Here are a few jewelry making suppliers that have these Meco Midget multiport types of tips - ImpGen.com, OttoFrei.com, RioGrande.com, and Stuller.com. I don’t have any experience with these suppliers. They seem to cater to the jewelry makers.
Another poster here (truth) mentioned the ImpGen.com guy. I called him about his tips. Super helpful. From speaking with him, I gather that his ImpGen version is specs wise very near to the original Meco Midget tip, but that he’s added fins or something to the adapter part which keeps the tip cooler. Speaking of adapters… a great man jewelry makers that braze rings and small jewelry like to use the Smith Little torch. If you thought the Smith AW1A was a small torch, you should see the Smith Little torch. It’s tiny. Seems like the jewelry makers love it. That industry loves to use oxypropane, but with propane a lot of people like using a multiport tip to avoid blowouts. So, these guys like the Meco Midget multiport tips too. I’m not sure who in their trade has made an adapter that allows them to use their Smith Little torch with a Meco Midget torch tip, but on many of these jewelry supplier websites that sell Meco Midget compatible tips, those websites also sell an adapter that will let the jewelry makes connection their Smith Little torch to an adapter and finally to a Meco Midget compatible multiport tip.
The jewelry makers have it good. All uwe need as framebuilders need is a Smith AWA1 or a Victor J28 torch. Those are great lightweight torches. Then, we need an adapter to connect to that torch. Then, just buy some Meco compatible multiport tips to connect to your adapter. Therein is the problem. Only place that I know of that had these adapters was made by Paige Tools. And Paige Tools is out of business because the owner died. So, we can get the Victor J28 or Smith AW1A torch fairly easily. And can probably get Meco Midget type of torch tips fairly easy too. But we can’t get an adapter now to connect.
Isn’t that a simple lathe job? My smallest internal-threading tool is probably too big, but I could see buying a smaller one to make such an adapter if I needed one. Might even be able to do it with a tap and a die. But I have Paige tips and adapter, so I’m all set.
If you need an adapter, maybe make friends with Jim Merz, he has a CNC lathe in his home shop. Maybe not as well equipped as Dan Gelbart’s home shop, but not too shabby!
Thanks for the tip on those machinists (Jim Mertz and Dan Gelbert) that might be able to machine an adapter to connect a Victor J28 or Smith AW1A to these Meco Midget torch tip clones that you can get at the jewelry maker stores. Some other builders I know did a whole bunch of searching on the lamp maker and jewelry makers forums. And I think we may have found the one of the manufacturers for the Meco Midget torch tip clones. People are saying it’s Carlisle Machine Works in New Jersey who are making these Meco torch tips. This was super surprising to me because I thought that these Meco Midget torch tip clones were probably coming from China or someplace where the machining costs are lower. But nope! Seems like those tips are made by an American company. So, I called them and they confirmed that they make clones of the Meco Midget torch tips. The lady I talked to claim that their tips are even better than the original ones because their machining tolerances are much higher. Interestingly, she said that they have also made adaptors for connecting the Meco tips to the Smith Little Torch, Smith AW1A, and Victor J28! She wouldn’t confirm if the Paige tips were made by them, but it kinda sounds like Carlisle might be the machinist that did that.
It’s CarlisleMachine.com. They will make the adaptors, but the only problem is they have a minimum order quantity. I can’t recall what it is. Maybe 20 or so? I couldn’t afford to get that many, but if anyone is interested in doing a group buy I would be interested. I wouldn’t have any idea how to go about doing that. Or maybe some place like Framebuilder Supply could stock stuff like that. Seems like these multiport tips are the secret sauce that allows oxypropane brazing to work for us,
Haha I wonder what Dan Gelbart would charge per hour, considering he’s an actual billionaire (no joke). I wasn’t seriously suggesting you contact him, but if you want them machined to tolerance of 20 millionths of an inch, he’s your guy.
Jim Merz may not be interested either, but at least he’s a bike guy. Look him up if you’re not familiar. He’s retired now but was on the short list of best framebuilders in the world when he was active.
The Carlisle Machine OX series tips are the ones you want. They are still in business. The OX size 3 and 4 are the sizes used the most for fillet brazing and lugs. The problem is they only fit the Meco torch (1/4-28 thread). I made adapters for my Victor J28 UN-J.
The adapters I made in the photo above are shown before being bent, the one on the bottom of the pic is the original adapter neck removed the Victor UN-J adapter.
I have used the Paige, Welder’s Warehouse, Tin Man (identical to the Carlisle OX tips), Victor TE propane tips and the Smith propane tips. The Paige and Carlisle OX series are by far the best. Only the OX are still available from Carlisle Machine. Paige is no longer in business. Recently I replaced a few OX tips because they are fragile/precise so be careful with them!
Doug Fattic is an expert on this topic, the following info came from him.
Welding Tip Thread Size:
1. Victor UN-J threads: 5/16” – 27 tpi
2. Smith AT-61: ¼” – 32 tpi
3. Meco Midget: ¼” – 28 tpi
4. Smith AT41 and Quick Braze torch handle threads to attach tips = 3/8” – 24
5. Smith Little Torch handle threads to attach tips = ¼” – 32
6. Welders Warehouse ‘Multi-Jet’ nozzles, 1/4” x 36 tpi UNF (This business in the UK has closed up shop because the owners retired)
I made a prototype Meco tip adapter back in September. It worked, but some improvements are needed. There was a lot of interest in this over on the Framebuilders’ Google Group – if someone wanted to make a run of these, I’m sure that you’d be able to sell them.
