New toy - thermic lance

[premmington]

Had a play today.

Arcair Slice

 

[zx9]

Had my first play today.

Arcair Slice versus old digger pin stacked on concrete blocks.

A bit nervous, 45 seconds of intense heat and sparks.

A bit more practice required to keep the rod moving to prevent sticking needed.

If there are no pictures it did not happen.

 

[500e]

PR at the ready
Tried it once mate used to build vaults so the old ones had to be cut out

 

[wristpin]

Thought that Hilti diamond drills were now the tool of choice!

 

[TechnicAl]

Arcair slice isnt a thermic lance...........the TL is a steel tube filled with lengths of steel wire and its threaded at one end

 

[500e]

www.instructables.com/.../DIY-Thermic-Lance-Kit-Cut-Steel-With-Burn
Wont work unless you cut & paste

DON'T try this at home
Daleyd sounds like the one I tried about 6Ft long & lot of Oxy bottles on a manifold sparks were the least of the problem the molten metal was Scary

 

[daleyd]

Used one back in about 97 when I was doing my firefighting and damage control instructors course - frightened the bejeesus out of me, there were sparks everywhere!!

 

[rory1]

Nothing better than a cored lance for dropping the centres out of seized pins on bigger machinery. Never fails. Takes a bit of getting used to tho. A nice thick stovers coat is a must

 

[premmington]

Arcair slice isnt a thermic lance...........the TL is a steel tube filled with lengths of steel wire and its threaded at one end

Described as an Exothermic cutter.


What is the difference between an Exo thermic cutter and a Themic lance?

Are both not tubes with iron powder in them you ignite and increase the temp with oxygen.

 

[rory1]

With practice you should never need to clean up the bores after lancing.

The idea is to remove the Middle of the pin so it can shrink much more on cooling than normal, this allows you to withdraw the pin.

 

[premmington]

With practice you should never need to clean up the bores after lancing.

The idea is to remove the Middle of the pin so it can shrink much more on cooling than normal, this allows you to withdraw the pin.

Same theory as welding up a wheel bearing shell to make it shrink.

 

[Maker]

What is the difference between an Exo thermic cutter and a Themic lance?

I'm not sure how the Arcair works but a normal thermal lance doesn't use any electricity.

 

[daleyd]

I'm not sure how the Arcair works but a normal thermic lance doesn't use any electricity.

Ours had a vest type thing (like a life vest almost..) with batteries and oxygen cylinder on the back iirc. No idea how it worked though but it was impressive!

 

[Wedg1e]

Were they not the weapon of choice in various bank heist films of the 70s?

 

[rory1]

SoMe lance torches have the option to use a battery to initiate an arc and begin the process.

However- I've only ever used a oxy fuel torch to start burning the pin then hit it with the lance. The battery set up has always been a bit fiddly in my eyes.

 

[daleyd]

SoMe lance torches have the option to use a battery to initiate an arc and begin the process.

However- I've only ever used a oxy fuel torch to start burning the pin then hit it with the lance. The battery set up has always been a bit fiddly in my eyes.

You could be right - ours was for marine use so I think it was able to be used by divers/ underwater if needed (hence the vest arrangement). Trying to spark up an oxy torch underwater would be bothersome to say the least

 

[TechnicAl]

Arcair slice is a carbon flat rod with a hole down the middle. The carbon rod carrys current and strikes an arc the oxygen is blown through the hole and reacts with the metal similarly to oxy acetylene.......it is exothermic in that sense

Thermic lance is a tube connected to oxygen supply.......there is no arc........the hot end is made to glow by oxy acetylene and then the oxygen is passed through and it just melts ferociously. You can keep adding another one to keep it going but you cant stop it

Sometimes you add some aluminium wire to get the THERMIC REACTION going......we used to make them and we had to keep detailed records for the Inspectors who came periodically to check up. (Home Office I think)

Carbon arc gouging or arc air gouging is similar to slice but round carbons and air is blown through

 

[rory1]

the small thermic lances I've used were about 10mm diameter copper coated steel tube stuffed with small diameter carbon rods, the larger lances were around 3/4 or 1" and Had no inner cores iirc.

 

[Maker]

Sometimes you add some aluminium wire to get the THERMIC REACTION going...

So there is a difference between a thermal and a thermic lance, I'd always thought they were different names for the same thing.

 

[johnik]

Were they not the weapon of choice in various bank heist films of the 70s?

you didnt see nufink right