The last few months were a bit of a bust when it came to making jewellery, I was struggling with a trapped nerve in my neck and doing the physio to get back to health. Between the pain and the worry about it effecting my day job all my hobbies took a nose dive.
As I was getting close to better I decided to move up my plans to get a new torch to cheer myself up. I was left a bit of money by my wonderful Gran and as she encouraged my creative hobbies in life I thought this fit.
I currently have one small cook style torch from Cooksongold and another from a hardware store but neither are easy to control or get hot enough to do some of the things I want to do.
I had lots of options and we were very conscious of wanting as safe a setup as possible. The options range from a basic setup with just gas (choosing propane as one of the more widely available safe options) with a Sievert to adding oxygen or even one of these new water run torches from my classes.
The options I considered are all linked below but I went in the end with propane setup with an oxygen concentrator from Tufnell’s glass (called colin) and a Smith’s Little torch. I had a bit of trouble with setup but the guide from this forum as so handy. The oxygen concentrator fills the place of oxygen bottles which aren’t very safe and mean no need for refills. Originally used for medical purposes (also where having oxygen tanks in homes would be considered unsafe) these are refurbished for use with a blow torch so recycling as well!
I absolutely adore this setup and I am so glad that I went for it, the torch is so small and manoeuvrable, it is easy to adjust the flame the torch has three heads I can use with that came with it and get some cool tips to expand with it in the future like this double headed one and the melting rosebud tip.
Water torch – very safe but expensive at the outset with a fine flame – also just plain cool that is possible
Sievert – simple one tank setup, cheap and safe but not as hot as oxygen propane mix with less fine flame
Oxygen Acetylene – very cheap but high bottle replacement costs and kind of scary dangerous
Mouth blown torch – I have enough trouble coordinating both hands and the third hand soldering not sure how I’d cope with breathing properly into the mix