oxycon torch problems

Started by jammie, August 21, 2013, 07:07:09 PM

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jammie

I am at my wits end with this now. I got a call from the GTT glass guys as I had emailed them about my torch not working right. He's told me how to clean it out and ive done that. He says the problem sounds like the oxycon and although its putting out oxygen ok it might be dirty sieve beds and that might effect the purity of the oxygen coming though.

What happens is i set it up, alls fine then the cones run at all different levels and are raggedy, then the middle cone almost goes to nothing and the others flare up, so there is way too much yellow to the blue. I just changed my gas tank though the last one still had a kilo and a half.

So i only just bought the oxycon from someone and i dont want to get another until i know its not the torch but having cleaned and tapped and cleaned i have no idea what else to do?  :'(

flame n fuse

 1) Have you checked for leaks in all your joints from the oxycon, and inside it? 2) what flow rate does your oxy say? and 3) does a warning light come on? and 4) have you cleaned the oxycon filters?

There was a useful post from Tan about servicing oxycons.

hth
Julia

jammie

Julia thanks, I only just got it so haven't checked for leaks  nor cleaned it as it seemed to be fine, putting out 5 and past 5 if I turn the valve up, and my last oxy packed in and this one shows none of the signs the other one had. Flow rate is at 5, the warning light was on today, haven't noticed it before but I didn't think that made a difference, does it?
When I talked to the GTT guy, he said clean the torch first  then check the oxy , because  the middle port has hardly any flame at all, just a tiny bit of blue, and the other flames are uneven, he thinks the torch is still clogged up and told me how to clean it.So we had another go cleaning it the way he said and  tonight it worked for about an hour with a good even flame that didn't change, the middle flame still small but a little bigger and generally a better flame altogether than I had been getting.
It has sometimes been ok and sometimes not though so am not convinced but more hopeful than i've been that its sorted.  ???

flame n fuse

It sounds like you're getting on top of the problem with the torch. The warning light means that the concentration of oxygen being produced is lower than the machine is medically rated for - and I often find that running the oxy at 5 (when the warning light tends to come on) is no more effective flame-wise than running it at 4 (when no warning light).
I have to clean my bobcat with the wires about every 6 or so hours of running and am knocking off bits of 'soot' frequently, especially when running a cool flame.

jammie

Now thats interesting, i was running it at just over 4 with this last go and didnt see whether the light was on but will have a look next time and try at 4. I think when my last oxy was packing up it was running fuel rich and I didn't notice till too late. What size of candles should I have they're pretty even  except the middle flames still shorter.

flame n fuse

I run my bobcat mostly with 3 - 5mm of blue, with 1 - 1.5 - 2mm of yellow tips. The oxy won't go up any higher than that, so any larger flame is propane rich and yellow. I see that 2 oxys are often recommended for bobcats. Would be nice to know what other people use.