A lost art

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I seldom see anyone weld with O/A anymore.  I still often use it for thin metal.  Is it becoming a lost art?  How about you, you still O/A weld?
Reply:Out of the 18ish students in my night class, the majority of them are in OA welding. At least 12 of the 18.Torchmate 2x2 CNC with Flashcut CNC controlsHypertherm Powermax45 Esab ET220i Razorweld 195 MigRazorweld 200ac/dc TigTormach 770, Tormach xstechRazorweld, Vipercut/Vipermig, SSC Foot Pedal Dealer
Reply:Truthfully I like torch welding - but never use it anymore unless I'm teaching someone to weld.Now that I have a tig - O/A welding is very unlikely.I told my kid that O/A welding was good training for tig.  He tried tig for the first time last week and agreed that I was right.Dave J.Dave J.Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw~ Syncro 350Invertec v250-sThermal Arc 161 and 300MM210DialarcTried being normal once, didn't take....I think it was a Tuesday.
Reply:Originally Posted by MinnesotaDaveTruthfully I like torch welding - but never use it anymore unless I'm teaching someone to weld.Now that I have a tig - O/A welding is very unlikely.I told my kid that O/A welding was good training for tig.  He tried tig for the first time last week and agreed that I was right.Dave J.
Reply:O/A teaches a lot about playing heat and manipulating the puddleSMAW and O/A were the first things i learned both teach you those thingsBesides when i was learning at 7- 8 years old tig was akin to voodoo Now almost everyone has a tig  machineBacked my CATMA over your CARMA oops clusmy me  What would SATAN do ?? Miller Trailblazer 302 AirPakMiller Digital Elite  Optrel Welding HatArcair K4000Suitcase 12RC / 12 VSHypertherm PM-45Rage 3 sawRusty old Truck
Reply:I forgot, this forum is mostly made up of people with years of welding background.  Like me, most of us started when tig was an exotic mystical type of welding.However, in my experience, the general populous seems to see o/a welding as the old way of doing things.  Nobody does that anymore, do they????  Why would you do that, you can't get a good weld with a torch!!!
Reply:Originally Posted by bikerdibI forgot, this forum is mostly made up of people with years of welding background.  Like me, most of us started when tig was an exotic mystical type of welding.However, in my experience, the general populous seems to see o/a welding as the old way of doing things.  Nobody does that anymore, do they????  Why would you do that, you can't get a good weld with a torch!!!
Reply:I still O/A weld hydraulic tubes on equipment all the time So you have no idea what your talking about  If you were to have a portable tig by the time you get set up to do that type of repair i would be done welding it with an O/A by just changing the tip and getting ready to re install itThis is a common repair on equipmentBacked my CATMA over your CARMA oops clusmy me  What would SATAN do ?? Miller Trailblazer 302 AirPakMiller Digital Elite  Optrel Welding HatArcair K4000Suitcase 12RC / 12 VSHypertherm PM-45Rage 3 sawRusty old Truck
Reply:I don't think O/A will become a lost art. I still weld with it in certain situations where bringing the generator out is not practical. We have one generator on the farm, a 150kW 3ph beast on a trailer. If I need to do a field repair on some 1/8" metal, the O/A setup is a far quicker option. Time is money on the farm.Lincoln Precision Tig 185Lincoln Power Mig 256Hypertherm PM 45Everlast 140STSmith O/A
Reply:Its not dead at all in general aviation.
Reply:Every welding school I know of starts out with a first quarter of oxy-acetylene. So every time I have hired a guy who went to welding school, which is probably 15 or 20 guys over the last 20 years, every single one of em was a really good oxy-fuel welder. Not that we hardly ever do it- I tig 90% of the stuff in my shop- but any well trained welder, with a 2 year AA degree, can oxy-fuel weld in his sleep. Oxy-acetylene was the first welder I could afford- I did nothing but it for the first couple years I had my shop, til I could afford a stick machine. Course, that was in the 70's, when a tig machine cost almost two grand, and ten bucks an hour was big money.
