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Jelveh Designs - Glass Beads Torched One-by-One

Caber Light


 
  #1  
Old 2015-03-17, 2:27pm
LunadelaOssa LunadelaOssa is offline
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Question Need to understand what these measurements mean

Oh Lordy - I am nearly in the home stretch, oxygen concentrator as well as the kiln are expected to arrive Friday, vent fan is here, studio still needs some work but is close. Time to choose a torch. I've excerpted from this thread: Torch Comparison on 5LPM Oxygen Concentrator.

The two torches that I am looking at follow, my oxycon is a A/O 15 with an output of 8 LPM:

Nortel Minor
candle length: 0.330”
shoulder width: 0.850-0.860”
flame length: 11”
small pinpoint flame: fairly small flame

GTT Cricket
candle length: 0.500”
shoulder width: 0.750”
flame length: 13”
small pinpoint flame: hot needle flame can get very tight

straight off concentrator, not through Y connector:

candle length: 0.550”
shoulder width: 0.850-0.880”
flame length: 13”
small pinpoint flame: hot needle flame can get very tight

How do the above measurements affect what type of beads I will be able to make? Has anyone run either/both of these torches on an oxycon unit? Thank you in advance.

Claire
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  #2  
Old 2015-03-18, 1:14am
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Speedslug Speedslug is offline
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Being a beginning lampworker you probably should not be overly concerned with the tiniest of detail between these torches in my opinion Claire.

Half an inch here, an inch longer there really are not going to mean a whole lot during your first 2000 hours of lampworking.
You will spending a lot of your time learning what the glass looks like as it goes through the stages of cold to warm to hot to flexible to runny to soupy to dripping.
And then you are going to spend a lot of time finding out that transparent glass is mostly a lot stiffer that opaque glass.

And then you are going to spend a lot of time finding out why some folks love Lausha and others like CIM and still other think that Devardi should be limited to making explosives.

And then there will be the question of which clear is the best (you can almost smell the popcorn and beer from the fights that develop over that idea.)

The details you are asking about is lot like discussing the finer points of Mustangs versus Cougars versus Porches.

They are all going to get you where you are going and they will all get you arrested if you don't pay attention to what you are doing and who you are doing it in front of.

The biggest difference is going to be the price.
Fortunately torches have been holding their value at resale for ten years that I am aware of and probably for the last two decades from what I can tell. So if you change your mind two years from now you will be able to sell your first torch for most of what you paid for it and roll that money back into the next torch you buy.

I also will point out that there are a lot of very very talented lampworkers who have been using hothead torches for several decades and they do stunning work. So getting a two gas torch is not a requirement ( although I like mine very much and I am too undisciplined and impatient get my hothead back out of the box I put it in.)

I would recommend concentrating what you can afford and where best to spend whatever money you can save on the choice of a torch to invest in the other aspects like tools and glass and eye protection and lighting.

By the way, go ahead and shop like your life depended on it for the best eye protection you can get.
It is an investment that you will be reluctant to buy twice so shop hard and spend real money there now.
You probably will not get another set of eye glasses for ten years so go ahead and go Rolls Royce or Lamborghini now. You will not regret it five years from now. I promise.
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Last edited by Speedslug; 2015-03-18 at 1:19am.
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  #3  
Old 2015-03-18, 1:40am
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I have one more thought to add Claire.


When I was starting out I got a hothead then I got a welders torch and I used that welders torch for a year or two about one weekend a month.

When the Cricket came out I did the numbers and specifications hunt and at the time that was the only one I knew of that was designed around 5 LPM medical oxygen concentrators and it was also the only one that even mentioned the possibility of using house hold natural gas.
Not having to refill propane tanks and not having to pipe propane through the walls of my studio ( mud room) was the thing that sold me on it.

During my time in the Navy I was the designated "safety" lecture giver for the last 9 of the 17 years I was in it so I already knew of the safety details that propane and other fuels require.

Once I heard about the possibility of using natural gas and an oxycon with the Cricket I really stopped looking for any other details.


I was never the kind to get much above a c in art class and having a torch that raged so much heat that I would have to wear suntan lotion did not appeal to me either. I just wanted a torch that would allow me to melt some glass and not scare the hell out of my wife or my insurance agent.

If you want to make 3 inch paper weights or even two inch marbles then small torches are not going to be much more than stepping stones for you.






Happy Hunting.
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Old 2015-03-18, 1:45am
sangita sangita is offline
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I use a Nortel minor with a 5 LPM concentrator and it works just fine. I have made beads for about 7ish years and it still works well. The only time I feel limited is when I want to make murini. My friend runs the cricket and it works fro her. I love my minor
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Old 2015-03-18, 1:52am
Alaska Alaska is offline
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Take a look at the videos on YouTube to get an idea of flame characteristic. There also should be some threads on LE that will assist with your questions.

The Cricket will run on one 5 LPM concentrator, but really comes to life with two such machines. One can make boro beads with a Cricket without issue. Your 8 LPM machine should do the trick.
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Old 2015-03-18, 12:14pm
LunadelaOssa LunadelaOssa is offline
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I am so happy with all of your responses. I imagine that it will take years for me to even become an "Advanced Beginner" and I really just want to make beads, eventually ones with small sculptural elements such as petals and leaves. Great to hear about the marriage between murrini and the Cricket, one of the things that I want to learn how to do well is pull stringers and eventually make murrini Phil, I'm not certain whether I even want to begin a new thread about the eyewear issue due to the potential for the ruckus that could create. I know this is overkill, but I want to use a blast shield along with my protective glasses. I spoke with a young man with a company that sells torch mounted blast shields and I swear he must have thought I was out of my mind.
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  #7  
Old 2015-03-18, 12:56pm
Alaska Alaska is offline
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Another option is to mount a diddy shield above the torch. It all depends on your lampworking needs. Check with Blue Moon Glass for diddy shield information.


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  #8  
Old 2015-03-18, 1:37pm
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I just picked up a used blast shield on a stand for about half of what they go for new so I am absolutely with you on that thought. Someone had posted in the garage sale threads about some that were for sale on Craigs List on the other side of the country. I am sorry that I have forgotten who but I would really like to thank them for connecting that add to LE. But deals like don't come a long very often.

These days a blast shield costs about as much as the very good didymium eye wear.

When I started I went with the very least expensive eye glasses I could find because I wasn't real sure I was not going to drop this hobby like I have others in my life and they did the trick I wanted them to do.
They got me safely through to half a dozen years later but with being fit overs and my regular glasses and the way my skin likes to sweat I had had enough of them the by second year.
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Last edited by Speedslug; 2015-03-18 at 1:41pm.
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  #9  
Old 2015-03-21, 1:26pm
Katia Katia is offline
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Speedslug, adore your clear, step by step and logical instructions (was reading a lot before registering this forum)

Completely agree that there are much more interesting things to think (and even better try 100 times each) about but girls are girls (I'm not an exclusion as well ) We, girls want to be everything nice and perfect right from the start It never happens, I appreciate that, but... but it should
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  #10  
Old 2015-03-21, 2:36pm
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Thank you Katia and welcome to the addiction.
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