[evilglass]

I'd go with Evelyn's take on it, but I might consider strongly upgrading the torch to a Minor or something like that and tanked oxygen. You'll save it back in months on the price difference between the little 1lb cannisters. You can get a barbeque size tank of propane at wal-mart, brand new, for like $40, and it's less than $15 to fill it. Mine lasts months, literally, even torching 4-6 hours per day.

You'd add in regulators (you can get inexpensive ones that are for oxy and acetylene)-about $60ish, and the oxy tank-probably $100ish plus refill costs. And the torch, which would be $150-200ish.

I know those costs sound scary....but...you could use boro with that set up, at least for small sculptures, which would work much better with the perlite/vermiculite/ slow cooling then batch annealing. Soft glass sculptures don't tend to be very forgiving of batch annealing. And clear boro is super cheap-cheaper than most soft glass, I do believe.