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compressed air/blowpipe torches


MattBower

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I was rereading the soldering/brazing section of an Oppi Untracht book (Metal Techniques for Craftsmen) the other day, and I came across his discussion of blowpipe torches. Of course these are little different in principle than compressed air torches. But what advantage do these sorts of torches give? The air you're adding to the flame doesn't contain any extra oxygen, so it would seem that at best what you're doing is improving the fuel/air mix and perhaps getting it to complete the burn in a smaller area. But don't swirly plumbers' torches do the same thing? What's the big advantage to doing it with an air compressor or your lungs?

I'm wondering about this in part because I have a small Smith acetylene torch, and I recently ran out of oxygen. I'm wondering if there's any particular reason not to just forget about buying O2 and switch to a compressed air/lung powered blowpipe to oxygenate the acetylene flame.

Edited by MattBower
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