Greetings all:
The thread about ‘where’s the hottest part of the flame?’ got me
thinking about torches, and all the various torches I’ve used over
the years. Everything from a mouth blowpipe, to oxy-hydrogen and
lasers, and all sorts of odd things in between.
So, now I’m curious: what are people mostly using these days? I know
there are a lot of Hokes, Mecos and B-tank torches out there, but
I’m not sure what all else is floating around. What’re you using?
Why?
Is it the same rig you trained with? If not, why? What do you like
about it? Any pet peeves?
I’m mostly curious because I’ve noticed something: once you get out
of school, (and start teaching) you get to know your own particular
setup very well, but it’s easy to lose track of how the rest of the
world is changing, and what new tricks are floating down the stream.
So, I seek new enlightenment.
Regards,
Brian Meek.
PS I guess I should start off: At school: soldering with oxy/natural
gas via small Victor welding handles, casting with Oxy/Hydrogen via
big welding handle, w/ rosebud. (and some B-tank torches of various
flavors, and a couple of oxy/acet mini-torches.) In studio: Goss
B-tank torch (which has a nicer gasket setup than the prestolites,
IMHO), Oxy/Acet ‘little torch’, One of those air/bottled NG torches
that use the full bottle pressure. (Can’t remember the name at the
moment, but it’s reasonably new on the market.) I bought that one to
experiment. Still not sure what I think of it. Would be nice for
road-show gigs, though.