Rep yer torch!

[bencooper]

Oh, and an ESAB:

1897750_660107934027574_277113503_n.jpg

[Mike Mcdermid]

amen to that. i chased a gas issue until i pitched the lousy generic gas lens i was using. now it's only genuine ck parts.

oh i agree crappy collets deform into bananas dont hold 1.6 tungstens because they are 1.8 and have no copper in em and the funny thing is the weldcraft stuff is fractionally more money as in pennies more expensve here than the tosh that parweld or starparts try top pass off, so why bother you waste money chasing problems that wouldn't exist if the parts were top notch


the CK stuff though is only brought in by one company who make sure it costs more in GBP than US dollar though the flex is worth the extortion racket even if you do need to adaptor it

[abbeyQ]

IMAG0088.jpg

WP-20, some house brand air cooled thing I hardly ever use unless the welder leaves the shop and a stick stinger for farming crap together. Then there's the classic Huntsman hood. Wish they still made this model! The nice braided weldcraft lines are the bees knees for a water cooled setup. They stay pliable regardless of temperature.

Personally I couldn't go back to an air cooled setup. I'll sit down and weld tools for 6-8 hours some days so it's pretty far outside what you're going to do as a one man frame shop. The smaller torch size is nice. Plus I had procured a ton of consumable from jobs over the years. I'm running a home grown cooler fwiw, pond pump in a 6 gallon bucket. Mix of RV antifreeze and water. Works just fine unless I'm trying to do some actual aluminum welding.

[mstyer]

Just absorbing knowledge and acquiring tools at this point, but I'll be working with a Meco Aviator Jet when it's time for brazing. I'm leaning towards a WP-17 torch for the Maxstar 200.

Not mine, but basically identical:

[edoz]

What's your opinion on having a watercooled TIG torch for building one bike at a time? I'm sure it's a nice upgrade, but do you think it's worth the coin?

Water cooled torches are all I have ever used indoors. I bought my welder used, and it came with the wp-20. If it hadn't I would have added one real quick. To me, it's worth the extra money. YMMV

The dry rig in the picture is from my construction days, and no one uses a wet torch in that kind of work.

[edoz]

IMAG0088.jpg

WP-20, some house brand air cooled thing I hardly ever use unless the welder leaves the shop and a stick stinger for farming crap together. Then there's the classic Huntsman hood. Wish they still made this model! The nice braided weldcraft lines are the bees knees for a water cooled setup. They stay pliable regardless of temperature.

Personally I couldn't go back to an air cooled setup. I'll sit down and weld tools for 6-8 hours some days so it's pretty far outside what you're going to do as a one man frame shop. The smaller torch size is nice. Plus I had procured a ton of consumable from jobs over the years. I'm running a home grown cooler fwiw, pond pump in a 6 gallon bucket. Mix of RV antifreeze and water. Works just fine unless I'm trying to do some actual aluminum welding.

Is that your Tulsa Welding School stinger?

[Doug Fattic]

IMG_2719.jpg
This is a Russian torch handle we bought at a bazaar in Kiev to make bicycle frames in Ukraine. I didn't like to use it but thought it was cool looking. Later I took over a used Smith AW1A with a AW207 tip for use with propane. That worked okay but of course that elbow tip is designed for acetylene so it wasn't ideal. The flame detaches more easily and it's noisier. Last September I took Smith's AT61 mixer/elbow designed to be used with the AW1A handle and propane. Their NE tips screw onto the end of the AT61. That made my happier but those tips aren't recessed so I don't like them quite as well as a Victor or Victor clone with a UN-J mixer/elbow and some TEN screw on tips designed to be used specifically with propane.

[abbeyQ]

Is that your Tulsa Welding School stinger?

You know it, looks just like yours.

[ToddFarr]

Magic Wand by FARR Frameworks, on Flickr

Smith A1WA, with the TM lightweight hoses. The hoses were the best $40.00 I've ever spent.

[afwalker]

12470387205_c7032818d1_m.jpg
Ameriflame 71 and CK200, light hoses each
cheers
andy walker
Flickr: afwalker's Photostream

[edoz]

You know it, looks just like yours.

The one in the pic is the one Rich had for the Thermal Arc and it has a slightly smaller connector. My TWS stinger is buried in a tool box.

[abbeyQ]

Did it not use the standard DIN quick connect? Thought those were a standard size. When I bought my Dynasty it came with a spare DIN connector so I put it on the stinger, wasn't going to use it for anything else. It's come in handy a couple of times when I needed to run some farmers friend to fix trailers and what not for friends.

[edoz]

No, the connectors are the same shape but slightly smaller. Like 7/8DIN

[degull]

Torch1.jpg

[G-reg]

My first 7 frames were built with a Chicago Electric torch shaped object. But the last few have used a Smith AW1A with kevlar hoses....Mother of F' was that an awesome upgrade all around. I might have an artsy pic to share somewhere, but in the meantime this happened:



My 4yo son saw it and said, "Woah, like DadGuy...Gonna go make some bikes!" And that's the story of how I ended up spending 9.00 on a single Lego Minifigure.

[jclay]

Amazing collection, alas, not mine.

image.jpg

[waterlaz]

torch.jpg
This is my Ukrainian made torch with two flashback arrestors. It is an acetylene torch but I use it with propane. I have drilled one of the smaller tips to adopt it for propane but I like using the bigger tip without modification better.

[Stijl Cycles]

2015-03-26 09.40.47.jpg
I love my MECO Aviator Jet! It does get a bit warm after about 1/2 a frame though...
2015-03-26 09.40.09.jpg
CK FlexLOC FTW!

[duanedr]

It does get a bit warm after about 1/2 a frame though...

Is this common? I'm probably a bit slower than more experienced folks but I have noticed that my J28 gets pretty warm after a few joints and I was worried I was doing something wrong or had issues in my torch. I'm following all of the instructions I can find but none, that I have seen, mention the handle getting hot after some period of time.

FWIW - I use a Victor 100 with standard hoses for big stuff and a J28 with the TM lightweight hoses for most stuff. Moving to the lighter hose was, as Doug and others predicted, a huge benefit for learning.

thanks everyone!

[Stijl Cycles]

I'm not the worlds fastest brazer, so I don't know. But I've just assumed that the smaller torches are going to heat up.
It's not so hot that a thin glove doesn't solve the problem.