bandicuss progress thread

[bandicuss]

So im starting this up, i just got my bravo and some other supplies n the mail today, woot so excited. Ive been using a redmax for a little bit so i plan on doing a comparison between the two. Ill have pictures of the set up i work on with tools and whatnot later. As for now ill just say i love this torch already, looks beautiful, has a nice scroll base on it, which is reallly smooth, and allows you to change the torch position with minimum effort, i can see myself easly turning the scroll knobs with glass on both hands. Ill post a better review when i actully fire this baby up.

[bandicuss]

so i got a few photos of my supplies, my hoses, ground joints and clear glass are not pictured.
i got some colors laying here, mai tai pink, half blood, wisteria, deep sea blue, millennium moss, ns orange, loch ness, ninja, transparent green, star white, multi, plum crazy purple, and english green ivy. no a ton of color but it should work for now.
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here is some of my supplies, i use all of these just about everyday in some way or another.
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and here she is my new beautiful bethlehem bravo with scrolls. i love it al ready, but i think im going to have to wait until tomorrow to fire her up,
feels amazing finally having this torch. im like a kid on freaking christmas, i cant wait break it all in!!!
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[hawkglass]

Show off ur work space on the dirty bench thread once u get it hooked up

[BlairArtGlass]

Love it man, that scroll base is sweet! Have fun raging her out.

[bandicuss]

So i just firrd her up for tje first time, i have to get used to the knobs all being back wards from how they are on the red max, and i have to find the sweet spot with this psi the shop im at has our line at 20psi for oxy and 5psi for propane, it seems a little high fpr this giys but i dont know fursure. Anybody with a bravo want to fill me in on the psi you use, im pretty sure my gases are way too high, torch just sounded like it back fired. So far though this thing puts out sooo much mealting power for its size, im bout to make a little marble and a few prodo units and how well she is with color

[BORO]

^^ yes , yes , " please sir may I have another "

Any comparisons of flames will be appreciated , labeled , and stored accordingly .

[hawkglass]

Wayyyyy to high lol
http://www.bethlehemburners.com/torches/bravo

[BORO]

2 psi gas , 8 psi oxy.... ( factory settings )

The two peeps I know run 18, and 3 .... The other 20 and 4 .... ( 25 , and 5 for vac stacks )

Try to keep the ratios the same... So if it's 8 and 2 , you go to 12 oxy , it's 3 propane. 16 oxy , 4 propane... ( too much propane will muddy up your silver colors , like the ivy . )

[bandicuss]

Oky so i just finished a quick little marble. And wow, the heat penitration of this torch os amazing. Im used tp makong marbles on my big flame with the red max, but there was absoloutly no need to toch the outter fire knobs, pleanlty of heat for the little mib ,
By far my favorite thing ,, the tiny flames for stringers and stringer drawing, holy freakibg crap ive never had more stringer control in my time blowing glass, i was using tiny little stringers (tryin to see what its limits are) and it was just like butter No soupy limp stringers.
Havinf the center fire is really really nice. Being able to open the outter oxy give you so much more range for flame charictaristics(sp)
I wont be able to post pictures or video until i get home from the shop. But if you want a sneak peak ill be updating my instagram all day with the pictures

[BORO]

Was it a pre mix max (what tip) , or surface Mix red max?

[bandicuss]

It was a pre mix tip, like a fucking laser beam, hah.
Once i get used to the center fire

I still have to find the sweet spot for a small hot needle flame

[BlairArtGlass]

Sounds like your having fun already. I really want to try the gas setting that bethlehem suggests eventually. I have to get some inline regulators to do it though. The shop I'm set up in has a manifold on the table, and the whole table runs off LOX, and a big propane tank. I can't remember what the pressures are but I know they were well above beth's numbers. Usually there are multiple torches running at once though so pressures fluctuate at times.

