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Cleaning acetylene hose

6869704x4

6869704x4

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 22, 2020
Member Number
1186
Messages
73
Loc
The New Mexico
My acetylene hoses were left with the ends open and got SE New Mexico dust in them. Any ideas how to clean them out? Don't think I want to blow air through the O2 hose because of the possibility of oil getting in there. Am I overthinking this?
 
Seeing as my welding instructor told us to open the oxygen cylinders without gloves because he had once seen an oxygen leak autoignite someone's greasy gloves a little bit of caution might be warranted. (probably BS but it doesn't hurt anything)

Maybe rig something up to blow it out with argon, CO2 or whatever flavor of mig gas is handy?
 
MigGunslinger said:
Seeing as my welding instructor told us to open the oxygen cylinders without gloves because he had once seen an oxygen leak autoignite someone's greasy gloves a little bit of caution might be warranted. (probably BS but it doesn't hurt anything)

Maybe rig something up to blow it out with argon, CO2 or whatever flavor of mig gas is handy?
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Yeah, just connect it up to some other random non-hydrocarbon, non-o2 gas. Co2, argon, C25, nitrogen, etc. Even Scuba nixtrox level air should be clean enough
 
6869704x4 said:
My acetylene hoses were left with the ends open and got SE New Mexico dust in them. Any ideas how to clean them out? Don't think I want to blow air through the O2 hose because of the possibility of oil getting in there. Am I overthinking this?
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How much oil do you have in your air lines? I wouldn't sweat blowing out torch hoses with my air compressor, but maybe you have an oil problem that I've never encountered.
 
Dethmachinefab said:
Disconnect from the torch and open the tank valves. Reconnect and run it.
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this
besides, oxygen ain't gonna do shit on the low pressure side
the rubber hose itself is way flammable in a pure oxygen atmosphere

those regulator fires always start on the high pressure side that gets hit with a 0-3000 psi spike every time that cylinder valve is opened.
Pressure spike makes heat, ignites whatever foreign material is in there, if there's enough heat from that to get a metal fire going then you get the fire coming outta your regulator
 
MigGunslinger said:
Seeing as my welding instructor told us to open the oxygen cylinders without gloves because he had once seen an oxygen leak autoignite someone's greasy gloves a little bit of caution might be warranted. (probably BS but it doesn't hurt anything)

Maybe rig something up to blow it out with argon, CO2 or whatever flavor of mig gas is handy?
Click to expand...

is this autoignite thing real or bs? i kind of feel bs
 
montrose818 said:
is this autoignite thing real or bs? i kind of feel bs
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I think the potential is there, on the high pressure side at least, most safety manuals mention not having greasy gloves on. The personal account from my instructor at the local community college was probably BS. I also open the cylinder slowly as to reduce the shock of several thousand PSI on the regulator, I also do not stand in front of the regulator face, again probably not needed but what does it cost me?

Like most other safety training it is only applicable after the various safety devices had been disabled, removed, worn out, or poorly maintained.

I don't know what, if any, authority this organization has but they clearly point out all of the procedures that I was taught when dealing with high pressure cylinders, Oxygen in particular. They were just the first result in a google search. https://wha-international.com/oxygen-cylinder-safety/
 
billybob_81067 said:
How much oil do you have in your air lines? I wouldn't sweat blowing out torch hoses with my air compressor, but maybe you have an oil problem that I've never encountered.
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Probably no more oil than typical compressors have, I like the MIG gas idea.
 
There’s only going to be less
than 100psi going through the hoses. Just blow it out with air and be done
 
montrose818 said:
is this autoignite thing real or bs? i kind of feel bs
Click to expand...


Years ago a friend got some pretty severe burns to his inner thighs and junk area, from blowing low pressure O2 at about 250 psi into a freshly made hyd hose to clear it before installing it. The instant burn of oil and O2 is real from the scars and surgeries that I have seen.

His excuse was no compressor handy, but he had low psi breathing O2 handy.

It did not work out well for him, and I learned that what the old guys had been telling may not have been so much BS after all.
 
BMW R-1150GS said:
Years ago a friend got some pretty severe burns to his inner thighs and junk area, from blowing low pressure O2 at about 250 psi into a freshly made hyd hose to clear it before installing it. The instant burn of oil and O2 is real from the scars and surgeries that I have seen.

His excuse was no compressor handy, but he had low psi breathing O2 handy.

It did not work out well for him, and I learned that what the old guys had been telling may not have been so much BS after all.
Click to expand...

needs to be a mythbusters episode.
 
Hit the YouTube’s for it. Jody at weldingtipsandtricks has an episode on it and how regulator fires occur.

Rules like that exist for a reason and are usually written in blood.
 
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