Question on small oxy-acet kit.

bill18163 · May 28, 2005

Does anyone here have one of the small portable oxy-acet kits that you can buy at welders supply stores and I have also seen them at Lowes and Home Depot? I'm thinking of buying one of them but the tanks are very small and I was wondering how long the gas would last under different conditions such as brazing,cutting,heating,etc. Any comments would be helpful in making up my mind.

Junkman · May 28, 2005

I have a set and only used them for cutting at the junk yard, however, now they won't allow them in for fear of fires being started. They are OK for small work, but don't expect to get any long term cutting or brazing done because as you mentioned the tanks are very small. Most of the time that I see them used it is by jewelers or people doing small work. If I were going to buy tanks and regulators/torches, I would go for a larger set up. Look around yard sales and you might find a used set. I have a found a few that way. The biggest problem sometimes can be getting the tanks filled. If they are out of date, they must be tested before they will fill or exchange them.

kenmac · May 28, 2005

I have the small set that I use in my plumbing / hvac business, but like it was said ,they will run out of gas / oxygen fast on large jobs, so it depends on how large the job or how often they are used on how long gas/oxygen will last.The plus side is they are easy to carry around. I also have the larger set for larger jobs.

thcri · May 28, 2005

This is wierd, I made a post to this last night and now it is gone.

Oh well, I have a bunch of these. We use them in our service vans for repairing heating and air conditioning equipment. I have one also at home. For most repairs soldering and brazing they are great. Service men like them because they are easy to move around. Big jobs where we are installing new lines then they move up to a larger set. I have one at home that I use and it is handy however, when using the cutting tip I typically will bring home the next size larger Oxygen tank and set it right next to the stand and use it instead as you won't get very far with the smaller tank. But for odds and ends they are great.

murph

Junkman · May 28, 2005

The "rule of junk" is that you will use 2 tanks of oxygen to one tank of acetylene. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

bgott · May 28, 2005

They work great as long as you aren't scrapping rail cars or some other big stuff. The trick is to have extra bottles. I have two extra sets that I have picked up at yard sales and the flea market one at a time. I paid $10 apiece for the extras. When they want more I point out the date and they are happy to get rid of them. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Then I take them to my HVAC supplier where they swap 'em out and don't care about the date. I have one supplier, a 10 mile or so drive away, that gets under $7 a bottle for a refill and the guy here in the barrio gets $8 or so. The biggest thing with the little bottles is that you have to watch the pressures. I've had a couple that were underfilled and that can be a pain on Sunday with a small bottle.

kenmac · May 28, 2005

Re: Question on small oxy-acet kit. *DELETED* *DELETED* *DELETED* *DELETED*

Post deleted by kenmac

kenmac · May 29, 2005

Re: Question on small oxy-acet kit. *DELETED*

Post deleted by kenmac

kenmac · May 29, 2005

<font color="blueclass=small">( <font color="blue"> </font> ( This is wierd, I made a post to this last night and now it is gone.)

Your reply to this post is in parts & repairs .