Propane - Cutting & Welding - Tombstone ???

[yomax4]

Air liquide actually does sell propane...

Yeah. many other distribs are starting to cash in on propane too. They realize that people want it so they are starting to offer it. They often try to steer customers toward the other Alt.Fuels. Like I said, All are good.

 

[Ken]

Jim with your skill of designing metal things. Think of the orginal acetalne and it was used every where underground mining took place. Carbide.
We used to have a welder in Clinton that had a hopper of Carbide and small water drip line then the hose to cutting torch. Had to remember to shut off water when finished.
Sometimes the hopper become over pressured and had a pressure releif valve .
There was a comment of not enough heat with propane. saw the men using it put up a wind break from the wind.

What have you been working on lately.
ken

 

[crash325]

Jim with your skill of designing metal things. Think of the orginal acetalne and it was used every where underground mining took place. Carbide.
We used to have a welder in Clinton that had a hopper of Carbide and small water drip line then the hose to cutting torch. Had to remember to shut off water when finished.
Sometimes the hopper become over pressured and had a pressure releif valve .
There was a comment of not enough heat with propane. saw the men using it put up a wind break from the wind.

What have you been working on lately.
ken

Hi Ken,
Good to hear from you.
At one time we had several carbide lamps, used them in the mines around Tombstone. Still have a couple, but they are not the good ones like we use to have.
One welding supply in Escondido use to have a good sized acetylene generator.
Trying to improve my skills on most everything, metal, wood, cement & rock work.
Today got a new stove pipe installed, be posting it in a little while. Safety Police will be after me on that. Also got a fair start on an improved wood stove. Built a mail box and got the "Postal Police" after me. You should have seen the post on the roller & sheep's foot build. They are intended for drive way work & landscaping. The sheep's foot would also work pretty well for seeding grass in a pasture.

Have a new girlfriend now up to 3. Will tell that story in a day or 3.

Plan to build a Black Smith & welding shop, Maybe this spring. What else, No body knows, not even me.:laughing:

 

[Tractor Seabee]

You can also get tips/mixers to use natural gas, cheaper yet someplaces. Remember Acetylene /OX burns at 8000 Degrees F. Not sure about the alt fuels but they all burn considerably cooler hence the longer time to preheat. There is another thread discussing this also where I brought out the use of generators using carbide and water.

Ron

 

[Ken]

Jim
Read you post on the sheep foot roller didn't comment as had no need for its use. looked good.
It seems that when I plan on something to do there is a comment "But first do this".
so never get around to completing the orginal plan.So now getting rid of most all of the metal reserved for plans.
cleaning up the shop finding things thought was gone years ago.
The tornado of Feb. 08 I'm still finding metal in the remaining trees and through out the area when bush hogging brush found the top of a cook stove cast iron and heavy not from our place.
Also think I have the ideal item for your place. How about a Allis Chalmers WD-45 upgraded to a 55 h.p. tractor. Gas. it would be proud to pull the sheep foot roller.

Have great Thanksgiving. How many girl friends going to be at the dinner?
I'm having the 5 grand children there parents and my brother and sister family and friends.
Supposed to show up Wednesday and maybe Friday the house will be empty as well the refrigerator.
ken

 

[IslandTractor]

You can also get tips/mixers to use natural gas, cheaper yet someplaces. Remember Acetylene /OX burns at 8000 Degrees F. Not sure about the alt fuels but they all burn considerably cooler hence the longer time to preheat. There is another thread discussing this also where I brought out the use of generators using carbide and water.

Ron

Oxy/acetylene burns at about 5600F not 8000. Oxy/propane burns at about 5100F. Both gases burn cooler in air. The other alt fuel gases are all pretty close to propane.

 

[Machold]

So, for cutting all the old stell scattered in the trees at my place, propane is cheaper, safer and just as good. But if I want to weld, I should stick to my Miller?

 

[monckywrench]

But if I want to weld, I should stick to my Miller?

Yes. Propane not for welding.

You can BRAZE with it though, and use it for running rosebuds to preheat and bend.

If you don't have an LP rosebud, this "flameholder" trick (scroll down) works nicely. I could have made it shorter but started long and left it that way:

The Home Machinist! • View topic - Oxy-propane, BBQ tanks as soldering/brazing fuel?

 

[rjmack]

Oxy/acetylene burns at about 5600F not 8000. Oxy/propane burns at about 5100F. Both gases burn cooler in air. The other alt fuel gases are all pretty close to propane.

i don't know where to find the link, but iirc acetylene has a much higher btu output than propane. pretty sure that temp and btu are not exactly relative numbers.

the analogy being that btu of cutting flame is approximately equivalent to torque in an engine being used for towing... the more torque the better. propane is a low torque fuel... good enough for clean surfaces (gang torches in shops) but not so good at digging through dirt, rust, oil, paint etc.

 

[IslandTractor]

i don't know where to find the link, but iirc acetylene has a much higher btu output than propane. pretty sure that temp and btu are not exactly relative numbers.

the analogy being that btu of cutting flame is approximately equivalent to torque in an engine being used for towing... the more torque the better. propane is a low torque fuel... good enough for clean surfaces (gang torches in shops) but not so good at digging through dirt, rust, oil, paint etc.

Honestly that doesn't make sense to me. Propane is now the preferred fuel for oxyfuel cutting for economic and safety reasons. Acetylene is still used of course but typically for convenience when acetylene is already available due to welding needs. We all know that the fuel is used only to heat the metal to a reactive temperature and that it is the oxygen that does the cutting so even though acetylene has a higher burn temp, propane is more than adequate to heat metal to reactive temp.

The BTU figures I posted came from a reference work ? ASW.