There's a product made by flange wizard for keeping the tip at the same distance.

https://flangewizard.com/torch-tip-standoff/

Believe they make one that has a magnetic guide as well.

 

I feel your pain!

There is these.
https://store.cyberweld.com/vi497ro...gn=googleproducts&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrreRqs75-wIV4YBQBh0nbgjAEAQYAiABEgLdD_D_BwE

You could also clamp a straight edge to the workpiece if you are doing long straight cuts.

 

I feel your pain!

There is these.
https://store.cyberweld.com/vi497ro...gn=googleproducts&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrreRqs75-wIV4YBQBh0nbgjAEAQYAiABEgLdD_D_BwE

You could also clamp a straight edge to the workpiece if you are doing long straight cuts.

Why are the wheels so skinny?

 

The flange wizard stand off works really well, especially with a straight edge like the Curv-O-Mark magnetic cutting guide. https://www.advancedtools.com/jacks...kson-safety-curv-o-mark-magnetic-burning-guide-extensions-14793-105942-prd1.htm

 

I would try making templates first. There are folk on here who have done lots of templating fixtures. They are easy enough to make. You can make various curve templates or use circle/radius cutting fixtures.

Purchased straight edges are alright, easy enough to make , but manual torch tractor are not consistently useful. I would purchase one unless it were part of a set. As I did and have never used the tractor to cut straight.

Bob and Irish fixit come to mind on this forum.

 

Flange Wizard looks pretty good and easy to make if I were so inclined. Only drawback would be if the pin would get caught in a previously cut out area. However a 1" disc with a rounded bottom edge, or maybe even a 1/2" ball bearing welded onto the bottom of the pin could make it work.

I wasn't concerned so much about straight cuts, a piece of angle clamped or magneted onto the sheet and a hose clamp on the torch tip would make it fairly easy to keep things straight and the tip at a constant height.

Cutting out shapes, animals, fish, birds, etc on a sheet is completely impossible for me now unless I have some kind of thing like the Flange Wizard. Getting old isn't fun.

The one from Victor that was mentioned is pretty nice but I think would cause me trouble on anything but straight cuts or easy curves. Hard to go sideways with it.

 

All that is hard to do even by experienced men and especially if a guy isnt a daily driver. I do have a wheel I beam clamp on the head, used it once, swivel chair wheel and had to reach something in back of a burner. Not sure if I had a pic.

 

I don't have much trouble fabricating but my entire working career was art oriented so creating the type of things I mentioned earlier is really intriguing to me. I'm going to make something similar to the Flange Wizard but modify it to fit my special needs. I appreciate being pointed in that direction. Hopefully it will be designed well enough that I can do what I'm wanting to do.

 

Maybe use three TINY swivel ball bearing rollers to make a torch base similar to this design but smaller…


(Base like this but NOT with casters depicted)

this would provide consistent torch stand-off height and allow you flexible manipulation.

you would either have to allow for more waste cutting near edges or get creative in your setup.

 

I like where you are headed with this!
Maybe use ball transfers instead of casters!

https://www.mcmaster.com/rollers/st...s/stud-mount-ball-transfers-6/working-orientation~ball-down/thread-size~1-4-20/

 

It is winter,, you do not have any grass to cut,,

Start building,, make a CNC torch,, then your wiggly hand will have no effect on the finished part.
(I started today to resurrect my CNC torch)

 

It is winter,, you do not have any grass to cut

I dunno... a lot of people are growing their grass indoors, nowaday.

wiggly hand

Sent from my Lincoln Buzzbox using Tapatalk

 

I like Lis's idea above with the roller thingies. You might also be able to make something using these table saw outfeed roller gizmos:

ETA: Well I guess you already beat me to it, Rex. That'll teach me to reply before reading the whole thread...

 

I think just lots of practice holding the tip at the right height will give the best results. Anytime you have even the slightest friction with a cutting torch it can screw up your cut. Something on the tip would snag even the slightest mill scale. I like the Curve-o-mark magnetic straight edge though. The torch slides much nicer on the aluminum alloy type material than using a piece of steel. Even rollers can kind of catch and stick messing up your cut. In school one part of the cutting test consisted of cutting a hole for a 2" pipe in plate (1/4" or 3/8" depending on what year you were in) and then manually putting a 30 deg. bevel on the hole leaving a slight land so the hole remained the same size to fit around the pipe. The instructors made it look easy to have a pretty consistent bevel all around. If you want to know how accurate a cutting torch can be think of this test. I've heard the boilermakers cutting test had you cut a more complex shape and you lost 5% for every 1/64" you were out. Good cutting takes practice and steady hands.

 

I think just lots of practice holding the tip at the right height will give the best results. Anytime you have even the slightest friction with a cutting torch it can screw up your cut. Something on the tip would snag even the slightest mill scale. I like the Curve-o-mark magnetic straight edge though. The torch slides much nicer on the aluminum alloy type material than using a piece of steel. Even rollers can kind of catch and stick messing up your cut.

same issues with a hand held plasma torch.

with or without a guide, getting comfortable, doing a "dry run" and a steady hand all help.