Oxygen Concentrator Help
 

I have started production work (a little behind schedule) for Bead & Button. I'm having an issue with my OxyCon "breathing" and creating too much of a reducing flame. I found the root cause in this thread about the sieve beds needing to be rebuilt. I found a place in Ocala (two hours from me) that can rebuild in a week.

Are there alternative options for me? Do I need an OxyCon that works at 10 psi? They do have some for sale that are 5-7 psi. Is this enough for me to work? I've already been working in a very small flame to get as much oxygen as possible. (The candles of the flame are half a rod wide, about 1/8").

I'm having fun figuring out the issues, learning about the setup, but at the same time I'm panicking because B&B is in a month! And I don't want to have bad quality beads. :pout:

This forum is an amazing wealth of resources, so thank you all for your input over the years. And thank you in advance for any suggestions and ideas.

Many folks do very well with a 5 PSI unit at 5 LPM. The required pressure for best performance will be specified by the torch manufacture along with the needed LPM for both fuel and oxygen. It would be my guess that you do not have sufficient oxygen, but without specifying a torch or your fuel setup it is only a guess.

If you need more oxygen then the use of 2 to 3 five PSI units combined together is one solution. Other folks select a 10 LPM unit to cut done on the number of needed concentrators.

The overall key, is that if more oxygen is needed it is most important to combine concentrators that all have the same PSI static output. All 5 PSI units tied together will work fine or a pair of 10 PSI units. But combining a 5 and 10 PSI unit together will not be efficient.

If you are in a panic and need a quick fix, rent a K tank plus regulator from a local welding gas supply shop and lampwork away.

I think K tanks are one of the bigger ones.

I picked up something that was referred to as a "forty" that was about knee high.

I know they make intermediate sizes but it will come down to what ever size you supplier has on hand and how much tank can you 'manhandle' comfortably and safely.

The big tanks are not fun when they get dropped and can cause a whole lot of damage while the gas inside is pushing it around like a balloon if the valve gets broken.

Oh and tanks valves need to be all the opened to the stops or all the way closed, other wise they leak around the valve stem and waste all your gas before you know it.

Thank you Alaska and Speed Slug! I reorganized my production plan this week to work on the silver charms with polymer clay components, so I'm just going to sit back, bite my nails that my OxyCon is fixable and get going when I get it back.

Thank you for the suggestions on the chaining the OxyCons together. I think one of my future plans is to have two OxyCons so I can have a back-up and possibly work bigger if I need to, although I tend to focus on tiny beads.

I have plumbed in propane at 5 PSI. Given that my poor OxyCon was producing so little oxygen, I was suspecting even a 5-7 PSI OxyCon would be sufficient. After watching some of the warning videos about the tanks, I got a little anxiety with using those, but I'm keeping it in the back of my mind.