Handheld torches do work...

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I had to take some rusted locknuts and spring bolts off of an exhaust system that's seen a lot of salt in the north east, the car is roughly 8 years old and those nuts and bolts were untouched.

I bought a cheap MAPP/PRO torch from Bernzomatic, the TS8000 with the yellow MAPP/PRO fuel for $51.00 from Home Depot. While there I also picked up a universal extension hose I saw right above it, same company makes it for about $17.00.

I had my doubts since people claimed oxyacetylene was the only one that worked. The extension hose was crucial to working on my back in a weird angle. Without the torch, I could get nothing moving even with penetrating oil. Blasted with torch for about one minute until the flanges were glowing red and all of the rust was glowing bright and they were easily popped loose (squeaking the whole way of course). I could hear the exhaust components move as the metal expanded (the popping sounds you hear when a car is cooling down). I got every nut and bolt off with no fuss, nothing broken. For the ease of use and effort, time it saved me it was worth every single penny.

I noticed that until I cracked it loose there was no visible gap between the fastener and the threads, the rust had totally glued it together but after popping it loose I could see a gap. So I put the penetrating oil on after the torch, it makes the loosening part much easier than squeaking dry threads.

These were one of my best buys. If anyone is looking for heat but can't have an oxyacetylene setup these do work. But in my case I still had the heads on the nuts and bolts and was able to re-use all of them, even though I replaced the self-locking nuts since they're only one time use. If you have a setup where you have nothing but rusted stumps you'll probably need oxyacetylene to cut through and use new fasteners, this won't help you with that.
 
I need to pick up one of those. I've had luck recently with just an electric heat gun, but haven't tried to fight rusted exhaust fasteners which are probably a 10/10 on the difficulty scale.

Pretty satisfying when it works, huh?
 
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
Pretty satisfying when it works, huh?
Immensely. I'm so used to things going wrong when working under a car, I was expecting so much worse than to be finished within an hour.
 
Yeah, a quick belt with the TIG does it well also. The old propylene torch is a jack of all trades though. Never be without one.

I have a teeny tiny oxy/propylene for the real stubborn ones but most stuff yields to straight air/propylene.
 
Originally Posted By: Brad_C

I have a teeny tiny oxy/propylene for the real stubborn ones but most stuff yields to straight air/propylene.


Had an oxy-mapp torch like that in the UK (maybe still have in a box at my brothers somewhere) but it got through those little disposable oxygen cylinders in about the time it took to adjust the flame, so pretty uneconomic.

There was an article in New Scientist many years ago about a new design of air-fuel propane torch that was supposed to reach welding temperatures, and was all set to supplant oxy-acetylene.

Still waiting.

For nut-budging, I wonder if an electrolytic oxy-hydrogen torch would be useful. You wouldn't have to worry about fuel supply as long as you could get electrical power to it
 
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Had an oxy-mapp torch like that in the UK (maybe still have in a box at my brothers somewhere) but it got through those little disposable oxygen cylinders in about the time it took to adjust the flame, so pretty uneconomic.


Yeah, this is a step up from the un-regulated Bernzomatic toys. This can use either the disposable oxygen cylinders with 7-25 minutes use depending on the tip size, or a full size oxy reg/bottle combo. The portable cylinders are good when brazing inside a roof space or crawling around up a ladder. Not hugely cost effective, but does the job. Otherwise I hook it up to a little proper swap-and-go oxygen cylinder.

Originally Posted By: Ducked
There was an article in New Scientist many years ago about a new design of air-fuel propane torch that was supposed to reach welding temperatures, and was all set to supplant oxy-acetylene.


The temperature isn't that much of a problem. I can get to steel welding temps with Oxy/Propylene (MAP//PRO they call it). It's the chemical makeup of the flame that makes it unsuitable for welding. Thus far Acetylene is still about it for welding without damaging the joint.

Originally Posted By: Ducked
For nut-budging, I wonder if an electrolytic oxy-hydrogen torch would be useful. You wouldn't have to worry about fuel supply as long as you could get electrical power to it


I've been keen on building one of those for years, but a stoichiometric oxy/hydrogen mix makes Acetylene look relatively tame and safe. A decent electrolysis cell capable of generating enough gas continuously to make it worthwhile is fairly non-trivial.

We've just started to get access to swap-and-go (ie no rental) oxy and acetylene bottles here in the last year or so. Prior to that it was fairly expensive to have around. A bit like my TIG. I've used 1 4M3 bottle over the last 5 years. I've paid about 10 times the gas value in bottle rental. It goes back next month for a swap-and-go from another supplier.
 
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Originally Posted By: Brad_C
Originally Posted By: Ducked
For nut-budging, I wonder if an electrolytic oxy-hydrogen torch would be useful. You wouldn't have to worry about fuel supply as long as you could get electrical power to it


I've been keen on building one of those for years, but a stoichiometric oxy/hydrogen mix makes Acetylene look relatively tame and safe. A decent electrolysis cell capable of generating enough gas continuously to make it worthwhile is fairly non-trivial.

We've just started to get access to swap-and-go (ie no rental) oxy and acetylene bottles here in the last year or so. Prior to that it was fairly expensive to have around. A bit like my TIG. I've used 1 4M3 bottle over the last 5 years. I've paid about 10 times the gas value in bottle rental. It goes back next month for a swap-and-go from another supplier.


Nothing is as ear splitting as a stoichiometric oxy hydrogen explosion.

I've only ever had them go as far back as the water trap, while trying to come up with a suitable flame trap to stop it getting back that far...

Wife sends the kids out after a minute to see if I'm all there...she figures there's not enough time to reassemble, and still enough time to call the ambulance if there's enough left.

I gave up...
 
Friend of mine has a small MAPP/PRO torch and it works wonders. We have used it a few times to get rusty old bolts out of his trail jeep. Surprised. Not the cheapest option, but it does work.
 
Originally Posted By: Brad_C

Yeah, this is a step up from the un-regulated Bernzomatic toys.


Yup, these are awful. Takes something like 6.5 turns of the knob to get the right fuel mix and 6.75 to blow it out. Aggravating, and expensive for the cylinders. Junk!
 
The thing about a full-size set of torches and I use Oxy propane myself ,is that once you get some you'll be reaching for them more often than you can imagine. They really do come in just said handy. I have two of the burnzomatic swirl torches and they do work OK but it's just not the same as putting the real Dragon's breath on something thats rusted all to [censored]. And no small torch will simply will not work on a very big casting that continually sucks the heat out as fast as you put it in.
You can look around on craigslist and find some pretty nice craftsman 1970s and 1980s torches made they Smith that are fine and dandy for about anything anybody will do except for a professional. That's what I use. I had a nice new set of those j Victor ourneyman torches and found it just plain too darn small for my hands , And I have small hands. I'm always hitting 😤one of the dials. You can pick those old craftsman pretty cheap too and is absolutely nothing wrong with them and parts are still available as well. 😁😆.
 
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