On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 08:03:01 -0700 in rec.crafts.jewelry lemel_man
, intended to write something intelligible, but
instead wrote :

C0nnie wrote:
...snip...

Well I hit the mother lode today that corresponds with all of your
advice. Went to visit my fave goldsmith and he showed me his Meco
Midget and why he likes it (bigger output/ more versatile than Smith
Little).

Then went to the local welders supply and coincidentally the Smith rep
was there. I told him about the Midget and he showed me the Smith
Quickbraze. (see http://www.smithequipment.com/produc...z/quickbrz.htm
) What a nice lil gadget with kevlar covering the hoses.

Bigger than the Little torch, but still quite petite.

Comes with 4 tips, one is a dual flame, looks like a horseshoe, one is
the typical small aperture of jewelers, one is a rosette. One tip is
on a long copper tube extending it beyond or between something
awkward- this is for heating and ac guys.

Still, the setup meets and exceeds all my needs for years to come. I
plan to get it Monday. With the oxygen regulator H1940G-540 and a
single-stage propane regulator, it will total out to about $360.



This looks exactly like the MicroFlame torch set that I've been using
for about 20 years here in UK. The UK company is in a small town called
Diss, in Norfolk.

It came with a range of small straight tips, the 2 smallest of which
have drilled ruby nozzles, and a range of rosette tips that can be
screwed to the end of tube shaped rather like a question mark. A
twin-nozzle (the 'horseshoe' one) is available for soldering pipes on
refrigerators and the like, but I didn't get one.


FWIW I'm also a certified HVAC technician and we don't use those
things. If anything we use either the red-handled ace/air torches or
the handheld mapgas things (though I don't use either 'cause I don't
do any HVAC work at all. Strictly jewelry.)

The set came with a small, re-fillable, O2 bottle and can be used with
propane, butane or acetylene - I use propane. The major problem I found
was that of getting the O2 bottle refilled. Although I had a copy of a
letter from British Oxygen agreeing that they would refill at any of
their depots, I was always met with suspicion and hassle, and what
should have taken 10 minutes usually took about 90.

The torch works very well but I've now given up using the straight
nozzles in favour of a water torch (generates O2 and H from water), and
use the rosettes on the Q-tube for melting.

--
Regards, Gary Wooding
(To reply by email, change feet to foot in my address)


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