The other night, we put together a TractorFab torch kit. The assembly time here took about an hour, not including paint. Lets review how it went!
Here is our tool kit and the torch set ready to go:
First Nip the tops off of the torch tanks.
File the tops of the tanks smooth.
Drill out the tanks for the valves. I used about a #77 bit. If the holes are a little large, that is ok. We'll take care of that later. At this point the tanks can be painted. The tall tank should be green. The short tank could be red or white, depending on what fuel is used.
Lets make the cart next. The wheels in this kit need to be drilled out. Flip the panel over to the back side, and you will see dimples. Drill these out with same bit. Yes, this is a tooling error. We will correct it soon!
Carefully cut out the cart and wheels from the support frame.
Using needle nosed plyers, carefully fold the frame bottom, sides, and handle.
Glue the wheels together - make sure you get the rim detail out on both sides. Glue the wheels to the spindles.
Glue the tank chain onto the hook on one side. We will glue the other side after we have the tanks installed. The cart is ready for paint.
Now lets work on the torch head and hoses. This gets a little tricky! Start with the torch. insert the hosed through the two holes at the bottom of the torch head, and fold the bottom up, to crimp the wires in place.
Now the really tricky part! The small brass loops included in the kit are used to crimp the hoses together every so often. While the loop is still attached to the frame, insert both wires through the loop. Cut the loop free from the frame. Very, very carefully, crimp the loop onto the wire. Don't overcrimp, or you will cut the wire! There are extra loops included, so try one or two first at the very tail of the wire, to get the feel of the crimping action. Cut them off when you're done.
Space the crimps every so often, enough to keep the wires reasonably close together through the length of the assembly.
Now for final assembly. After all of the paint is dry, glue the valves into the tanks. Or, use JB weld if your holes are oversize.
Crimp the ends of the hoses to the tanks same as we did on the torches. The green (oxygen) hose goes to the tall tank. Glue the tanks to the cart base. Wrap the chain around the tanks, and glue in the other hook.
Your torch kit is now ready for the shop!
