Torch problem, or set-up problem??

[burntfingers]

Okay, my studio is set up in my garage. There are no cars in the garage while I am working. The desk where I am working is towards the front of the garage, by the inside of the house. The propane tank/hose is outside of the garage - a good 10 or so feet away from the desk. The oxy concentrator is to the left of the desk. I ran it for about 5-10 minutes before I lit the torch. I have checked the hoses and I have cleaned the holes on the torch. Here's what I did ... please point out any errors:

1. Opened the garage door (wide open) and also the side door (wide open).
2. Turned on the oxy concentrator and let it run for 5-10 minutes.
3. Made sure the nozzles were turned off on the torch.
4. Slowly opened the valve on the propane tank, set the regulator for 5 PSI
5. Slowly opened the valve on the torch for the prop and lit the torch.
6. Slowly opened the valve on the torch for the oxy.

Now here's where I ran into trouble ...

No matter how I adjusted the flame, I couldn't get it any bigger than 5-6" long. Also, it made no noise at all. I don't know if that's an issue or not, but I'm used to all the noise that my old Fireworks torch makes, so not having any noise at all made me worry a bit. Previous to all of this, I checked the hoses for leaks and found none. I did notice that with the garage door and the side door open there was a great breeze - great for ventilation - but it was making the flame go all over the place. Could that be why I didn't get a bigger flame like I'm supposed too? The instruction sheet that I got from GTT told me that the flame should be about 9" long.

Please please please let me know what you see that could be fixed/changed. I'm already nervous as it is using this stuff - I don't want to be doing the wrong thing. I should pay someone to come to my house and set it all up correctly for me and show me how to do it step-by-step! LOL!

[Cosmo]

The instruction sheet is probably talking about using tanked oxygen. A concentrator is not as pure, and does not put out as much pressure, so you can't get as large of a flame.

I know on my Minors I can get about a 6-7" flame on a concentrator, and one close to 10" on tanked oxygen.

And, you don't need to run the concentrator for that long before you turn on your torch. About 20-30 seconds is all you need.

[MikeAurelius]

You aren't going to get a 9" flame off a concentrator, as Cosmo said, 6-7" is plenty good.

Don't worry about there being no noise - surface mix oxy/propane torches are very quiet unless you are running a ton of oxygen through them.

You've done nothing wrong that I can see EXCEPT that you do need some air circulation in order to keep your exhaust plume from pooling right in front of you. Opening the garage door is not enough - you still need to move outside air inside and exhaust the bad air outside.

[burntfingers]

Would it help if I put a fan in front of the side door to push the air out towards the garage door? There was a gigantic breeze in the garage as it was, pushing the flame all over the place, so I shouldn't have had a problem with exhaust ... but I am new, so what do I know. :-k

[Dale M.]

IF you have a positive airflow, one you can feel, you probably are ok... If air is stagnate and NOT moving, help it along with a fan...

Dale