[Jewelry making - Article 00021] - [Orchid] Torch Problems - LPG

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Hi All,

    I am after some advice on my LPG torch related to various problems
    I've had with it in recent times. 

    When I first got my torch I set it up under my house which is a very
    dusty environment.  I kept finding that if I forgot to cover the
    torch tip after use the tip would very quickly become clogged and
    require replacement.  I also found that partially blocked tips could
    still be used even though they didn't give a very good flame. 

    Then, at the end of last year I moved all of my equipment to a new
    (clean) location.  As my budget was once again very tight I
    persevered with my old partially blocked tips.  Then, a couple of
    weeks ago when I was soldering my torch cut out.  I relit it and it
    cut out again.  This continued until I gave up.  I picked up my gass
    bottle and shook it - it seemed like I had about a quarter of a tank
    left.  I took my bottle with the torch still attached to my father
    to have a look at.  When he lit the torch there was no problem - in
    fact, he got a better, finer flame than I had ever had on my torch. 
    He decided that the shaking the bottle had recieved in transit
    probably mixed elements in the LPG that had separated into different
    layers. 

    When I got the torch back to my studio the flame was bad again and
    the cutting out continuous.  Finally I decided I would just go get
    the bottle filled to see if that solved the problem.  When I
    unscrewed the torch from the tank something liquidous came squirting
    out of the tank - there was probably about a metric cup of liquid on
    the floor before it subsided.  I don't know what the substance was
    but I had to mop it up - it certainly wasn't anything that was
    behaving like gas.  Then my father took the bottle and drained it -
    he told me no more of the substance came out. 

    So, assuming my problems must have been stemming from this
    contaminant in the bottle, which was now gone, I went and got the
    bottle refilled.  However, when I got it back to my studio and
    reattached it to the torch I found that the old problems hadn't gone
    away.  The flame was still poor and though less frequent, it was
    still cutting out.  Also, I had a new problem - the torch was really
    hard to light. 

    So, I went and bought a new tip - only to find that it has a poor
    flame too. Like I said earlier in this post - I had assumed that the
    poor flame meant a blocked tip.  As my tip was behaving like the old
    tips it set me wondering - maybe the tips were getting blocked from
    the inside - from a contaminant in the gas.  Or, maybe there is a
    blockage in the hose or handpiece that is stopping enough gas from
    getting through to the tip in the first place. 

    Up until yesterday I just kept persevering because I can't afford to
    replace the torch and I can't think of anything I can do about it. 
    However, yesterday I went through a whole box of matches whilst
    trying to light a new tip on the torch... this was after I'd had no
    luck with the gas gun. 

    I am really hoping someone here might be able to identify my
    problem.  Also, perhaps, there might be a way to clean the  hose and
    handpiece?  Should I ditch the gas bottle all together and get a new
    one?  Or, is it too late and time to save up and buy everything
    over? 

Thanks,
R.R. Jackson

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