Nozzle Cleaning

I know it probably sounds old hat, but this happened today.

A young guy I know, not long out of trade school and he was made redundant and jobs in his line are scarce round here, so he's having a go on his own.

Came to my shop today having bought himself a nice combo cut/weld torch of ebay, looked fine until he told me all the nozzles were toast, he'd tried the wirefile cleaners but no joy, had I any contacts for new tips? (15 - 20 bucks a time here)

I did what I've always done, soaked the lot in suphuric acid (mixed for silver solder work) while the coffee was making then after a rinse gave em another workout with the cleaners blew out with air, then filed square across the end face, they worked fine.

He's looking a bit pensive and asks me how I knew what to do? trade school I told him and he said they'd never covered anything like that.......... I don't know............. or did I go to ''one of those'' trade schools?

Take care. Sami

That's the problem with living in a throw away society... most folks don't know how to do anything except buy new stuff. thanks for the tip. always learning something new here.

jon

SAMI,

What is the concentration of the sulphuric acid that you use ?

Regards mate,

AAB

My pickle bath is sodium bisulfate, used about 1 cup sodium bisulfate to a half an electric crockpot of water... If I had the crock pot handy, I would measure the amount, but I think it is about a gallon. It is supposed to be a little safer than straight sulfuric acid and work almost as well. I get it cheap from the swimming pool store. Same pickle bath compound sold for over twice as much by the jewlry supply houses. I'm sure you could probably raise the concentration to get it to work faster, but I just turn on the crock pot.

My guess is that it will work in the smae fashion as what sami describes. electrolytic reaction between the steel and copper. Iron being more reacitve than copper is the first to go.

I too would be interested in knowing the concentration that you use, heat (or lack therof) and duration...
-jon

AAB hi there, sorry I took so long to get back to you but I really had to stop and think.
I should say that buying acid over here is akin to asking for the keys to a couple of nuclear subs, so I aquirred my acid though a lab guy I knew, a 21/2 L ''winchester'' getting on for 16 years ago, and time being what it is I can only say;-

I think the dilution was somewhere around the 15 - 1 mark, though as I use it very little these days, so it gets topped up it could well be a good bit weaker.

Take care. Sami.

-"I should say that buying acid over here is akin to asking for the keys to a couple of nuclear subs"-

Isn't battery acid the same as sulfuric acid? That's easy to get.

yes old battery acid is findable, but getting new clean - safe - known concentration - not full of lead sulphiric acid is like impossible.

kinda sad and is one of the bigget gripes i have about my country, i can no longer get what i need to repair - fix stuff. i have anough experiance to use it safely, can nutralise it to dispose of it safely too, but just can no longer get common chemicals in small quantities. took me 3 weeks to track down some lye just to etch some aluminum clean. even then could i buy it in a pure form nope! had to get it as drain cleaner with other (nasty!) crap in it aaaahhhhhaahhhahahah :-( but hell it protects us from our selves sposedly so shouldnt complain :-(