Smith Little Torch – so many tips, so little time

From top to bottom *Smith Little Torch tips, Paige Tools tips with holder and adapter (the longer one) and ImpGen tips and adapter.*

Chances are if you’re reading this that you already own the Little Smith Torch or are thinking about getting one – in which case check out also this article. Many jewelers happily use the torch with the original tips it comes with, and they are great, but there are additional tips you can use with special adapters to increase the versatility of the torch.

What are these additional tips and adapters good for?

There are three things torch tips and adaptors can help you with:

Getting different flame profiles and a wider range of flame sizes – for example, the adapters allow you to use the popular Meco Midget tips. Their N series can deliver even more “pinpointy” flames with more power than the standard Smith Little Torch tips.
Making your torch awesome! Many of the below discussed tips are specifically designed for use with natural gas and propane fuel gases. These tips allow you to get a much hotter and fluffier flame so you can work on bigger pieces. They also keep the flame much more stable. I found it really hard to get the flame to blow out… while with the original tips, it happened to me all the time.
Adaptors put more distance between your hands and the flame, keeping the torch cool, making working with the torch safer and more comfortable for prolonged periods of time.

Two main brands make these adapters and special tips – ImpGen and Paige Tools. The nice thing is that you can combine these – i.e., you can use the ImpGen adapter with tips from Paige Tools.

Thanks to Ottofrei.com, I got the chance to test out the ImpGen adapter with Meco Midget torch tips. Joe Silvera from Silvera Jewelry School (which btw has great online courses) then kindly offered to compare them with Paige Tools. Both of us use a similar setup to power the torch – an oxygen concentrator and disposable propane cylinder setup. You can read more about the setup here.

ImpGen adapter and tips

*ImpGen adapter and meco midget style tips: OX3, OX4, N1.*

Above is a picture of the ImpGen adapter and tips. The adapter actually comes in two sizes. I got the shorter one. It screws onto your little torch, and then you can attach a selected tip onto the brass nozzle.

The three tips I have were originally designed for another popular jeweler’s torch – the Meco Midget. You can use any of the Meco Midget tips with this adapter as well as any of the Paige Tools tips (I’ll talk more about those later).

Meco Midget torch with two N series tips. (Photo by OttoFrei.com)

As mentioned above, the nice thing about the adapter is that it puts some distance between your hands and the heat generated by the flame. The brass fins on the head of the adapter and the extra steel sleeve are also designed to keep the adapter from heating up. I had the torch running for about 20 minutes to see how cool it really stays, and while the brass part and top of the steel tube got hot, the steel nut and “double-sleeved” part stayed cool – and my hands did too 🙂

This picture gives you an idea of the distance the adapter puts between the flame and your hands. This is the shortest of the ImpGen adapters, they also offer one that’s more than twice as long. (Photo by Joe Silvera)

I was a little bit worried that the adapter would make the torch feel heavy, but I actually like the feel, and I like the extra distance.

Now about the tips themselves. I have two types – the OX and the N series.

From the left to the right are the OX3, OX4 and N1 tips.

The N series is your standard single hole tip. It seems to produce a bit more concentrated, and hotter flame than the Little Torch tips do. I like it because I can get a pretty precise flame with it without worrying about the flame blowing out on me.

Now my situation is a bit special, though. I use an old oxygen concentrator that hasn’t been modified for use with a torch. This means that if I choke the oxygen line too much, it starts beeping on me as it thinks there is a kink in the line, and somebody might die. This means that I cannot light any of the Little Torch tips below #5 without the flame blowing out. With the N1, I can get a short narrow cone without having to choke the oxy as much. If this is not your case, the N series vs. original tips is just a matter of a flame profile preference plus I feel that the N series tip flame is more stable.

*On the top is the standard Smith Little Torch tip #6 and on below is the Meco Midget style N1 tip adjusted to different flame sizes.*

The OX series is more interesting. It has a so-called multi-orifice tip. This simply means that there are more holes in the tip – in this case, there is a ring of small holes around the usual central one. These tips were specifically designed to optimize the heat output of natural gas or propane-powered flames, which normally burn colder than acetylene ones. They produce hotter and fluffier flame than any single hole tips (including those the Smith Little Torch comes with).

