another area where oxy/act excels over LP/oxy as it just doesn't have the BTU's required for gas welding aluminum.

When I was a kid, my neighbor had a old acetylene generator that used carbide and water to make acetylene. I sure would like to locate one of those.

T_Bone

--->Paul

Bill

Yes you can use propane, works well for cutting.
you will need proper tip , same regulator is fine
as long as threads are the same . adapters are available to change from lh to rh +rh to lh
threads. Preheat may be slightly slower, but it cuts faster. one word of caution, don't use propane down in a hole, it is heavier than air . have been using propane to cut for over 30 years. it will not weld and brazing is conditional.

george