Reply:For us old retired guys that can't justify the cost of a tig, like me, we'll keep using the O/A welding. I saw a thread on here quite awhile ago w/ a video of a guy torch welding aluminum w/ some special rod. It might be worth looking into tho the process looked a lil' tricky. One torch welding process you don't see much anymore is brazing. I still do it occasionally.                                              MikeOl' Stonebreaker  "Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes"Hobart G-213 portableMiller 175 migMiller thunderbolt ac/dc stick Victor O/A setupMakita chop saw
Reply:I'm glad my son started welding classes with O/A.  By the time he got to TIG it was much easier.  Before he even finished the class, he got a job doing reconditioning welding on Inconel turbine blades."USMCPOP" First-born son: KIA  Iraq 1/26/05Syncrowave 250 w/ Coolmate 3Dialarc 250, Idealarc 250SP-175 +Firepower TIG 160S (gave the TA 161 STL to the son)Lincwelder AC180C (1952)Victor & Smith O/A torchesMiller spot welder
Reply:Originally Posted by bikerdibI forgot, this forum is mostly made up of people with years of welding background.  Like me, most of us started when tig was an exotic mystical type of welding.However, in my experience, the general populous seems to see o/a welding as the old way of doing things.  Nobody does that anymore, do they????  Why would you do that, you can't get a good weld with a torch!!!
Reply:You don't have to have an eloborate welding machine to Tig weld. If you have a DC CC welding source, pick up a touch start torch and hose then your off and weldingLast edited by sftyvlv; 03-18-2013 at 05:59 PM.
Reply:I am a newbie and just got my first torch o/a set for christmas and am teaching myself to weld alum.  I figure if I can learn alum then it will be the most versitle (weld steel, alum, ti, heat, cut, solder, braze, etc) and most cost effective to do all of those.  I am also renting a house with no 220v hook up's which would have added to the cost of a good tig or mig.But I am a hobbist at best so if my income depended on it I would choose the most effecient welding method to the jobs I was doing.
Reply:OAW was required for me in school. Once you relax and realize your gonna be there a while its pretty easy. Wearing all the ppe helps to keep the heat off of ya too.
Reply:I weld with plasma.......much like Tig and Oxy/acc but no gas.Ian.
Reply:I started with OA in highschool.  Haven't done it sense.Have not use a Tig yet but it's on the list.  Just don't want the Acet tank in the garage right next to the house.I think I would have to say I'm with puddytat sometimes I weld with my plasma torch.  I find it much quicker to cut and weld in one pass...
Reply:I haven't welded with the O/A in a long time. Wow welding with the plasma?! How's the weld quality?SqWave 200Millermatic 190Airco 200 ACHypertherm PM45Boice-Crane Band SawVictor O/A
Reply:Originally Posted by sftyvlvYou don't have to have an eloborate welding machine to Tig weld. If you have a DC CC welding source, pick up a touch start torch and hose then your off and welding
Reply:Originally Posted by puddytatI weld with plasma.......much like Tig and Oxy/acc but no gas.Ian.
Reply:He's talking about this POS welderhttp://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=257601I have seen his welds with it looks like bird poopBacked my CATMA over your CARMA oops clusmy me  What would SATAN do ?? Miller Trailblazer 302 AirPakMiller Digital Elite  Optrel Welding HatArcair K4000Suitcase 12RC / 12 VSHypertherm PM-45Rage 3 sawRusty old Truck
Reply:Aww man I thought it was gonna be something cool.
Reply:I got to go through a week or two of OA welding in welding school and didn't really care much for it. Then I saw some OA welding my dad did on a frame he built out of conduit for his Cushman so he could put a top on it for shade in the summer. Unbelievable how pretty those welds are (and he had a Syncrowave TIG setup for quite awhile prior to that...used it to re-do a Studebaker pickup and the sold it).He passed away before he could teach me any tricks with the OA welding so I think I'm going to try to master it on my own, much like he did.Someone correct me if I'm wrong but on mild steel the main advantage of tig over o/a is the heat is more concentrated so it doesn't heat up the surrounding metal as much?
Reply:I taught all my kids to OA weld first.  In my opinion it is a "Moderate to high skill" process when compared to some others.  I think it is good to learn before tig.  However I had one kid who only wanted to tig aluminum bike frames. I first thought, no, but told him if he cut his hair (it was to his waist) and wore regular clothes, I would do it.  He showed up the next day trimmed, dressed and ready to go.  He turned out to be a great tig welder and went on to be an engineer. The good thing about learning aluminum first is that everything else is a piece of cake.
Reply:Originally Posted by jamesyarbroughAww man I thought it was gonna be something cool.