Cutting a large shaft with a thermal lance - video

**Altair** · Jun 18, 2021, 08:27 PM

Cutting a large shaft with a thermal lance. 5:28 video.

Previously:

Cutting torch explosion - GIF
Cutting down a transmission tower with a torch - GIF
Gasoline torch - video
TEC torch plate penetrator - videos
Track torch for cutting pipe - GIF
Cutting 8-inch steel with a torch - GIF

**hemmjo** · Jun 19, 2021, 07:44 PM

What is the lance made of?

**nova_robotics** · Jun 19, 2021, 08:58 PM

Been there. 12 hours of overtime later it was cut.

**nova_robotics** · Jun 19, 2021, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by hemmjo

What is the lance made of?

I think they're just steel tubes. Maybe with some other stuff sprinkled in to make them more burn-y. The steel tube is mostly just a consumable delivery system for oxygen.

**Frank S** · Jun 19, 2021, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by nova_robotics

I think they're just steel tubes. Maybe with some other stuff sprinkled in to make them more burn-y. The steel tube is mostly just a consumable delivery system for oxygen.

Some are just steel tubes but the ones that burn the hottest have rods or wires inside them of a metal that makes them burn at 10,000°
When I was doing heavy equipment repairs I had a Broco Prime cut torch with collets to clamp 1/4 & 3/8" rods A lot of times I would be called upon to lance the core out of a seized pin ranging form as small as an inch to as large as 10 or 12 inches in diameter I would lance a hole all the way through the length of the pin large enough to hollow out the core then quitch cool it with CO2 or liquid nitrogen a lot of times the pin could be slid out with a gentle push or light tapping with a 20 lb sledge for the largest of them
I don't know of anything they won't cut through
Ultrathermic Rods - Broco-Rankin

**Frank S** · Jun 20, 2021, 07:08 PM

I had even used mine cutting underwater in leu of having to set up my underwater cutting torch which if I was having to cut below 12 to 14 feet I would have to burn hydrogen instead of acetylene plus with the prime cut there was no need to have an air compressor to feed an air bubble while cutting as opposed to a fuel ox underwater torch. To light the rods you could either connect your welding stinger to the lug on the torch and scratch strike the rod against a grounded piece of scrap or you could light them from the flame of a cutting torch or from blowing the oxygen over a burning 2x4 They will stay lit as long as there is some oxygen flow, it takes 35PSI to lance with a 1/4" tube and 50PSI to lance with a 3/8 tube. For underwater cutting maintain 35 to 50 PSI above the pressure of the depth. Cutting underwater with the prime cut is an experience worth experiencing