[Jewelry making - Article 00394] - [Orchid] LPG torch problems

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    I am posting again about my LPG torch - it is the same problem I
    posted about a short while ago.  The problem was that I'd had a
    contaminated gas supply which caused the flame to get very weak and
    eventually die.  I figured out that it must have been a
    contamination in the gas supply when I removed the hose from the
    bottle and a large quantity of liquid spilled out and had to be
    mopped off the floor rather than vaporizing. 

    First of all, I mentioned in my original post that I now had a new
    supply of gas but the gas still didn't seem to be getting through. 
    I had figured that the contaminant had caused a blockage in the hose
    and/or handpiece.  I posted here and on another forum and received
    some suggestions on how to flush the blockage out - the suggestions
    were varied and some of them didn't really sound right or safe to
    me.  In the end I put the problem on the backburner while I took up
    several different office work temp jobs and was not in my studio
    much anyway. 

    This brings me to today - I am back in my studio this week and now
    back to the problem of my torch.  Unfortunately all of the posts
    from this forum and the other I posted to that I had saved to my
    computer were lost when my computer crashed recently.  I just tried
    doing a search of the archive but the search engine seemed to not be
    working properly - it kept coming up with no results... or perhaps I
    was just putting the wrong words in - so, please forgive me for
    repetition and not being able to recall properly the suggestions
    that people made. 

    Of the suggestions I had that were of how to flush the hose and
    handpiece out I was told by different people to use compressed air,
    alcohol, water and water and soap - there may have been others, or
    variations on these but I'm sorry - I can't remember.  As far as I
    know compressed air is very dirty, however my father said that if I
    used a filter and blew compressed air through it would be fine.  I
    think compressed air would move hard blockages fairly well, but what
    if it is some kind of greasy buildup?  Would it still do a good job?
     Water sounds a little strange to me - I had thought that gas and
    water could be explosive - or am I thinking of something else? 
    Alcohol sounded more strange than water as if any residue remained
    it would be a fire hazard - or would it not?  I think it was
    suggested to clean with soap and water and then follow with alcohol
    to make sure that no water droplets remained.  In any case -
    mightn't alcohol dry out the hose and make it more prone to
    cracking? 

    I'd had a thought - back in high school when I played clarinet - my
    teacher taught me to clean it by taking a soft cloth and attaching a
    length of string longer than the clarinet with a weight on the end
    to it, then dropping the weight down the clarinet and grabbing it at
    the other end to pull the cloth through.  Maybe a similar method
    with a much smaller cloth could be used for my torch?  However, what
    if remnants of the cloth became attached to the inside of the hose? 
    This could cause more blockages - right?  If not blockages, would it
    become a safety hazard? 

    I have emailed my supplier asking for advice who (very predictably)
    told me that the problem couldn't be fixed and that I'd need to
    purchase a new torch. 

    A bit of discussion on the safety and effectiveness of various
    methods of flushing the hose and handpiece out would be very useful
    to me.  I am one of those people who took YEARS to get comfortable
    with using a torch as it was so difficult for me to shake the
    feeling that it was dangerous... and now, I am nervous about
    fiddling with my torch in case I really do make it dangerous. 

    Thanks everyone for your continual help, support and understanding! 

R.R. Jackson

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