Kevin first works on the rosebud tip for his oxygen-acetylene unit. He’s been using it to shape a bell stand and noticed the flame was really ugly.
He explains that the rosebud tip is called that because it has a large flame that heats metal over a big area. He compares it with a small oxygen-acetylene welding tip, which has a small single opening, as opposed to the rosebud’s multiple openings. After a while, the orifices get filled with carbon and get gunked up.
So Kevin geta out his tip cleaner, which you can get at welding supply stores. He opens up the tip cleaner case and shows that it has what looks like a bunch of little metal pipe cleaners in it. There’s a chart to help you identify the right size, but Kevin says that usually gets dinged up pretty good, so you can just start with a cleaner that is a size smaller than the holes, sliding it down into each orifice one time to knock any of the carbon out of the orifice itself.
Then you move up to larger sizes until you get to one that is a nice snug fit.
Next, Kevin gets out the little file that comes in the tip cleaner and dresses the top of the head. Then he tackles the welding tip – you can use the tip cleaner for any oxygen-acetylene tip – dressing it with the file first. He says that is probably a better idea, so you can get it flat and smooth before using the tip cleaners themselves to make sure you remove any burrs that might impede the orifices after using the file on the top.
Once the openings are cleaned up, you can go back to work!