O/A Tank Flowrates

admin

Thanks everyone for the help - this forum is great!I understand that an acetylene tank should not be discharged more than 1/7 of its capacity per hour.  If I know that I am in the safe range on a B tank with a MW204 (Smith Tip) - where I could run constantly for consecutive hours... can I step up to a larger tip and say - use 1/7 of the tank in 10 minutes, then let it rest for an hour or so?Hmmmm....Thanks!
Reply:Short answer, NoLong answer, kinda, maybe, but NOT 1/7th in 10 min.. You could with CAUTION exceed the 1/7th rule by a small amount, either in time or draw. The reason is the acetylene is disolved into acetone like CO2 in beer, if you shook up and opened a hot beer quickly you'd get a sudsy shower, if you opened it just a crack to let the gas escape slowly (1/7th rule) you're O.K., you just have a hot 'cold one' (yuck), if you opened it a bit too much and then twisted it closed (bottle only) in time you could regulate the escape of gas, without a beer bath. weird analogy but it works.
Reply:Loose the acetylene, and go with propane or MAPP.Disclaimer; "I am just an a$$hole welder, don't take it personally ."
Reply:yep go to propain or a larger tank.seems like i read they were changing the safty reg's to say 1/10 or was it just rased to 1/7th i know they were talking about it should be higer than preveously thought.eather way you cant do burst, i like the beer analogy, some thing easy for most of us to understand. summer is here, plant a tree for mother earth. if you dont have time or space, sponcer some one else to plant one for you.feel free to shoot me a PM or e-mail me at [email][email protected] i got lots of time.
Reply:Thanks for the info - I can understand the beer concept!  Since making beer and wine is what I do with the rest of my free time!I kinda had a feeling that you couldn't pull a short burst from an acetylene tank.  I think that I will take the advice to switch to propane or MAPP for cutting and bending - I really don't want to mess with pushing the limit of acetylene!Thanks again!Szymancp
Reply:Somehow- I never had that problem. Maybe i was using large enough acetylene bottles, one time i was cutting off a piece from hy-tensile steel,in the mud tank ,in a nukey sub, 7" thick, using a Victor journeyman torch , with a #7 cutting tip, emptying a 260 cubic feet cylinder(oxygen ) in 7 minutes! I had very large hoses, also .Also, single stage journeyman gauges (regulators)[SIZE="5"Yardbird"
Reply:a big tank makes a big diference, but cutting should not use up that much gas. its mostly oxy that gets used up. rose buds are where you realy need to worry about spitting acitone into the gages. what are you trying to cut and what settings are you using summer is here, plant a tree for mother earth. if you dont have time or space, sponcer some one else to plant one for you.feel free to shoot me a PM or e-mail me at [email][email protected] i got lots of time.
Reply:Well, I think that I would use propane for cutting - but I am really concerned with using welding tips and their gas consumption.  According to the Smith website - I could use an MW204 with a "b" tank (40 cf) but if I wanted to use a MW205 tip, I would need to get a 60 cf tank.