Oxygen concentrator

[Bob WorsleyParticipant @bobworsley31976]

There was a wanted advert on another forum, anyone have any experience of these please?

I have an old gas torch that uses MAP gas and oxygen to boost the flame temperature, and it doesn’t work just as a MAP gas torch. Can’t now buy the oxygen cylinders so the concentrator seemed an alternative, anyone done this?

You can also extract oxygen from water, charging lead acid batteries, if there is some acid in the water to make it conductive. Will need a fairly meaty power supply to split the oxygen and hydrogen, also some careful venting to keep the hydrogen away to stop explosions.

Oxygenn on its own is also dangerous, anyone with experience of generating it and then pumping it to the gas torch. A peristaltic pump seems the best choice, no contact with the oxygen.

Thanks

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Isn’t it hydrogen given off by charging lead acid batteries?

[Bob Worsley]

On 26 March 2024 at 12:09 Bob Worsley Said:

Can’t now buy the oxygen cylinders

 

 

I’m not sure what kind of cylinder you have in mind, but these are your options.

I’ve got a 5L Oxycon. It’s fine for small to medium-sized work. If you want to use the pepperpot style heating nozzles, however, or do cutting, you’ll need a cylinder, and not the small disposable type.

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

I don’t think the cheap ones produce 100% oxygen, or much of it, but they do make a difference and a mini-torch will get hot enough to burn steel.

I got the cheapest you could get just when Covid hit, before any panic buying set in:

Cheapest oxygen concentrator with cheapest ‘little torch’ (youtube.com)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HET8gOJQ1RQ

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Oxygen concentators use a molecular sieve to remove nitrogen from the air. If it removed all the nitrogen the result would be about 99% oxygen but in practice it ends up at about 95%.

We have an oxygen concentrator for my wife who has a severe lung condition.  It can produce a regulated flow of between 2 and 10 litres/minute.  The pressure is automatically adjusted to maintain the set flow rate.  There are also portable models which run on a rechargeable battery. The one we have for travelling doesn’t produce a continuous flow, it detects the pressure change as the user breathes in to start the flow so wouldn’t be any use for a torch.

Russell

[peak4Participant @peak4]

I use Oxy-Propane with the Oxy part generated by an oxygen concentrator.
It works fine, but for heating only, not cutting; it will still burn a rusted nut off OK.
I’ve used it with a small lead welding torch as well as a full sized gas welding torch, though it does work better with specific Oxy-Propane nozzles.
They are much liked by glass bead makers, so Tuffnell Glass are a good source of information and equipment
Mine came from a glass artist via Gumtree, as they were moving to larger premises with a piped oxygen supply

Bill

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

Bernard, electrolysis splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. With a lead acid battery both are given off so the escaping gas is a mix of hydrogen and oxygen that will explosively combine if it is ignited. To get just one or the other you need to trap the gas from the anode separately from the gas from the cathode. A man who had a workshop across the road from where my wife grew up started to weld something in the workshop where he was also charging a battery. He and the workshop were lucky to survive the explosion.

Martin C

[Bob WorsleyParticipant @bobworsley31976]

Thank you to all who replied, most useful.

It would seem that a concentrator will work with a torch, mine is an old one that uses disposable cylinders but won’t work just as a MAP gas torch.

Yes, the oxygen and hydrogen given off by charging lead acid batteries is something to be very careful of, particularly is there is an explosion which splits the battery.

Yes, buying an oxygen cylinder is ok, but I have had real problems with LPG cylinders not sealing. Go back to plumb it in to the heater after a year or two, Covid, and the bottle, 47kg, was empty, two of them.

 

[george baker 1Participant @georgebaker1]

Hi

There is an oxygen concentrator in a workshop I sometimes go to, it works a treat for a small torch, I have not used it, but seen it in action plenty of times.

I have frequently (for over 30 years) used electrolysis H2/0, (well 2H2, O2) machines, with a small torch that uses a nozzle the size of a hypodermic needle. Inside there the reactor is Water, plus a little caustic. The DC splits the two gasses apart and the Hydrogen is bubbled through something organic (I guess to boost the calorific value. There is a pressure switch to turn off the DC once pressure is built up. The two gasses are fed through a spark arrester to stop “Blowback”

I once saw someone with a 500ml PET bottle of H2O gasses set it off with a lighted spill. It created quite a good BANG!

 

George

 

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