? on gas welding

[IronFist]

I've only welded with gas a few times and I've some simple questions.
1- Is the flame supposed to whistle/ blow fairly hard? I believe that my flame is blowing my material all around. My result is fairly good, but it boesn't look like an arc bead, which brings me to my next question.

2- Is the bead supposed to look like an arc weld bead, barring my in-experience with this? I can arc weld like theres no tomarrow, but this seems to be a bit complex.

3- And last, the flux I'm using was sold to me by the guy at the local hardware store up the street and it says 'tinning flux'. Am I not supposed to be using brazing flux?

Thanks for listening!

[HWooldridge]

1 - No whistling, your flame is probably too lean. A neutral flame is pretty quiet compared to either extreme for a particular tip. If you are blowing material away, the tip is probably too close to the work.
2. Looks more like a TIG weld - or a row of dimes. The puddle is formed and the rod added then the bead is continued until complete.
3. You don't use flux to gas weld - just bare, copper coated rod. Brazing is completely different so you are either welding or brazing - not both at the same time.

[IronFist]

That sheds alot of light HW, thanks brother. I dont necessarily mean blowing material awy, but theres alot of pops and fireworks. Is that typical? If its to look like TIG, I just need some practice then, I'm xxxx good at that! I also forgot to mention that I'm using a number 3 tip. Is this too big/ too small?

[LarryM]

OK Ironfist

The regulator setting are as follows: Oxygen between 4 and 7lbs. acetylene between reg 3 and 6lbs. When you light the torch with gas valve open only turn up gas valve to where it just stops smokeing black. then cut in oxygen until the center feather just disappears. (neutral flame) while welding try to keep (blue center cone from touching material slightly above it. Hope this helps the poping is caused by flame being too close and too much oxygen.


Be Safe
LarryM;)

[Glenn]

Pops and fireworks could be the result of your torch getting too close the puddle, and knocking the flame out. The pop is the gases catching fire again and the fireworks is the puddle being blown away. This can sound like a machine gun at times.

[Ten Hammers]

My experience has been good with setting up the torch with the technique described earlier ( really, ignoring the settings on the regulators and looking at the flame ). This is NOT to say that the regulator guages should be ignored. What I am saying is that I am more concerned with looking at the flame and it's characteristics. Using this setup technique, the guages will not go over 4 lbs on fuel or oxygen. YMMV and of course you will get a minor variation from regulator set to set. Very cold weather is hard on regulators. As has been stated, too close with the torch is a problem. So is too low fuel pressure. Tip selection is critical for me. I weld with a Henrob the last 4 years or so and their tip selection is outstanding if you have a full set. Victor, Harris, Smith etc have tip selection that is good as well but I have one welding tip that came with the Smith rig I bought a few years ago ( to replace the old Victor set with bad regulator ). The Victor set has a couple of welding tips, yes but then again they are not everything I need. Regardless of what your guage settings may say ( of course this is for neutral flame welding setup ), by using the technique I described earlier and lighting the acetelyne first, you get a feel of what that tip needs. Let the smoke dissapear and perhaps add a bit. THEN add oxygen to get the cone you want but go no further. Popping at this adjustment can mean ( in my experience ) too close to the work with the torch or also lack of fuel pressure. This will require perhaps adding a bit of fuel and then oxygen to get what you need ( this done on torch, not regulators ). Fuel should cool the tip. Hot tip = backfire. Again these are just my experiences. Cone should be close enough to work to form puddle but not touching. You should also have a nice quiet torch with a neutral flame. Your tip should be clean ( using tip drills works well for some, they are what I learned with ). Henrob cleaners are what appears to be piano wire and are sized for cleaner / tip match ( smooth cleaner used to knock out any nasties ). No reaming or removal to make hole bigger. THey seem to work very well for me. Fusion welding with OA torch requires no flux in my experience ( this is mild or carbon steel ). Brazing another issue. Like Hollis says, looks like TIG. I weld through forge scale daily but a nice clean weldament sure looks better and operates better. Modern steel sucks for content. My experience with gas welding is that you can go up, down, left, right, in, out whatever ( unlike TIG ) but you DO get residual heat from torch ( unlike TIG which is really sweet and concentrated ). Needs for both. I would dearly like to have my own TIG but for now will borrow a torch and run through the stick whenever I really need it ( which has only been few times ). Good luck and be safe. BTW a backfire ( pop ) is a fire in the torch and if you do not have torch checkvalves, GET THEM. Should have them on the regulator end too. Spend the money.

[IronFist]

Once again, you guys here are fantastic with the responces and information! All of your help is greatly appreciated and maybe I can offer some help in the future.

[irnsrgn]

Most popping is caused by having the tip too close to the puddle and the little sparks (bits of molten metal) sticking to the sharp corner of the tip orifice and then popping off, they will also glow bright red or white when they build up and then boil to the point of exploding and pop off the end.
The trick is to use a bigger tip with a softer flame and direct the tip at an angle toward the direction of travel so as to preheat ahead of the puddle and keep the force of the flame from direct head on contact with the puddle.
To keep the little bits of metal from collecting and adhering to the sharp edge of the tip orifice on both cutting tips ans welding tips, hold a small sharp drill bit a little bigger than the tip orifice to the tip and using very little pressure twirl it betwen 2 fingers and chamfer the sharp lip just a tad so the sparks don't have a sharp edge that gets hot easily to adhere too.