[oldred]

Originally Posted by Globalreach

I agree that some of the comments by the inventor on the MagneGas website sound out there and he is definitely a "special" kind of guy but the gas really works.

Sure it works for cutting just as do several other alternative fuels but it's still not a welding fuel and even he finally admitted that, it is just another alternative fuel like a few others but with a "snake oil" sales pitch. It may be a good fuel from an environmental point of view but outside of maybe some special application in industry because of temperature/cost per BTU, etc it would seem to do nothing for a user with a hand held cutting torch that several other fuels don't do just as well-some at lower cost. It is NOT a welding fuel and as such would be useless to our hobby except for cutting and heating and we already have cheaper easier to obtain alternatives to Acetylene for that, that post is nothing more than another sales pitch!



BTW, Acetylene availability is back to normal around here but somewhat higher in cost now, the salesman at the supplier where I buy mine told me the actual supply they have is still a bit limited but so many of his customers switched to Propane and Propylene that he don't sell enough Acetylene to come up short anymore. If a person is only using a torch for heating and cutting then Acetylene is still somewhat better but not nearly enough to justify the huge extra cost.

[1930case]

It is growing quite fast and larger users are also starting to join the ranks of customer:

Citation needed or I suspect boardspam. Which customers, which distributors?

Magnegas is a product searching for investors as a way to use the gas which is a byproduct of a waste-treatment process.

All well and good, but their marketing is their own worst enemy (stop Astroturfing because it will get called out!) and their marketroids appear (to me, I'll be kind!) to be so obtuse they don't get that.) They forget that some people subscribe to threads on such things and otherwise keep tabs on the industry. (It was a good reminder to revisit this excellent forum. )

Wanna do something useful with a portable plant? (I know they are reading this.) Prove they can process and detoxify the waste from deployed bases including MRE boxes etc. "Burn pits" have poisoned enough troops that it's a serious concern and the process doesn't have to be a net energy producer, just dispose of garbage. Flaring any unused gas is an option or run a secondary incinerator.
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Not worthy of another thread, but now we have a HELIUM shortage. National Welders and Southern Welders have sent out notices, and it's expected to last a year or two.

If you use helium for aluminum welding, don't waste it. Many users such as gift shops cannot get the stuff at all. Used helium cylinders often go cheap on Craigslist, and since they have a CGA-580 valve can be converted or exchanged for mixed gas and argon. I've done three so far and keep an eye out since I'd rather spend less than a one year lease for a cylinder I can own. Once you own them, fills are cheap.

[oldred]

Originally Posted by 1930case

Not worthy of another thread, but now we have a HELIUM shortage. National Welders and Southern Welders have sent out notices, and it's expected to last a year or two.

If you use helium for aluminum welding, don't waste it. Many users such as gift shops cannot get the stuff at all. Used helium cylinders often go cheap on Craigslist, and since they have a CGA-580 valve can be converted or exchanged for mixed gas and argon. I've done three so far and keep an eye out since I'd rather spend less than a one year lease for a cylinder I can own. Once you own them, fills are cheap.

Actually I think you are wrong, that IS worthy of another thread! It may get overlooked here and that is info that may save a lot of guys some money, thanks for pointing that out.

[1930case]

On reflection, you are quite right since helium (and helium with DC) TIG is certainly a specialty process that aluminum fabricators take advantage of.

Pangea on the Hobart board and others posts some beautiful helium TIG work.

[willys36@aol.com]

Wow, I have been in a hole for a few years I guess. Have been buying acetylene every year or so w/ no problems. Just refilled my home tank and bought a tank for my new hobby room micro torch and supplier has always come thru, no questions asked. And he had a couple hundred trade-in tanks on his dock last month. Big welding town, oil fields and ag, and I have heard no complaints from local welders.

Anyway, we all know welding is killing the planet so us hot rodders should be paying fines and be required to get Federal permits to own a torch anyway. Don't you realize this is USS of Amerika after all?

[1930case]

The acetylene shortage is apparently regional, and now with imported carbide from China it should have been greatly alleviated.

