Hi, The most important question is what size torch is it? Does it include a selection of welding tips? Does it include a cutting head? How old is it?
You can plan on paying for a rebuild of the hand piece and cutting head, say 75.00 to 100.00. The hand piece that will work good for boiler making is small, say 8 to 10 inches long, not including the tips. There are a host of brands that have gone to the great beyond and getting tips is a chore. The regulators and hose should be included. You will most likely have to buy cylinders, add a couple of hundred more. Then you will need a rose bud tip for area heating and silver brazing large items. You can seam a boiler with a small tip and control the temperature by adjusting the gas pressure. I use what used to be called an aircraft torch (no longer produced) and like it better than my seiverts. The heat from the seivert makes the shop too hot to work in. And yes, virginia, you can melt the copper if you are not careful. I bought this torch in 1965. We go back a long way. If you want an oxy / acetylene rig find one of the small ones where someone is selling the entire set, cylinders and all for under $200.00 Just my .02 worth Rich On Wed, 09 Jul 2003 17:41:48 -0600, Vance Bass wrote: ->> Can an Oxy/acetylene torch be used to make a 2 1/2" boiler? -> ->Pending a response from someone with more experience than I have, ->here's what I know (a little firsthand, mostly from reading books): -> ->Oxyacetylene burns at a higher temperature than propane. This could ->potentially melt the copper you're trying to join. (That's why it's used ->as a cutting torch as well as a welding torch.) -> ->Propane burns at a hot enough temperature to braze copper, but not ->so hot that you can easily burn holes in your work. -> ->Copper is an excellent conductor of heat. This means that it absorbs ->the heat you apply and radiates it out at all the places you're not ->applying it. -> ->Thus you neat a lot of HEAT (calories, thermal units, etc.), but NOT ->HIGH TEMPERATURE (degrees Celsius, Fahrenheit, etc.). An ->acetylene torch with a small head would be putting out high temp, but ->not enough thermal units to do the job. A propane torch with a big ->rosette head would be burning cooler, but would deliver enough heat ->to do the job. -> ->Don't ask me how that works. I used to think I understood volts and ->amps, too, but I find that I can't explain them to my own satisfaction ->anymore, much less help you out. It's every fool for himself! -> ->You can find good books on the subject at Sulphur Springs. -> ->regards, -> -vance- -> ->Vance Bass ->Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA ->Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass ->
