AWhiskeyDrunk
01-24-2011, 09:27 AM
Just thinking out loud here...forgive me if this has been brought up before.
So like an ass I clogged a few ports on my torch, currently raging a Nortel Rocket. Managed to hit a couple of the center fire ports as well as the outer ring. I've got the torch cleaning tool and did my best to get the glass out... but they are still clogged.
Nortel has been nothing but good to me in the past. I upgraded to the Rocket from a Red Max and like an ass... clogged the Red Max once upon a time. I drove to Buffalo and dropped the torch off. This was a few years back when I was driving cross country to Revere Glass for the Marbleslinger class. Nortel fixed my torch and shipped it back to my house where it was waiting for me when I got home.
Here's the dilemma. Currently, unlike a few years ago, I work full time as a lampworker. I can't afford to take the time off. I still have my Red Max, but I've been teaching a friend some tricks and he uses the Red Max. This isn't exactly a big deal. At any time I can tell him, "sorry but you're taking a week off I need the torch". However, I am concerned about stepping down to the Red Max. I'm worried that even a week on the smaller torch will slow me down to the point where I fall behind. Not to mention that the Rocket and the Red Max are two very different torches, I'm worried just the learning curve of getting back to the Red Max will be enough to make me fall behind.
It got me wondering about the logistics of having some sort of torch loaner program. I e-mailed Nortel and have yet to hear back. I was thinking that when you're car breaks down, you can often get a loaner car from a friendly mechanic. Now in fairness... the loaner car isn't the same make and model I may drive my Rocket in for repairs and likely drive away in a Red Max, but as I covered earlier, this isn't a lot of help for me.
I don't know if this would even be possible outside a torch manufacturer. But I often see people selling or lending extra torches. Again, just thinking out loud, but it would be cool if somebody stepped-up and housed all these extra torches people were willing to donate or sell cheap and loan them out at a small cost to the artist that needs a temp torch. Or working out an on-line network of people who could ship temp torches around the country, at the expense of the receiver of course.
I suppose the easy answer is quit my bitching do smaller work for a week +/- and consider myself lucky I have a back-up torch. Or step-up and stop living hand to mouth so that I can afford to take a few days off while my torch is in the shop.
I certainly haven't worked out all the kinks for a torch loaner program, for example... what do you do about a person that "borrows" a torch and never ships it back. None the less, my recent clogged ports predicament got me to thinking...
Thoughts? Anybody have experience with this problem and can suggest a solution?
Matt
So like an ass I clogged a few ports on my torch, currently raging a Nortel Rocket. Managed to hit a couple of the center fire ports as well as the outer ring. I've got the torch cleaning tool and did my best to get the glass out... but they are still clogged.
Nortel has been nothing but good to me in the past. I upgraded to the Rocket from a Red Max and like an ass... clogged the Red Max once upon a time. I drove to Buffalo and dropped the torch off. This was a few years back when I was driving cross country to Revere Glass for the Marbleslinger class. Nortel fixed my torch and shipped it back to my house where it was waiting for me when I got home.
Here's the dilemma. Currently, unlike a few years ago, I work full time as a lampworker. I can't afford to take the time off. I still have my Red Max, but I've been teaching a friend some tricks and he uses the Red Max. This isn't exactly a big deal. At any time I can tell him, "sorry but you're taking a week off I need the torch". However, I am concerned about stepping down to the Red Max. I'm worried that even a week on the smaller torch will slow me down to the point where I fall behind. Not to mention that the Rocket and the Red Max are two very different torches, I'm worried just the learning curve of getting back to the Red Max will be enough to make me fall behind.
It got me wondering about the logistics of having some sort of torch loaner program. I e-mailed Nortel and have yet to hear back. I was thinking that when you're car breaks down, you can often get a loaner car from a friendly mechanic. Now in fairness... the loaner car isn't the same make and model I may drive my Rocket in for repairs and likely drive away in a Red Max, but as I covered earlier, this isn't a lot of help for me.
I don't know if this would even be possible outside a torch manufacturer. But I often see people selling or lending extra torches. Again, just thinking out loud, but it would be cool if somebody stepped-up and housed all these extra torches people were willing to donate or sell cheap and loan them out at a small cost to the artist that needs a temp torch. Or working out an on-line network of people who could ship temp torches around the country, at the expense of the receiver of course.
I suppose the easy answer is quit my bitching do smaller work for a week +/- and consider myself lucky I have a back-up torch. Or step-up and stop living hand to mouth so that I can afford to take a few days off while my torch is in the shop.
I certainly haven't worked out all the kinks for a torch loaner program, for example... what do you do about a person that "borrows" a torch and never ships it back. None the less, my recent clogged ports predicament got me to thinking...
Thoughts? Anybody have experience with this problem and can suggest a solution?
Matt