[OneMoreTime]

I have not had any issue but then I do not use that much gas..mainly am using my rosebud torch for some light blacksmithing..

Sam

[oldred]

Originally Posted by 1930case

The acetylene shortage is apparently regional, and now with imported carbide from China it should have been greatly alleviated.

It's being imported from China now? How come that don't really surprise me? I was told they were bringing in a lot of it from Brazil but I hadn't heard about China being a supplier, like I said it's not surprising however.

[1930case]

Acetylene is an excellent fuel for China and the developing world for the same reasons it was once popular in the US. Calcium carbide is easy to produce when you have cheap hydro-electric power, coal, and lime. It's an "energy storage medium". You don't need electrical power to USE it, you can heat with just an air-acetylene rig, and carbide keeps fairly well.

http://chemical.ihs.com/CEH/Public/Reports/724.5000/

US acetylene generator company Rexarc (a very old outfit, once "Rego") sell acetylene plant including old-school generators worldwide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yvcz3NYyDE

[willys36@aol.com]

When I attended junior college in the 60s our welding shop had a big acetylene generator. It was a steel tank full of water into which was dumped carbide powder, metered in on an as-needed rate. All the torches ran off a manifold connected to the tank. Only problem with that setup was necessity to constantly chip out the calcium scale that precipitated from the conversion chemistry.

Anybody have one of those old toy carbide cannons?

[oldred]

Originally Posted by willys36@aol.com

When I attended junior college in the 60s our welding shop had a big acetylene generator. It was a steel tank full of water into which was dumped carbide powder, metered in on an as-needed rate. All the torches ran off a manifold connected to the tank. Only problem with that setup was necessity to constantly chip out the calcium scale that precipitated from the conversion chemistry.

Anybody have one of those old toy carbide cannons?

Back in the hills where I grew up Carbide was still sold by the "bag" at rural stores, it was bought by hunters for night lights and also was still used by coal miners for carbide lamps up until about the mid 60s (it was illegal in the mines by then but still used anyway). I still remember the big blue Union Carbide drums it was kept stored in until it was dipped out, weighed and then dumped into a paper bag in whatever amount was purchased, we then transferred it to glass jars since it would turn to useless dust in a couple of days if left in the bag. As kids we would buy it a "nickels" worth at a time for use in our carbide lamps we used when camping but truth being most of it was used in home-made cannons. We would take a piece of old pipe with a cap on one end and a small hole drilled near the capped end, a few lumps of carbide (it won't work if it has been reduced to dust) and a dash of water then drop whatever projectile we had into the open end and then light the gas escaping from the hole-BOOM!

We got really creative in our demolition efforts blowing up hollow trees, ground hog burrows, etc and it's a real wonder we didn't hurt or kill someone, was a lot of fun at the time however.

[willys36@aol.com]

Yes, those were the days when men were men and toys were toys. I have a Science and Mechanics Toy building book that has some real gems. A toy stove with burners that really cook (red hot 110V burner elements), lined with asbestos sheets; toy railroad landscaping using powdered asbestos plaster; a roller-coaster with sleds that have roller-skate wheels and a kid sits on it, 10' in the air w/ no belt or constraint. And we lived!!!!!

[stich626]

Originally Posted by willys36@aol.com

Yes, those were the days when men were men and toys were toys. I have a Science and Mechanics Toy building book that has some real gems. A toy stove with burners that really cook (red hot 110V burner elements), lined with asbestos sheets; toy railroad landscaping using powdered asbestos plaster; a roller-coaster with sleds that have roller-skate wheels and a kid sits on it, 10' in the air w/ no belt or constraint. And we lived!!!!!

yes and sadly even tho. we did too. some in my generation. became safety police.. today you send a kid out to ride a bike without a helmet you'll be charged with child endangerment..
we had 4 foot wooden ramps we'd ride our bmx bikes over and land on the street.. oh the horror.. sadly, kids are fat because the safety police has taken all the fun out of being outside..playing.. cuts and black n blues are part of being a kid.. some parents need to learn this..