oxy acetylene?
Turbo Mini Forums

Wow, you guys are all very anti Oxy-Acetylene...

Things must have changed, you talking about it needing licenses or whatever...

Personally, I find it hard to not have an oxy acetylene set on hand. OxyPropane is good for cutting and that is it, absolutely useless for welding.

Flashback arrestors are definately required, especialy if learning (although I did survive from the age of 14 when I learnt to gas-weld until several years later when I found out these things existed and persuaded my dad to buy some)...

I too have heard stories of acetylene tanks going up, but I too have heard a lot of other crazy stuff as well. I don't know if any of you are aware but you head out with a huge amount of volitile substances in your car every time you nip to the shops, yes, a small thing called a petrol tank... (oil burners need not reply here).

Just like anything else, it needs to not be fucked around with.

When putting the kit away, Always turn off the bottle first. Then open the torch valve and let excess acetylene out. Then wind the regulator up a single turn to eliminate the acetylene between the bottle valve and regulator. Then shut off the torch valve, then wind the regulator to 'off'. That gives you THREE 'valves' that gasses would need to get through to go ka-boom...

After short time, take a look at the master regulator pressure - it should still be showing zero.

Do all that and you'll never have a problem with acetylene.

i love oxy, if it were for it id still have flywheels, trackrods and stubborn nuts stuck on loads of cars

ever heard that one about the guy that welded a bracket for his torch onto the bottle? lol

another thing they apparently do is whistle as the flame goes back down the hose?

fortunately ive never been unlucky enough to witness it

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Dave, you are right, its all about how its used.

What you have to consider though is storing the cylinders in your garage. I would be surprised if you could find a home insurance policy that says it is ok. At work, we have to store the oxygen and acatylene cylinders apart, in two seperate places, and where possible, outside. The easiest thing is to take the cylinders back to the suppliers, then you completely avoid storing it.

I have nothing against using it, its the storage thats the problem, and while 99% of the time it is perfectly safe, that other 1% could be fatal. Also consider that if you were storing acetylene in your garage and the garage was on fire, the fire brigade would evacuate the whole area untoll the fire is put out, and then until the acetylene cylinder has been cooled with water contiuously for at least 12 hours

That aside, its really the insurance companies that are the problem.


While it is not the same thing, I have personaly seen the carnage of an oxygen explosion in the center of Cardif some years ago, where some one was pressure testing one of our air cooled water chillers. They mistakenly used an oxygen cylinder. When they heard the whole machine creek and groan, they ran for cover and within moments the machine exploded. The only thing that was left was the compressor bed, the fan deck and condensers were all over the roof, and they found a compressor cylinder head on the roof on the other side of the road. The water pump casing in the plant roomwas split in two and it blew a hole in the brick wall of the plant room. It was quite funny as I got the call to go and have a look at this chiller. I walked onto the job and said "I'm here to fix the chiller", they just laughed and showed me the carnage

Just had a word on the old fella

Twas an acetylene bottle that let go back in the late 50's/early 60's Sprock, not O2

Went boom in a garage called Roots at the bottom of Knot hill (they used to make tanks for the war in the same building)

the top 18" of the bottle landed ontop of kendals roof

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"