How hard can I run a Nortel Minor?

[noora]

Hi guys An oxycon named Hannah has moved in with me, and today I hooked it in to my Minor. Hannah is much younger and fresher than the antique oxycon I've been using and I found that I could turn up the flame quite a lot if I wanted to and still keep it neutral.

Will turning up the flame harm the torch? It was hissing quite a bit when I turned it up, but I guess that's to be expected when there's more oxygen coming through. I'd like to melt a bit of boro you see, and with the "normal" size flame that doesn't hiss too much it takes ages and a half. With the flame turned up it melted quite well

[Redhotsal]

You can run it very hard indeed. Shouldn't do any damage as the gases are mixed on the surface of the torch. I've seen some of my boro loving friends running a minor flame which resembles a small flamethrower!

[garishglobes]

Just remember to keep the flame nice and neutral for clean boro colours    Not that I have ever used a flamethrower...   

[noora]

Thanks! Yay, now we can start playing with boro

[Barnacle Bay]

Velly interesting reading... and experiments...I too will now give mine a bit of 'woof' so I can do experimental playing with Borro...I'm off to play 

[Steampunkglass]

Yes, I used to make boro marbles with a minor, although it really was a lot better with two oxycons attached to get more heat and stop the colours reducing so much. I used to make marbles 30mm or more like that

[noora]

I was surprised by the difference, with the old one I always had the oxygen knob on the torch turned up to max and could only get a "normal" sized flame. With the new one I had to turn down the oxygen on the torch to get the same normal flame. The ball on the new oxycon is actually above the 5 lpm mark, while the old one was struggling to reach 5 lpm. 


I bought the oxycon splitter kit too so that I can attach both the old one and the new one. I only have clear boro at the moment so I'll hold on to the old oxycon until I've bought some coloured boro and had a chance to play with that.

[Pauline]

I think if you have the ball above the 5l mark you will start getting a lower oxygen concentration mine works best between 3 and 5l.  once it gets above 5 it gets hissy and the red light comes on

[noora]

Yeah, I noticed that it would mostly just hiss even more rather than make the flame cleaner if I turned up the oxygen knob too much. But I think I can run it at a bit above 5 lpm and it's way better than my old oxycon that sounded rather asthmatic DH suggested we get rid of the old one and get another of those newer oxycons if one isn't enough, and perhaps upgrade the torch too in that case. He's helping me with the financing