My son took welding at the District 81 Skill Center (Spokane) about 10 years ago. He became good with MIG, TIG, but they taught no oxyacetylene, except for cutting operations. I asked him how he did brazing, and it was “what’s brazing?” Needless to say this dinosaur welder, though now proficient with MIG, was brought up on oxyacetylene.
So question for the group: how and what, (IF!) do you use oxyacetylene for. Again, I address the average home/hobby/light industrial user and not those with CNC plasma machines.
I use it for 4130 steel tubing on fuselages. TiG or MiG to tack and then finish with OA. OA is quiet, requires no power and works well with the thin wall tubing. OA can also be used on AL for cowlings and nosebowls. TiG will work too, but something Zenish about using OA.
repair work on old machines with cast handles. Primarily do brazing. Alot of times the castings are so dirty that you cant tig them, and so brittle after attempting to mig them that they just dont work anymore. Sure you can make something else that works, but if you just need it to get by, braze it together and it will last another few decades. As for OA welding, i guess it depends on the situation, since yeah anything you can OA weld, you can probly tig, but as the OP said, if you dont have power and need to do it anyways, OA will get it done.
I’d love to get some OA/LP setup but tanks are hecking expensive. At least the oxy and acetylene.
Practically speaking, most folks will tig braze, and maybe a weed burner if they need to preheat.
Check out you local used market you can often find whole tank and torch setups for what the price of an new tank would cost.
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My local Ox-Arc and other shops rent tanks pretty inexpensively. I would prefer to own my own tank, but there is no such thing anymore as refills just swap out your empty for a full one (unlike scuba tanks where you get your own tank back). The “savings” in owning is just the monthly/yearly rental fees. My purchase of the tanks was not a new tank, but just the next full ones in line.
HVAC contractors and installers use oxyacetylene to braze copper connections for freon gasses. I’ve personally used the method to braze up many steel hydraulic lines on farm and construction equipment.
I run a cutting torch nearly every day at work. And while I don’t do much, (if any), brazing or oa welding, I do use welding tips for shrinking fairly often.