Gas welding; popping

OxyAce welding. I know the popping sound I occassionally hear is
because the tip is too hot and either a spark or something else is
igniting the gas while it's still in the welding tip.

GOOGLING around to validate this understanding and ideas for
correcting the problem, I find the following statement: " I keep a
piece of hard wood handy and play the torch on it to get a little burn
going. I then rub the end of the torch in the burning wood and POP,
the torch tip is clean and flowing."

I don't understand what he's doing. Is he saying that while the wood
is on fire he rubs the orifice of a lit tip against the flaming wood?
Won't that put the torch out? won't that produce unexpected
back-pressure on the torch? how is this cleaning the torch tip? - Mike

On 31 Dec, 13:43, Michael Horowitz wrote:
OxyAce welding. I know the popping sound I occassionally hear is
because the tip is too hot and either a spark or something else is
igniting the gas while it's still in the welding tip.

GOOGLING around to validate this understanding and ideas for
correcting the problem, I find the following statement: " I keep a
piece of hard wood handy and play the torch on it to get a little burn
going. I then rub the end of the torch in the burning wood and POP,
the torch tip is clean and flowing."

I don't understand what he's doing. Is he saying that while the wood
is on fire he rubs the orifice of a lit tip against the flaming wood?
Won't that put the torch out? won't that produce unexpected
back-pressure on the torch? how is this cleaning the torch tip? - Mike

I don't know about the wood thing, and I am not
a welding expert but I have done a lot of gas welding
on sheet metal. I understand that popping
is caused by insufficent gas velocity in the nozzle
which results in the flame travelling into the torch.

You fix it by turning up the torch. If it is then too hot
you need a smaller nozzle.