Oxygen Speed Wrenches

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These are oxygen speed wrenches. To open and close oxygen valves on high pressure cylinders very quickly. I use General Cadd to create the side view of the wrench. I print out a pattern that has a bunch of wrenches laid closely together. I spray glue that print, onto a 1 1/4" plate of 70-75 T7 material with gasket spray on glue. And just band saw the wrenches out of it. These have brass shoes an improvement, hopefully over the 70-75 T8 aluminum wrenches I have been making for the gas filling house. If you hear about the gas plant blowing up you know it was not too good. Ha-ha.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:Remind me why you want to open your high pressure cylinders very quickly as opposed to very slowly?Dynasty200DX w/coolmate1MM210MM VintageESAB miniarc161ltsLincoln AC225Victor O/A, Smith AW1ACutmaster 81IR 2475N7.5FPRage3Jancy USA1019" SBAEAD-200LE
Reply:Originally Posted by AndyARemind me why you want to open your high pressure cylinders very quickly as opposed to very slowly?
Reply:I like the looks of the wrench.  What advantage does the copper have over the aluminum?  What am I missing?I can understand the rapid closing of an oxygen tank and suspect the rapid opening is after the line/regulator has be brought up to full pressure and the wrench has already slowly made a rotation or so.  Dunno as I am just guessing.
Reply:I can see where that would be useful for some of those "stubborn" valves. Some times when I try to open slowly I'm gripping so tight the slow opening turns out to be not so slow.Matt
Reply:In the gas plant they have to drain, and filll hundreds or thousands of medical oxygen cylinders everyday. So they need to crack open hundreds of the cylinders, to completely drain them. So they use this wrench to do it. The bottles are stored in cases, maybe sixteen to a case. These wrenches clear, the top of the other bottles valves, and a fellow can open the whole case in under a minute. They have to do this for hours and hours. The aluminum 70-75 T8 wrenches worked well, but they would wear. Not unexpected, and it beat the occasional sparks the steel wrenches made, but this should last longer. The valve steams on the bottles are brass. Now instead of making a whole wrench I can just replace the brass shoe.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:They have special procedures for doing this. It is something they have been doing for perhaps 20 years now.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:Nice work!  Good design!  Easy to replace the shoe when its worn.
Reply:You only have to open them slowly if you have a regulator on the bottle. The compression of the gas in the chamber and any orifice before the deadhead can super heat. That is where and when you fry your valve seats. As you release a gas, that is under pressure, it absorbs heat, as you compress the gas it instantly delivers heat. So you have the release of gas from the tank, absorbing heat from the valve seat. And then the sudden compress of the gas, in the orifice after the seat. Returning the heat only to the surface of the metal in a split second. That is why you will find black carbon and what looks like ARC-ing inside high presser valves, and solenoids. But when the tanks come in for refill there is no regulator so you can crack them if you like. No danger. I crack high press valves to see if a tank is full or empty all the time. I know some new guys think you cannot do that. But I have been doing it for thirty years or more. My father another twenty before that.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:There is a procedure though, you crack the valve and then you can open it at any speed. The only reason you crack it, is so if the seat sticks or the threads are worn, the valve stem does not release and move under 2,500 psi. This could blow the valve stem off and through your hand. So you crack the valve, then open the valve. That is what crack means.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:Originally Posted by Matt_MaguireI can see where that would be useful for some of those "stubborn" valves. Some times when I try to open slowly I'm gripping so tight the slow opening turns out to be not so slow.Matt
Reply:I agree on cracking a full 02 bottle before installing the regulator.  It blows any crap out which may have become lodged on the seat area.  I figured it was standard practice."Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Nice work McCormick  How 'bout elaborating on this: Originally Posted by William McCormick Jr. . . I print out a pattern that has a bunch of wrenches laid closely together. I spray glue that print, onto a 1 1/4" plate of 70-75 T7 material with gasket spray on glue. And just band saw the wrenches out of it. . . .
