Arc weld
Veteran Member
I should have stated that acetylene is the only fuel gas to have a neutral flame hot enough for welding. I'm not even sure you get a small concentrated neutral flame with any other fuel gas. Then you'd have to have some way to tell it is in fact a neutral flame. Acetylene you can tell by the flame. When balancing a selected size torch tip for acetylene, you don't even need to look at what the pressure reads on the regulator. You use the regulator to set the gas but not by the gauge. You open the torch valve all the way, with the regulators backed right off,(open the acetylene just enough so you can light it) and slowly open the regulator till the acetylene flame jumps away from the tip. This is the indicator that that is the maximum flow that specific tip can handle. Close the acet. torch valve just enough so the flame isn't jumping from the end of the tip. Then with the oxygen valve on the torch all the way open, you slowly open the regulator till you get a neutral flame. Then open the acetylene torch valve all the way and add just enough more oxygen with the regulator to again get a neutral flame. You're close but not quite done yet. With both torch valves all the way open and a neutral flame, open the acet. regulator just a touch more. If the flame stays neutral, the torch is balanced. Most of the time you also need to add a little oxygen to get back to a neutral flame. Then repeat this procedure. Very rarely do you need to readjust more than twice. With smaller tips, the pressure on the regulators barely registers. Using a rosebud is a different story.
