Lynx vs. cheetah, Are upgrades as simple as they say?
 

Hi all,
I've been interested in glass work for some time, and have been researching for the past month or so, doing a lot of reading on this website and others. My main barrier to actually getting set up with this stuff is cost- there's a lot to swallow up front. One of those is of course a torch. I'm really struggling thinking about a torch selection, and I'm worried about not being able to work as big as I want. From my reading it sounds as though I have a few options-

1.) small torch now, upgrade later.
A lot of what I see has people recommending to start with a lynx, and then upgrade to a phantom or mirage. Everyone says gtt's hold their value like crazy and I would have no issue selling the first torch. Is this really true? Also, what are the "max working size" if you will, of a lynx vs a phantom?

2.) mid range torch now, sacrifice some detail.
The cheetah seems well liked enough, and I've talked to people who owned them saying they can get a pencil point flame, but not quite pinpoint. I've never done any glass work, but do you really ever need that pinpoint flame? Watching kobuki demos on YouTube, I see him laying stringers in what appears to be a bushy somewhat reducing flame. His work seems plenty detailed for me. The cheetah's max flame also seems comparable to the phantom's, so is this a reasonable alternative if I don't think I need the pinpoint flame?

3.) big torch now.
Obviously the sensible choice if not for price. Still trying to see if I could swing it, but I doubt it.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but I'm sure everyone understands how daunting all of this seems at the beginning. Sorry again if most of this has been asked before, I've tried to do all the reading I can about this stuff and most of the threads I find just don't seem to come to any resolution or consensus.

Thanks a lot for any help!

It really depends on what you are going to make. If you're starting out with beads you will probably be working smaller than you think for longer than you think. If you are starting with boro and marbles or pipes you definitely want to start with as much as you can. The lynx is the center fire for the phantom and the mirage. I also have a gtt and I can use my center fire to make 2" marbles but it takes a lot longer. It's all about your patience level. The detail work people use the tiny flame for is not for laying down glass, it is more for the manipulation. John uses the smaller flame when he's cleaning up the ends of the lines he puts down, but not for laying down the lines.
I hope that helps answer a little of your questions.

I think you should start with what you can afford to be sure you like it as much as you think you will. If you take care of your torch (not hard to do) it is very resell-able.
what kind of stuff are you interested in making?

I'm really interested in marbles and pendants, and some goblet/tall skinny glass type things. I'm not dealing with any shortage of time, just funds so if a gtt center fire (the Lynx) can make a 2" marble then perhaps that would b a good choice for me. 2" seems like a healthy enough size for flower marble type things right?

I have a Phantom. For 95% of what I make the outer fire is never on. You can probably make a 2" marble on the center fire if it's mostly clear. It will take a few hours. If it's a lot of color it will take a lot longer and probably test your patience. Honestly though 2" is big for marbles. I rarely ever make one that large.

So it sounds like the big takeaway is that it's a good move to start with the Lynx. Thanks for the help!

Good luck!

Unless your sure you are going to want more the Lynx is a good start. In terms of resale GTTs are the best. Far better then the competing brands. I started with a Lynx and made 2" spheres for 1 year on it before upgrading to a mirage. You can get an amazing amount of heat out of it if you work at learning how to use it.

I am working on a lynx with a 5 L oxycon. What oxy are you guys using to get up to 2 inch beads?

cassie52 you may want to double or triple your oxygen. I'm using a 9 lpm concentrator and it's barely enough. Tanked is awesome but not practical for me for the center fire, but that is how I know how much better it could be. You may want to ry it sometime just to see how much more you can get out of your torch.

Most GTT torches like a higher pressure than the typical (standard) concentrator delivers.