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Re: Cutting Torch Settings?

To: Michael Leach <mrleach@Fair.Net>
Subject: Re: Cutting Torch Settings?
From: "W. R. Gibbons" <gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 23:51:01 -0500 (EST)
On Mon, 17 Mar 1997, Michael Leach wrote:

> Could someone please give me some advice on the recommend settings to
> use with a cutting tourch.  I had a friend setup my torch regulators so
> they would at least be in the ballpark for cutting but sense then
> someone has came along and turned off the regulators.  Now I have no
> idea where to start.  Normally I would turn both the gas and the oxygen
> bottles all the way on and then back one turn.  As for the torch I
> normally turn the gas on about 1/8 - 1/4 turn and I adjust the oxygen so
> that I have about an 1/8" flam it seems to work this way but it's not
> always pretty.  Does this seem to be the normal setting?  If not could
> someone give me some advice on what the recommended regulator and torch
> setting are for a victor torch cutting steel about 1/8" to 1/4".
> 
> Thanks for the help.
> 
> Michael
> 

I haven't done it for a while, but as I recall, the procedure is something
like this.  Open the tank acetylene control a couple of turns.  Open the
tank oxygen valve fully (there may be a second seal on the oxygen that
works only when the valve is fully open).  Using the regulators, set the
Oxygen at about 20 psi and the acetylene at about 3-5 psi using the tank
controls.  The torch will have two oxygen valves and one acetylene valve. 
One oxygen control will be paired with an acetylene control for the
heating flames.  The other controls the maximum flow of oxygen through the
center of the torch.  Using the paired torch controls, open the acetylene
valve a crack and light the torch, then turn the acetylene up to get about
a 6 inch flame.  Use the corresponding oxygen control to give a neutral
flame (that will be a blue flame with a central core perhaps 1/2 inch long
from each jet).  Use this to heat the metal to red hot, then press the
lever to get a jet of oxygen for cutting.  Play with the cutting oxygen
control to get decent cutting without excess use of oxygen.  That should
get you started.  If I have something wrong, someone will surely correct
me. 

   Ray Gibbons  Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
                Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
                gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu  (802) 656-8910


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