Victor Cutting Tip Nut Torque

Seeing some threads on seat damage on cutting torches from overtightening today got me thinking. Victor states to torque the tip nut at 15 to 20 ft lbs.

On a torch with the seats in good condition shouldn't it just be a matter of snugging up the tip nut by hand and turning it a bit with a wrench till snug like a regulator fitting?

I know I'm probably over thinking this but the last thing I wasn't to do is over tighten it and deform the seating surfaces in the torch.

Thanks For The Input.

Crankshaft said:

On a torch with the seats in good condition shouldn't it just be a matter of snugging up the tip nut by hand and turning it a bit with a wrench till snug like a regulator fitting?

Click to expand...

Yep, that sounds like about 15 to 20 ft lbs.

That's all I have ever done. I've been around guys that just go hand tight...I don't feel good about that for some reason.

Torque it and compare how it feels to what you were doing before.

Pulling out a torque wrench in a fab shop to tighten your torch tip is likely to earn you some sort of nickname.

In my experience they always seam to get tighter with use.

cutting tip leakage

it has been my experience when a torch cutting tip is leaking
.
1) a tip designed for cutting thicker metal was used at way too low a flow rate. not the flow rate for cutting the metal....... the flow rate for the gas going through the tip to cool it or prevent overheating.

2) torch head overheats, torch head warps and is no longer round, tip in torch warped may not leak but a new torch tip will leak in a warped torch head. torch tip leaks until torch head is repaired by using a reamer.

3) i used to bring torch to welding store and for $10 they would ream the head so a new torch tip would not leak in the torch.

4) basically trying to over tighten a warped torch head so it does not leak usually does not work.