[bandicuss]

Sounds like your having fun already. I really want to try the gas setting that bethlehem suggests eventually. I have to get some inline regulators to do it though. The shop I'm set up in has a manifold on the table, and the whole table runs off LOX, and a big propane tank. I can't remember what the pressures are but I know they were well above beth's numbers. Usually there are multiple torches running at once though so pressures fluctuate at times.
Tgat kinda the situation here, lucky bo body is here right bow so i get to tinker, so far the obly thibg im having trouvle with like i said was the needle flame, i thibk i just need to sit back and play foe a couple days

[Nicholas Rado]

Tgat kinda the situation here, lucky bo body is here right bow so i get to tinker, so far the obly thibg im having trouvle with like i said was the needle flame, i thibk i just need to sit back and play foe a couple days

sounds like the obly thibg your having trovle with is typing on that phone :D

but its actually really cool that you can see noticeable positive differences already! you seem really happy with your purchase

[bandicuss]

sounds like the obly thibg your having trovle with is typing on that phone :D

but its actually really cool that you can see noticeable positive differences already! you seem really happy with your purchase
Lol, yea i hate using tmp on my phone, i have to type so slow to write anything without messing up.
But i do really love this torch, and im very glad i made this purchase. The difference between the red max and the bravo is pretty noticeable imo, the bravo just engulfs the glass in this soft, gental flame, where the red max had a big flame that was hot but ,didnt seem to penetrate the glass as quickly and produced a lot of radiant heat in the process. Also the the cenerfire is badass on the bravo , i deff like the center fire over the other premix rider i had on the red max, its way easier on colors, and the flame is pretty versital it can get a raging flame like for doing smaller mibs or a little razor sharp flame for stringers. On my red max premix rider it was pretty much a laser beam for popping holes mostly, and was kinda harsh on some of the brighter colors.

Ok ill wright more when i get home and im not n this damn phone,lol.

Pictures to come.

well i dont know how to upload my video of the torches side by side,
its up on my facebook, if anyone wants to see it let me know, i did it kinda hastily. it show a quick shot of the red and the bravo on full, and then it shows the smallest and largest flames i can get on the center fire of the bravo and the redmax and thats it.

what i like about the video is that it shows how much more stable the bravo flame is compared to the redmax,

[bandicuss]

this video is kinda loud


https://fbcdn-video-m-a.akamaihd.net/hvideo-ak-xpa1/v/t43.1792-2/10460064_1000521456641220_224917917_n.mp4?rl=1848&vabr=1232&oh=bcdf1c4bc5353bc63b40aa4932d8ffb9&oe=54880A87&__gda__=1418205212_f5b713281101023577e845e1283f80e 5
maybe this will work

redmax vs bravo

[bandicuss]

heres a couple little things i did today on the new torch
this is juice boxes ive been playing around with, i got a few more ideas coming up for these.
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this one is a dinker i made out of scrapes and bench cooled, was a fun little project, it has a long wonky doughnut mouth piece with a wisteria dot on the bottom
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and here was my failed attempt at a silver fume, its definitely different using a surface mix torch to lay on heavy fume, im going to play around more tomorrow with it and see how it goes.
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today was a good day for the most part

[bandicuss]

so iv been playing withthe bravo for the past couple days and ill say this.
its got a little bit of a learning curve from swapping beween the redmax over to the beth bravo,
the bravo lays the heat down a little difffent than the redmax. its almost like i have to relearn how to spin glass lol.
if i rotate the glass the same speed as i would with the red max to "soak in the heat" on larger projects i end up with "hot spots" in the glass,
the bravo just rips through tubing and solid rod with very little effort.
but at the same time the flame is gentle enough to work even the most finiky, boiling colors.
i do still have some trouble getting certain colors to strike and work how i like, that is another learning curve im having a little bit of an issue with.
over all though this torch is pretty bad ass for the price range, you wont go wrong if you are looking at purchasing one of these torches.

[bandicuss]

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[bandicuss]

http://youtu.be/ZWAjKquRw34 here is the red max vs the beth bravo video
i do not have access to the redmax anymore sadly, so i cant do anymore side by side videos.
i hope this help some people out a wee bit,

[BlairArtGlass]

Great video comparison buddy.

[bandicuss]

Hey thanks. ha i didnt know how well it was going to turn out, I wish I had more footage comparing the time it takes to melt through some big solid rod.

