Although we’ve always done a fair bit of our own machinery repairs- and even the odd creation or two – ourselves, we never had a set of torches for cutting metal. My brother-in-law, John saw a really good deal at the good ol’ TSC store for a nice little portable set, “everything” included. So on Friday Morning, he was up and first in line when the store opened to make sure he got the set to surprise us with.
The thing we didn’t realize, until we tried them out later that morning, was that the gas canisters that came with it were empty. In retrospect, it does make sense when all the other gas has to be stored outside of the store, that they wouldn’t be sitting on the shelf with full tanks.
Since cousin Bob gets his tanks exchanged just down the road at Eric’s Auto Body, we thought we’d go and switch the new one’s for full ones. Unfortunately, he doesn’t stock them that small. Back to TSC it was then, to exchange them there. We were actually in the process of physically handing the TSC guy the tanks, while he handed us the full ones, when he realized that he can’t exchange them, ’cause they are not PraxAir tanks (the gas company they use)! They actually sell tanks that they have no idea how or where they could be filled!
A few hum’s and haw’s later, we bought the praxair tanks, and returned the entire torch set and purchased their regular torch kit (that comes without tanks). It ended up being a few dolars more, but it actually included the gas, which is a bonus.
….Unfortunately…..
The torch kit comes with the regulator that fits on a big tank, and we had a small tank! Of course this was not noticed until we were home again!
At this point, I had to go move pigs, so John headed back once more, first to Eric’s Auto Body, who can order an adaptor that goes from the little tank to the big regulator, but no, he didn’t have one, and then on to TSC ( we were now on a first name basis with both the cashier and the manager!) who, low and behold, didn’t have the adaptor either. They suggested Impact Auto, who had a spot on the shelf for one, but it was empty! John then returned home and gave me the part number, and was able to watch Germany win over Argentina, so perhaps the day wasn’t a total loss in the end!?! (and once we get the part, and are actually cutting metal, we will be very happy that John started the whole process! honest! Thanks John.)