[Jewelry making - Article 00461] - Re: [Orchid] Natural Gas

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     it will now be a simple procedure to switch to natural gas as my
>     new studio will be in the basement adjacent to the furnace.  Can I
>     use it alone or must I mix it with oxygen? 

Betty,

    Natural gas can be used with either compressed air, or oxygen.  Or
    you can even use it with a mouth blown blowpipe, as is done is some
    european workshops.  The compressed air can come from a small bellows
    type foot pump too, if you wish, though not many in the U.S. do that,
    and such pumps are now a bit hard to find. There are, of course, big
    differences between an air/gas torch and an oxy/gas torch.  You need
    a different type of torch (at least you need a different tip for it)
    if you're using air, not oxygen, and the temperature ranges are very
    different.  Air/gas is pretty cool and gentle compared to oxy/gas. 
    Usually its used with torches that give a  larger more  brushy flame,
    rather than small pinpoint flames.  In the art schools, the large
    torches used for annealing hollowware and the like will be air/gas
    torches.   The flame will be around the same, temperature wise, as
    what you'd get from a plumbers type propane torch, since that is also
    a gas only torch, without added oxygen.   If you wish to use a
    standard Meco, Hoke, or Little torch, though, then you'll probably
    need to add oxygen, as these have much smaller tips, usually, and to
    get useful work from small flames like that you usually need to make
    them hotter, with an oxygen supply rather than compressed air. 

    The choice of whether to use air or oxygen will depend both on the
    torches you've got, and the type of work you wish to do.  If you're
    mostly soldering silver, which needs you to heat the whole soldering
    area, then you'll likely find air/gas to be decent to work with.  If
    you prefer tiny flames, such as for detailed little wire
    construction, or work in gold, then you might prefer an oxygen/gas
    torch.  Most professional workshops use oxygen, but not all.  As I
    said, in europe, it's not so uncommon to see the mouth blown
    torches, where the air supply is just a mouth blown tube.  For
    general soldering and fabrication in gold and silver, once one has
    mastered the use of these torches, they can give great control over
    the flame, and with the generally cooler temperature ranges,
    accidentally melting the work is less a danger. 

Peter


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