[DesertDreamer]

I'll bite, because I truly think it's a matter of personal preference, economy and what you want/need to accomplish.

I learned on a HH. One of those nifty kits from Lark Books with Cindy Jenkins (gods bless her!) small booklet. Of course, that only lasted me about 5 sessions because it WAS loud, scared me silly, and I had no clue what I was really doing.

Several months later I took a class with Kate Fowle, on a Minor. Love at first sight! I tried to repeat what I'd learned on my HH and it frustrated me...a LOT. Made beads happily on my Minor for 2 years. But I discovered a really good use for the HH about a year into that love affair....working with dichro. I would fry/destroy/obliterate the poor innocent dichro on the Minor, but for some reason I could make it sing on the HH. I worked with a "dual" station for about a year before I finally spent a looong weekend trying to figure out how to make it work on the Minor. Victory!

Not long after I realized I was making larger and more eccentric-shaped beads. I read, chatted, reasearched (this was before WC, and even the SGB...before they added the "I"...wasn't much of an entity yet) on various torches. Finally, I made arrangements with the Very Good Guys at Wale Apparatus to test drive several torches. I tried a Major, a Midrange Plus, a GTT Lynx and a GTT Phantom. At the time I didn't need a HOTTER torch nearly as much as I needed a BIGGER flame. The Midrange was perfect. And still is....I've grown into it rather nicely and love it a bunch.

And the moral of the story is.....I FINALLY got my NG line connected today so I'm MAKING BEADS tomorrow!!!!!!