Show Us your Welders!

[deakin]

in this late so not going thru' all posts but i believe the first welder you get should be O/A. it teaches skills for all other welding operations and is a preferred method in many situations.

most crappy welders get a mig first and think they are a hero
my observations.

 

[Weldo]

in this late so not going thru' all posts but i believe the first welder you get should be O/A. it teaches skills for all other welding operations and is a preferred method in many situations.

There's a lot of truth to this. In welding school they started us with the oxy/acetylene torch. It does an amazing job of teaching you about heat control and that is the very crux of welding. It's been years since I O/A welded but I remember it being very enjoyable. It's the most stripped down basic method of welding. It takes lots of practice, just like anything, but it's very rewarding to gas weld.

 

[brino]

There's a lot of truth to this. In welding school they started us with the oxy/acetylene torch. It does an amazing job of teaching you about heat control and that is the very crux of welding. It's been years since I O/A welded but I remember it being very enjoyable. It's the most stripped down basic method of welding. It takes lots of practice, just like anything, but it's very rewarding to gas weld.

I took an evening oxy/acetylene course at the local community college about 25 years ago.
The biggest lessons I took away were:
1) how the metal moves during and after the weld.
2) how you can pause the heat on one piece to account for thicker materials

That was several years after a few lessons from my Dad on his big AC-only arc welder (he took a local college course on that ;^).

I still go back to O/A for any big heating and all brazing needs.

-brino

 

[NCjeeper]

We had quite a bit of O/A welding in our college welding course. Of course that was 1984.

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

I'm not going to rag on the roots of welding by knocking O/A, it takes a lot of skill and knowledge to be able to successfully pull off the clean straight cut of a plasma cutter or the perfect symmetry of a skilled TIG welder, but there is a time and a place for the purist. I'm not taking a Amtrak cross country when there is a jet available. I even question how relevant manual lathes/mills will be in 10 years... There is a company all over instagram showing off heir hand held laser welder. TBH, I'd buy THAT! No heat, no warping and you can have a wire feed with it.
Laser weld

 

[General Zod]

Thanks @GunsOfNavarone. I’m looking forward to learning.
I’m under no illusions that this will be an easy road but it’s something that I’ve wanted to learn for a long time.

I can buy a 110 cubic ft bottle which is probably as big as I can manage on my own. A 250 is available but I don’t think I can manage a tank that large.


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If they accept other tanks you can always look on craigslist to see what you can score. It all depends on the gas supplier. Mine will accept any tank on a trade so long as it has a valid hydrotest. If it doesn't I just pay the hydrotest fee to make the swap happen. I've scored argon tanks for $100 or so. I have several, so I can buy more if one tank is depleted. 110-125 ft³ goes by fast when you're barely starting out and welding left-and-right to get the feel for things. The high-pressure initial blast is what consumes a lot of gas. The flow-rate can exceed 50 CFH for a split second, even if you're dialed in at only 20-25 CFH. So with a lot of short runs, all those blasts start adding up to lost shielding gas.

 

[DavidR8]

If they accept other tanks you can always look on craigslist to see what you can score. It all depends on the gas supplier. Mine will accept any tank on a trade so long as it has a valid hydrotest. If it doesn't I just pay the hydrotest fee to make the swap happen. I've scored argon tanks for $100 or so. I have several, so I can buy more if one tank is depleted. 110-125 ft³ goes by fast when you're barely starting out and welding left-and-right to get the feel for things. The high-pressure initial blast is what consumes a lot of gas. The flow-rate can exceed 50 CFH for a split second, even if you're dialed in at only 20-25 CFH. So with a lot of short runs, all those blasts start adding up to lost shielding gas.

If lived in a place where industry was more prevalent I'm sure I could pick up a tank and do what you suggest. Unfortunately used tanks rarely, if ever come up for sale, or at least I've never seen one.

Definitely take your point on the volume of gas consumed.

 

[jwmelvin]

Around me, 80 cu ft is the largest customer-owned cylinder they will deal with. So I leased a 330 as the fill price is much less per volume. I have an 80 for MIG.

 

[Weldo]

'm not going to rag on the roots of welding by knocking O/A, it takes a lot of skill and knowledge to be able to successfully pull off the clean straight cut of a plasma cutter or the perfect symmetry of a skilled TIG welder, but there is a time and a place for the purist.

It's true that not many people would choose an O/A set up over TIG these days and for sure it does take lots of skill to manipulate the modern machines, but what I and some other guys were saying is that O/A does a great job of teaching you heat control.

I believe the reason that welding education often begins with O/A is that most of the people in the class have never seen molten metal before. They don't know how it acts or how it reacts to various stimuli. How big can the molten puddle get before it drops to the floor? How long does it take to form a puddle in various thicknesses of material? How fast can you move the puddle across the surface to form a bead? Lots of things can be learned about molten metal in just a few minutes with an acetylene torch.

Also it's very intuitive to the beginner. Move the flame closer to the workpiece and the piece gets hotter and melts faster. Pull the flame away and it cools/solidifies rapidly. You don't have to worry about arc length, amperage settings, wire speed, dipping tungsten, shielding gas flow rates or any thing else. Torch set up and lighting is easily grasped by anyone with even a small amount of mechanical ability and you're ready to go. Even the equipment can be had for a fraction of the cost of a TIG machine and you can cut and heat with it as a bonus.

I agree with your comment that if a person is looking to get into welding, an O/A set up is an archaic choice for an all around welding outfit but it's value as a teaching aid is still very valid even in these modern times.

 

[DavidR8]

Somewhat related question.
Do you folks with O/A rigs have anything special about your house insurance?
(I recall someone, somewhere say that their fire insurance would be void with an O/A rig in the garage.


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