[earthtones]

Looking to set up shop again after a long 5 year hiatus, being home so much with the pandemic has kind of re-ignited my passion to work with glass again and to have another hobby to do since I’m at home a lot more. Don’t wanna deal with the constant hassle and expense of oxygen tanks especially since here in California they are now ridiculously expensive to fill, over $70 after taxes and fees for 1 fill/exchange. I built a sweet workbench over the weekend and have my ventilation worked out but I really need to figure out the oxy/torch situation before I can get set up again.

I’m looking to set up 2 10lpm refurbished oxy concentrators and run a gtt sidewinder or worst case the scorpion if the 2 machines won’t run the sidewinder. I will be setting back up as a hobby so I don’t need crazy firepower but I want a setup that can work boro and make goblets, melt down some smaller iso and spiral/wig wag work, work 38mm-44mm tubing and do some small sculptures, marbles and pendants. I used to have a red max on tanked oxy and was happy with what I could make on it and then I worked on a mirage on lox which was more than enough. If I could even get to 75% capability of the red max with one of these torches on concentrators I would be happy.

I have done a lot of reading and called numerous suppliers to ask but am getting conflicting opinions on what the actual lpm requirements of these torches are. Gtts website has the sidewinder listed ridiculously low @ 15lpm which would be amazing but then I’m reading forums where people have 3 10lpm machines chained together to run a sidewinder or 2 10 lpm machines to run a scorpion and then I saw Kimberly’s old posts on here with the scorpion running on only 1 10lpm machine so at this point I’m confused what the correct set up is?

I can only fund 2 refurbished 10lpm machines and even that is way more than I wanted to spend but with the cost and hassle of oxygen tanks I’m just considering it a wise investment. I can’t afford a regalia machine, I read about those here and looked them up and saw they are like $3,500 plus shipping, holding tanks and any other elaborate and expensive equipment is out of the question due to budget and having limited electricity. Anyone that has any experience with these torches and oxy cons that could help out I would appreciate it.