The TAB Guide to DIY Welding by Jackson Morley

Author:Jackson Morley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 2013-05-18T16:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 8.7 First pass with -in stock.

FIGURE 8.8 Almost closed hoop.

FIGURE 8.9 Finished hoop.

CHAPTER 9

Oxygen-Acetylene Torch

The oxygen-acetylene (oxy-acetylene) torch is arguably one of the most versatile metalworking tools in existence. With no other tool can you weld, cut, bend, and more—all without electricity. As you learned earlier in this book, oxy-acetylene welding and electrical welding were developed around the same time during the 1800s. The speed and focused heat of electrical welding made it more useful in industry, and not many more advancements were made to oxy-acetylene welding after World War I. However, oxy-acetylene torch work never died out. For one thing, the setup was still the most efficient way to cut through steel, something that wouldn’t be achieved with electrical power until the middle of the twentieth century. Using the same welding setup, one can weld a variety of metals, such as different steel alloys, brass, bronze, aluminum, and more, by changing the filler material. Also, anywhere welding was needed where there wasn’t access to electricity (rural areas), the oxy-acetylene torch was the only way to go.

One reason I am starting out with the oxy-acetylene torch is that it gives you a chance to watch how steel responds to heat at a slower speed than with electrical welding. With metal–inert gas (MIG) welding, milliseconds after the trigger is pulled the steel has already become a liquid, and the welding process has begun. You would need super-high-speed cameras to see this process in detail. When using the oxy-acetylene torch to weld or cut steel, you first need to bring an area of steel up to its melting temperature. This alone takes from 10 to 30 seconds, and during that time, you are able to watch the steel gradually change from a dull gray to a molten yellow-white pool. Only when you see the pool of molten steel is your material ready to be welded or cut. Figure 9.1 shows a cut underway.

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