gee whiz*, I wish things would stop breaking

 I was working on the compressor and it occurred to me that it would be good if it had a guard bar / protective uh, thing, wrapping around the pressure switch, to protect it and the fitting where the hose attaches to it.

 So I cut a piece of rebar (from my scrap bin) to length and I was about to bend it into shape with the oxyfuel torch when I noticed something strange: there was plenty of gas at the torch - in fact, the pressure seemed excessive - and yet, the oxygen pressure gauge showed zero.

 What I didn't notice at first... what gave me one of those "fear moments" when I caught it...

 The gauge needle was not on zero.

  The needle had gone all the way around the dial and stopped against the bottom of the zero peg - far in excess of the gauge's maximum reading of 250 PSI, which is far more than the torch and hoses should ever see.

 In other words, the oxygen regulator had failed and was trying to deliver bottle pressure down stream.  Um, yikes.

 I removed both regulators and, unless it turns out they can be rebuilt, I will smash them to bits with a sledge hammer before putting them in the recycling, to ensure nobody blows their hand or face off trying to use it.  If you thought my warnings about stored energy from compressed air (150 PSI) were dire... look: an exploding air compressor tank will ruin your day.  But bottle-pressure (1,500 - 3,000 PSI) oxygen will ruin your neighbor's day.  We do not screw around with this, not even a little bit.

 Also my O2 bottle is getting low (and it costs more than I can really afford to exchange it - I think - I'll call the gas company tomorrow and find out).

 What next?

 I don't want to know.  I hope whatever it is, it waits until after next pay-day. >_<

Edit, later: crushing the regulator housings looked difficult, they are swaged together and cannot be disassembled, and I wasn't in the mood for stuff to go flying around my shop from sledge-hammer blows... so I saved the gauges and fittings, then I filled all the regulator ports with hot glue and threw them in the trash.  I don't think they can be re-used.

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*pro tip for reading Gomez / Railgap's emotional state: when I go beyond swearing and I start using "safe"
and "innocent" expletives of the sort you might expect on Leave It To Beaver, such as "gosh" and "golly"
and "darn it", you know I'm beyond pissed off and I'm nearly speechless with livid fury and I'm probably
in danger of an aneurysm.