Member postings for Simon Collier

We run a 5" gauge railway with vacuum braked trains. The locos pull up to 7 passenger cars plus guard's van, weighing up to 2 tonne, and the steepest grade is 1:60. On a busy running day, we give over 3000 rides in an afternoon. The braking system gives very little trouble. The engines' ejectors are used to apply the brakes, whereas ideally, the vacuum would keep the brakes off, for fail-safe operation, but this is how the system has evolved and it does work very well.

http://www.slsls.asn.au/

The propane heating tip I mentioned above is exactly that: a cutting nozzle except without the central oxygen cutting hole. I had thought about simply using the cutting tips and securing the cutting handle somehow to prevent accidents, but in the end, ordered the special heating tip. As you found, it is a very different beast to the puny brazing tips.

Why not file one of the tips flush to remove the recess and see what difference it makes? I bought an oxy/propane set but found the #8 and 15 tips that came with it were not up to much, so I bought a heating tip for oxy/propane which puts out much more heat. However, it only fits on the cutting attachment, making it awkward. So then I bought a big acetylene tip, #32, and counter-drilled the end to make the recess for propane, but I have not tried it on a job yet. I have no idea why propane requires the recess but would be interested to find out.