Reply:The parts are on edge, probably flipped bottom to handle end etc. Sawcut easy enough with a 3/8" blade, do some filing and maybe milling, good to go.I gotta rotten feeling William's working too cheap here. Unless a job shop has a guy that's layout handy with a box full of misc, shoulder screws, handle blanks, etc you could get a good afternoons work in to get the first piece. This is "old school".William, you getting some free gas? Or just being a nice guy...Matt
Reply:Originally Posted by Matt_MaguireThe parts are on edge, probably flipped bottom to handle end etc. Sawcut easy enough with a 3/8" blade, do some filing and maybe milling, good to go.I gotta rotten feeling William's working too cheap here. Unless a job shop has a guy that's layout handy with a box full of misc, shoulder screws, handle blanks, etc you could get a good afternoons work in to get the first piece. This is "old school".William, you getting some free gas? Or just being a nice guy...Matt
Reply:Gotcha, manual feeding with a vertical saw.I thought  somehow the cuts were made on a horizontal saw.Anyway, for production quantities the two step has got to go, otherwise the faster rat is gonna get your cheese.Could you bend an offset in a flat, rather than use the complex cuts and associated finish work?Good Luck
Reply:Most people have never cut a 1 1/4" plate of 70-75 T7 aluminum. So it seems like a crazy job or task. With sweat and changing blades.But we cut it with a quarter inch blade at wood speed. A 14 teeth per inch blade. And I touch the blade with bees wax, it just seems to be a little quieter. You could probably cut about fifty wrenches with one blade. I run through the plate at about the speed of cutting Oak on a wood band saw. I cut eight wrenches in about ten minutes. But then I have to clean them up on a sander. The 70-75 is a tooling plate material not really made for welding. The T7 makes it machine, or cut like mad. But yet it wears well. We could cast them, if we needed a bunch. We are just making the wrench safer and more effective. Each time the guys in the plant test them, to make sure we are going in the right direction. This is like number three of prototypes. I think it depends on who is using the wrench too. And how pressed for time the guys are. The faster you go the more wear you put on the wrench.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:Denrep I don't think you can bend 7075-T7 even that much, I think it will break.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:Just something for those guys with a Sears wood saw. You can cut that aluminum, or any other common aluminum alloy, on that Sears machine if you have a 3/4 horse power motor on it. It is a little fast for doing production of those wrenches all day long. But you can always slow it down a little with another pulley and new belt. But I used to cut large aluminum blocks on a Sears wood saw all day long. People used to drop dead when the saw it. That always made me laugh. It just screams through the aluminum block like it is wood. Sometimes nicer then wood and it is always consistent.        Sincerely,             William McCormick
Reply:Originally Posted by William McCormick JrDenrep I don't think you can bend 7075-T7 even that much, I think it will break.
Reply:Originally Posted by denrepIf so, it would seem that for this application a more malleable alloy could be substituted.Bending the offset, rather than sawing, would eliminate a lot of the work involved in making the handles.Maybe the wrenches don't even need an offset?  Maybe a "fist-grip" faucet handle type shape would be more ergonomic?Maybe a "fist grip" to loosen the tight stem and a "screwdriver" handle to spin it open?Good Luck
Reply:I think the steel was giving them some trouble. It would spark now and then as you know steel does. In a room full of oxygen this was something they wanted to avoid. They had steel wrenches and as they got busier and busier hired more guys, they found that sparks were a problem. I think a few gloves and clothing blew off some guys hands when a spark was created by the wrench. Eating oily Pizza that same day was also suspected as a possible contributor to the problem. It is rare though from what I understand. When you have the same one or two guys, that do it day in and day out, with a reasonable workload, there is usually no problem. As smaller companies go out of business and there is just one huge supplier to do it all, you tend to get more accidents and more severe accidents.        Sincerely,             William McCormick