This video was taken at the end of the last day I was in that studio,so I wont be able to make another video soon. If I can find some body here in San Diego with a redmax Id love to make a new video to put up to show the melting capabilities of both of these torches side by side.

They are both good torches to start with, but if you have the extra money I would go with the beth bravo though. it just feels nicer, more solid, plus it has a center-fire (which I like more and more as I use it) instead of a top rider like red max.

Although what I did like about the top rider on the redmax was being able to change out your tips for whatever suited your needs.

However the redmax didnt have has much of a "penetrating" heat as the bravo, it does get very hott with a nice big flame, big enough and hot enough to do vac stacks. but the bravo has a much more "controlled" flame it looks visually "tighter" less of a bushy flamethrower and more like light saber.

The flame size on the bravo looks more narrow than that of the red max, but easily melts though tubing and solid rod faster than the redmax, and it does this at a lower oxy/fuel consumption, which is a huge plus for me.
Using less gases to make the same products, who doesnt like that??

[bandicuss]

here is some older work i made on the red max i was working on.
this is a shitty shot of the internal drain recycler ive been making lately
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this was the first pipe i made after having to get stitches from a glass accident
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prodo grind bench full of lathe work and bench work, minibubble bottoms and regular ole handpipes and sherlys
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here is a sample of the light saber dabbers I used to make at one time
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a set of "lean back"rigs i was making right before I ended up with stiches
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a filla that was dedicated to my home of Memphis, TN
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i ended up making two drippy filla pendys
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here is one of the first cup style rigs i tried to make and one day i broke the straw off,
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and then I repaired it with some new attachments
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it was a fun experience

[bandicuss]

So here is the first recycler i made on the bravo, it came out kinda rough looking,(also the first one i made without a lathe)
there is definitely a little bit of a learning curve now that switched from the premix top rider on the redmax to the surface mix center fire of the bravo.

Im still having a wee bit of trouble getting a super sharp pin point flame to really work in my seals.
other than that I am LOVING this torch. SO MUCH HEAT!!! so easy to adjust the torch up and down with that big awesome knob its got, which totally helps get to some of those awkward angles without having to dance around the torch.

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lemme know what you guys think. ill be putting up a water test shortly.

bandicuss

[bandicuss]

water funtion test.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwb95IlApyg&feature=youtu.be

[Yeef]

nice man, love the clean scientific stuff!

i know when i switched from my nortel with the premix top to the cc with the centerfire it f'd my world all up. the cc center is just a whole lot hotter, i'm guessing it's something to do with the pilots, but i found myself blowing right through bubbles and getting crazy hotspots everywhere before i started to get it in line. i'd imagine switching from a pre- to a surface mix would be even more fun..

i've been through probably 20 tanks of o2 since then and i'm still learning.

[bandicuss]

thanks man, im a fan of science apparatuses kinda what made me want to blow glass in the first place.

i have the same issues with hot spots, the bravo just lays the heat into the glass so fast, it almost like relearning how spin glass, lol.

[bandicuss]

other nicnacks ive made recently a few pipes , mini tubes and pendants
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[BlairArtGlass]

Nice man I like the new stuff! You might try playing with the gas pressures if you can to see if you can get a tighter flame.

[bandicuss]

thanks thundercat, i will have to play around with my pressure more, i tend to keep my pressure pretty low.
im still trying to find some snazzy tips and tricks on how to utilize my torch to its full potential .

[fUmEsNiFfEr]

Those juice boxes are cool man!

[bandicuss]

thanks fumesniffer
it s a little work in progress I got goin on.
i have a few more ideas i want to expand on with the juice boxes.
i cant wait to show you guys!!!

[BlairArtGlass]

I can say for sure that the pressures on my torch are on the high side, but I don't feel like I have any trouble getting the flame as small as I want it. I've also got the older style bravo maybe that has something to do with it, I don't really know.

[bandicuss]

when i get back to the shop im gunna try a little higher oxy pressure and see if that helps out at all.
i wish i had a whole liquid oxy tank to fuck around with to try to fine tune everything, and get adjusted to the new torch.