Ever since our welder left me and one of the E-7's have been doing most of the welding for our battalion. Guys a self taught welder ,and been doing it for the last 25 odd years everything from build grills to boiler making. Not one of them types who will give you a a bunch of huff about how well he can weld ,gets kinda irritated by thoses types. Anyhow he's been schooling me on all sorts of stuff including most recently Oxy-welding. My fist time looks a lot better than my first attempts at stick or wire lol

Almost a lost art.

I didn't know you do that

I've stick welded some, what is oxy welding?

Oxygen-Acetylene ie: Gas Welding

It is welding using a oxy. acetylene torch to heat your base metal up to the melting point then adding fill to make your weld.I had to learn it in welding school back in the late 70s. We had to do it in all positions and on all joints. Never used it after school. But I know learning how to do that made me a better TIG welder when they taught us that later on. Most kids coming out of welding school now have never done it.

did it when I was a kid with new baling wire for welding rod

welded many many many auto panels with a coat hanger and torch. That was all we had for years. I couldn't wait for the shop to get a mig set up. I stuck with the torch for a long time. LOL

I could always stick weld, and oxy/acet. weld, took me forever to learn how to use a mig well. When I got a hold of a tig it was second nature.

Once you learn gas welding, Tig will be a breeze!

Oh I see, that takes a lot of heat, I have braised before but not oxy weld

Torch and a coathanger....yah know the metal ones...

Years ago I had a discussion with a pretty good welder that was only 10 years younger than I and he said you don't weld with acetylene. its called brazing.
I haven't oxyacetylene welded in years.
high school welding class.
just

Been a while since I did that. But its how I started of as that is what I had. A big Roxy and acetylene bottle. From farm trailers to car exhausts it all got done with a torch and wire. I think that is why I prefer to weld tig these days above all other methods.

I’m a licensed welder in Alberta, also have machinists ticket, oxy/acetylene welding is pretty much extinct. No one does it anymore. I have used oxy/acetylene for brazing oil lines, cast iron, thin metal etc where color isn’t a problem. Tig is the thing to do now in place of oxy/acetylene

Last I checked no one can afford acetylene anymore. Was told the only place in the US that has it is, I believe, Las Vegas. It is all shipped here from Mexico now.

That was probably 4-5 years ago, so it may have changed. I know I had to switch all my cutting tips over to Propane to use them.

It was something we were taught in Air Force tech school. I'm glad, because a couple years later we were in the desert and a smoke wrench with some welding tips is all we had. Not ideal at all. Almost impossible to get good penetration. We had a couple thumbs fall off the excavators and whatnot.

Propane will work for cutting if you turn it up good but doesn't weld worth a darn..Too much carbon? maybe. I still get my acetylene with a tank exchange program and will last about a year if i can remember to turn the tank off. Small tank and I'm thinking around $25 exchange.

This makes me happy to see the acknowledgement. I am primarily a self taught welder and technician by trade. My father in law has the highest cert for mig possible, but only taught me for 10 hours or so. Thats what got me to buy a machine. Now I own plasma and oxy acetylene with a large shop with all kinds of toys.

Being primarily self taught I have studied exponentially more than any person I know who is a "welder". They went to school, got certified, learned new stuff at their jobs, and thats it. I have books and a ridiculous amount of time either watching videos to learn, or breaking things I made to see how strong they are. My standard while learning was also super high. Watching my Father in Law and videos online I only saw the best. I never compared myself to other newbs.

I think a lot of it is that if you have a decent understanding of how dangerous failure is in this area, you go overboard covering your butt. For example, I have studied over and over the proper ways to weld different materials under difference circumstances. I am not the best welder in the world. But when it comes to all around old techniques and metallurgy understanding, I have been so scared of screwing up from day one, I have read and practiced 10 times what schools make you read. I weld vehicle suspensions at this point, engine mounts, frame repairs, axles for offroading, that should tell you how confident I am.

Unfortunately my father in law has Alzheimers and its now getting pretty bad. He lost his job the day before Thanksgiving building custom RV interiors. He also taught me how to work fiberglass. He built the custom body work for the Smokey and the Bandit Car back in the day, which was also all fiberglass. The real Smokey and the Bandit car. Guy knows his stuff. I am very fortunate.

Like EVERY welding process each has it's up side as well as down. Went through the Army welding school and we had to weld aluminum using oxy/act torch. That can make you talk to yourself the first few times. One can never learn too much about anything. Welding has changed a ton over the years and will continue to evolve.

That's the first type of welding they taught us back in high school then braising then stick and on from there