Working in a poorly equiped shop these days. We are without chop saw, plasma, band saw, etc... Not goign to be getting any of these anytime soon either :( Almost all of our cutting for fab work has to be done with the torch. Not a huge deal but a oxy/accet pro I am not.

So what are the keys to making a nice, clean cut that requires the least clean up? As it is I am spending half my time cleaning up stuff so it looks halfway professional. Is it in pressure, flame setup, torch angle.. what am I doing wrong here?

While we are at it, any hints on sizing the torch to the material I am cutting?

thanks!

use a straightedge, clamped to the side you are saving, not to the drop side.

clean your tip's often.

angle your tip towards the uncut section, not back into where you have already cut.

practice.

as for cleanup time savers, chip as much slag off with a chipping hammer before you start grinding as you can. It'll cut yer cleanup time dramatically, and your grinding wheels will last alot longer too.

I like to use a big hot flame, hold the toch in my right hand and steady it in my left. If I can steady my whole body by leaning against something I will. I tend to make rough cuts fast, and more precision cuts slow. Don't go too slow, because the molten metal will not blow away and kinda booger it up. Anyway, get some scrap and practice.

Straightedge, Straightedge, Straightedge

Practice, Practice, Practice

If its a freehand cut, work on your steadyness. Breathing and what not, really effect the cut.

If you find yourself make lots of freehand cuts that are identical, make a template outta some thicker plate and clamp it up.

Had a friend explain I didn't need any actelyene once I got a cut going. Idiot turned OFF my actelyene, and I was pissed at him... but damn that was a nice cut! :D

As to cleaning up, also learned to trick of "drawing" a file. Basically the slag/metal is the thinnest section of metal. Metal file, hold in both hands, draw towards you. If the cut was nice and clean, it takes a few seconds to pull of the drag. Faster than grinding it away, but depends on how thick and clean the cut was.

Tom :usa:

Had a friend explain I didn't need any actelyene once I got a cut going.

:confused:

explain more please.

are you saying that that it actually worked with no acet.? that once you got a good burn you just pushed the heat with the oxy? if so... way cool.

That's what I got from this as well... please explain. :confused:


:confused:

explain more please.

are you saying that that it actually worked with no acet.? that once you got a good burn you just pushed the heat with the oxy? if so... way cool.

saw this for a TIG, it's a tolit float holder and a carriage bolt. You figure out how it's used :evil:

Thats a damn good idea.

If you are cutting a peice of plate, when you are heating up the area you are starting the cut in just before you hit the O2 lever on your torch, move the fire about a quarter inch away from the area you just heat up and hit the lever. when you move the torch back it will start a nice cut and not blow a huge hole in the material.

great tips, im gonna slap somthign like that toilet part on my plasma.

What pressure do you all run your torches at ?

keep em coming !!!
-mike

Pressure depends on what material your cutting and what size torch respectively.

I believe i was running between 5 and 10 on the fuel and around 30-35 on the oxy, although its been a while since i have had my tanks..

Got that great idea id sell the tanks and buy a plasma cutter, well now i have neither! :goofball:

A lean mix seems to work better. Tune the flame with the cut gas ON, don't worry about the pre-cut flame (common mistake). Go as fast as you can - slow cuts are usually messy.

:confused:

explain more please.

are you saying that that it actually worked with no acet.? that once you got a good burn you just pushed the heat with the oxy? if so... way cool.
Yes you can cut with stright OXY no Acet........have to start out with both, get it molten and if you slip up, you have to start over :p as far as pressure, makes little difference.

Here is a quiz: :grinpimp:

Does a FULL bottle of OXY weigh more then an EMPTY bottle?

another slick prop for a cutter is a wheel, say you are cutting 1" and of course need to cut slow, get a tension wheel from a sepentin drive on a late model car and rig it to the torch :)

Victor has chart on what tip size and pressure to use for different thickness material. I have had good luck following that. Also, anytime you can use some sort of guide helps.

Here is a quiz: :grinpimp:

Does a FULL bottle of OXY weigh more then an EMPTY bottle?
i would say no, when the oxy empties out, its not replaced by air. does it become a vaccuum? seems as though it would

full bottle does weigh more, but you won't see that on a normal scale, it is only weighs a few GRAMS more. I know someone that lost a bet about this, called some fillers and was told that:) lol

Well, this thread is lacking so i looked up some info and found several site with the info i was looking for... here...

well here is the chart, if someone knows how to upload it to PBB, please have at it....

http://www.yager.net/mike/cutting-info.html

That's what I got from this as well... please explain. :confused:
When cutting metal with a torch, you're not actually using the fire to cut. The heat is for the start of the cut, but the metal is actually just oxidizing. Once the cut is started, you can turn off the acetelyne, and the rest of the cut can be performed with oxygen only.

