Oxy/Acetylene

Every shop has an Oxygen/Acetylene cutting torch set up. Often, places will have two. One for the shop and one that's more portable. We just have one around here. Which is good on overhead, but not as easy to use in the field. Regardless of the set up, the bottles go empty and have to be changed.

We keep the smaller bottles around. Outside of build corrals, we can make these guys last 6 months or so. Nothing fancy about our cart. The pneumatic tires on the hand truck make it pretty easy to get around with. 

All bottles come with a safety cap. Even when they are empty and you are hauling them to town, it is good to keep them on. The oxygen bottle runs about 1800psi full, so it's not something to play around with. 

After you changed the bottles and before you remount the regulators, it's a good idea to crack the valves to make sure any debris are removed from the seat. On a side note, acetylene, which is the red bottle, is a naturally odorless gas. Being highly flammable, they add the garlic like odorant to help you know if you have a leak. You'll know it if you smell it. I personally can hardly stand the smell. 

The regulator for the acetylene bottle is left-handed threads, so that you can't mix them up. Only running about 100psi full, hooking it up to the oxygen would blow it apart, among other things. 

Unlike the fittings on the cutting torch itself, these regulators need to be wrenched down pretty tight.

Once hooked up, you can readjust your pressure. Oxygen runs about 40psi on the output. To increase you screw the regulator tee in. 

Acetylene runs about 15psi. 

Once they are strapped down good to our cart. We can take them to the field if we like. There is nothing worse then trying to throw and cutting torch set up into the back of a pickup. To help with this demise, we welded a little receiver tube onto the dolly. Then when we want to go mobile, we insert this little stinger and bolt it in place.

Then we can bolt it to the receiver hitch on the truck. The angled edge allows a guy to tip it up and get it started in the tube. Then he can just lift the back half of the weight and slide it in, instead of deadlifting the whole thing. 

Works well.

I wouldn't recommend driving to town like this or bouncing around a washboard gravel road. But rolling around the barnyard, welding up pipe joints, is perfect. You can't beat the oxy/acetylene set up for versatility. You can weld, cut, heat up, or light a cigar with them. Like every good thing, they come with a cost. Replacing the bottles is pretty common procedure around the ranch. Doing it right is important. I say I'm safety first, but anytime you're rolling around with cutting torch bottles dangling from the back of your truck, you've crossed the line. Crossing the line safely can be done if you keep your wits about you. Just ranchin'.