Thread: Acetylene & Oxygen Tank blues

Tweet

I had one tank from my supplier that had a valve to body leak - it went 'dry' in less then a week. They replaced it free, but the 45 minute trip to their store po'd me tho

Those tanks should give you about 20 minutes run time with a oo tip in your cutting torch and a hour with a o in your welding torch @ 5 and 15 psi. Bigger tips and higher pressures will require bigger tanks They will not go flat with the tanks shut off under normal circumstances. Did you blow out the valves before fitting the regulators? Do the test agin using Ivory liquid soap @ 1 tablespoon soap to 1 pint water. Pay particular attention to the area around the valve stems and packings with the tanks closed then again with them fully opened and backseated. The quarter turn deal is no longer valid unless your tanks are over 20 years old.
You may want to have the local welding supply house check and refurbish the seats on the regulators if they have been damaged. You would be surprised at how fast tanks empty with just a small leak in that area because that is unregulated pressure.

Don't rule out one or more of your "buddies" slipping in there to leak them down. Some people have a wierd sense of humor.

The more I think about this one, the more I bet he just used more gas doing those chores than he thought. We have progressively moved up to bigger and bigger tanks over time, we kept running out at the worst times (Sunday at 5 pm usually, when everything is closed). I think our tanks are now called a number 4 size and they last a long time. We usually keep a spare oxygen tank filled waiting too as that seems to be the one that runs out first every time.

Don

You sure don't want that stuff leaking out! The last tank of acetylene I bought was over 80 bucks, up from the previous 39. Some BS about one of three factories that make the stuff closing down, was the excuse.