I have installed natural gas in two home workshops. The first one
was in a three car garage in an established track home neighborhood.
In asking for from our local gas co. (before we
started) they wanted to to know how may BTU’s my set up would
require. We talked to Rio, where we bought my torch, Rio talked to
Smith, we called Smith, we talked to our local jewelry supply house
and they called their torch suppliers, we called a number of
plummers etc… We never got an answer. Figured a torch must be in
the same range as my dryer. So my husband put a Tee in the 1/2 inch
gas pipe that serviced my dryer and continued with a 1/2 inch pipe
through a cabinet, through the adjacent garage wall to my bench. We
did not need a regulator nor an arrestor on the natural gas line, we
just had an on/off lever. On the oxygen side we needed both the
regulator and an arrestor. Called the gas co. to check out the line
before I used the system and they said my husband did a perfect job.
The oxy/natural gas worked great for all my jewelry fabrication but
was a little weak for melting metals for casting. My husband then
installed a “Y” to the oxygen tank and voila, I had both an
oxy/acetylene system and an oxy/natural gas system.
This should have been a perfect arrangement-- but my putting a bench
and tools in what had always been my “husbands” garage became a
problem. You see metalsmithing was a fairly new hobby to me and as
long as I used our utility room inside the house for my stuff,
things were fine. So, a year later we moved into an older house on
an acre that has a small guest house and a four car garage!! I have
the guest house and he has a really BIG space for his workshop. Of
course the whole house needs to be renovated and we have much less
time to do our hobbies as we are doing much of the work ourselves.
However, the start of the renovation included a major upgrade to the
gas line coming into the house. This was done by a licensed
plummer. I now have a 3/4 inch line coming directly to my bench and
this works great for all my needs. Again, the regulator and the
arrestor are only needed on the oxygen side. By the way, the first
project completed in this renovation was MY studio!!
Pat Glover