acetylene vs propane

[smontanaro]

Thanks all for the comments and kudos. Doug responded about my brake posts much more robustly than I would have. I did, indeed, build the frame up and ride it a couple times before sending it off for paint. According to Strava, I've ridden it 67 miles at this point. I was quite happy with everything, especially the brakes. Now to bring the thread back on-topic...

The day I picked up the frame was a looong day. I drove from Maumee, OH (where I'd dropped my wife to meet a friend for a road trip not involving bikes–what were they thinking?) to Jack Trumbull's place to pick up the frame, then headed back toward Chicago. The last absolutely required piece of my brazing setup was an oxygen concentrator. I had been disappointed with the prices I'd been seeing in the Chicago listings, typically $350-$500 or so for a used DeVilbiss 525, so I just kept watching. I found one or two in the Columbus and Indianapolis areas which had much more reasonable prices, so figured I'd stop and grab one on the way home. Lo and behold, as I'm continuing to scan Chicago area CL listings, I see a DeVilbiss 515 for $50! I got in touch with the seller and gave him my phone number, saying I was on my way back from Ohio, but that I'd pick it up before heading home. I swung by his place, but only had twenties. "Do you have a ten?" I asked. "Nah, $40 is good enough." Shazam! And it has less than 11,000 hours on the clock. The last inspection sticker was dated 2008, so it's probably been tucked away awaiting its second act for a long time.

A few days ago I hooked everything up, but without any firsthand knowledge of regulator setup and operation (and no instructions), I was hesitant to mess around too long trying to get it started. With the help of a YouTube video and a bit of virtual office hours help from Doug, I was confident to make a second try. I believe I invented fire today (any chance I could patent it?). I did this outside where the bbq was sitting, so the flame is a bit hard to see. Still, I was happy with the result.



I went no further than that. The next steps are to get some scraps to practice on and some brazing rod and flux. (I might start with brass just because it will be a cheaper waste of metal.) As Doug has stated repeatedly, results for beginners like myself will be much better with those skinny black hoses. I'll put those on my shopping list as well. Having no brazing experience without them, it was pretty obvious when I held the torch how much more effort was required to position and move the torch with the usual red/green hoses.

[TonyP]

Thanks all for the comments and kudos. Doug responded about my brake posts much more robustly than I would have. I did, indeed, build the frame up and ride it a couple times before sending it off for paint. According to Strava, I've ridden it 67 miles at this point. I was quite happy with everything, especially the brakes. Now to bring the thread back on-topic...

The day I picked up the frame was a looong day. I drove from Maumee, OH (where I'd dropped my wife to meet a friend for a road trip not involving bikes–what were they thinking?) to Jack Trumbull's place to pick up the frame, then headed back toward Chicago. The last absolutely required piece of my brazing setup was an oxygen concentrator. I had been disappointed with the prices I'd been seeing in the Chicago listings, typically $350-$500 or so for a used DeVilbiss 525, so I just kept watching. I found one or two in the Columbus and Indianapolis areas which had much more reasonable prices, so figured I'd stop and grab one on the way home. Lo and behold, as I'm continuing to scan Chicago area CL listings, I see a DeVilbiss 515 for $50! I got in touch with the seller and gave him my phone number, saying I was on my way back from Ohio, but that I'd pick it up before heading home. I swung by his place, but only had twenties. "Do you have a ten?" I asked. "Nah, $40 is good enough." Shazam! And it has less than 11,000 hours on the clock. The last inspection sticker was dated 2008, so it's probably been tucked away awaiting its second act for a long time.

A few days ago I hooked everything up, but without any firsthand knowledge of regulator setup and operation (and no instructions), I was hesitant to mess around too long trying to get it started. With the help of a YouTube video and a bit of virtual office hours help from Doug, I was confident to make a second try. I believe I invented fire today (any chance I could patent it?). I did this outside where the bbq was sitting, so the flame is a bit hard to see. Still, I was happy with the result.



I went no further than that. The next steps are to get some scraps to practice on and some brazing rod and flux. (I might start with brass just because it will be a cheaper waste of metal.) As Doug has stated repeatedly, results for beginners like myself will be much better with those skinny black hoses. I'll put those on my shopping list as well. Having no brazing experience without them, it was pretty obvious when I held the torch how much more effort was required to position and move the torch with the usual red/green hoses.

Here's where I found mine.

https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...welding-hoses/