Mirage on a Herbie

[Jake C]

So.........i like gtts for several reasons.....i like herbies for several reasons...

Im thinking about selling my Mag, and getting a mirage and a 50mm herbie...Taking the Mirage off the stand and post, and mounting it onto either the top, or the side of the arnold..Boom...best of both worlds. In my mind it seems that it'll work out just fine.

Just wondering if theres any issues others could see arising. I think i can mount the mirage head back far enough to not burn it up from the herbie flame, and thats all i could come up with..

Thanks in advance for your time and advice...happy 4th...peace

[Kato]

Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! DO IT!! DO IT!! DO IT!!




And take some pics to share :)

[HoneyCombOver]

Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! DO IT!! DO IT!! DO IT!!




And take some pics to share :)

This.

[mer]

youll never be able to sit and work behind that, it's already hard to sit behind a herbie alone. I don't think you sit much but it would kill me.

[Jake C]

i dont sit really ever when i work...but Mer, i dont understand, why is it hard to sit behind a herbie?

and im not planning on using both at the same time, i just like the idea of having both torches at my fingertips, without any quik connects or moving of torches or multiple benches.

[brian falls]

Personally I don`t feel like the top of my 50 really provides adequate mounting points to really mount a good sized torch like a mirage and have it not feel Jank. The screws that go into the body to hold the heat shield are like 4-6mm and a pretty fine thread. I`d just run `em side by side and keep the factory stuff. Thats just my opinion though.

[VertigoGlass]

I could machine a mount on the cnc and make it work. But i dont have a 50mm herbie to work off of locally.

[brian falls]

I`ll take my foot out of my mouth now. I just looked at my 50 and you could use the top screws for the back cover as well, those are a little bigger (maybe 6mm) and just mount to the heat shield and it would probably feel pretty sturdy.

[glassnewb]

I have thought about this for years..... I think it would be badass.

[hippi]

i got a mirage..and i want a mag...... lol

[drew1492]

Just get some Y's and have them a few feet away from eachother. I would love to see how it looks but think it would be a stupid thing to do, and be tougher to utilize the super small flames you can get with a herbie.

[EFS]

Sounds gangster! Show some pics when you try it. If it doesnt work like you want it to take it apart. Worth a shot as you wont know until you try it. I can't think of any reasons other than just getting used to it. Good luck!

[Adapt]

The hoses coming from the bottom of the Mirage might be an issue if you mount it above the Herbie.

[mer]

@jake re: sitting behind a herbie, it feels pretty big and awkward to sit behind for me with a 33' bench. I can't see the base of the centerfire which messes me up, but also it feels in the way. I might be wrong but does taylor work sitting down with a herbie? that guy is tall, I'm sure that would help. it's my loss, they are gorgeous torches and I love the shoulder of the outers. I just have back issues and standing kills my endurance.

[Chubbles]

I don't like the idea. I feel like you go pretty big sometimes. I'm sure you would get by, but don't you need the big flame of the mag to do some of the things you do? Especially the prep work. You probably know better than me, but that's my opinion.

[$$$$$$$]

fuck it dude, the redmax has a big flame on bottom and another torch on top.. save some loot too

[Ne2]

I would put the mirage under the herbie (but pointing up so that they are crossfired) Then use the herbie for most of your work and have both stages of the mirage on a foot pedal for a quick blast of heat to melt in.

David

[Julian]

I found the bulk of the HA's body to kind of be in the way while sitting at first, but eventually found that having it block the candles was a good thing since they're so darn bright.

[Cheese glass]

This would be the perfect setup

If I were you Id keep the mag for big melt-ins and get a 50 for soft shaping/drawing etc

Although this Frankenstein torch would be sweet I think it would be easier just to have them on the same bench one step away from each other or around the corner of a bench(that's what I'm
Doing these days). Leave the Herbie pilot on and flip back and forth with ease

[hippi]

what about getting that WORM/STEVE BATES manifold for the MAG?? it adds air thru the porpane valves and makes it like a GTT/HERBIE hybrid..it was pretty cool tons of different flames outta it.. just another thought

[STROKER]

i think it would be too much of an obstacle to be worth it when trying to do some of the work you do.

lance from flametree had a mirage or delta stacked ontop of a python and it was like 18 inches tall. pretty crazy setup for sure.

to me that would present too much bulk to move around and too big an obstacle to have to work around all the time.

[Snurf]

why 50 mill? i think the 40mill and 65mill have a nicer/hotter flam than the 50

[AdamCotter]

Crossfire those bitches.

[Jayadeva]

Yeah I talked with bates at the DFO he had a mag with compressed air in it. And J Howard had some stuff about inline regs and compressed air into the propane line. Way over my head technically but the concept was way cool.

[RajS]

i think its compressed air into the OXY line. i could be wrong. it adds nitrogen into the flame atmosphere. my old shopmate used tanked air inplace of the compressed air on his herbie and it turned the torch into a premix and blew up on him. shotgun loud he says haha. would hate to see that happen to a gtt.

[Jayadeva]

Adding air to your torch is generally done by splitting with a needle valve into the propane, with a flashback arrester where the air lines converge (if you're adding it to more than one stage, center and outer, etc) just like the Carlisle optimizer kit (basically just another set of knobs that meters air into the propane).

Adding air to propane rather than oxy serves a couple purposes:
-The candle length is longer for a given mass flow rate of propane. Your burner basically stays cooler since the combustion is taking place further from the face
-There's a little bit of premix happening due to the roughly 21% oxygen content of air. Combustion doesn't happen inside the candle itself due to gas velocity, but combustion is more efficient, which is what eliminates the blaring brightness of a HA flame when you add a little air.

Whereas if you just add it to the oxy, you're keeping candle length the same... also, impure oxygen reacts strangely with glass, causing increased work devit... I'm not sure why chemically, but it's really easy to tell when you've got an oxygen concentrator with suffering purity. I am not an expert but the information I've seen and here^ begs to differ.

[Chad S]

I'd say go for it, best of both worlds... Here's a video of two torches mounted together, but i like your idea much more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfMCLgHYw1w&feature=plcp

[glassaxis]

@ dudie- on the gtt you mix compressed air into the propane.