They also make the flame pretty stable – no blowing out or trouble lighting the torch. So if you are using propane or natural gas to power your torch, this might be an interesting addition to your kit. And just a word of warning – they really do get – and everything around them – super hot.

For a better comparison here is a still showing flames of the standard tip #7 and the OX4 tip. The OX4 is running on about medium power here.

ImpGen also has a new series of tips called Artisan, which is also designed for propane and natural gas, but we don’t really know much about those beyond what you can read on Ottofrei’s website.

So what about Paige Tools?

The setup is pretty similar – there is an adapter and there are tips.

Paige tool tips and adapter. All the pictured tips are from the M series. *(Photo by* Paige Tools)

As mentioned before – both the Meco Midget style tips and the Paige Tools tips can be used with any of the adapters. The Paige Tools adapter is a little bit more bare-bones.

Paige Tools specializes in the production of different styles of multi-orifice tips. This means tips tuned for use with natural gas and propane. In that sense, their tips are similar to the Meco Midget OX series, but there are some design differences in the holes’ size and location.

From the left to the right is a M series tip, MA series tips and the MX tip. (Photos by Paige Tools)

They have several different series: M, MA, and MX. The M series are your “day to day” tips. MA is designed for bigger flames and jobs, and MX is specifically designed for melting stuff (even though you can melt small amounts of metals with MA too).

The M series is the one closest to the OX series.

M series tip on the left, OX series tip on the right. *(Photo on the left by* Joe Silvera)

Due to the difference in the design of the additional orifices/holes, the resulting flame is slightly different.

M4 tip on the left, OX4 tip on the right. Note that the size of the flame depends on how much fuel gas and oxygen is going in – both tips can produce different sizes of flames. More interesting are the differences in the flame profile. (Photos by Joe Silvera)

You can see that the “halo” effect produced by the extra orifices is much more pronounced on the M series tip. In fact, it’s almost invisible on the OX series tip; we’d have to zoom in a bit to see it:

Small halo of the light blue flame produced by the OX4 tip.

This doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on function though. Both series of tips produce flames that are hotter, more stable, and fluffier than what you can get using the single hole tips. The M tips orifices seem to be more precisely machined, but I didn’t notice any issues when using the OX series tips.

Last but not least, here is a picture of the MA-1 tip by Paige Tools in action. The MA tips don’t have a center hole, only the outer ring of slotted holes, and they produce much stronger flames than any of the previously described tips. You can use these for annealing and soldering larger pieces like cuffs.

Summary & bonus video!

So let me sum this up:

If you are running your Smith Little Torch on propane or natural gas, there are many completely different tips specifically designed for these gases that can make your torch even more awesome and powerful – the multi-orifice tips. These would be the OX and Artisan series and all the Paige Tools tips.
If you run on acetylene or hydrogen… well… your choice of “special” tips will be limited. But that is because the tips that come with the Little Torch should already work well with these gases. So for you, it will come down to – do you want to try the Meco Midget N (single orifice) series, and do you like the idea of the adapter putting more space between your hands and the flames? So far, I like the Meco Midget N tip series more than the usual Little Torch tips. But only for a very precise quick in and out work. I find the flames more pointy and stable…
You can pick and choose and combine different tips and adapters as in – ImpGen adapter will work with Paige Tools tips, and the Paige Tools adapter will work with the ImpGen Meco Midget style tips.
The ImpGen adapter is specially designed to stay cool with prolonged use. The company claims it’s also supremely safe. I feel like any safety, or extra-safety claims are always hard to review as most things seem safe until they aren’t 🙂 The said the adapter feels very solid and well machined.

I like my new set of ImpGen tips and adapter very much and don’t see myself going back to the standard Little Torch tips.

Joe’s favorite are the Paige Tools tips M-4 and MA-1. The MA-1 is about the most powerful tip the disposable propane cylinder + oxygen concentrator combo will power.

And to finish things off, here is a video Joe took of all – the ImpGen, standard Little Torch, and Paige Tools tips – in action.