Hi,

I learned Oxy/acetylene cutting in college a few years back. I used to be fairly good at it, but recently broke out my torch set for a new project, and am having all kinds of problems. Yesterday, I made a few cuts, everything working fairly normally, but the slag was welding itself on the bottom edge of the cut. I ran out of O2 last night and had to go get another cylinder today. Tonight while cutting, I could only manage a short distance before the torch popped back and went out. the short distance that I ran had the slag welding on the trailing edge of the cut. I'm cutting 1/4" and 3/16" with a #1 tip, running 4 on the acetylene, and 30-35 on the O2, can anyone please help me out a little? I'm leaning towards it being either a cut speed, or a torch angle problem? I"m running the torch about 1/4" off the metal being cut. Any help would be appreciated, I have a cheap chinese torch, but in the past could always manage a decent cut, this time not so much.