svcguy
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- Joined
- May 30, 2005
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- West Kootenays, British Columbia
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Twin carbon torches are not recommended for cutting.
Although able to "burn" through steel because of the high temp, it will not resemble a "cut" - your metal edge will resemble a steel fragment from a nuclear melt down. Hardly what you want for a finished edge. Twin carbon arc torches are for heating, brazing and welding. When on the farm, we used them as a cheap alternative to oxy / propane setups. A common use for the torch was heating up and hammering hard chrome weld to the edges of plow and cultivator points. A lot of equipment was made from cast iron at the time and you could use the torch to preheat a broken item, then braze it together. After brazing, we would bury the piece in gypsum or cement dust to cool it slowly. I knew people that could actually weld with them, but personally have not tried it. Another use for them was melting lead. I still use one for bending steel stock, heating rusted nuts and preheat purposes. They are handy items to have and fun. If you go onto YouTube, there are a number of examples - but don't make the mistake of using one with bare arms. It is arc welding and you need to follow the same precautions.
Air arc cutting is based on the same principle, using the carbon arc flame to melt steel and a stream of high pressure air directed into it to remove molten metal. The twin carbon arc torch was never meant to be used that way.
I called a few welding houses in the area to see if they keep carbons on hand and they all do for DC machines. They are just copper cladded carbons. The DC carbons will work with an AC machine, but they are not as nice to work with as an AC "cored" carbon. The AC carbons simply hold a more stable arc when used with AC machines.
Although able to "burn" through steel because of the high temp, it will not resemble a "cut" - your metal edge will resemble a steel fragment from a nuclear melt down. Hardly what you want for a finished edge. Twin carbon arc torches are for heating, brazing and welding. When on the farm, we used them as a cheap alternative to oxy / propane setups. A common use for the torch was heating up and hammering hard chrome weld to the edges of plow and cultivator points. A lot of equipment was made from cast iron at the time and you could use the torch to preheat a broken item, then braze it together. After brazing, we would bury the piece in gypsum or cement dust to cool it slowly. I knew people that could actually weld with them, but personally have not tried it. Another use for them was melting lead. I still use one for bending steel stock, heating rusted nuts and preheat purposes. They are handy items to have and fun. If you go onto YouTube, there are a number of examples - but don't make the mistake of using one with bare arms. It is arc welding and you need to follow the same precautions.
Air arc cutting is based on the same principle, using the carbon arc flame to melt steel and a stream of high pressure air directed into it to remove molten metal. The twin carbon arc torch was never meant to be used that way.
I called a few welding houses in the area to see if they keep carbons on hand and they all do for DC machines. They are just copper cladded carbons. The DC carbons will work with an AC machine, but they are not as nice to work with as an AC "cored" carbon. The AC carbons simply hold a more stable arc when used with AC machines.
