Brent2,
I appreciate your concerns about propane and your stream of consciousness about your thoughts of risk. In 1972 I worked in a counseling center in a converted house and one night, on leaving, I smelled that mercaptan odor outside…turns out there was a small natural gas leak and the smell was pooling in a small depression in the ground. Nothing bad happened, there was enough air movement to disperse the gas, I guess, but it was creepy and I’ve never forgotten it…and I think about gas pooling and mixing with O2 to make an explosive mixture every time I think about propane tanks…I also had an old O2 regulator go and start spewing oxygen in a room full of other students and the teacher said, “don’t light anything!” and then, to me, “get that thing out of here!” Which I did, out into the parking lot, quickly. Learned about checking the regulator rubber frequently!
So there is an assumption of risk with any fire and any fuel. You have to be aware and use proper safeguards. There is a wealth of info on these topics here. Both the hazards of acetylene tanks, which are real, and those of propane and oxygen, just as real. Your experience is trouble free with acetylene, but you’re afraid of what you don’t know, which is propane. First thing I would say is to look thru the archives and do as deep a dive into them and into Google & etc. as you need to do. Second thing is to realize that just because you have a trouble free history with acetylene does NOT mean it is safer than propane. If the tanks age or are used improperly it is also dangerous. I think one of the main dangers is trying to pull too much gas out too fast, but I’ll let you research that. Suffice to say that the dangers are real and they are there and your should be able to find harrowing incidents that occurred with acetylene torches just as you can with propane ones.
The third thing I would say is to consider a 1lb propane tank and a concentrator. There are costs you incur with that and you’d have to decide whether you need that setup or not. It will, with Paige tips or similar, cast an ounce or two of metal and do some fairly big jobs as well as making getting in and getting out hot with a directed flame very possible, which is not so possible with acetylene, which is a different technique mostly. You could also minimize risk by using a 1 lb of propane and another of O2, but perhaps not as much and the O2 goes fast and is expensive per tank that way, they tell me. Just because you are afraid of propane doesn’t make it a rational idea. If your insurance agent will allow you to have a 1 lb propane tank in your garage, covered by your homeowners insurance, they must think it is fairly safe. Anything can be handled in a foolhardy way.
So just my experiences and, again, a suggestion that you look back at the extensive discussions here about this topic, so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel all over again. Now I have to go down to my basement workshop and fire up my concentrator, which has been idle for a while and needs some regular exercise! -royjohn