Nortel Minor not hot enough

[tuffydog]

I have a Nortel Minor and running 2 oxycons. with propane. I work mostly with boro. I am having trouble melting a 10mm rod of clear. Should it be hotter or is this just what this torch will do? I am getting frustrated, it is just too slow for what I want to do. Thanks for the help, I always get good advice on this forum.
Kathie

[Chuckie]

That's just the torch. You can work boro on a Minor, but it will be slow going and you shouldn't expect to be able to do huge beads. If you want to work boro faster, you'll want to upgrade your torch to something larger. If you add tanked oxy, instead of the concentrators, you may boost the performance a little, but a bigger torch would be preferable.

[Cosmo]

I can melt 16mm clear on my Minor on two concentrators no problem. How much flow are your concentrators putting out? Can you take a picture of your flame?

On tanked oxygen I can make 1" marbles on a Minor with little effort.

[Unbrokenchain3-19-95]

If I plan on working boro and have a minor working with tanked oxy, should I plan on going through a ton of oxy?

[Kalera]

Kathie, your Minor should be able to handle a 10mm rod of clear on 2 oxycons, no problem. I would be concerned that either your tubing supplying your torch is too small, constricting the oxygen flow, or that your oxycons aren't operating to optimum capacity.

How close to the torch head do you work your boro?

[Chuckie]

Kalera reminded me of something. Not only do you need to check the inner diameter of any tubing you may be using, but the hoses between your oxycon and your torch should be shortened if you bought a 25' gas line pair, or even a 12' set. The longer the oxy hose, the more resistance. Make them as short as possible without cutting it so short you can't move your oxycons around if you need to move them. It made a big difference when I cut my oxy hose down to an 8' length.

And just for clarification, I meant that you can do boro, but working it will be comparitively slower than working with soft glass. It can be done, just slower and smaller than what you can do on a bigger torch.

[Venbead]

working boro on a minor can be done but it is slow and a bit frustrating.
10mm shouldn't be that bad though. check out all the things these good people said to with respect to your oxycons and if it's still too slow for you then I have a used midrange at a good price you might be interested in. PM me.

[tuffydog]

Thank all of you for the advice. I will clean and or replace the filters on the oxycon before I go any further. Thanks again. Kathie

[navarre]

With 2 oxycons delivering to a minor - could be that you have too much oxy and as a result the flame is too cool. I think it was Cosmo that asked about a pic of your flame. I think that would be a good idea so we can see what flame chemistry may be goin on.

Regards
Navarre

[Karen Hardy]

I use a minor with propane and one (count 'em, 1) concentrator. I can melt
10mm no problem, so it CAN be done, no problem. I'm thinking your problem lies
elsewhere (perhaps try the suggestions about checking your hoses from the
other boro gurus ).