Hello ... I'm sort of a returning member, from a few years ago. A native Southern Californian [usa], and previously employed by [husband and pre-marriage] as a graphic designer - I've taken the past 3 yrs off becoming a mom to my 2.5 YO wonderful little boy whom I adore. After a rough financial period and selling some newly purchased equipment to make ends meet, we have moved into the house in which I grew up, and there is a nice little workshop in the garage area that my father used for woodworking and fishing tools etc, that I'm setting up to do some small-scale silver work [whatever that means - I've seen some pretty incredible stuff come out of small places!]. I've been making jewelry as a hobby using beads & wire since I was in high school [I'll be 40 next month - yikes!], and now, possibly in my "mid-life" stage, I've decided to start a business - doing something I really love to do, instead of something I can do, but I hate doing! So, primarily I'm working with the beads and wire right now, and I've added PMC to the mix, making small charms & links etc. I rather spontaneously created a mini "line" for little girls, and got the guts up to approach 2 children's boutiques here in town, and now they each have 4 of them [2 which they bought straightaway and 2 on consignment]. As for working with the PMC, I love it - but it is only getting me thinking about what is it like to work with wax, and the potential cost-effectiveness of having certain little charms 'n' things sent out to have cast in sterling. I've never worked with wax though, I like the clay form of the PMC, so there will be a learning curve [as with everything else]. Anywho ~ I just got my tanks and torch setup - have not even fired it up yet ... I need to set up my "sink" [the 2 liter water jug that will drain into a bucket], so I can set up my pickle pot which will be complete with the "shut-off timer" as seen in the current issue of LJ - by pulling the 'on' pin out of a regular timer I got at the hardware store], so I can actually solder. In the meantime I've been studying all the safety info, so I can sleep at night. Looking forward to being a part of the list - I hope I don't have TOO many really stupid questions - the archives have been a wonderful resource so far. ~Alysia Murray Southern CA, USA ~ near the beach PS... I might as well thow in my first dumb [or not] question: I using propane, and oxygen [both small refillable tanks] with smith regulators and a Hoke torch. I remember [and have re-familiarized myself] with the proper start up and shut down procedure [and I have it written down for reference in my studio] ~ my question is, what pressure is it best to set the regulators to? The article in LJ isn't as specific as I would've liked - it simply says that "...a 2-1/2 PSI preset regulator is common for propane..." [course mine is not 'pre-set'] and the oxygen it says as low as 2 [for the smallest tip] and "rarely higher than 15 PSI" - which is a big range. Any comments/suggestions anyone? By that info, I was going to start with 2.5 PSI for the propane, and figure the oxy at 3-5 with a medium tip, just to start. Is this a good place to start? TIA... ~a.