"Airline" Torch

Some time ago I scored a Harris 15-3 "airline" torch handle on eBay.  I got it for about 1/5th of retail for a new torch.  It was advertised "with box" and looks like it has never been used. The box was beyond salvation.

It took awhile to get all the rest of the pieces to turn the "handle" into a complete torch.  But here it is beside the Victor medium duty torch.

It is the torch on the left.  It is much lighter and works great on small items.  I made a few welds with it last night.  I am very pleased with the lightness and balance.  And, truth to tell, it is a higher quality tool than the Victor. 

Having said that, there are a few adventures in dealing with Harris.  Both Victor and Smith, the other two big torch manufacturers, have easy to figure out tip charts that help choose the tip for the application.  Not so Harris.  It is difficult to figure out what you need.  Complicated by the fact that, whereas Victor (at least) has just a handle and tips, the Harris has a handle, a mixer, a tip tube, and the tip, all that must be matched to the application.

Fortunately, there was someone at the Airgas franchise in Aberdeen, WA  knowledgeable and helpful regarding the Harris line.  He helped me determine what I needed, though it all had to be special ordered, and others at the shop had some difficulties when the one guy was on vacation. 

The Harris 15-3 torch (and other "airline" type torches) was, at one time, very popular with auto body shops.  However, with the way modern cars are built, the auto body shops do very little, if any, welding anymore.  What welding they may do is TIG. With that, the demand for this type of torch has dropped off.  It is now pretty much relegated to us airplane builders (and just the rag-and-tube folks at that) and the few hard core car builders. With the limited market one can hardly expect the local welding supply shop to have much in the way of supplies and accessories on the shelf.

And the welds?

Well, here is one.  It still leaves something to be desired, but that is not the torch's fault.  I am still working on getting a good rhythm in order to produce a nice even weld pattern.  However, though this weld is not as "pretty" as it could be, it is, structurally, a good weld.

I feel that just a bit more practice and I will be able to start on the real thing.