The only way I ever got a near perfect cut was to run the machine torch. But if I had been given more time to practice, I might have ended up with nicer cuts from the hand torch. And if you are feeling really adventurous, try cutting stainlesswith a torch :eek: :laughing: .

I have helped part time in a local machine shop that caters toward the repair and mods on coal mining equipment. I have heard alot about a neutral flame on the torch but have yet to master setting it up. The torch cuts very clean when set this way. I have seen cuts in 1" plus plates turn out very good free handed. Keeping the tip clean is something else thats good. I have also noticed that some preheating ahead of the start of the cut helps out also.

if you preheat the metal (with the cutting oxygen off) and cut with your torch pointed slightly into the cut(a bit more preheat) it seems to work pretty good for me. make sure the cuttting flame has a crisp even edge and no 'feathers' for the best cut... for straight cuts you can make a magnetic 'burn bar' with those cheap circle 'ground' magnets at harbor freight centered on a piece of 3/8-1/2'' round stock offset with a piece of flat and drag your torch along it...

I set up the torch flame so that the blue points are just at the point of floating off the tip - that is the hottest... Size matters - but most people only have one cutting tip. Get a couple and switch off on the sizes for different thickness metals.

Tip the torch towards the direction of the cut to pre-heat. Like others have said - use a guide and cut fast and smooth. Learn just how far the tip needs to be off the surface to do the best cutting - the exact tips of the blue flame are the hottest area - lower and it cools off and risks plugging holes from blow back...

You know you are getting the hang of it when you can torch frozen bearing races from spindles without making a mark on the spindle... That's my test... :D After that - everything else is childs play.

Best cut I ever saw was on 3/8" steel. It was done with oxy/cng and was smooth like butter. Smoother than laser or waterjet. Downside was pre-heating and travel speed due to lower temperature flame. Beautiful cut though :smokin:

Buy one of these http://www.cut-like-plasma.com/ maybe it will help you.Ohh yeah lot's of practice.

only problem with those is you have to drag the torch straight, if you want to cut a circle, you have to drag the torch in a circle you cant leave it like a regular torch.

I have aline burning torch machine for cutting plate steel and you can get some damn nice cuts with the right tip selection this looks to be a good chart but I normaly use the victor chart. As for the cutting with oxygen yes it works fine its called an oxygen lance very comon in the steel mill industrie.
http://www.hoopersupply.com/cut.htm

try cutting stainlesswith a torch :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

ONE reason I bought my Plasma Cutter. :)

Worst thing I ever did... 1" thick stainless. A friend needed two spacer rings. 2" id, 2.25" od, inch thick. We "trimmed" it with The Plasma Cutter. Then finished up on the lathe. Only took EIGHT HOURS. :eek:

Good news was he could handle the lathe, but damn. Material was scrap, so not sure what alloy but ceramic inserts liked skipping across the material...

Yes, when cutting the heat is only used to START the cut. Once you have it going it is a matter of oxidizing the metal. Pretty clean cut. I was cutting 1" plate and started off WAY to0 high on my Actelyene pressure... hence dropping it to 4 psi, keeping oxygen at 25 psi. Looking at the charts, they recommend 6 psi and 35-50 oxy psi... I suspect my regulators read low... as I remember 1, 4, 25 for cutting (1" steel plate, 4 act, 25 oxy)....

Tom :usa:

You know you are getting the hang of it when you can torch frozen bearing races from spindles without making a mark on the spindle... That's my test... :D After that - everything else is childs play.

This I can do.... that all seems to be about controlling where you preheat and being carefull when you cut.

My big issue has always been making a clean cut with minimal slag andnot having to go back and re-cut wher eit has closed up.

Have been using a guide bar and it helps.

Lots of great tips here guys, cannot wait to go try some of them.

Good news was he could handle the lathe, but damn. Material was scrap, so not sure what alloy but ceramic inserts liked skipping across the material...

Not all stainless is created equal...

Some of it is un-machinable. Other types are easily machinable. Some are virtually un-weldable, while other types weld easily. Sometimes the two things are mutually exclusive - unmachinable and easily weldable and vice-versa.

I used to work with lots of different types of stainless in the dairy industry. They would get VERY picky about the type used for the task. We had somewhere around 100 miles of stainless tubing and much sheet-based equipment that towered to 7 stories - tanks, silos, spray dryers, etc. Plus all the pump heads, all the fittings, all the valves, and all the miscelaneous equipment like decks and railings panels, etc. were all stainless of one variety or another. Repairing stuff was a major pain becasue it was difficult to know which type of stainless was used until you began the work...