Welding Tips and Tricks

Good day,

I'm *very* new to welding and cutting. I bought a new medium duty cutting kit yesterday manufactured by Victor. Hooked it all up, tested gas flow and noticed the oxygen regulator stutters when flowing.
I lit up the torch and the flame also stutters. The acetylene seems to flow just fine. I made a video with my phone and posted it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf7p2w7Buzc
I removed the hose from the torch and it still does it, just faster due to higher flow.
Am I doing something incorrectly or do you think there's something wrong with the regulator?

Thanks.


-Dave

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf7p2w7Buzc[/youtube]

Dave, welcome to the forum.

That's a high pressure regulator. It will do things like that because your trying to run it on the low end of its range. The spring is apparently too stiff to give you good control over pressure in the range you need to be. I would hook it up to the torch, set your pressures and light it up to see if it smooths out while it's in actual use.

I had that happen to me on my oxygen regulator and tried to turn it up to see if the problem would go away. It sort of helped but kept acting up. I ended up ordering a kit to rebuild the regulator and that fixed it.

One other possibility... Is there a flashback arrester at the regulator? Seems to me the new torches all have them, even the Harbor Freight sets. Sometimes these things will stutter and you'll see it on the gauge and in the flame. I believe it has to do with the spring tension. If you remove it to test, and it proves to be the problem, be sure to replace it rather than just toss it and go on without.

Steve S

If it's new you may want to exchange it. If you want to fix it see this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POU7Zc8ONOM

p.s. If you decide to work on it remember NO OIL or GREASE at all.

spoke with the manufacture - they said they'll replace it.
New one doesn't do it.
Thanks for all the suggestions.


-Dave

Good deal. They definitely are not supposed to do that and now you are all set.