as one with a welding cert from TAFE (gotten in the 80s at night school so I could weld up cars I was building)
I started out with an Oxy/Acet set at home.. CIG brand and a CIG stick (SMAW) welder too
then as $ permitted, a MIG and a TIG were added.
yeah.. then hoses went to powder on the gas set, then the Acet regulator died about then too
and
it was easier/cheaper to go to Oxy/LPG. LPG, I use with a regulator although some don't.
Sure Oxy/Acet is a tad hotter .. 3100° than Oxy/LPG 2800° but both will do manual brazing
and braze welding no problem. Heating for bending with LPG is actually the best way to do this.
why? as my tutors said (and I did not forget this ) -
Acetylene gets hotter but gives off less heat then
PROPANE. Why..?
the thermal output difference !
- BTU's of Acetylene is approximately 1470 btu's per cubic foot.
- BTU's of Propane is approximately 2498 btu's per cubic foot.
So, LPG cuts fine albeit slower with the right tips, silver solders nicely as well and a bonus! .... you can hardface
cutting stuff .... axes, adzes etc and I found a large LPG bottle runs out about the same time as a D Oxy bottle
Final point.... ACETYLENE in a bottle is a
BOMB. You are controlling that.. carefully! Never let an Acetylene
bottle fall over (if it does leave upright at least 90 mins before use) and never open it like you do an Oxy bottle
(which you open
fully)
Never open acetylene cylinder valves more than 1 turn (1/4 to 1/2 is usually enough) and do it
SLOWLY
And one final safety point, always use Flashback arrestors, even with Oxy/LPG!
the set up I have for Oxy/LPG was pictured in my previous post (on what did you do in the garage)
RH front of the pic near the compressor and KARCHER is my Oxy/LPG set up