Abstract: Torch apparatus for cutting, heating or welding that includes torch head having a torch bore; a torch tip assembly having a tip member that includes a stem portion extending between the head bore with its cutting oxygen passageway opening to the head cutting oxygen passageway and a front member portion joined to the stem portion to extend away from the head, and a barrel retained on the stem portion by a nut in abutting relationship with the front member portion, said barrel having preheat oxygen and fuel gas bores opening into barrel grooves which in cooperation with the stem portion provide passages to mix the preheat oxygen and fuel gas and conduct the mixture to an annular clearance space that in turn opens to the front member mixed gas passageways; a collar on the tip member and a nut threaded on the head to abut against the collar and thereby hold the tip assembly in an assembled relationship to the torch head.

Abstract: A torch having oxygen and fuel gas passages from the torch butt to the torch tip, and valving apparatus for controlling the flow of oxygen and fuel gas from fuel and oxygen adapters on the torch butt to said passages, the valving apparatus including a valve seat, a valve stem, a first ball retained in a valve stem bore for rotation relative to the valve stem and abuttable against the valve seat to block fluid flow therethrough while the valve stem is spaced from the valve seat and a second ball rotatably mounted in a valve stem bore to abut against the first ball axially opposite the valve seat, and lubricant for being transferred from the second ball to the first ball as the valve stem rotates relative the first ball and the first ball rotates relative to the second ball, the first ball being of a substantially larger diameter than the second ball.