An American (Little Torch) in Paris

Hello group. I’m hoping the Euro readers here can give me a little
guidance on using a Little Torch in France.

On one hand I’ve got an acetylene version American Little Torch with
it’s standard (9/16"?) hose fittings. At the other hand I’ve got
small (500litre) oxy-acetylene bottles both with internal thread
valves, about measuring 22.5 mm OD, which seems standard here in
France. The oxy-acetylene rig has regulators but of course they run at
too high pressure for the Little Torch. Local hardware suppliers
don’t seem to carry or offer regs that output at pressures useful to
the Little Torch.

So I need low-pressure regulators (approx 0.1-1.0 bar or 0-15 psi,
give or take) and the appropriate fittings. Would it be best to get
the American Little Torch regs and adapt them to the French bottles?
Are such adapting fittings available?

Or would it be better to scrounge up French/European regs in those
low pressure ranges and adapt the Little Torch hoses to them? Anyone
have a Euro supplier for such low pressure regs that they could
recommend? I’ve asked and searched around for these without much luck
so far.

One configuration I’d seen is a secondary, step-down regulator added
to the standard industrial regulators to do the final 0-1 bar
control. Of course I can’t find such a secondary regulator anywhere
… and I’d still need adapting connectors to fit the Little Torch
which, again, I can’t seem to find.

Clearly I’m a bit stuck here so any guidance would be much
appreciated. If any one knows of a good “welding supply” shop in the
Paris area that would be great too as I’m sure they could at least
point me in the right direction.

Cheers,
Trevor F

Trevor, While high quality dual stage regulators are recommended for
the little torch I’ve had no problems using small commercial single
stage regulators for both oxygen and acetylene Experience based on
around ten different regulators over the years. Single stage BBQ
fixed presure propane regulators work well too. Theoretically the
flame shouldn’t be as stable in size and mixture using the cheap
regulators but I have not noticed any problems. Replace the hose
fittings to match the available french regulator and you should be
set. By the way NO acetylene regulator should ever output more than
15 psi.

Jeff Demand
Demand Designs
Analog/Digital Modeling & Goldsmithing
http://www.aztec-net.com/~jdemand