Welding with propane

Sometimes you just can’t win! :disappointed_relieved:

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Got to keep playing though. Might hit a home run sometime. S–TE----RIKE!!!TomC

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When I was a kid my grandfather had one of these torch sets.
But you can not buy them anymore because the oxidizer is dangerous.

Way back in the day he had an acetylene generator in his garage that you filled with carbide pellets ( that way he only had to rent the oxygen bottles.
I also understand this is dangerous as hell too…

I kind of wish I could have the propane and peroxide pellets, but I think I would pass on the gas generator.

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Wallace,
I had one of those Solid-Ox welder outfits, just like the one in the video. Don’t get too nostalgic for one. I could do some brazing with it, trying to fix my Swiss-cheese-rusted 1968 Mustang. You had to get everything ready before hand, light the oxygen pellets, wait for the gas pressure to stabilize, then you had a few minutes to braze before it went out. It never really got hot enough to weld with. I tried every cheap welding device made, because I was a young man with big ideas and no funds.
I have a regular Oxy-Acetylene outfit now. :slight_smile:

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Can I hook propane 2 a gas welder

John, it works best for cutting. I didn’t have much luck welding with it. Might depend how fussy your are.

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The reason y I asked is cuz I bought the wrong kind by mistake the wire that I bought is for a gas welder & I needed it for a gasless. So I was just trying to find a use for it

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Sounds like you have a wire welder not torches ? ? For a wire welder you need an inert gas. I think. They used to burn hydrogen on the back side of sheet metal to reduce scale.

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John,
You can weld/melt steel rod/wire with propane if you substitute the propane for acetylene in an oxy/acetylene rig. the main reason you would do that is to save money on gas in a production environment. a regular propane / air torch does not get hot enough. For a gas MIG welder (GMAW) outfit you do need an inert shielding gas like Argon or an Argon / CO2 mix. Plain CO2 again is used in production to save money on gas. Saving money that way results in poorer quality welds with more voids, spatters and clean-up. Keep your solid mig wire in a sealed container, you will use it one day! :slight_smile:

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I braze/weld with propane/oxy torch, but I use the cutting tip not brazing tip.

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Me too, Al + 20 charactors

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Me three when I find my torch head!!!

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I also use my cutting tip and propane for everything, from soldering radiators, welding, brazing and cutting

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Since the topic is now focused on oxy-propane, here’s my two cents:
I, too have an oxyacetylene outfit, but I use oxy-propane for everything except for welding steel. But for HEATING applications, I much prefer a (propane) rosebud torch head over the cutting torch. I can get much more totalheat into the work (without overheating) when needed and the flame is softer than the cutting torch head. Besides, with the rosebud, I can’t make a mistake and hit the oxygen lever by mistake.

Pete Stanaitis

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I love rosebuds also, but I have had jobs where the bud uses acetylene faster than the gas will come out of solutionTomC

I meant to say that I almost always use a propane rosebud and oxy/propane for heating. If I have big things to heat, I use a coal forge or a gas forge, as long as I can get the parts into it.

Pete Stanaitis

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So straight co2 won’t hurt my welder

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So will straight co2 .hurt my welder

No, but it might affect the weld quality different than 75/25

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This may be a common understanding by most of you welders, but last night it was very enlightening and helpful for me. My welds have been getting worse and worse. The doctors say I have cataracts that are getting worse. I guess I’ll have to do something about it. In the mean time, I always keep the smoke wiped off my shields on my helmet. It dawned on me that I have never put new shields on the helmet I am now using. I shuffled through some shields I had and was able to make one to fit my helmet. WOW!!! What a difference. Even when the lens looks ok, when you strike an arc the light gets very diffused with those little minute scratches that are created by dry wiping the lens to clean it. So tomorrow I’ve got to go to Marinette and pick up a handful of new lenses. May be able to hold the doctors for a while. TomC

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