I searched the forum, but I couldn’t find information about how much better these tips are.
For those that have them, how much of a help are they? For instance, I have the lowboy foot pedal for my pendant motor and I feel like that is a complete game changer. Are the tips similar?
They’ll go on a smith little torch with propane/oxygen doing mostly silver and gold. I currently melt ingots with an acetylene/air smith torch.
Paige tips are for Propane and O2 and NG and O2 only, not acetylene. They were a great improvement over the single hole tips that came with my Meco and little torch. You can buy an adapter that allows you to use the same tips on both torches. Only use the MX tip for melting. I also have 2 Lowboys. They are great. Following is a link to Paige Tools…Rob
Can you be more specific about the improvement they make? Do they make the flame hotter or more controllable?
Easier to lite, better control, probably hotter. I use my Little Torch now a lot more than I did before I had these tips. I use the Meco with the MX mainly for melts and soldering heavier bracelets. Check with Paige, but I think that I get about the same amount of heat out of the tips regardless of the torch that they are on. Paige Tools is very helpful if you either email or call them. I don’t think that they support the Hoke Torch, but I also have an adapter that allows me to use these tips on my old Hoke Torch. That’s about all I have…Rob
Thank you! I’ll definitely reach out to Paige. I can’t tell if it’ll be a real improvement worth the cost or if my tool addiction is acting up.
You will need to buy and setup either a propane and O2 or a NG and O2 torch, they won’t run acetylene. I ran acetylene and air and then acetylene and O2 for 35 years. I miss the plumbers torch from time to time, but going to propane and O2 with Paige tips was my best improvement in over 50 years…Rob
If you read my original post, it will satisfy that.
Sorry, I missed that you only use acetylene for melts.Thanks…Rob
No problem! I appreciate your kind responses with great insight.
Thanks…Rob
I agree with the Paige tips and smith little torch, a lovely system for precision soldering.
Hi,
take a look at these two older posts…paige Tools explains the differences between smith tips and paige tips in it…
julie
How did you learn to solder and do you still solder that way?
Former member Leonid Surpin modified his LittleTorch to duplicate a blowpipe flame. Whether that was because he learned on a blowpipe or he just preferred the qualities of that kind of flame I don’t know.
I was taught to solder on copper. Copper oxidizes quickly and I was taught to keep the metal bathed in a large reducing flame to prevent oxidation. My favorite torch was the Smith Silversmith air / acetylene, which produces a large flame, and by blocking an air intake hole or two, also a reducing flame.
Since I swtitched to a setup like Rob’s I use a Meco with Paige tips, and most often use the MA-1 and MA-2 tips - which produce a wider flame that I can also make reducing. It’s how I learned, what I am comfortable with.
What do you work on?
I like making silver overlay belt buckles and things of that nature. So again, a wider flame is better suited to the work.
When I need to do some really small work I might use the Meco and a smaller Paige tip, but sometimes, at least to me, the job might call for a LittleTorch and small LittleTorch tip. It isn’t that a smaller Paige tip can’t work for really fine pieces (delicate chain, very fine jump rings), but I think the smaller LitteTorch tips give me a smaller flame that at least to me better suits the job.
So as far as I can see, the answer to your question might be how you answer mine, rather than “is one brand of tips better than the other?”.
As comic relief, the first soldering torch I bought was a Harbor Freight acetylene cutting torch. You can imagine how that worked out. 
Neil A
Neil…I think that what you are saying is that we all find our way of doing what we do. None of them are right or wrong, they are just the way that works for us. I would love to try a blow pipe on some of my finer pieces…Rob
I know almost nothing about blow pipes. If I search for them, should I find all I need to know? Now I’m down another rabbit hole!
Some posts I’ve found so far.
They can be as simple as a piece of metal tube that has a small mouthpiece on one end and is tapered to a small open point on the other. It is probably curved at the end. You simply blow air over a candle, alcohol lamp or some kind of flame. The air added to the flame increases the amount of heat it will produce and directs the flame towards whatever you are holding on a charcoal block to be soldered. It works. I have done it enough to be able to say that I have done it. You can currently buy, I think from Otto Frei, a German blowpipe that it a combination of a smaller tube that carries very low pressure propane or NG to a restricted point at the end of the pipe. It is attached to a larger piece of tube that is attached to a hose with a mouth piece on the end that you blow through. You can also buy a foot operated bellows to take the place of you being the source of air. I have been tempted to buy it, but only out of curiosity. Search enough and you will find video s of people currently using all of the above in different ways. Yes, this is a rabbit hole and one of the many that I too have fallen into.
Regards Paige Tips. They are a fine product but if you are used to working with a gas/air torch there is a learning curve that takes awhile. Once you are past that curve there is nothing better and their product support is exceptional. I would strongly recommend the MX melting tip if you use nothing else that tip alone is worth the investment.
When I was 10 or 11 I had a Gilbert Chemistry set with glass tubes and projects for sealing the ends of the tubes and fusing glass tubes for various purposes. The torch I used was a blow pipe and alcohol lamp. I eventually I got the knack of how hard to blow, how close to the alcohol lamp to be, and to some extent how to use circular breathing. I lost interest in the process after the third 2nd degree burn. Dad had a blow pipe in his gear and he said he used it at Chilocco. I assume with white gasoline. Dad told me it was commonly used by the Native Smiths. By the time I was coming along in the shop Dad’s emphysema was so advanced that he never used the tool. I can’t remember him ever using it at home, maybe Rob does. I have his blowpipe somewhere I am sure but I don’t have the fascination any more to try and be productive with it. I know the basics of it and that’s enough.
Don Meixner
I purchased the Paige tips for my propane/oxygen Meco torches and I have tried them but I did not find any advantage over my original single orafice Meco tips I have had and used for 40+ years. I still use my old ones, exclusively. I was willing to buy the Paige tips to try them out, but had I been able to try them before hand, I would not have purchased them. My advanced students and I are working in high karat gold and none of us use them, so they have set idle and have not been a worthwhile investment in my studio. Everyone’s mileage may vary on this, depending on the type of work they do.
Thank you for your input. Appreciate it